Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 10:19
Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Corinthian believers while clarifying the spiritual implications of eating meat sold in idol markets. He poses this rhetorical question immediately after comparing the Corinthians’ communal meals to Israel’s altar participation.
The words — The compound noun εἰδωλόθυτόν (eidōlothuton) literally means "idol-sacrifice," and οὖν (oun) translates "then" to signal the logical pivot in his argument.
The thread — This insistence on the emptiness of false gods runs through 1 Corinthians 8:4, which states an idol is nothing at all, and Deuteronomy 32:21, which warns against provoking God with "that which is not God."
Why it lands — The text requires readers to reject any substantive power or spiritual reality attributed to idols and to refuse fellowship with pagan worship.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
- Deuteronomy 32:21 They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.
- Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.
- Isaiah 41:29 See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
- 1 Corinthians 1:28 He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are,
- 1 Corinthians 3:7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
- 2 Corinthians 12:11 I have become a fool, but you drove me to it. In fact, you should have commended me, since I am in no way inferior to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.