Food Offered to Idols: Edit history

Occurrences in Scripture

• Exodus 34:15: Israel is warned that when the inhabitants of Canaan sacrifice to their gods and invite the Israelites, they must beware lest they "eat of his sacrifice."
• Numbers 25:1-3: At the invitation of Moabite women, the people of Israel ate the sacrifices offered to their gods, bowed down to those gods, and joined themselves to Baal-peor. Psalm 106:28 looks back on this event.
• Acts 15:29: The Council of Jerusalem wrote to Gentile believers instructing them to abstain from meats offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication (Acts 15:28-29).
• 1 Corinthians 8–10: This is the passage in which Paul treats the issue at greatest length.
• Revelation 2:14, 2:20: The church in Pergamum is rebuked for "the doctrine of Balaam," and the church in Thyatira for tolerating "that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess," both of which led believers to eat things sacrificed to idols.

Background

The Greek word used in the New Testament, eidōlothyton, means "that which has been offered to an idol." In Greco-Roman cities such as Corinth, meat offered in temples is known to have been shared at meals within the temple precincts or sold in the marketplace, and social gatherings and banquets were frequently held in temples. Believers therefore found the issue difficult to avoid in daily life. The phrase "sit at meat in the idol's temple" in 1 Corinthians 8:10 reflects this situation.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

In the Old Testament, eating a sacrificial offering was regarded as participation in that sacrifice. Paul carries this understanding forward, asking, "are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?" (1 Corinthians 10:18). Paul states that "an idol is nothing in the world" (1 Corinthians 8:4-6). At the same time, he teaches that sitting at an idolatrous sacrificial meal amounts to fellowship with devils, and that one cannot drink both the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; he thus sets such meals in contrast to the Lord's table, the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). Meat sold in the market may be eaten without asking questions (10:25), but if someone points out that it has been offered in sacrifice, believers should not eat it, for the sake of that person's conscience (10:28). Paul also declares that if meat causes a weaker brother to stumble, he "will eat no flesh while the world standeth" (8:13). The underlying principle is that love and edification take precedence over knowledge (1 Corinthians 10:23-24).

Interpretations and Issues

• The relationship between Acts 15 and 1 Corinthians: Scholars differ on how to reconcile the council's prohibition with Paul's comparatively flexible guidance. Some interpret the council's decision as a regulation enabling fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers. Others hold that the two texts apply the same principle to different situations.
• The rebukes in Revelation are widely interpreted as referring to compromise with pagan religion, such as participation in temple banquets.
• In Daniel 1:8, the text does not state why Daniel refused the king's food. Explaining it as a matter of food offered to idols is one interpretation among others.
• Early Christian writings such as the Didache are known to have warned strictly against food offered to idols.
• The discussion of "him that is weak in the faith" in Romans 14 does not mention food offered to idols directly. Because it deals with similar principles of conscience and consideration for others, however, it is often read alongside these passages.

In the Korean Church

From the early missionary period, Korean Protestantism regarded ancestral rites as idolatry and forbade participation in them, and memorial services developed as an alternative (Ancestral Rites and Memorial Services). As a result, whether believers may eat food from holiday ancestral rites or rice cakes from gosa (traditional propitiatory rituals) is frequently debated on the basis of 1 Corinthians 8 and 10. One view holds that believers should not take part in the rites themselves but may eat food shared with them with thanksgiving. Another view holds that it is better to abstain for the sake of the conscience and confession of faith of oneself or of those nearby. Rather than being governed by uniform denominational rules, the matter is often left to pastoral guidance and individual conscience.