Paul restates the question of verse 1 in a more specific form, probably following the Corinthian Christians’ own letter. He now discusses the act of eating meat offered to idols, rather than the question of meat offered to idols in general. Jews were strictly forbidden to eat such food, so the question is part of the wider issue of how far Christians should obey Jewish rules (see 7.18-19).

As to the eating can be expressed as “So then, I would like to speak about eating” or “So then, I would like to answer the question about eating.” Eating is here the act of eating (brosis; see introduction to this section), not the food itself, which is mentioned immediately after.

Food offered: see the comment on 8.1.

We know: the we probably refers to the same group as that in verse 1, namely Paul and his readers (see the comments above).

Has no real existence: care should be taken not to translate this part of verse 4 in such a way as to conflict with verse 5, where Paul admits that other spiritual powers exist. Bible en français courant‘s translation seems to be closer to the meaning than Good News Bible‘s: “we know that an idol represents nothing real in the world.” Revised English Bible makes explicit, by use of quotation marks, that the sentences “a false god has no real existence, and there is no god but one” are a saying used by the Corinthians or a saying that was current at Corinth. This may be correct.

The clause there is no God but one may be translated as “only one true God exists” or “there is no other god beside the real God.” This was, of course, fundamental to Jewish faith; see Deut 6.4.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .