Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1, Dinner at an unbeliever's house
Paul tells believers to eat whatever is sold in the meat market and whatever an unbelieving host serves without asking questions, unless someone points out that it was offered in sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul gives practical rules on sacrificial meat. Believers may buy anything in the market and eat what an unbelieving host serves without asking where it came from, since the whole earth belongs to the Lord. If someone points out that the food was offered to a god, they should decline for that person's sake. The aim in all of it is God's glory and the good of others, and Paul asks them to follow his example as he follows Christ's.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/patrons-and-benefactors\/","n":"Patrons, clients and benefactors","s":"Favors in the Roman world came with strings. A patron gave help and protection, the client paid it back in loyalty and public honor, and rulers who gave gifts to the public were hailed as benefactors.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/food-laws\/","n":"Clean and unclean food","s":"The law of Moses sorted animals into clean and unclean, and keeping kosher marked Jews off from their neighbors. Strict Jews also avoided Gentile food, Gentile wine and Gentile tables.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
Leftover sacrificial meat went to the meat market in Corinth's agora, unlabeled among other meat; Jews in big cities usually had their own markets, and most people could not afford meat, so Paul is speaking to the well-to-do (Keener and his notes). Jewish tradition used Psalm 24:1 for thanking God at meals (Keener and his notes). People invited friends and subordinate clients to banquets, and refusing insulted the host and made an enemy (the cultural backgrounds notes). A pagan friend would take eating openly sacrificial food as accepting the sacrifice (the cultural backgrounds notes). The CSB Study Bible notes that the word used here was the pagan term for meat devoted to a god. Arnold, following Fee, separates the two cases: a meal in a temple was idolatry, but meat once sacrificed and eaten at home was a matter of the weaker believer's conscience, not of idolatry. Bailey suggests that a new believer might fear that meat offered to a god he no longer served, Asclepius in his example, would make him sick. Philosophers often held up their own lives as models for their pupils (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 10:24-25, 10:26 and 10:32-11:1
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 10:25, 10:26, 10:27, 10:28 and 11:1
- CSB Study Bible, note on 1 Corinthians 10:28-29a
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, sections 3.1 and 3.6
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 6, They Are Involved in the World Religions
