Summary

Jews were prohibited from eating any meat that was sacrificed to idols. Moreover, they could eat only the meat of clean animals, and these animals had to be slaughtered according to the Mosaic law. A Jew would therefore not eat any meat that was sold on the meat market, unless it was sold by a fellow Jew.

For a Christian believer, however, the matter was very different. Christ fulfilled the ceremonial law. He himself declared all foods clean, saying that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach (Mark 7:18–19).

The apostolic prohibition on eating meat that was sacrificed to idols (Acts 15:20, Acts 15:29) did not negate Christ’s own teaching. The problem did not lie with the sacrificial meat itself, but with the idolatry that accompanied it (as was always the case when this meat was eaten in the temple dining hall).

When it comes to meat sold on the meat market, Paul assures the Corinthians that they are free to eat any of it (even if it happens to be sacrificial meat from the temple; see 1 Corinthians 8:1).

This verse can also be translated to mean that it is for the sake of conscience that one should not ask questions about the meat. (This is certainly the idea expressed in 1 Corinthians 10:28.) If, upon enquiry, a believer finds out that the meat which he wants to buy is sacrificial meat, then he will not be able to buy it without harming the conscience.

If this is the sense in which 1 Corinthians 10:25b should be understood, then the important question is, Whose conscience will be harmed? From the context (see 1 Corinthians 10:24–29) it is clear that it is the conscience of the unbeliever that Paul is concerned about. This unbeliever may be the seller of the meat, a bystander, or a slave who was sent to purchase the meat.

The word conscience should be understood in the sense of consciousness (or awareness). In the consciousness of the unbeliever, the Christian will have become a participant in idolatry.