1 Corinthians 10:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Nor let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication." Why does he again mention fornication here, after speaking so much about it before?

Paul commonly acted in this way. When rebuking many sins, he enumerated them in order and indicated each one separately. Then, when speaking about others, he also recalled what had already been mentioned.

God acted in exactly the same way in the Old Testament. At every transgression He reminded the Jews of the calf and set that sin before their eyes.

Paul acts similarly here. He reminds them of this sin and also teaches that this evil likewise comes from sensual pleasure and gluttony.

Therefore he adds: "Nor let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell."

Again he mentioned fornication, so that by continual rebuke he might make his word more effective. This sin too is born of gluttony. When did twenty-three thousand perish? When, by Balaam’s counsel, the Midianite women appeared at the camp, enticed the young men to themselves, and through fornication inclined them to offer sacrifice to Baal-Peor. Then the people who were in the camp perished (Num 25:1-9).

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.

“Twenty-three thousand.” Moses (Num 25:9) counts twenty-four thousand. The true number probably lies between twenty-three and twenty-four thousand. Some explain it by saying that Moses counts those who fell by the plague during the whole time of God’s wrath, while Paul speaks of one day.

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.

How did they commit fornication? On Balaam's counsel (Num 31:8-16), the Midianites sent women into the Israelite camp. The Israelites were captivated by them, offered sacrifices to Baal-Peor, ate and drank from the sacrifices, and committed fornication with the women (Num 25).

This drew God's wrath, and in one day twenty-three or twenty-four thousand Israelites fell. By setting forth this example, St Paul adds another danger to the dangers arising from eating idol-sacrificed foods.

Alongside the danger of falling into idolatrous worship, there is the danger of falling into fornication. It is observed that in some cases unclean deeds were joined to priestly banquets.