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§22 Contrasting Knowledge and Love (1 Cor. 8:1–6)

At this point in the letter to Corinth Paul enters into the discussion of an issue that will engage him, in one way or another, through 11:1. While the concrete concern that calls for his attention is the issue of “food sacrificed to idols,” at a theological level his focus is Christian rights and responsibilities, especially regarding “knowledge” and “freedom” in lifestyle practices. Interpreters trace the course of Paul’s reflections in slightly different ways, for at one point Paul seems to consider the eating of foods that had originally been offered in pagan temple ritual, and at other places he seems to be commenting on the presence and participation of Christians at the sacrifices themselves. Some background information is necessary to comprehend this discussion that otherwise seems far removed from modern concerns.

Summarizing the general topic of sacrifice in antiquity, The Oxford Classical Dictionary reports:

A sacrifice, according to Plato (Euthyphro 14c), is a gift to the gods, and this was the current view of antiquity.… Modern comparative method, however, combined with anthropological theory, has sufficiently shown the complexity of the problem. One ancient attempt to classify the mass of confused details [concerning sacrifices] … distinguished offerings of praise, of thanksgiving, and of supplication. We may also distinguish between gods, daemones (heroes), and the dead as recipients of the offerings, and between private and public sacrifices. Finally, we may lay stress on the material of the sacrifice, the difference between vegetable and animal offerings, and on the way in which the offerings were made over to the supernatural powers (communal-sacrificial feast, holocaust, burial, libation, etc.). (S. Eitrem and J. E. Fontenrose, “Sacrifice,” OCD, pp. 943–45)

In antiquity much meat and some other food and drink that was available for public consumption in urban settings was originally presented and processed in the context of pagan temple celebrations. A practitioner of pagan religion brought or bought animals for sacrifice to one of the many pagan gods. After the sacrifice was made and the designated portions of the sacrificial animal were presented to the gods, a further portion was made available to the pagan temple priests for their use, consumption, or resale. Yet another portion could be made available to the person offering the sacrifice for a ritual meal in the banquet facilities that were part of many temples. Meat that was left over or that was initially designated for resale was sometimes transported to the marketplace for purchase and private consumption.

In order to understand Paul’s comments in this section of the letter it is important to attempt to discern exactly which action or setting he is thinking about as he diagnoses the situation and the problems that arose in the church in relation to these practices. In chapters 8 and 10 Paul overtly addresses the matter of idol meat, whereas in chapter 9 he indirectly focuses on the issue and is more generally concerned with the closely related and foundational matter of Christian rights and responsibilities. In 10:1–11:1 Paul clearly takes up both the question of the believers’ involvement in the cultic aspects of sacrifice and consumption of sacrificial foods in the temple (10:1–22) and the contention that Christians may partake of food/meat that was originally from the temple but then offered in the market for eating in private settings (10:23–11:1). Which of these settings and activities does Paul have in mind in the discussion in chapter 8?

Traditionally the majority of scholars have understood that in the present passage Paul is initially concerned with the matter of eating foods sacrificed and then sold in the marketplace, as he is later in 10:23–11:1. But through the careful and persuasive exegetical work of G. D. Fee, interpreters have come to think that Paul begins a discussion in 8:1–6, 7–13 that he continues in 10:1–22 concerning Christian participation in pagan temple cultic meals. However, this view and the traditional interpretation are difficult to maintain because of the complicated, even contorted, discussion that Paul offers in 8:1–13. Moreover, it may be that Paul is already thinking about both aspects of the problem of idol meat and that he is mixing the concerns in this chapter. Verse 10 of chapter 8 explicitly mentions the possible presence of the Christian in the pagan temple environment, although it was an option in antiquity to dine in that setting much as modern customers eat in restaurants without serious thought about the preparation of the food. Paul’s tone and emphases do shift as he moves from 8:1 through 11:1, but as close reading reveals, Paul’s primary concern in 8:1–13—with the possible exception of one illustrative reference in verse 10—is with the consumption of food that was originally offered to idols rather than with the participation of Christians in offerings to idols per se. Read from this vantage point, although the discussion deals with ancient and foreign matters for many of today’s Western readers, Paul’s remarks are fairly straightforward; with the assistance of rhetorical insights, the verses are comprehensible and even, by analogy, relevant for contemplating appropriate lifestyle practices for believers.

8:1 / As the opening words show, Paul is again responding to an issue brought to his attention by the Corinthians. The NIV presents Paul’s introduction of the issues and then moves to state the Corinthians’ position after punctuating with a colon. The NRSV goes further in suggesting that Paul is probably quoting the Corinthians’ own position, perhaps from their letter to him, by placing quotation marks around “all of us possess knowledge.” One may speculatively reconstruct the imaginary conversation Paul presents this way:

Paul:	Now about the food sacrificed to idols:
Corinthians:	“We know that we all possess knowledge.”
Paul:	Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

We have already explored Paul’s response to and critique of the Corinthians’ insistence on and preoccupation with knowledge and wisdom in the commentary on earlier chapters of this letter. At present, Paul’s critique of the Corinthians’ declaration follows in his sharp contrast between knowledge and love. Paul recognized the preferable character of love at 4:21, and in 13:1–14:1 he will elaborate the ultimate importance of love as the hallmark of Christian character and community. For now, he makes a play on the imagery of “increase” by saying that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up in order to expose the difference between that which yields arrogance or pride and that which produces positive, constructive results.

8:2 / Paul remarks that knowledge is of no value in itself. Knowledge for mere self-aggrandizement reveals a deeper ignorance, and preoccupation with self-glorifying knowledge is pretentious. Paul’s choice of words, translated as he ought to know, can be misread. More literally Paul says, “as it is necessary to know,” using an impersonal form of a helping verb (Gk. dei) that implies divine necessity. Thus, the gist of Paul’s statement may be paraphrased, “as it is necessary to know according to God” or “as God requires one to know.” What Paul states raises questions: What does God want the believers to know, and how do they know it when they do?

8:3 / Paul briefly states the answer to his implied questions. The appropriate criterion is not knowledge but love for God. To focus on knowledge demonstrates an inadequate understanding. What matters is to be known by God, and the evidence of God’s knowing a believer is the believer’s love for God. God’s will and work, not a self-inflated estimation of the value of what one knows, must be the first priority of a believer. In other words, “God knows, and so we know; God loves, and so we love.” To be known by God is to be loved, and to be loved by God enables the one who is loved to love God, not merely to pursue and to possess knowledge. Although he does not advocate any action explicitly, that “love builds up” indicates that the believers’ love for God evinces itself in the constructive doing of God’s work in the world.

8:4 / Again, Paul’s rhetoric indicates that he is referring to, perhaps quoting from, the Corinthians’ own thinking. The NIV, as usual, leads into Paul’s citation or reference by punctuating with a colon.

Paul:	So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols:
Corinthians:	“We know that an idol is nothing in the
	world and that there is no God but one.”

Some translations, among them the NRSV, indicate the Corinthians’ thinking and slogans with quotation marks (“no idol in the world really exists” and “there is no God but one”). Either way, in verse 4 Paul is introducing and stating a logic and line of thinking that he will elaborate in the following verses. The only problem for interpretation in this verse is whether, when Paul writes, We know, he is in agreement with the following statements or is repeating the Corinthians’ thinking. In 10:20 Paul will state his own clear conviction that behind the pagan idols is the reality of demons. Since this seems somewhat different from the assertion that idols are nothing in the world, it may be that his own thinking and teaching are not being presented in the statements recorded in verse 4.

8:5 / Paul starts to analyze and even to dissect the Corinthians’ position. He does so carefully, taking phrases and offering his own commentary on them. First, he makes a general and uncommitted observation (For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth) that recognizes that people speak of and revere what they consider to be gods. Then, having allowed for this possibility, Paul seems to indicate that there is some reality to these so-called gods, saying, as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords,” using plural forms (gods/lords) of titles he and the Christians attribute to the one true God who is the all-and-all of divine reality for Christians’ faith and practice: “for us there is but one God.”

8:6 / In this verse Paul makes a confessional statement that is creedal in character. This creed assumes a Christian perspective and focuses on creation, call, Christ, and redemption. From the discussion that follows in the remainder of this chapter one sees that the Corinthians had turned this central confession into a speculative thesis that led to a lifestyle that denied the reality of idols. Paul, by contrast, takes pagan gods and lords seriously. At 10:20, when Paul relates such gods and lords to demons, one sees that he considered such gods and lords to be dangerous entities.

The extraction of the beliefs that are stated in this verse and their abstraction into principles produced results (seen behind the controversies in Corinth) that Paul labors to critique and correct. In speaking of one God, Paul is not referring to a mere fact that, when known, sets one free; rather, the one God is the Father, the Creator who made all things—including humanity—so that the believers live in relation to this known God and devote life to doing God’s will. God is the one from whom and for whom the believers live. Moreover, the one Lord is Jesus Christ, who is the one through whom both creation (all things) and those who are experiencing redemption (we) live. Jesus Christ is the Lord who mediates God’s creative and redemptive power in such a way that God’s will and way are made real in the lives of believers. The dynamics of such creative, redemptive, life-giving relations are the heart of Christian faith and living. In relation to the one God and one Lord the believer is both informed and formed; that is, the believer finds a new identity and a new way of life.