Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?
Parallel translations
- WEB Consider Israel according to the flesh. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?
- KJV Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
- NKJV Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
- NASB Look at the people of Israel; are those who eat the sacrifices not partners in the altar?
- NLT Think about the people of Israel. Weren’t they united by eating the sacrifices at the altar?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel's sacrificial meals involved real participation in the altar and its worship. Eating at an altar joins one to what that altar represents.
Overview
Pointing to 'Israel according to the flesh,' Paul observes that those who ate the sacrifices were partners in the altar's worship. He uses this as an analogy: covenant meals create fellowship with the deity worshiped. The principle prepares his argument that eating at idol-feasts is no neutral act but a real participation in what stands behind the idol.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Phil 3:3–5For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
- Lev 3:11Then the priest is to burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
- Gal 6:16Peace and mercy to all who walk by this rule, even to the Israel of God.
- Lev 7:6Every male among the priests may eat of it. It must be eaten in a holy place; it is most holy.
- Eph 2:11–12Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)—
- Rom 1:3regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh,
- 1 Cor 9:13Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings?
- 2 Cor 11:18–22Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast.
- Lev 3:3–5From the peace offering he is to bring an offering made by fire to the LORD: the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them,
- Rom 4:12And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
- Rom 4:1What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, has discovered?
- Rom 9:3–8For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,
- 1 Sam 9:12–13“Yes, he is ahead of you,” they answered. “Hurry now, for today he has come to the city because the people have a sacrifice on the high place.
- Lev 7:11–17Now this is the law of the peace offering that one may present to the LORD:
- 1 Sam 2:13–16or for the custom of the priests with the people. When any man offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 10:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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