What Does 1 Corinthians 10:27 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
“asking no question” 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.
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 butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake:THE THREAD
And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set 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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