In ch. 10 of his first letter to the Corinthians the apostle Paul brings to a conclusion the argument about eating food sacrificed to idols that began in 8.1.Footnote 1 After a reference to the people of Israel's idolatry in the desert during the Exodus as a negative example in vv. 1–13 he warns his addressees in Corinth to ‘flee from idolatry’ (v. 14). It would provoke the Lord and ‘arouse his jealousy’ and they would consequently lose eternal salvation (v. 22). In concreto, Corinthian Christians should not participate in cultic meals celebrated for the glory of pagan deities.
The basis for the prohibition of idolatry is Paul's understanding of Christian fellowship: Christians share in the worship of God and cannot share with pagans in the worship of pagan deities as well. The key in this passage seems to be the κοινωνία/κοινωνός word group.Footnote 2 For it is mentioned explicitly in all three examples of cultic associations used by Paul to convince the Corinthian Christians of the dangers of idolatry, i.e., the associations of Christians (vv. 16–17), of Jews (v. 18), and of pagans (vv. 19–21, esp. v. 20). However, the exact meaning of κοινωνία is not clear at first sight. Is it to be interpreted to mean ‘participation’, that is, having a part of Christ, God, or a pagan deity, or does it mean ‘partnership’ or ‘association’, that is, having fellowship with other worshippers of the same God?Footnote 3 In other words, is the unity with Christ at stake here or the believers' unity with one another? Or is there perhaps a shift between vv. 16 and 17 and does Paul proceed from a ‘vertical’ κοινωνία (i.e. the Christians' fellowship with their Lord) in v. 16 to its ‘horizontal’ implications (i.e. a κοινωνία with the Christian believers) in v. 17? A careful analysis of the Greek terms κοινωνία and its cognates with a genitive as found in vv. 16, 18, and 20 may help to answer these questions. In the next paragraphs it will be argued that it is the unity of the Corinthian Christians with each other that Paul wants to emphasize in these verses, and not so much the ‘fellowship-establishing event between Christ and the believers’.Footnote 4 A new interpretation of v. 17, and in particular of the use of the verb μετέχειν, will support this argument.
1. Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 10.14–22
In 1 Cor 10.14–22 the apostle Paul warns the Corinthian Christians against the dangers of idolatry (v. 14). He admonishes them not to participate in cultic meals for the glory of a pagan deity. As Christians, as people who ‘drink the cup of the Lord’ and people who ‘have a part in the Lord's table’, they cannot and should not ‘drink the cup of demons’ nor ‘have a part in the table of demons’ (v. 21). Taking part in a pagan cultic meal is idolatrous and is incompatible with a true Christian life. A similar line of thought is found in Jos. Asen. 8.5,
And Joseph said, ‘It is not fitting for a man who worships God, who will bless with his mouth the living God and eat blessed bread of life and drink a blessed cup of immortality (ἐσθίει ἄρτον εὐλογημένον ζωῆς καὶ πίνει ποτήριον εὐλογημένον ἀθανασίας)…to kiss a strange woman who will bless with her mouth dead and dumb idols and eat from their table bread of strangulation and drink from their libation a cup of insidiousness (ἐσθίει ἐκ τῆς τραπέζης αὐτῶν ἄρτον ἀγχόνης καὶ πίνει ἐκ τῆς σπονδῆς αὐτῶν ποτήριον ἐνέδρας)…’Footnote 5
According to Joseph and Aseneth Jews are people who ‘eat blessed bread’ and ‘drink a blessed cup’ as opposed to pagans who ‘eat from their (= the idols’) table bread of strangulation' and ‘drink a cup of insidiousness’. On these grounds a ‘mixture’ of both parties is impossible. Paul's reasoning seems to be similar: Christians who ‘drink the cup of the Lord’ and ‘have a part in the Lord's table’, cannot mix with impunity in the company of people who ‘drink the cup of demons’ and ‘have a part in the table of demons’. For the food eaten by pagans at their cultic meals is ‘offered to demons’ and not ‘to God’ (v. 20),Footnote 6 that is, it is dedicated to pagan deities and it is eaten for their glory.
The ‘Lord's table’ refers to the food on the tables which was eaten by the Christians in remembrance of (the death of) Jesus Christ, just as the ‘table of demons’ refers to the food eaten by pagans for the glory of their gods. According to the OT/LXX there was a ‘table’ in the tabernacle and—later on—in the temple, the so-called ‘table for the bread of the Presence’, from which the priests were allowed to eat.Footnote 7 The altar itself was also called the ‘table (of the Lord)’.Footnote 8 Pagan deities had ‘tables’ in their temples as well.Footnote 9 It is quite plausible that in using the term ‘table (of the Lord/of demons)’ in this passage Paul has been influenced by the use of tables in Jewish and pagan temples. He does not seem to consider the ‘table of the Lord’ and the ‘table of demons’ as altars on which sacrifices were offered in honour of God or demons but rather as tables at which people were eating together, either as Christians in remembrance of the death of Jesus Christ or as pagans for the glory of pagan deities.Footnote 10
As the ‘table’ refers to the food eaten by Christians or pagans during their meetings, so the ‘cup (of the Lord/of demons)’ refers to the wine drunk at the meals of both Christians and pagans. For these meetings are to be characterized as convivia or symposia; social gatherings at which food and wine were offered to the gods and at which like-minded people ate and drank together. After the meal there was usually some time for drinking wine, singing songs, playing music, and discussion.Footnote 11
Thus, Paul's argument in vv. 19–22 is quite clear: although idols and food offered to idols are ‘nothing’ (v. 19; cf. 8.4–6) Christians should not share food with pagans at their symposia. For their food is sacrificed in honour of demons and not of God, and Christians should not ‘provoke the Lord’ (v. 22) by eating idol food in a cultic context. Paul considers demons, represented by idols, obviously existent; in his view, participating in such a cultic act is to be avoided, because this cult is addressed to existences, which are opposed to God.Footnote 12 So, the Corinthian Christians should not become ‘partners in demons (κοινωνοὺς τῶν δαιμονίων)’ (v. 20), the associates of members of a cult devoted to idols.Footnote 13
According to Paul the case of the people of Israel is somewhat similar: people who together eat food offered to the God of Israel are ‘partners in the altar (κοινωνοὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου)’ (v. 18). Not only the priests used to eat food offered to God, but also the people of Israel were allowed to eat food that was offered by the priests to God on some occasions. So we read in Philo De specialibus legibus 1.221,
that the sacrificial meals should not be hoarded, but be free and open to all who have need (πᾶσιν…τοῖς δεομένοις), for they are now the property not of him by whom but of Him to Whom the victim has been sacrificed, He the benefactor, the bountiful, Who has made the convivial company of those who carry out the sacrifices partners of the altar whose board they share (κοινωνὸν ἀπέφηνε τοῦ βωμοῦ καὶ ὁμοτράπεζον τὸ συμπόσιον τῶν τὴν θυσίαν ἐπιτελούντων).Footnote 14
What Paul wants to underline here is that when Israelites or Jews eat together for the glory of God they are a close-knit community, or in his words, ‘partners in the altar’, that is, partners who share in the food on the altar and who consequently share the same cult. Just as pagans are ‘partners in demons’, that is, associates in a cult devoted to demons, Israelites or Jews are ‘partners in the altar’, that is, participants in the worship of the God of Israel. In both cases Paul uses the term κοινωνοί followed by a genitive (τῶν δαιμονίων and τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου). This certainly takes up the word κοινωνία which is used in v. 16. There Paul argues that ‘the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks’ implies ‘being partners in the blood of Christ (κοινωνία τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ)’ and that ‘the bread that we break’ implies ‘being partners in the body of Christ (κοινωνία τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ)’. Without any doubt Paul refers to the meals served when the Christian believers met weekly in remembrance of their Lord Jesus Christ and his last supper ‘on the night he was betrayed’.Footnote 15 Whereas Paul follows the usual order (bread–cup) in 11.23–6, he now names the cup first and the bread last, probably because he wants to speak about the bread at more length in the next verse.Footnote 16 ‘The blood of Christ (τὸ αἵμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ)’ and ‘the body of Christ (τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ)’ refer to the death of Jesus Christ and its beneficial effects on the Christian believers.Footnote 17 For elsewhere in his letters Paul also uses the words ‘the blood of Christ’ and ‘the body of Christ’ as metaphors to refer to Jesus Christ's death.Footnote 18 But what exactly does he mean by ‘being partners in the blood of Christ’ and ‘being partners in the body of Christ’? In order to answer this question an analysis of the term κοινωνία and its cognates with a genitive seems to be appropriate.
2. An Analysis of κοινωνία and its Cognates with a Genitive
In the Greco-Roman world κοινωνία/κοινωνός/κοινωνεῖν are favourite terms to describe all kinds of business partnerships, joint enterprises, social and sexual relationships, and other sorts of associations.Footnote 19 They are also frequently used to characterize the close relationship between people having a meal together. A communal meal offered an opportunity to converse and to build friendships.Footnote 20 Eating together implies, or should imply, a close-knit community, a group of associates who are bound together by a joint interest. So we read, for instance, in Plutarch Mor. 643A:
For in my opinion, said Hagias, we invite each other not for the sake of eating and drinking, but for drinking together and eating together, and this division of meat into shares kills sociability (τὴν κοινωνίαν ἀναιροῦσα) and makes many dinners and many diners with nobody anybody's dinner-companion when each takes his share by weight as from a butcher's counter and puts it before himself.Footnote 21
Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that Paul uses the terms κοινωνία and κοινωνός a couple of times when he speaks about Christian, Jewish, and pagan meals.
But other kinds of relationships can also be described in these terms of partnership. The thing (or, occasionally, the person) in which people have a joint interest is usually expressed by a genitive.Footnote 22 Thus, in most instances, κοινωνία/κοινωνός with a genitive basically means ‘partnership’, ‘fellowship’, or ‘sharing with one or more individuals who have a common interest in something (or someone)’.Footnote 23 A number of examples from the literature of the Greco-Roman period may illustrate this:
This Herakleides was a Syracusan exile, a military man…but of an unsettled disposition, fickle and least of all to be relied upon when associated with a colleague in any command of dignity and honour (ἥκιστα δὲ βέβαιος ἐν κοινωνίᾳ πραγμάτων ἀρχὴν ἐχόντων καὶ δόξαν).Footnote 24
And yet even a well-bred guest at dinner has a function to perform, much more a hearer; for he is a participant in the discourse (κοινωνὸς γάρ ἐστι τοῦ λόγου) and a fellow-worker with the speaker.Footnote 25
…that she dared to do such wickedness as to murder the lawful wife of her king, who was the mother of the heirs to the throne (lit.: ‘[the king's] partner in her relationship with the children who were brought up for kingship’) (ἀνελεῖν τολμήσασα τὴν γνησίαν βασιλέως γυναῖκα καὶ τέκνων κοινωνὸν ἐπὶ βασιλείᾳ τρεφομένων).Footnote 26
But where will you find me a Cynic's friend? For such a person must be another Cynic, in order to be worthy of being counted his friend. He must share with him his sceptre and kingdom (κοινωνὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι δεῖ τοῦ σκήπτρου καὶ τῆς βασιλείας)…Footnote 27
Friendship, they declare, exists only between the wise and good, by reason of their likeness to one another. And by friendship they mean a common use of all that has to do with life (φασὶ δ᾽ αὐτὴν κοινωνίαν τινὰ εἶναι τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον), wherein we treat our friends as we should ourselves.Footnote 28
For it is good that they should not be ignorant of one another, being members of the same race and partners in the same institutions (ὁμοφύλους τε ὄντας καὶ τῶν αὐτῶν κοινωνοῦντας ἐπιτηδευμάτων).Footnote 29
Just as κοινωνία and its cognates are favourite terms to characterize the close relationship between people having a meal together, there are also quite a number of passages in Hellenistic literature where the genitive explicitly refers to the event of having a meal. Let me give just a few examples:
And there is a friend who is a table mate (κοινωνὸς τραπεζῶν)…Footnote 30
…to invite acquaintances and associates of one's own, to share in the libations and the food and the talk over the wine and the conviviality (ἐπὶ κοινωνίαν σπονδῆς καὶ τραπέζης καὶ λόγων ἐν οἴνῳ γινομένων καὶ φιλοφροσύνης)…Footnote 31
and Lucullus, after some acquaintance with him (=Olthakus), was soon pleased with his acuteness and his zeal, and at last admitted him to his table and made him a member of his council (ὥστε τραπέζης καὶ συνεδρίου ποτὲ ποιεῖσθαι κοινωνόν).Footnote 32
These examples make clear that in 1 Cor 10.14–22 κοινωνία and κοινωνός refer to the close relationship between the people who are having a cultic meal together: in v. 16, Christians who eat together in remembrance of the death of their Lord Jesus Christ; in v. 18, Israelites or Jews, who have a meal together as worshippers of the God of Israel; and in v. 20, pagans who are together and eat their meals for the glory of their gods. In all three cases the meals are described as apt occasions for social association and as expressions of partnership between the participants. Eating together in remembrance of Jesus Christ, Christians are ‘partners in his body and his blood’; that is, they are partners in their belief in Jesus Christ and the beneficial effects of his violent death. Likewise, Israelites or Jews who have a cultic meal are ‘partners in the altar’; that is, they are united as participants in the worship of the God of Israel, and pagans who eat together are ‘partners in demons’; that is, they are associates with other people in a cult devoted to idols.Footnote 33
Since Paul considers the cultic meals of the local Christian communities to be expressions of partnership between people who share a common belief in their Lord Jesus Christ, he cannot imagine that on other occasions there are Christians in Corinth who share a sacrifice and a common meal with pagans and are ‘partners (with one another and with [their] heathen fellow-worshippers) in demons’.Footnote 34 In his view, such behaviour is identical to idolatry and is, consequently, to be condemned. For ‘the Christian and pagan meals represent differing communities of allegiance’.Footnote 35 Fully to convince his readers in Corinth Paul feels obliged to add a few phrases about the ‘unity’ and ‘solidarity’ of the Christian community in v. 17.Footnote 36 A detailed analysis of this verse seems appropriate in order fully to understand Paul's argument in this passage.
3. A New Interpretation of 1 Corinthians 10.17
Having said that the Christian meals imply a partnership between the Christian believers, Paul adds another two phrases meant to underline the close and solid relationship of the Christians to one another. He starts by saying that ‘since there is one bread, we who are many are one body (ὅτι εἷς ἄρτος, ἓν σῶμα οἱ πολλοί ἐσμεν)’. Elsewhere in his letters the apostle also compares the Christian community to a (human) ‘body’ in order to make clear to his readers that the Christians are (or should be) a community tightly bound together by social and religious beliefs and activities and whose members feel (or should feel) solidarity with one another. In ch. 12 he will refer to this image of the ‘body’ in much more detail; there we find once again the idea that all Christians are members of only ‘one body’, the ‘body of Christ’ (see 12.12–31, esp. vv. 12–13, 27).Footnote 37
The reason that all the Christians together are ‘one body’, one close-knit community, is—according to Paul in 10.17—that ‘there is one bread’. Of course, the apostle does not mean that there is only one piece of bread which is broken and divided among the participants at all the Christian meals, but that all Christians eat some bread and thus take part in eating the same sort of food.Footnote 38 For him as for all people of his time, having a meal together at one table and eating the same food implied the unity and solidarity of the participants. Some passages from Jewish, early Christian, and pagan literature are very illustrative in this context:
We have certainly heard of banquets where sudden destruction has fallen upon a great assemblage of guests drawn by comradeship to eat of the same salt and sit at the same board (τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἅλας καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν τράπεζαν)…Footnote 39
I would have given money to share the same table with Ardalus (᾽Αρδάλῳ κοινωνεῖν μιᾶς τραπέζης).Footnote 40
…when he brought together in one golden-canopied tent an hundred Persian brides and an hundred Macedonian and Greek bridegrooms, united at a common hearth and board (ἐφ᾽ ἑστίας κοινῆς καὶ τραπέζης).Footnote 41
For once friends used to meet over one loaf (ὅτι ἐπὶ ἕνα [ἄρτον] οἱ πάλαι τῶν φίλων ἐφοίτων)…Footnote 42
Since Christians share the food at their joint meals, in particular the bread which they break in remembrance of the death of Jesus Christ (v. 16), they are to be considered ‘one body’, though they are ‘many’ (v. 17a). Paul seems to be afraid that his readers in Corinth will not understand the metaphor of the (human) body and therefore adds an explanation in v. 17b (οἱ γὰρ πάντες ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου μετέχομεν) which is usually translated as ‘for we all partake of the one bread’ (NRSV) or ‘for it is one loaf of which we all partake’ (REB). That is, ‘By common “participation” in the single loaf, the “body of Christ,” they affirm that they together make up the “body of Christ”…’Footnote 43 This translation and interpretation is, however, somewhat problematic. First, understood this way v. 17b does not turn out to be an explanation of v. 17a but a rather futile statement telling the Corinthians what they already knew. The word ‘for’ (γάρ), however, makes clear that v. 17b is indeed meant to clarify the preceding sentence in v. 17a. Second, the grammatical construction seems to pose an obstacle to this interpretation and translation. Translators and interpreters are keen on connecting the verb ‘to partake’ (μετέχειν) with the words ‘of the one bread (ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου)’.Footnote 44 They are surely aware of the fact that μετέχειν is usually preceded or followed by a noun in the genitive or in the accusative indicating the thing which is shared.Footnote 45 Following the NT grammars and dictionaries they seem to feel justified in interpreting the prepositional phrase (ἐκ…) as another example of a Hellenistic substitute for the (Classical) partitive genitive.Footnote 46 But nobody mentions a parallel passage from Greek literature where we find the verb μετέχειν connected with a prepositional phrase with ἐκ and I am afraid there is none.Footnote 47
What Paul wants to explain to his readers in Corinth in v. 17b seems to be the meaning of the metaphor of ‘one body’. As ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου in v. 17b corresponds with ὅτι εἷς ἄρτος in v. 17a, and οἱ πάντες in v. 17b corresponds with οἱ πολλοί in v. 17a, so the verb μετέχομεν in v. 17b is meant to correspond with ἓν σῶμα…ἐσμεν in v. 17a. In other words: the verb μετέχομεν is not to be connected with the prepositional phrase ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου but is used in an absolute sense, and is meant to elucidate the metaphor in the preceding clause. In some passages in Greek literature where the verb μετέχειν is used in an absolute sense, the noun indicating the thing which is shared can and must be supplied from the context.Footnote 48 In other instances, however, there is no such need, particularly not in those clauses where the verb is used in an absolute sense with the meaning ‘to be partners’:Footnote 49
…chief tax-farmers and associates may be partners […ταις των αρχ]ωνων και [των κοινωνω]ν με[τοχ]αις εξεσ[τω] μετεχ[ε]ιν…Footnote 50
These, who at first were seven, made a faction and conspired to slay Strattis, the despot of Chios; but when their conspiracy became known, one of the accomplices (lit.: ‘one of those who were partners’, ἑνὸς τῶν μετεχόντων) having revealed their enterprise, the six that remained got them privily out of Chios…Footnote 51
…so a friend, if need befall for his services that involves expense, danger, or labour, is foremost in insisting, without excuse or hesitation, that he be called upon and that he do his share (or: ‘that he be called upon and that he be his partner’, καλεῖσθαι καὶ μετέχειν)…Footnote 52
After she (=Poppaea) became his (=Otho's) wife, he did not like to share her favours (lit.: ‘he did not like to be his [=Nero's] associate [with respect to her]’, οὐκ ἠγάπα μετέχων)…Footnote 53
From these examplesFootnote 54 it may be concluded that the verb μετέχειν can be used in an absolute sense meaning ‘to participate’, ‘to share’, or ‘to be associates’ or ‘partners’. As such the verb is indeed more or less synonymous with κοινωνεῖνFootnote 55 and seems to have been quite appropriate for Paul to explain the metaphor of the ‘one body’ in v. 17: together, the Corinthian Christians eat the same food, they share the same cult and the same belief in their Lord Jesus Christ. Consequently, they ‘are partners’ (μετέχομεν); they are, in other words, ‘one body’ (ἓν σῶμα), the body of Christ.
As said before, the prepositional phrase ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου in v. 17b is not to be connected with the verb μετέχομεν but refers back to ὅτι εἷς ἄρτος in v. 17a, and is meant to form the basis for Paul's view that the Corinthian Christians are ‘partners’ in their belief in Jesus Christ. The preposition ἐκ is used more than once in a causal sense to be interpreted and translated as ‘in consequence of’, ‘because of’, ‘by reason of’, or ‘on the basis of’.Footnote 56 This means that ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου can be translated as ‘in consequence of the one bread’ or ‘since there is one bread’ (synonymous with ὅτι εἷς ἄρτος in v. 17a), that is ‘on the basis of the fact that we Christians share the same bread’. The whole phrase v. 17b should then be translated as ‘on the basis of the fact that there is one bread we all are partners (in our belief in Jesus Christ)’. Interpreted this way v. 17b offers a lucid explanation for the meaning of the metaphor of the one ‘body’ in v. 17a. As a consequence, v. 17 once more underlines the unity and solidarity of the Christian community, a theme so prominent in this passage (esp. vv. 16, 18, and 20–21).
4. Conclusion
In 1 Cor 10.14–22 the apostle Paul warns his readers to refrain from idolatry. That means, according to Paul, in concreto that they should not participate in cultic meals for the glory of a pagan deity. Since Christian believers share together in the worship of God, they should not share with pagans at their symposia. Taking part in a pagan cultic meal is idolatry and is absolutely incompatible with a true Christian life. In order to convince his addressees in Corinth Paul stresses the unity and solidarity which exist between worshippers of the same religious community. Sharing with pagans at their cultic meals would break the Christian community and would provoke God, for a joint meal is the expression of the unity and solidarity of the participants. In this context Paul uses the terms κοινωνία and κοινωνός, favourite terms in his time to describe all sorts of associations. When the terms are used with a genitive, as in vv. 16, 18, and 20, the noun in the genitive usually refers to the thing (or, occasionally, the person) in which (or in whom) people have a common interest. Thus, in Paul's view, Israelites or Jews are people who are united as participants in the worship of the God of Israel (‘partners in the altar’, v. 18), pagans are associates in a cult devoted to idols (‘partners in demons’, v. 20), and Christians are partners in their belief in Jesus Christ and the beneficial effects of his violent death (‘partners in his [=Jesus Christ's] blood and body’, v. 18). After having said in v. 16 that Christians are a close-knit community, a group of associates who are bound together by their belief in Jesus Christ, Paul continues in v. 17 by telling his readers that at their meals in remembrance of the death of their Lord Jesus Christ they are together eating the same food, viz. ‘one bread’, which implies that they are ‘one body’; a community whose members feel or should feel solidarity with one another. For they are ‘partners’, this time expressed by the term μετέχειν, which is not to be connected, as all interpreters and translators seem to do, with the prepositional phrase ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου, but is used in an absolute sense. Thus, there is no shift between vv. 16 and 18–21 on the one hand and v. 17 on the other; neither is v. 17 to be interpreted as a digression.Footnote 57 Both the references to κοινωνία in v. 16 (cf. vv. 18 and 20) and the phrases in v. 17 should be understood ecclesiologically, denoting ‘partnership’ rather than ‘participation’.Footnote 58 The entire passage vv. 14–22 centres on the idea of the unity and solidarity of the Christian community, a topic Paul discussed so extensively in the rest of his letter.
