Back to 1 Corinthians 11

1 Corinthians 11:21

For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.

  • TYNDALE Tyndale New Testament (1534)

    For every man begynneth a fore to eate his awne supper. And one is hongrye and another is dronken.

  • GNV Geneva Bible (1599)

    For euery man when they should eate, taketh his owne supper afore, and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

View more translations →

Cross-references (4)

Passages linked to 1 Corinthians 11:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • 2 Peter 2:13 receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;
  • Jude 1:12 These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
  • 1 Corinthians 10:16-18 The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread. Consider Israel according to the flesh. Don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?
  • 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.” In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.”

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

↑ Top

Explain this verse (18 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 21. For every one of you taketh before others…

21. For every one of you taketh before others his own supper. It is truly wonderful, and next to a miracle, that Satan could have accomplished so much in so short a time. We are, however, admonished by this instance, how much antiquity, without reason on its side, can effect, or, in other words, how much influence a long continued custom has, while not sanctioned by a single declaration of the word of God. This, having become customary, was looked upon as lawful. Paul was then at hand to interfere. What then must have been the state of matters after the death of the Apostles? With what liberty Satan must have sported himself. Yet here is the great strength of Papists: “The thing is ancient — it was done long ago — let it, therefore, have the weight of a revelation from heaven.”

It is uncertain, however, what was the origin of this abuse, or what was the occasion of its springing up so soon. Chrysostom is of opinion, that it originated in the love-feasts, (ἀπὸ τῶν ἀγαπῶν) and that, while the rich had been accustomed to bring with them from their houses the means of feasting with the poor indiscriminately and in common, they afterwards began to exclude the poor, and to guzzle over their delicacies by themselves. And, certainly, it appears from Tertullian, that that custom was a very ancient one. Now they gave the name of Agapae to those common entertainments, which they contrived among themselves, as being tokens of fraternal affection, and consisted of alms. Nor have I any doubt, that it took its rise from sacrificial rites commonly observed both by Jews and Gentiles. For I observe that Christians, for the most part, corrected the faults connected with those rites, in such a manner, as to retain at the same time some resemblance. Hence it is probable, that, on observing that both Jews and Gentiles added a feast to their sacrifice, as an appendage to it, but that both of them sinned in respect of ambition, luxury, and intemperance, they instituted a kind of banquet, which might accustom them rather to sobriety and frugality, and might, at the same time, be in accordance with a spiritual entertainment in respect of mutual fellowship. For in it the poor were entertained at the expense of the rich, and the table was open to all. But, whether they had from the very first fallen into this profane abuse, or whether an institution, otherwise not so objectionable, had in this way degenerated in process of time, Paul would have them in no way mix up this spiritual banquet with common feasts. “This, indeed, looks well — that the poor along with the rich partake in common of the provisions that have been brought, and that the rich share of their abundance along with the needy, but nothing ought to have such weight with us as to lead us to profane the holy sacrament.”

Read full note →

And one is hungry This was one evil in the case, that while the rich indulged themselves sumptuously, they appeared, in a manner, to reproach the poor for their poverty. The inequality he describes hyperbolically, when he says, that some are drunken and others are hungry, for some had the means of stuffing themselves well, while others had slender fare. Thus the poor were exposed to the derision of the rich, or at least they were exposed to shame. It was, therefore, an unseemly spectacle, and not in accordance with the Lord’s supper

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Eateth his meat and tarrieth not till other come.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 21 For in eating every one taketh before other…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain There was at this time in most of the…
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Here our apostle begins to reprove the Corinthians for…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain What? have ye not houses to eat and drink…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain For in eating what ye call the Lord's supper,…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 21. Every one taketh before - his own…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For in eating - When you eat, having professedly…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Every one taketh before his own supper to eat.…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain one taketh before other--the rich "before" the poor, who…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 21. Every one—Each one. Instead of spreading a table…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 21. For in eating every one taketh before other…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (21) For.—Here follows a description of the conduct and…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For in eating; rather, in your eating. Every one.…
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 21. For every one partaketh before others his own…
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 21. He here alludes to the fact that in…
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain for in your eating each one taketh before other…

↑ Top

Share