Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Corinthians 11:21

τὸ ἴδιον δεῖπνον. ‘It is not the Lord’s Supper, but your own that you eat. Jesus Christ established a Supper with a solemn celebration of His Death, as at once a symbol of the unity of those who believed in Him, and a means of effecting that unity. By the course you are pursuing you are defeating His purpose, and evacuating the ceremony He has instituted of all its meaning.’

προλαμβάνει. The whole idea of a common meal was thus set aside. The members of the Church not only did not share their provisions together, but they did not eat them at the same time.

ἐν τῷ φαγεῖν. For in the eating, i. e. when ye eat. Every passage relating to the Eucharist in the N. T. leads to the conclusion that it took place at the end of a social meal, such as the Last Supper itself. See Acts 2:42; Acts 2:46; Acts 20:7; Acts 20:11. That supper in early Christian times was called the Agapè, or feast of love, and was like the ἔρανος of the Greeks, to which, very frequently, each brought his own portion. See Art. Erani in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities. The divisions among the Corinthian Christians (1 Corinthians 11:18) were of the kind which we are accustomed to denominate ‘sets’ in a small society,—cliques and coteries, which were the product, not so much of theological, as of social antagonism. Thus the members of the Corinthian Church were accustomed to share their provisions with members of their own ‘set,’ to the exclusion of those who, having an inferior social position, had few provisions, or none, to bring. Hence while one was only too well provided with food, another had little or none.

ὃς δὲ μεθύει. We have no right, with some commentators, to soften down the force of this word, as though no such abominations were possible at Corinth. The permeation of the Christian community by the Spirit of Christ (see note on ch. 1 Corinthians 5:1) was a more gradual process than is generally supposed. The wine could hardly have been unfermented.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Corinthians 11:21

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