What do I mean then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
Parallel translations
- WEB What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
- KJV What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
- BSB Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?
- NKJV What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything?
- NLT What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods?
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
Paul clarifies that he is not claiming idols or idol-food have any real power or reality. The danger lies elsewhere, not in the lifeless idol itself.
Overview
Anticipating misunderstanding, Paul reaffirms his earlier point that an idol is nothing (8:4). He does not contradict that monotheism, but he is about to expose what idolatry truly engages. The verse shows Paul's careful theology: the problem is not the meat or the statue but the spiritual reality of demonic worship behind pagan sacrifice.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Cor 8:4Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
- 1 Cor 13:2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.
- 1 Cor 1:28and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:
- Deut 32:21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
- 1 Cor 3:7So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
- Isa 41:29Behold, all of them, their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
- Isa 40:17All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
- 2 Cor 12:11I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.
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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 10:19 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.