1 Corinthians 10:21

10:15-22 Did not the joining in the Lord's supper show a profession of faith in Christ crucified, and of adoring gratitude to him for his salvation ? Christians, by this ordinance, and the faith therein professed, were united as the grains of wheat in one loaf of bread, or as the members in the human body, seeing they were all united to Christ, and had fellowship with him and one another. This is confirmed from the Jewish worship and customs in sacrifice. The apostle applies this to feasting with idolaters. Eating food as part of a heathen sacrifice, was worshipping the idol to whom it was made, and having fellowship or communion with it; just as he who eats the Lord's supper, is accounted to partake in the Christian sacrifice, or as they who ate the Jewish sacrifices partook of what was offered on their altar. It was denying Christianity; for communion with Christ, and communion with devils, could never be had at once. If Christians venture into places, and join in sacrifices to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, they will provoke God.

The cup of devils Representing the heathen feast. The special reference may be either to the drinking-cup, or to that used for pouring libations. The Lord's table Representing the Lord's Supper. See 1 Corinthians 11:20 sqq. The Greeks and Romans, on extraordinary occasions, placed images of the gods reclining on couches, with tables and food beside them, as if really partakers of the things offered in sacrifice. Diodorus, describing the temple of Bel at Babylon, mentions a large table of beaten gold, forty feet by fifteen, standing before the colossal statues of three deities. Upon it were two drinking-cups. See, also, the story of "Bel and the Dragon," vv. 10-15. The sacredness of the table in heathen worship is apparent from the manner in which it is combined with the altar in solemn formulae; as ara et mensa. Allusions to the table or to food and drink-offerings in honor of heathen deities occur in the Old Testament: Isaiah 65:11; Jeremiah 7:18; Ezekiel 16:18, Ezekiel 16:19; Ezekiel 23:41. In Malachi 1:7, the altar of burnt-offering is called "the table of the Lord."

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the {s} cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. (s) The heathen and profane people were accustomed to finish up and make an end of their feasts which they kept to the honour of their gods, in offering meat offerings and drink offerings to them, with banquets and feastings.

21 . Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils ] See note on 1 Corinthians 10:18 , and for the nature of heathen sacrifices note on 1 Corinthians 8:1 . The cup of devils was the libation with which the meal commenced. It was the cup of devils (1) because it was the cup of worship to beings other than God, which He Whose name was Jealous ( Exodus 34:14 ; cf. Exodus 20:5 ) and Who ‘will not give His glory to another’ ( Isaiah 42:8 ) had forbidden, and (2) because the worship of many of the gods was a distinct homage to the powers of evil, by reason of its polluting nature. Such worship obviously unfitted those who took part in it for fellowship with Christ. Cf. also 2 Corinthians 6:15-16 .

(21, 22) Ye cannot . . . —Here follows the special reason why the Apostle desires them not to partake of the wine poured forth in libation to devils, or the table on which meat sacrificed to these devils was spread out as food. Such would deprive them of their participation in the cup of the Lord and the table on which the Lord’s Supper was placed. Of course the impossibility was moral, not physical. So the Apostle adds the warning question, Do you in fact do so? Do you do that which is morally impossible, and so provoke the jealousy of our jealous God, who will have no divided allegiance? Surely we are not stronger than He? To such a question there can be but one answer. These words, which are the climax of the argument, are naturally suggested by the passage in Deuteronomy ( Deuteronomy 32:15-18 ), which was evidently in the Apostle’s mind all through this argument, containing as it does the striking words, “Rock of his salvation.” “They sacrifice unto devils and not to God,” and “they provoked Him to jealousy.”

Verse 21. - Ye cannot. It is a moral impossibility that you should. The Lord's table. This is the first instance in which this expression is used, and it has originated the name. The table of devils (see Deuteronomy 32:37 ). In the fine legend of Persephone, she might have been altogether liberated from the nether world if she had eaten nothing since her sojourn there; but unhappily she had eaten something, though it was only the few grains of a pomegranate; and hence she must leave the upper air, and become the Queen of Hades. 1 Corinthians 10:21

21. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord—really and spiritually; though ye may outwardly (1Ki 18:21). cup of devils—in contrast to the cup of the Lord. At idol feasts libations were usually made from the cup to the idol first, and then the guests drank; so that in drinking they had fellowship with the idol. the Lord's table—The Lord's Supper is a feast on a table, not a sacrifice on an altar. Our only altar is the cross, our only sacrifice that of Christ once for all. The Lord's Supper stands, however, in the same relation, analogically, to Christ's sacrifice, as the Jews' sacrificial feasts did to their sacrifices (compare Mal 1:7, "altar … table of the Lord"), and the heathen idol feasts to their idolatrous sacrifices (Isa 65:11). The heathen sacrifices were offered to idol nonentities, behind which Satan lurked. The Jews' sacrifice was but a shadow of the substance which was to come. Our one sacrifice of Christ is the only substantial reality; therefore, while the partaker of the Jew's sacrificial feast partook rather "of the altar" (1Co 10:18) than of God manifested fully, and the heathen idol-feaster had fellowship really with demons, the communicant in the Lord's Supper has in it a real communion of, or fellowship in, the body of Christ once sacrificed, and now exalted as the Head of redeemed humanity.

The cup of the Lord: we may either take the phrase as signifying all religious communion under one great act of religion, or as particularly signifying having a communion with Christ in the ordinance of the Lord’s supper, which is called the cup of the Lord, either because God hath instituted and appointed the drinking of it, or because it is done for the honour, glory, and remembrance of our Lord Christ, to remember his death until he come, as the apostle speaketh, 1 Corinthians 11:26 . This the apostle tells them they could not drink of, that is, not rightly, and with a good conscience; or not really; no man that is an idolater, or hath communion with idolaters in their idolatrous acts, can have communion with Christ. The same is meant by the Lord’s table, and the table of devils. So as I cannot see how either an idolatrous church can be a true church, or an idolater a true Christian, unless we will assert, that a body of people may be a true church, that can have no communion with Christ; or a man may be a true Christian, and yet have no communion with Christ. Idolatry, doubtless, both divides the soul from Christ, as he is the Head of a believer, and as he is the Head of the church. To call any body of idolaters a true church, either morally, or metaphysically, is to say to those: Ammi, You are the Lord’s people, to whom God hath said, Lo-ammi.

1 Corinthians 10:21-22 . This lively apostrophe sets in the strongest light the inconsistency of Cor[1537] Christians who conform to idolatry, the untenability of their position. “You cannot drink the Lord’s cup and the cup of demons ”—the two together! “You cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons !” cf. the τίς μετοχή , κοινωνία , κ . τ . λ .; of. 2 Corinthians 6:14 ff., and other parls. The nouns forming the obj[1538] are anarthrous as being qualitative, the impossibility lying in the kind of the two cups; cf. note on 1 Corinthians 2:5 . “The Lord’s cup” is that received at His direction and signifying allegiance to Him; in 1 Corinthians 10:16 , “the cup of (His) blessing.”—Possibly, P. alludes here to Malachi 1:7 ; Malachi 1:12 , where ‘the table” signifies “the altar of Jehovah”; but the expression is borrowed without this identification. In this context table and altar are essentially distinguished; the altar supplies the table ( cf. Hebrews 13:10 ). “S. Coena convivium, non sacrificium; in mensa, non in altari” (Bg[1539]). The τράπεζα includes the ποτήριον and ἄρτος of 1 Corinthians 10:16 together. This passage gives its name of “the Lord’s Table” to the Eucharist.—“Or (is it that) we provoke the Lord to jealousy?”—is this what we mean by eating at both tables?

Paul includes himself in this question; such conduct is conceivable in his case, since he had no scruple against the idolothyta on their own account (see 1 Corinthians 10:8 , 1 Corinthians 9:1 ). Deuteronomy 32:21 (neighbouring the previous allusion of 20) sufficiently indicates the result of such insolence: see other O.T. parls. For this argumentative ἢ in Paul’s questions, cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9 , etc., 1 Corinthians 9:6 .—If the Cor[1540] are daring Christ’s sovereign displeasure by coquetting with idolatry, they must suppose themselves “stronger than He”! As sensible and prudent men they must see the absurdity, as well as the awful peril, of such double-dealing: cf. Deuteronomy 32:6 ; Deuteronomy 32:28 f. ἰσχυρός ( 1 Corinthians 1:25 ) implies inherent, personal strength. Of the δύναμις τ . κυρ . Ἰησοῦ Ρ . had given a solemn impression in ch. 1 Corinthians 5:4 f.; cf. 2 Corinthians 13:3 f. [1537] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians. [1538] grammatical object. [1539] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.[1540] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.