Category Archives: Bible Study

Whoever Eats or Drinks in an Unworthy Manner

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This icon of Melchizedek is one of several that I painted many years ago. You can see the curls of the challah bread in his hand reflected in the curls of his beard. He wears the turban of a high priest and the crown of a king, as he was both priest of God Most High and king of (Jeru-)Salem. His sacrifice of bread and wine (described in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110) is considered an anticipation of the Eucharist.


Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself…. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement upon himself. (1 Cor. 11:27-29)

The apostle’s words are blunt and sharp. Whoever shares in the Eucharist unworthily brings condemnation on themselves. Although meant to be life-giving, the Holy Gifts can bring judgement and condemnation because the presence of God is a two-edged sword: his light exposes and reveals the truth, whatever that truth might be. If it reveals our honest struggle to live in fellowship with him, we share the fellowship we seek. If it reveals either no such struggle or even active struggle to avoid his light, then we are judged because our partaking of the Eucharist reveals that we knew better, that we turned our back on our own words by refusing to even attempt to live up to the words we said at our baptism and at the celebration of the Eucharist.

“What does it mean to receive unworthily? To receive in mockery, to receive in contempt.”

St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 227

How do we mock the Eucharist? When we dare to consume the Eucharist when we are allowing ourselves to be consumed with greed, or anger, or malice. These attitudes are what make us unworthy to receive the Holy Gifts. It was these attitudes–especially greed and selfishness–on display among the Corinthians that made them refuse to wait for one another at the parish dinners, some eating too much and getting drunk while others were going hungry.

To struggle against our greed, anger, or malice is a sign of life and God honors that struggle by remaining in fellowship with the one who struggles. If we give up the struggle against these attitudes, we are already spiritually dead, even if we are physically still alive.

“Do you work wonders for the dead? Will those who have died stand up and give you thanks?” (Psalm 88:11) This question in the psalms concerns not just those dead and buried in the ground but those spiritually dead, still walking around the surface of the earth. In hell, there is no Eucharist; the spiritually dead, in need of Resurrection, are equally outside the Eucharist. “For in death, no one remembers you; and who will give you thanks in the grave?” (Psalm 6:5)

The dead, those who have surrendered to their greed-anger-malice, are incapable of giving thanks or honest participation in the Eucharist. These are the people who mock the Eucharist and receive it with contempt. Struggling against these attitudes are what make us capable of giving thanks and honest participation in the Eucharist; even if we fail and must renew our struggle time-after-time-after-time-after-time, this is the behavior of a person who honors the Eucharist and avoids bringing judgement and condemnation upon themselves.

One Goes Hungry While Another Gets Drunk, Part 2

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Judith with the head of Holofernes, Lucas Cranach The Elder. (c. 1530) In the Book of Judith, the Jewish heroine enters the tent of the Assyrian general Holofernes, gets him drunk and chops off his head to save her town. Judith, who is “the pride of all our people and the glory of our race” is considered to be a type of the Mother of God: As Judith beheaded Holofernes, so also is Mary the woman who by her divine pregnancy and childbearing (of Jesus) crushed the head of the serpentine demon, the Devil. Read more about Judith as a type here.


For in eating, each one by preference takes his or her own meal; and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. Don’t you have houses for eating and drinking? (1 Cor. 11:21-22)

The apostle condemns the parish members who are better off bringing their own food and wine to parish dinners and then refusing to share, getting drunk while other people at dinner are going hungry. The meal that was meant to erase and heal social divisions only exposed these divisions and made them worse.

The contrast between the “haves” and the “have nots” is a classic theme of Greek and Roman writers. Pliny complained that some hosts served “cheap and paltry” food and wine to guests that they thought less important while having “elegant dishes” served to themselves and a few special guests. Pliny thought this was sordid behavior. (Epistle 2.6)

Other writers, like Juvenal, made fun of hosts who did this. The host was not refusing to spend money, Juvenal said; the host just wanted to cause his guests pain. “What comedy … is more amusing than a disappointed stomach?” A host who did this was truly malicious, Juvenal thought.

Socrates insisted that meals be truly communal experiences. Plutarch warned against disorder at meals and dinner parties. Nevertheless, drunkenness was so common at common meals that Sparta and Crete outlawed dinner parties. Even in the Old Testament, hosts were urged to take care of their guests before sitting down at the table themselves. The host who is generous with food is blessed and guests were expected to help others before helping themselves to the meal. (Sirach 31-32)

Alas, the misbehavior of the Corinthians at dinner had a long pedigree. Their misbehavior revealed that they despised the Church rather than loving their brothers and sisters, as they claimed. Actions always speak louder than words.

Paul reminds us that the Master gave up everything, including himself, for us. But we are reluctant to even share a little food with our fellow believers…. Do not dishonor your brothers or neglect them in their hunger. Do not get drunk. Do not insult the Church. When you come together, give thanks for what you have to eat and do not cut yourself off from your neighbors.

St. John Chrysostom, Homily 27 on 1st Corinthians

One Goes Hungry While Another Gets Drunk

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The cathedral in Monreale, Sicily has many beautiful mosaics of Bible episodes, including this depiction of Noah growing grapes after the flood and getting drunk (Genesis 9:24-25). This was evidently the first time in human history that anyone had gotten drunk and passed out. Noah’s sons are shown covering him with a cloak as he is asleep; his pose is very similar to that as Adam when God put him to sleep and then took a rib to fashion Eve.

When, however, you come together in the same place it is not to eat the supper of the Lord. For in eating each one by preference takes his or her own meal; and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. Don’t you have houses for eating and drinking? Do you despise the church of God and dishonor those who have not? What shall I tell you? Shall I commend you? (1 Cor. 11:20-22)

St. Paul tells the Corinthians several times, “I do not commend you.” There were several practices that the parish was evidently proud of–or at least, practices that several prominent people in the parish were proud of. St. Paul, however, is not proud of these practices and tells the Corinthians exactly what he thinks.

We know that early Christians met for several sorts of community meals. Some were called agapes, or “love feasts,” and were fellowship dinners that began with prayers. People brought food to share with others. People generally brought enough that there would be enough to share with the poor after the dinner or the next day.

We also know that the Eucharist was celebrated in the context of a festive community meal. The celebration began with the sharing of the Holy Bread, the Body of Christ. The meal followed, during which there might be reading and preaching. The “cup of blessing,” the Blood of Christ, was shared at the conclusion. Although a wealthy church member might host the meal sometimes, these meals were also a “potluck” and people brought food to eat themselves and to share. (We know this from early Christian writings like the Didache and the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus.)

We are not sure whether St. Paul is criticizing the behavior at either an agape or at the celebration of the Eucharist, although the reference to “the supper of the Lord” suggests that it was probably the Eucharist that he was talking about.

The parish met in the home of a community member. Most Greek and Roman homes were built around a central courtyard; the rooms opened onto the courtyard and guests might circulate between the rooms that were open. Most of the Christians in Corinth were not wealthy so their homes would not be large. Even the homes of wealthy parishioners might not have a single room that was large enough for the whole parish to gather in at one time.

At these parish meals–either agape or Eucharist–the people were probably not all in the same room. The wealthier members were evidently in a grander room while the poorer members were in smaller rooms off to the side. Because they were not in the same room, it was easy for the richer people to eat and drink among themselves–even gorging themselves and getting drunk–and let the poorer members have less to eat and drink.

Even though they had “come together in the same place,” i.e. one house, they were not all in one room. In one room, people were going hungry. In another room, people were getting drunk. St. Paul saw nothing commendable in this. Such behavior despises the Church and dishonors the members gathered in fellowship, in communion. St. Clement of Alexandria wrote,

If a person is wealthy and eats without restraint or is insatiable, he disgraces himself in a special way and does wrong on two accounts. First, he adds to the burden of those who do not have, and second, he lays his own intemperance bare in front of those who do have.

St. Clement of Alexandria, in “Christ the Educator,” 2.13

There is so much other background to what St. Paul is talking about in this passage, we will continue with it next week.