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1 Corinthians 10

1For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were strewn across the wilderness.

6Now these things became examples for us, so that we should not desire evil things as they desired them. 7Do not become idolaters, as some of them did, as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to play.” 8Nor let us practice sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9Nor let us put Christ to the test, as some of them tested him and were being destroyed by the snakes. 10Nor grumble, as some of them grumbled and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11These things happened to them as examples, and they were written to admonish us, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12So let the one who thinks he stands watch that he does not fall. 13No testing has overtaken you except what is human. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tested beyond what you can bear, but with the testing will also provide the way out, so that you can endure it.

14Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not participation in Christ's blood? The bread that we break, is it not participation in Christ's body? 17Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all share in the one loaf. 18Consider Israel according to the flesh: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19What, then, am I saying? That food offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20Rather, what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become participants with demons. 21You cannot drink the Lord's cup and the cup of demons; you cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons. 22Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

23“Everything is permitted”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permitted”—but not everything builds up. 24Let no one seek his own good, but the other person's good. 25Eat everything sold in the meat market, examining nothing for the sake of conscience, 26for “The earth is the Lord's, and all that fills it.” 27If one of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go, eat everything set before you, examining nothing for the sake of conscience. 28But if someone tells you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” do not eat, for the sake of the person who informed you and for conscience. 29I mean the other person's conscience, not your own. For why is my freedom judged by another's conscience? 30If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered over what I give thanks for? 31So whether you eat or drink or do anything, do everything for God's glory. 32Give no cause for stumbling to Jews or Greeks or God's assembly, 33just as I too please everyone in everything, seeking not my own benefit but that of the many, so that they may be saved.

Translation notes 6

10:1–5 — The wilderness and the rock. “Our fathers” places Israel's ancestors within the community's shared scriptural story; “brothers” includes women. “Into Moses” retains the baptismal relationship without explaining its full analogy. Spiritual food and drink refer to God's provision in the wilderness. The rock that followed them remains Paul's image, identified as Christ; no particular reconstruction of the accompanying-rock tradition is inserted. “Strewn” keeps the picture of fallen bodies.

10:6–11 — Examples and judgment. The quotation in verse 7 is Exodus 32:6; “play” can include revelry in this setting. Verse 8 gives twenty-three thousand in one day; Numbers 25:9 gives twenty-four thousand, and the translation does not harmonize the numbers. The working text has Christ in verse 9, with early support; other witnesses read Lord or God. The destroyer in verse 10 is not further named. “The ends of the ages” preserves the plural and Paul's claim about the readers' place in history.

10:12–13 — Testing and endurance. The Greek word can mean testing or temptation. Here it includes pressure to fall into the practices just condemned. “What is human” means within human experience, not harmless or trivial. The way out enables endurance; the sentence does not promise that every hardship ends immediately.

10:16–22 — Shared participation. Participation and participants render related words for sharing or fellowship. The cup and bread are shared acts involving Christ, and the one loaf corresponds to the one body. “Israel according to the flesh” identifies Israel in its ordinary historical and embodied existence. The contrast with sacrifices to demons draws on Deuteronomy 32:17. This paragraph addresses participation in sacrificial worship, not simply the food's physical origin; the market and private meal follow in verses 25–30.

10:23–28 — Permission and restraint. Quotation marks identify the likely repeated slogan from 6:12; the base here lacks “for me.” “Builds up” continues the building image from chapter 8. The quotation in verse 26 is Psalm 24:1. The base does not repeat it after verse 28, as some later texts do. “Offered in sacrifice” follows a different Greek adjective from food offered to idols; it is what the informant says. The informant's identity is not specified.

10:29–33 — Another person's conscience. The questions in verses 29–30 may explain Paul's restraint, voice an objection to it, or return to the underlying freedom to eat with thanks. They remain questions without assigning a new speaker. “Please everyone” is qualified by seeking their benefit and salvation. The appeal continues with the imitation instruction in 11:1.