Tag Archives: food

Food Offered to Idols

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What is most frequently offered in religious rituals? Food! Religious food practices shape communities–what people do or do not offer to the gods and do or do not eat together identifies who we are as societies. What the Hebrews and the Egyptians ate before the Exodus helped distinguish the two communities. Read about food in ancient Egypt here.


So, concerning food that is offered to idols. We know that in the world an idol is nothing and there is no God but one…. But food will not put us in the presence of God. We are not inferior if we do not eat nor are we superior if we do eat. (1 Cor. 8:4, 8)

The parish in Corinth was torn apart by several disputes, one of which involved what was or was not legitimate to eat. It was meat that had been sacrificed to idols was the problem. The obvious question is, “Then why not just go buy meat from the kosher butcher?” No problem with idols then. Problem solved.

There was a large Jewish community in Corinth with plenty of kosher butchers. I could spend 20 minutes–or several hundred words–talking or writing about how the animosity between the Jewish and the Christian communities was ready to boil over at the least provocation. Christian patronage of kosher butchers was simply not possible. Tensions between the two communities were just too high.

The Christian neighbors that needed to experience God’s peace and harmony in Corinth were more than just two theological factions or two groups that wouldn’t eat together or speak to each other at coffee hour. The labels of “weak” and “strong” throughout the epistles are code words for ethnic identity and social status. The weak were the Jewish believers, the socially disadvantaged, those on the periphery of the culture, the people who could be expelled from town because the powers-that-be don’t want to be bothered with them—just as the Jews had been expelled from Rome several times already. (Many of the Jews in Corinth being, in fact, refugees who had settled there after the most recent expulsion from the great capital, only a few years before St. Paul came preaching there.)

The strong were the Gentile believers, the socially powerful and important, the people who would probably think that it might actually be a good idea to expel the “weak” from town if they got too troublesome or demanding.

St. Paul declared that he would give up meat forever—that he would fast as the Prophet Daniel had fasted in Babylon because there was no kosher meat available—to maintain the harmony of the Christian community. St. Paul said that anyone who joined him in that fast, joined him in maintaining that harmony would also be maintaining the harmony not only of the community but the harmony of their personal relationship with God. The fast established and maintained the love and reconciliation between members of the congregation. The fast—like the holy kiss—was an expression of love for both God and neighbor.

“We Have Knowledge!”

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Traditional Easter baskets are full of eggs, meat, cheese, and holiday Easter bread. People bring their baskets to church to be blessed and share the food with their families, friends, and neighbors. Community identity is forged by what people do or do not eat together.


Concerning food that has been offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs us up but love builds us up. If anyone thinks that he or she knows something, that one does not yet know as he or she ought to know. (1 Cor. 8:1-2)

Having spent all of chapter 7 talking about various aspects of marriage, St. Paul turns to the subject of food. He discusses various aspects of food for the next three chapters of this epistle. Food was important to the Christians of Corinth. Food is still important to Christians today.

The Corinthian parish had evidently written to St. Paul and asked him several questions about food. What to eat? Who to eat with? How to maintain their Christian identity in connection with food?

St. Paul begins by pointing out that although all the Corinthians claim to have knowledge, there is both “false knowledge” and “true knowledge.” The difference is that true knowledge goes together with love. False knowledge puffs up people, making them proud and arrogant. True knowledge, united with love, brings people into fellowship with each other. “We have knowledge!” was apparently the slogan or motto of the faction of the parish that was proud and arrogant. St. Paul warns these people that too often the people who claim to know more or know better are–in fact–the ones who know the least about the truth.

“Whatever knowledge we may have, it is still imperfect,” said St. John Chrysostom when he was preaching about this passage. “Where God is concerned, we cannot even say just how wrong our perception of him is.” He warns them, “More than anyone else, the arrogant injure themselves.”

Weight Watchers and Fairy Tales

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The Viewmaster depiction of Hansel and Gretel, the witch, and her gingerbread house were among my favorite childhood illustrations of one of my favorite fairy tales.

The Viewmaster depiction of Hansel and Gretel, the witch, and her gingerbread house were among my favorite childhood illustrations of one of my favorite fairy tales.

I started the Weight Watchers program in late November because I refuse to buy new clothes — everything I own was getting too snug! I had always refused to dignify weight loss efforts in the past by going to Weight Watchers but this time I finally capitulated. It couldn’t hurt to give it a shot, right? So far, I have lost about 25% of my excess weight on the Weight Watchers program and aim to keep losing more until I reach my “goal” weight — and all my clothes fit properly again.

The “fat and jolly old elf” of A Visit From St. Nicholas is a kindly old gentleman who is well-disposed toward others. But he is the exception.Overweight people appear in fairy tales but the image of “overweight,” often tied to “jolly,” is not always so innocent. Overweight people, in the world that give rise to fairy tales, were often wealthy and their weight indicated just how wealthy — and lazy? they had too many servants as well as too much food — they were.

But sometimes being overweight as a code word for “greedy.” The giants in fairy tales (such Jack and the Beanstalk or Jack the Giant-killer, etc.) were also greedy and lazy as well as large and heavy.

Hansel and Gretel wanted to eat the witch’s house and were rewarded for their efforts by her attempts to eat them! Hansel hid his obesity from the witch by using an old, dry chicken(?) bone he found at the bottom of his cage rather than his own finger when she wanted to check his growing weight.

Hansel and Gretel were not the only ones to discover the dangers of eating the food of a witch. Folk tales from all over the world warn that eating the food of a witch, a demon, a djinn, a troll, an ogre, or the faeries can be a dangerous proposition. You might owe your youngest child in return, or be bound to your host for the rest of your life.

Hopefully, the Weight Watchers program will save me from all these possible fates. Fingers crossed — but all bets are off if I find a gingerbread house in Central Park!