1 Corinthians 10:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But we followed the serpent's suggestion. We loved some as good, and hated others as evil. This is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies.

Having eaten from it, we die spiritually. This is not because God created death, but because man brought it upon himself by hating his neighbor.

For Scripture testifies: "God did not make death, nor does He rejoice in the destruction of the living" (Wis 1:13).

He is not subject to the passion of anger. He does not invent a means of vengeance. He does not change according to each person's worthiness. Rather, "He made all things in wisdom" (Ps 103:24), having foreordained to judge all things according to the spiritual law.

Therefore He did not say to Adam, "On the day you eat of it, I shall kill you." Rather, warning them, He foretells to them the law of righteousness, saying: "On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die" (Gen 2:17).

"And all ate the same spiritual food," that is, the manna, wondrously sent (1 Cor 10:3). "And all drank the same spiritual drink," wondrously drawn from the rock. For they drank, in figure, "of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:4). "But with many of them," the Apostle observes, "God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness" (1 Cor 10:5). In the history of Jews first saved and then destroyed for murmuring, idolatry, and fornication with the heathen, the Apostle points to figures for times to come. He notes that in them is hidden "instruction for us," Christians, "upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Cor 10:11). Therefore he entreats the Corinthians to flee heathen temptations, which abound at festivals, and to abandon all self-confidence. They must not think that they cannot be compared with the Jews. Nor must they suppose that they will not yield to corrupt temptations at the heathen feasts of things sacrificed to idols. "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall! Therefore, my beloved, flee idolatry" (1 Cor 10:14).

Are higher views really reconciling them to sacrificial meat, or is it gluttony? In the same way, many among us often cover violations of various Church rules with supposedly higher views. Yet for the most part they do so out of love for low pleasures of various kinds.

So too the apostate Hebrews, after casting the calf and offering sacrifice to it, ate, drank, began to sing songs, and made merry in every way (Ex 32:6).

But another example cited by the Apostle could especially apply to the Corinthians. In Corinth idolatrous worship flourished together with the kind of corruption into which the Hebrews fell when they sacrificed to Baal (Num 25).

Drawing a general conclusion from all the examples, St John Chrysostom says: "One must not only suffer, but also endure everything that happens courageously and with complete gladness.

If this is not present, punishment will overtake those who murmur." Thus it overtook Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who were swallowed by the earth (Num 16), as well as by other divine punishments.

Fearful were the punishments of the Hebrews, which serve as instruction for Christians. In them the whole purpose of God's divine economy for the salvation of men is concentrated.

Yet still more terrible will be the punishments of those who fall away from Christ, for they will be without end. Together with their punishment, the age of this life will end, and eternal life will begin.

Nor for those who tempt God, either by self-confidently throwing themselves into dangers, or by fearlessly insulting God and saying, "What will God do?"

Nor for murmurers, who demand that God give them everything they want. As soon as the smallest thing happens that is not to their liking, they rise up against heaven.

The Apostle selected only the chief judgments. But by saying "all," he indicated that the Israelites' wandering in the wilderness, after the Exodus from Egypt and the passage through the Red Sea, can instruct us in all its parts.

It teaches us concerning life from Baptism until entry into the promised land, that is, until passage through the gates of death into the other life.

"Upon whom the ends of the ages have come." Word for word from the Greek: "in whom," that is, in us, "the ends of the ages have come to rest."

As a road goes on and on, then finally comes up against something, a wall or a mountain, so that there is nowhere further to go, so he says the former ages went on with their events and came to rest in us.

In us everything prefigured in them must be fulfilled. We are the goal of the preceding events. In us is fulfilled what was only indicated there beforehand.

The Apostle wished to frighten them and drive away every attempt to deflect God's judgments from themselves, as though thinking, "Perhaps all that will somehow pass us by."

There is nowhere, he says, for it to pass by. These are the last times. The dread judgment is near, as St Chrysostom says.

"He mentioned the last times in order to recall the end of the world. At the same time, he impresses that our punishments will not be temporary, but eternal.

Temporal punishments end with the present life, but the future punishments will continue forever. Our gifts are greater, and the punishments are greater" (St Chrysostom).