What Does 1 Corinthians 10:28 Mean?
But if anyone says to you, This is set apart and offered to idols, do not eat for the sake of the one who showed it, and for the sake of shared sight. For the earth is the Lord's, and what fills it.
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
But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof:THE KEY
Another person’s conscience can change what you do with the food without moving the earth’s fullness out of the Lord’s hands.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you where another person’s conscience enters an ordinary act of eating: you may leave the food untouched for that person’s sake. The earth and all it holds remain the Lord’s, so the pause does not place creation outside God’s ownership. Care and abundance remain together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being free to eat makes another person’s conscience irrelevant. A permitted choice can still affect someone else.
THE ROOT
συνείδησις
syneidēsis
GROWS FROM
συν + οἶδα (syn + oida)
Knowing with; awareness held in company.
“shared sight” in this verse is syneidēsis. The word is formed from συν (syn, “with”) and οἶδα (oida, “know”), carrying the sense of “knowing with.” Here, the other person’s awareness is part of the moment, so conscience is not merely a private verdict about the food.
ALSO GROWS
oida: Know, perceive
οἶδα
This is the knowing element in the word for conscience.
synoida: Know with; be conscious of
σύνοιδα
Its “know with” shape helps show why the other person’s awareness matters in this choice.
πλήρωμα
plērōma
GROWS FROM
πληρ-
plēr-
Fill; make full.
“what fills it” in this verse is plērōma. The word names what fills or constitutes the full extent of something. The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord, so leaving the food uneaten for another’s sake does not place it outside that belonging.
ALSO GROWS
plēroō: Fill, make full, fulfill
πληρόω
The verb makes visible the filling action contained in “fulness.”
plērēs: Full, complete
πλήρης
This related word echoes the completeness of what belongs to the Lord.
THE PATTERN
God’s ownership of creation remains intact when another person’s conscience shapes how a good thing is received.
A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and what fills it; the inhabited world, and those who settle in it.For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be thrown away when it is taken with thanksgiving.It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything by which your brother's foot strikes, or is snared, or is made weak.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and what fills it; the inhabited world, and those who settle in it.The verse echoes Psalm 24:1, whose Greek Septuagint wording uses πλήρωμα (plērōma, “fullness”), from the same filling-root as “fulness” here. That shared word holds restraint inside abundance: another person’s conscience shapes the meal, while the earth and what fills it remain the LORD’s.
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