Now concerning may be expressed as “Now, I would like to speak about.”

The construction food offered can be rendered as “food that people have offered.” In this section Paul is thinking mainly of animals that were killed, offered to a pagan god, and then eaten. However, he uses a variety of terms to refer to such offerings, and translators should consider how far it is possible or natural to use a similar variety in their own language. The Greek terms mean: (1) “things sacrificed to idols,” but the word for “sacrifice” also means “slaughter,” so cereal offerings, for example, are excluded. This term is used in verses 1, 4, 7, 10, and in 10.19; Revised Standard Version usually translates it food offered to idols, and so do most translations we have consulted, including New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New English Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible; but Revised English Bible and most common language translations have “meat.” (2) “Food.” Two general terms, closely related in form and meaning, are used: brōma in verses 8 and 13 (also 3.2; 6.13; 10.3) and brōsis in verse 4. Most translations generally use “food”; in verse 13New International Version has “what I eat.” On verse 4 see the detailed notes below. (3) The specific word for “meat” is used only in verse 13 in 1 Corinthians; see detailed comments on that verse. All translations we have consulted use “meat” or an equivalent term. (4) In 10.28, but not in this section, Paul uses a pagan equivalent of (1), meaning “things killed in sacrifice to sacred beings.”

In addition to the information just given, translators need to consider the context of each occurrence and the resources of their own language. For example, one reason why most English translations undertranslate term (1) above by “food offered to idols” is that English lacks a single term combining the semantic components “kill (an animal)” and “offer (in worship).” Other languages, especially those used by communities that practice animal sacrifice, are likely to have more adequate terms available, and these should be used.

The phrase “meat offered to idols” is intended to have a negative sound. Pagans themselves, as distinct from Jews and Christians, would have spoken about “meat offered to sacred beings.” Paul does this himself in 10.28, where he quotes what a pagan might say. But in this whole passage Paul is not concerning himself with taking part in pagan worship. Rather he is counseling against eating “meat” that has been sacrificed by someone else to a pagan god. Meat was commonly dedicated to pagan gods at the time the animal was killed.

Good News Bible‘s clauses “It is true, of course,” and “as they say,” are implied in the Greek text. The quotation marks around “all of us possess knowledge” suggest, probably correctly, that Paul is here quoting a slogan that was currently used at Corinth. There is a problem knowing to whom the word we refers. This verse seems to contradict verse 7a, literally “but knowledge is not in all.” The contradiction may be resolved in various ways: (a) By making verse 1 refer to some specific truth. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has: “I know that we are full of knowledge about this argument” (namely, meat sacrificed to idols). (b) By making verse 7a specific: “all possess this truth,” where “this” is understood or implicit in the Greek text. (c) By giving knowledge a different meaning in verses 1 and 7 (Héring). However, there is little in the wording of either verse to support any of explanations (a) through (c). It is therefore more likely either (d) that Paul is announcing a general principle in verse 1 and making a modification in verse 7a, or (e) that all of us in verse 1 refers to a smaller group than “all” (without “we”) in verse 7. Explanation (e) is the simplest. The we of verse 1 may therefore be taken to refer to Paul and his readers who are considered “spiritually mature.” This would imply that the we is somewhat emphasized, as it certainly is at the beginning of verse 6.

For detailed comments on the word knowledge, see 1.5. In some languages it may be difficult to translate possess knowledge literally, and it may be necessary to express the object of knowing. In such cases one may add some such phrase as “about this matter” (see Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente quote above).

Puffs up: Good News Bible adds “with pride,” to bring out the meaning of this metaphor. A translator may also say “makes a person very proud” or “fills a person’s heart with pride”; see also 4.6.

Builds up keeps the Greek metaphor. In some languages this metaphor may need to be replaced by some nonfigurative expression such as “strengthens.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .