1 Corinthians 8:10

For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols?

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Paul addresses the Corinthian believers during a dispute over whether eating food sacrificed to idols is spiritually permissible. He speaks at the precise moment when a knowledgeable Christian exercises that right in public, risking the spiritual collapse of a less mature observer.

The words — The term γνῶσιν (gnōsin) translates literally as "knowledge," denoting the informed believer’s theological certainty. The particle ἐὰν (ean) establishes the scenario as a conditional possibility, framing the verse as a warning rather than a report of actual events.

The thread — The tension between Christian liberty and another’s conscience appears in 1 Corinthians 10:28 and Romans 14:23, where dietary freedom is repeatedly checked by concern for the weak. Paul grounds the entire discussion in 1 Corinthians 8:4, which first establishes that idols possess no actual divine reality.

Why it lands — The text requires believers to measure the validity of an action by its effect on others, not by the correctness of their own understanding. It demands that theological freedom be voluntarily restricted when its exercise would actively undermine another person’s faith.

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

For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 10:28 But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—
Romans 14:23 But the one who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that is not from faith is sin.
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.
1 Corinthians 10:20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
Romans 14:14 I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
1 Corinthians 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
1 Corinthians 8:7 But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
Numbers 25:2 who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.
Judges 9:27 And after they had gone out into the fields, gathered grapes from their vineyards, and trodden them, they held a festival and went into the house of their god; and as they ate and drank, they cursed Abimelech.
Amos 2:8 They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. And in the house of their God, they drink wine obtained through fines.