What Does 1 Corinthians 10:27 Mean?
If any of those who do not trust call you to a meal, and you wish to go, eat whatever is set before you, sifting nothing for the sake of shared sight.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.THE KEY
The verse lets a shared meal remain a meal instead of turning it into an investigation staged for the conscience.
THE MEANING
When someone welcomes you to a meal, you can receive what is placed before you without making the table an investigation. Conscience is inward awareness, yet this verse does not make that awareness depend on scrutinizing every ordinary provision.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that every ordinary meal must be investigated before it can be received is undone here.
THE ROOT
ἀνακρίνοντες
anakrinontes
GROWS FROM
ἀνακρίνω (anakrinō), from κρίνω (krinō)
To examine or inquire; at its root, to judge, distinguish, or decide.
“sifting nothing” in this verse is anakrinontes. Here the English “asking” carries the additional shade of scrutiny: ἀνακρίνω (anakrinō) means “examine,” from κρίνω (krinō), “judge or decide.” The meal need not be placed under judgment to quiet the inner witness.
ALSO GROWS
anakrinō: Examine, investigate, or inquire.
ἀνακρίνω
This is the verb in the verse; it makes the restraint about scrutinizing the food.
krisis: Judgment or decision.
κρίσις
This related word carries the root’s sense of weighing and deciding, the quality that can turn a meal into a case to be judged.
συνείδησις
syneidēsis
GROWS FROM
σύν + οἶδα (syn + oida)
“With” + “know”: knowing-with, or inward awareness.
“shared sight” in this verse is syneidēsis. The Greek word for conscience, συνείδησις (syneidēsis), is built around σύν (syn), “with,” and οἶδα (oida), “know”: an inward “knowing-with.” That makes the pairing vivid: the invitation need not be investigated as though inner awareness depended on auditing the food.
ALSO GROWS
oida: Know or perceive.
οἶδα
This is the knowing within the word for conscience.
synoida: Know with oneself; be conscious or aware.
σύνοιδα
This related form shows the inward, shared knowing carried by the word “conscience.”
παρατιθέμενον
paratithemenon
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
To put, place, or set.
“set before you” in this verse is paratithemenon. The food is described as what is placed before or alongside the guest. The related word for a deposit holds the same image of placing something into another’s keeping, so the table also carries a sense of provision entrusted to the guest.
ALSO GROWS
paratithēmi: Set beside or before; entrust.
παρατίθημι
This is the verb behind the food being set before the invited guest.
parathēkē: A deposit or something entrusted.
παραθήκη
Its shared placing-root echoes the meal as something offered into the guest’s care to receive.
THE PATTERN
Food offered in hospitality can be received without turning the table into a test of conscience.
And he took curds and milk, and the son of the herd which he had made, and set it before them, and stood beside them under the tree, and they ate.And into whatever city you enter, and they take you in, eat what is laid before you.Eat everything sold in the meat market, sifting nothing for the sake of shared sight.THE THREAD
And into whatever city you enter, and they take you in, eat what is laid before you.Luke uses the same verb for what is “set before” a guest: παρατιθέμενα (paratithemena), from παρατίθημι (paratithēmi), “set before or alongside.” The shared root makes welcome and receiving the offered meal part of one image.
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