Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 8:7

“But not in all is there the knowledge”(ἡ γνῶσις) which you and I claim to have (1 Corinthians 8:1; 1 Corinthians 8:10), expressed just now in the terms of the Church confession (1 Corinthians 8:4 ff.). τῇ συνηθείᾳ ἕως ἄρτι τοῦ εἰδώλου, “by reason of their habituation up till now to the idol”: for this dat [1252] of defining cause, cf. Ephesians 2:1. ἕως ἄρτι (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:8; 1 Corinthians 4:11) qualifies the quasi-vbl. noun συνηθεία, actively used, which, as in 4Ma 13:21 and cl [1253] Gr [1254], signifies with the objective gen [1255] (= συνηθεία πρὸς or μετά) intercourse, familiarity with; the other, passive sense is seen in 1 Corinthians 11:16. The Western reading, συνειδήσει, preferred by some critics as the lectio ardua, gives the sense, “through relation of conscience to the idol” (Hf [1256], Hn [1257]). ὡς εἰδωλόθυτον ἐσθίουσι, “as an idol-sacrifice eat (the meat in question)” under the consciousness that it is such, with the sense haunting them that what they eat belongs to the idol and associates them with it; cf. 1 Corinthians 10:18 ff. and notes. “And their conscience, since it is weak (unable to get rid of this feeling), is soiled”(opp [1258] of the καθαρὰ συνείδησις of 1 Timothy 3:9; 2 Timothy 1:3). The consciousness of sharing in idol-worship is defiling to the spirit of a Christian; to taste knowingly of idolothyta, under any circumstances, thus affects converts from heathenism who have not the full faith that the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; now, “whatsoever is not of faith is sin”(Romans 14:23).

[1252] dative case.

[1253] classical.

[1254] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[1255] genitive case.

[1256] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[1257] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[1258] opposite, opposition.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 8:7

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