21. The cup of devils. Representing the heathen feast. The special reference may be either to the drinking-cup, or to that used for pouring libations.
The Lord’s table. Representing the Lord’s Supper. See ch. xi. 20 sqq. The Greeks and Romans, on extraordinary oc- casions, placed images of the gods reclining on couches, with tables and food beside them, as if really partakers of the things offered in sacrifice.t Diodorus, describing the temple of Bel at Babylon, mentions a large table of beaten gold, forty feet by fifteen, standing before the colossal statues of three deities. Upon it were two drinking-cups. See, also, the story of “ Bel and the Dragon,” vv. 10-15. The sacredness of the table in heathen worship is apparent from the manner in which it is combined with the altar in solemn formulae; as ara et mensa. Allusions to the table or to food and drink-offerings in honor of heathen deities occur in the Old Testament: Isa. Ixv. 11; Jer. vii. 18; Ezek. xvi. 18, 19; xxiii. 41. In Mal. i. 7, the altar of burnt-offering is called “ the table of the Lord.” §
22. Do we provoke—to jealousy (7) wapafndobpev). The
A. V. does not translate 7) or, and thus breaks the connection
* On the subject of Satan and Demoniac Powers, the student may consult Dorner’s ‘‘ Christliche Glaubenslehre,” §§ 85, 86.
+ See an account of such a festival in Livy, v., 138.
¢} Compare Virgil, ‘‘ Aeneid,” ii., 764; viii., 279.
& See a very interesting article on ‘‘The Table of Demons,” by Edwin Johnson: ‘ Expositor,” second series, viii., 241.
Cu. X.J THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 945
with what precedes. You cannot be at the same time in com- munion with the Lord and with demons, 07 will you ignore this inconsistency and provoke God? For the verb, see on Rom. x. L9:
_ Are we stronger. The force of the interrogative particle is, surely we are not stronger.
24. Another’s wealth (7d tod érépov). Lit., that which ts the other's. Wealth, inserted by A. V. is used in the older English sense of well-being. See on Acts xix. 25. The A. V. also ignores the force of the article, the other. Rev., much better, Azs neighbor's good.
25. The shambles (waxéd\Aw). Only here in the New Test- ament. Itis a Latin word, which is not strange in a Roman colony like Corinth. In sacrifices usually only a part of the victim was consumed. The rest was given to the priests or to the poor, or sold again in the market. Any buyer might there- fore unknowingly purchase meat offered to idols.
Asking no question. As to whether the meat had been used in idol sacrifice. See on ch. i. 14.
26. The earth is the Lord’s, etc. The common form of Jewish thanksgiving before the meal. For fulness, see on Rom. xi. 12.
28. Any man. Some fellow-guest, probably a gentile con- vert, but, at all events, with a weak conscience.
Shewed (unvicavta). See on Luke xx. 37. It implies the disclosure of a secret which the brother reveals because he thinks his companion in danger.
30. By grace (ydpitt). Better, as Rev., in margin, weth thankfulness: with an unsullied conscience, so that I can sin- cerely give thanks for my food. Compare Rom. xiv. 6; 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5.
Am | evil-spoken of (Bracdnpuotuar). In the gospels this word, of which dblaspheme is a transcript, has, as in the Septu- agint, the special sense of treating the name of God with scorn.
9AG WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. XL
So Matt. ix. 3; xxvi. 65; John x. 36. In the epistles fre- quently as here, with the classical meaning of slandering or defaming.