1 Corinthians 10:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore the Apostle continues: "Now these things became types for us" (1 Cor 10:6). As their gifts were types, so their punishments were types.

As Baptism and the mystical table were prefigured, so later events foretold that those unworthy of the gift would undergo punishment. Thus by such examples we might learn to be more temperate.

Therefore he adds: "that we should not be desirers of evil things, as they also desired." As in benefactions the types came first and the truth followed them, so it will be in punishments.

Do you see how he suggests that we shall not only be punished, but far more than those Israelites? For if there were types there, and the truth is here, then the punishments too must be far greater, just as the gifts are.

First he touches on those who ate in the temples, and shows that as the Israelites fell from gluttony into idolatry, so danger threatens you also. For they formed choirs around the calf and danced before it. You too, by gluttony, taste things sacrificed to idols and risk becoming idolaters. Where, then, is your supposed perfection, when you are near to idolatry?

What is more like children’s play than the worship of idols?

Each of the events mentioned by the apostle he presented as corresponding to the things in which the Corinthians sinned. First, he pointed to evil desire, from which most evils are born. Then he pointed to idolatry and gluttony, from which the first also arose, because the Corinthians too, enslaved to gluttony, held feasts in idol temples. He also mentioned fornication and showed the number of those killed for it, thereby sowing fear of punishment in the mind of the fornicator. Among them, too, those deemed worthy of lesser gifts murmured because they had not been deemed worthy of all. Those speaking in various tongues tempted the Lord, using this gift in church more from ambition than from necessity.

The fifth guiding thought concerning the free eating of idol-sacrificed food is this: such eating is not only a stumbling block for weak brethren, but is itself a defilement (1 Cor 10:1-33).

In 1 Cor 10:1-14, the Apostle first frightens the Corinthians by examples of God's dread judgment against turning aside to idolatrous worship. He gives the living example of the Israelites, once chosen, like Christians, as sons of God.

"I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, that your fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea" (1 Cor 10:1). "And all were baptized," in a typological sense, "into Moses," that is, properly into the One Whom he prefigured, as St Chrysostom says.

Despite the multitude of God's mercies and gifts to the Hebrews, they were nevertheless punished when they turned away from God and were drawn by base desires, gluttony, sensual pleasure, and the like.

Will not Christians be punished all the more if they turn away from Christ by participating in the eating of idol-sacrifices?

According to the words of Bishop Theophan, in the example of the Hebrews "the Apostle points to the cause that drew the clever Corinthians to tables of idol-sacrifices. He gives them a hint to enter into themselves and see what is truly at work.

"Nor become idolaters," says the Apostle, "as some of them were," that is, some who belonged to the Church of the Old Testament. "As it is written: 'The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play'" (1 Cor 10:7).

Do you see that to celebrate with dainty eating, immoderate drinking, and vain games means to celebrate in an idolatrous manner? Is it good for you to begin the day with a Christian celebration, and end it with an idolatrous one?

Christians, let us celebrate our feasts in a Christian manner, in spiritual joy, in prayers and psalmody to the Lord, in peaceful rest, or in good and charitable works. Then our celebrations will be pleasing to God, and blessed and saving for us. Amen.

This happened after the casting of the calf and the offering of sacrifice to it (Ex 32:6). After eating and drinking, they rose and began to sing songs, form choirs, dance in circles, and make merry in every way.

The Apostle's purpose is to connect eating and drinking with idolatry through historical events. Thus he impresses this upon the Corinthians: see how they passed from idolatry to gluttony, as always happened among the pagans.

Take care that you do not ascend by the reverse path, from gluttony to the worship of idols. At the same time, he hints to them that they have already had contact with idolatrous worship.

For to whom else could the words apply: "Do not become idolaters"? "Do you hear how he calls the Corinthians idolaters? Here, however, he only hints at it. Later he proves it" (St Chrysostom).