not--in the Greek emphatically standing in the beginning of the sentence: "Not," as one might have naturally expected, "with the more part of them was," &c.
God--whose judgment alone is valid.
for--the event showed, they had not pleased God.
overthrown--literally, "strewn in heaps."
in the wilderness--far from the land of promise.
6. were--Greek, "came to pass as."
our examples--samples to us of what will befall us, if we also with all our privileges walk carelessly.
lust--the fountain of all the four other offenses enumerated, and therefore put first ([Jas 1:14], ; compare [Psa 106:14]). A particular case of lust was that after flesh, when they pined for the fish, leeks, &c., of Egypt, which they had left ([Nu 11:4], [33, 34]). These are included in the "evil things," not that they are so in themselves, but they became so to the Israelites when they lusted after what God withheld, and were discontented with what God provided.
7. idolaters--A case in point. As the Israelites sat down (a deliberate act), ate, and drank at the idol feast to the calves in Horeb, so the Corinthians were in danger of idolatry by a like act, though not professedly worshipping an idol as the Israelites ([1Co 8:10], ; , 20, 21; [Ex 32:6]). He passes here from the first to the second person, as they alone (not he also) were in danger of idolatry, &c. He resumes the first person appropriately at [1Co 10:16].
some--The multitude follow the lead of some bad men.
play--with lascivious dancing, singing, and drumming round the calf (compare "rejoiced," [Ac 7:41]).
8. fornication--literally, Fornication was generally, as in this case ([Nu 25:1-18]), associated at the idol feasts with spiritual fornication, that is, idolatry. This all applied to the Corinthians ([1Co 5:1], ; , [15, 18]; [1Co 8:10]). Balaam tempted Israel to both sins with Midian ([Re 2:14]). Compare [1Co 8:7], , "stumbling-block," "eat ... thing offered unto ... idol."
three and twenty thousand--in [Nu 25:9] "twenty and four thousand." If this were a real discrepancy, it would militate rather against inspiration of the subject matter and thought, than against verbal inspiration. The solution is: Moses in Numbers includes all who died "in the plague"; Paul, all who died "in one day"; one thousand more may have fallen the next day [Kitto, Biblical Cyclopædia]. Or, the real number may have been between twenty-three thousand and twenty-four thousand, say twenty-three thousand five hundred, or twenty-three thousand six hundred; when writing generally where the exact figures were not needed, one writer might quite veraciously give one of the two round numbers near the exact one, and the other writer the other [Bengel]. Whichever be the true way of reconciling the seeming discrepant statements, at least the ways given above prove they are not really irreconcilable.
9. tempt Christ--So the oldest versions, Irenæus (264), and good manuscripts read. Some of the oldest manuscripts read "Lord"; and one manuscript only "God." If "Lord" be read, it will mean Christ. As "Christ" was referred to in one of the five privileges of Israel ([1Co 10:4]), so it is natural that He should be mentioned here in one of the five corresponding sins of that people. In [Nu 21:5] it is "spake against God" (whence probably arose the alteration in the one manuscript, [1Co 10:9], "God," to harmonize it with [Nu 21:5]). As either "Christ" or "Lord" is the genuine reading, "Christ" must be "God." Compare "Why do ye tempt the Lord?" ([Ex 17:2], . Compare [Ro 14:11], with [Is 45:22], ). Israel's discontented complainings were temptings of Christ especially, the "Angel" of the covenant ([Ex 23:20], ; ; [Is 63:9]). Though they drank of "that Rock ... Christ" ([1Co 10:4]), they yet complained for want of water ([Ex 17:2], ). Though also eating the same spiritual meat (Christ, "the true manna," "the bread of life"), they yet murmured, "Our soul loatheth this light bread." In this case, being punished by the fiery serpents, they were saved by the brazen serpent, the emblem of Christ (compare [Joh 8:56]; [He 11:26]). The Greek for "tempt" means, tempt or try, so as to wear out the long-suffering of Christ (compare [Psa 95:8], ; [Nu 14:22]). The Corinthians were in danger of provoking God's long-suffering by walking on the verge of idolatry, through overweening confidence in their knowledge.
10. some of them ... murmured--upon the death of Korah and his company, who themselves were murmurers ([Nu 16:41], ). Their murmurs against Moses and Aaron were virtually murmurs against God (compare [Ex 16:8], ). Paul herein glances at the Corinthian murmurs against himself, the apostle of Christ.
destroyed--fourteen thousand seven hundred perished.
the destroyer--THE same destroying angel sent by God as in [Ex 12:23], and [2Sa 24:16].
11. Now ... these things ... ensamples--resuming the thread of [1Co 10:6]. The oldest manuscripts read, "by way of example."
the ends of the world--literally, "of the ages"; the New Testament dispensation in its successive phases (plural, "ends") being the winding up of all former "ages." No new dispensation shall appear till Christ comes as Avenger and Judge; till then the "ends," being many, include various successive periods (compare [He 9:26]). As we live in the last dispensation, which is the consummation of all that went before, our responsibilities are the greater; and the greater is the guilt, Paul implies, to the Corinthians, which they incur if they fall short of their privileges.
12. thinketh he standeth--stands and thinks that he stands [Bengel]; that is, stands "by faith ... well pleasing" to God; in contrast to [1Co 10:5], "with many of them God was not well pleased" ([Ro 11:20]).
fall--from his place in the Church of God (compare [1Co 10:8], "fell"). Both temporally and spiritually ([Ro 14:4]). Our security, so far as relates to God, consists in faith; so far as relates to ourselves, it consists in fear.
13. Consolation to them, under their temptation; it is none but such as is "common to man," or "such as man can bear," "adapted to man's powers of endurance" [Wahl].
faithful--([Psa 125:3]; [Is 27:3], ; [Re 3:10]). "God is faithful" to the covenant which He made with you in calling you ([1Th 5:24]). To be led into temptation is distinct from running into it, which would be "tempting God" ([1Co 10:9]; [Mt 4:7]).
way to escape--([Jr 29:11]; [2Pe 2:9]). The Greek is, "the way of escape"; the appropriate way of escape in each particular temptation; not an immediate escape, but one in due time, after patience has had her perfect work (Jas 1:[2-4, 12]). He "makes" the way of escape simultaneously with the temptation which His providence permissively arranges for His people.
to bear it--Greek, "to bear up under it," or "against it." Not, He will take it away ([2Co 12:7-9]).
14. Resuming the argument, [1Co 10:7]; [1Co 8:9], .
flee--Do not tamper with it by doubtful acts, such as eating idol meats on the plea of Christian liberty. The only safety is in wholly shunning whatever borders on idolatry ([2Co 6:16], ). The Holy Spirit herein also presciently warned the Church against the idolatry, subsequently transferred from the idol feast to the Lord's Supper itself, in the figment of transubstantiation.
15. Appeal to their own powers of judgment to weigh the force of the argument that follows: namely, that as the partaking of the Lord's Supper involves a partaking of the Lord Himself, and the partaking of the Jewish sacrificial meats involved a partaking of the altar of God, and, as the heathens sacrifice to devils, to partake of an idol feast is to have fellowship with devils. We cannot divest ourselves of the responsibility of "judging" for ourselves. The weakness of private judgment is not an argument against its use, but its abuse. We should the more take pains in searching the infallible word, with every aid within our reach, and above all with humble prayer for the Spirit's teaching ([Ac 17:11]). If Paul, an inspired apostle, not only permits, but urges, men to judge his sayings by Scripture, much more should the fallible ministers of the present visible Church do so.
To wise men--refers with a mixture of irony to the Corinthian boast of "wisdom" ([1Co 4:10]; [2Co 11:19]). Here you have an opportunity of exercising your "wisdom" in judging "what I say."
16. The cup of blessing--answering to the Jewish "cup of blessing," over which thanks were offered in the Passover. It was in doing so that Christ instituted this part of the Lord's Supper ([Mt 26:27]; [Lu 22:17], ).
we bless--"we," not merely ministers, but also the congregation. The minister "blesses" (that is, consecrates with blessing) the cup, not by any priestly transmitted authority of his own, but as representative of the congregation, who virtually through him bless the cup. The consecration is the corporate act of the whole Church. The act of joint blessing by him and them (not "the cup" itself, which, as also "the bread," in the Greek is in the accusative), and the consequent drinking of it together, constitute the communion, that is, the joint participation "of the blood of Christ." Compare [1Co 10:18], "They who eat ... are partakers" (joint communicants). "Is" in both cases in this verse is literal, not represents. He who with faith partakes of the cup and the bread, partakes really but spiritually of the blood and body of Christ ([Ep 5:30], ), and of the benefits of His sacrifice on the cross (compare [1Co 10:18]). In contrast to this is to have "fellowship with devils" ([1Co 10:20]). Alford explains, "The cup ... is the [joint] participation (that is, that whereby the act of participation takes place) of the blood," &c. It is the seal of our living union with, and a means of our partaking of, Christ as our Saviour ([Joh 6:53-57]). It is not said, "The cup ... is the blood," or "the bread ... is the body," but "is the communion [joint-participation] of the blood ... body." If the bread be changed into the literal body of Christ, where is the sign of the sacrament? Romanists eat Christ "in remembrance of Himself." To drink literal blood would have been an abomination to Jews, which the first Christians were ([Le 17:11], ). Breaking the bread was part of the act of consecrating it, for thus was represented the crucifixion of Christ's body ([1Co 11:24]). The distinct specification of the bread and the wine disproves the Romish doctrine of concomitancy, and exclusion of the laity from the cup.
17. one bread--rather, "loaf." One loaf alone seems to have been used in each celebration.
and one body--Omit "and"; "one loaf [that is], one body." "We, the many (namely, believers assembled; so the Greek), are one bread (by our partaking of the same loaf, which becomes assimilated to the substance of all our bodies; and so we become), one body" (with Christ, and so with one another).
we ... all--Greek, "the whole of us."
18. Israel after the flesh--the literal, as distinguished from the spiritual, Israel ([Ro 2:29]; ; ; [Ga 4:29]).
partakers of the altar--and so of God, whose is the altar; they have fellowship in God and His worship, of which the altar is the symbol.
19-20. What say I then?--The inference might be drawn from the analogies of the Lord's Supper and Jewish sacrifices, that an idol is really what the heathen thought it to be, a god, and that in eating idol-meats they had fellowship with the god. This verse guards against such an inference: "What would I say then? that a thing sacrificed to an idol is any real thing (in the sense that the heathen regard it), or that an idol is any real thing?" (The oldest manuscripts read the words in this order. Supply "Nay") "But [I say] that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils (demons)." Paul here introduces a new fact. It is true that, as I said, an idol has no reality in the sense that the heathen regard it, but it has a reality in another sense; heathendom being under Satan's dominion as "prince of this world," he and his demons are in fact the powers worshipped by the heathen, whether they are or are not conscious of it ([De 32:17]; [Le 17:7]; [2Ch 11:15]; [Psa 106:37]; [Re 9:20]). "Devil" is in the Greek restricted to Satan; "demons" is the term applied to his subordinate evil spirits. Fear, rather than love, is the motive of heathen worship (compare the English word "panic," from Pan, whose human form with horns and cloven hoofs gave rise to the vulgar representations of Satan which prevail now); just as fear is the spirit of Satan and his demons ([Jas 2:19]).
21. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord--really and spiritually; though ye may outwardly ([1Ki 18:21]).
cup of devils--in contrast to the cup of the Lord. At idol feasts libations were usually made from the cup to the idol first, and then the guests drank; so that in drinking they had fellowship with the idol.
the Lord's table--The Lord's Supper is a feast on a table, not a sacrifice on an altar. Our only altar is the cross, our only sacrifice that of Christ once for all. The Lord's Supper stands, however, in the same relation, analogically, to Christ's sacrifice, as the Jews' sacrificial feasts did to their sacrifices (compare Mal 1:7, "altar ... table of the Lord"), and the heathen idol feasts to their idolatrous sacrifices ([Is 65:11]). The heathen sacrifices were offered to idol nonentities, behind which Satan lurked. The Jews' sacrifice was but a shadow of the substance which was to come. Our one sacrifice of Christ is the only substantial reality; therefore, while the partaker of the Jew's sacrificial feast partook rather "of the altar" ([1Co 10:18]) than of God manifested fully, and the heathen idol-feaster had fellowship really with demons, the communicant in the Lord's Supper has in it a real communion of, or fellowship in, the body of Christ once sacrificed, and now exalted as the Head of redeemed humanity.
22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?--by dividing our fellowship between Him and idols ([Eze 20:39]). Is it our wish to provoke Him to assert His power? [De 32:21] is before the apostle's mind [Alford], ([Ex 20:5]).
are we stronger?--that we can risk a contest with Him.
23. All things are lawful for me, &c.--Recurring to the Corinthian plea ([1Co 6:12]), he repeats his qualification of it. The oldest manuscripts omit both times "for me."
edify not--tend not to build up the spiritual temple, the Church, in faith and love. Paul does not appeal to the apostolic decision ([Ac 15:1-29]), which seems to have been not so much regarded outside of Palestine, but rather to the broad principle of true Christian freedom, which does not allow us to be governed by external things, as though, because we can use them, we must use them ([1Co 6:12]). Their use or non-use is to be regulated by regard to edification.
24. ([1Co 10:33]; [1Co 13:5]; [Ro 15:1], 2).