1 Corinthians 11:30

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
That is why many in your group are sick and weak, and many have died.

Revised Standard Version
That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For this cause many are weake and sicke amoge you and many slepe.

Hebrew Names Version
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

International Standard Version
That's why so many of you are weak and sick and a considerable number are dying.are falling asleep">[fn]

New American Standard Bible
For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number are asleep.

New Century Version
That is why many in your group are sick and weak, and some of you have died.

Update Bible Version
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

Webster's Bible Translation
For this cause many [are] weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

English Standard Version
That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

World English Bible
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For this cause many are sick and weak among you, and many sleep.

Weymouth's New Testament
That is why many among you are sickly and out of health, and why not a few die.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor among you many ben sijke and feble, and manye slepen.

English Revised Version
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

Berean Standard Bible
That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

Contemporary English Version
That's why many of you are sick and weak and why a lot of others have died.

Amplified Bible
That [careless and unworthy participation] is the reason why many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep [in death].

American Standard Version
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

Bible in Basic English
For this cause a number of you are feeble and ill, and a number are dead.

Complete Jewish Bible
This is why many among you are weak and sick, and some have died!

Darby Translation
On this account many among you [are] weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep.

Etheridge Translation
On this account many among you are sick and infirm, and many who sleep.

Murdock Translation
For this cause, many among you are diseased and sickly, and many sleep.

King James Version (1611)
For this cause many are weake and sickly among you, and many sleepe.

New Living Translation
That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.

New Life Bible
This is why some of you are sick and weak, and some have died.

New Revised Standard
For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For this cause many are weake, & sicke among you, and many sleepe.

George Lamsa Translation
This is the reason many are sick and ill among you, and many are dying.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For this cause, many among you are weak and sickly; and, not a few, are falling asleep.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you: and many sleep.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For this cause many are weake and sicke among you, and many slepe.

Good News Translation
That is why many of you are sick and weak, and several have died.

Christian Standard Bible®
This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep.

King James Version
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

Lexham English Bible
Because of this, many are weak and sick among you, and quite a few have died.

Literal Translation
For this reason many among you are weak and feeble, and many sleep.

Young's Literal Translation
Because of this, among you many [are] weak and sickly, and sleep do many;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore are there so many weake and sicke amoge you, and many slepe.

Mace New Testament (1729)
hence it is, that many are weak and sickly among you, and no small number now sleep in their graves.

New English Translation
That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead.

New King James Version
For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

Simplified Cowboy Version
That's why a lot of you are sickly and weak. Shoot, some have died because of their irreverence.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

Legacy Standard Bible
For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

Contextual Overview

²³Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord's Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, broken for you. Do this to remember me. After supper, he did the same thing with the cup: This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you. Each time you drink this cup, remember me. What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt. ²⁷Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of "remembrance" you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe. ²⁹If you give no thought (or worse, don't care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you're running the risk of serious consequences. That's why so many of you even now are listless and sick, and others have gone to an early grave. If we get this straight now, we won't have to be straightened out later on. Better to be confronted by the Master now than to face a fiery confrontation later. ³³So, my friends, when you come together to the Lord's Table, be reverent and courteous with one another. If you're so hungry that you can't wait to be served, go home and get a sandwich. But by no means risk turning this Meal into an eating and drinking binge or a family squabble. It is a spiritual meal—a love feast. The other things you asked about, I'll respond to in person when I make my next visit.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

many: 1 Corinthians 11:32, Exodus 15:26, Numbers 20:12, Numbers 20:24, Numbers 21:6-9, 2 Samuel 12:14-18, 1 Kings 13:21-24, Psalms 38:1-8, Psalms 78:30, Psalms 78:31, Psalms 89:31-34, Amos 3:2, Hebrews 12:5-11, Revelation 3:19

sleep: 1 Corinthians 15:51, Acts 13:36, 1 Thessalonians 4:14

Reciprocal: Exodus 19:22 - break 1 Samuel 4:18 - his neck 2 Samuel 6:7 - God smote 1 Kings 13:26 - the man 1 Chronicles 13:10 - there he died Job 33:23 - an interpreter Psalms 39:11 - When Proverbs 11:31 - General Ecclesiastes 5:17 - much Isaiah 38:13 - as a lion Haggai 1:9 - Because Matthew 27:52 - slept Mark 2:5 - sins Mark 5:39 - not dead Luke 7:21 - plagues Acts 7:60 - he fell 1 Corinthians 11:29 - damnation James 5:15 - if he

Cross-References

Genesis 11:1
At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.

Genesis 11:3
They said to one another, "Come, let's make bricks and fire them well." They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.

Genesis 11:12
When Arphaxad was thirty-five years old, he had Shelah. After Arphaxad had Shelah, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 25:21
Isaac prayed hard to God for his wife because she was barren. God answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant. But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, "If this is the way it's going to be, why go on living?" She went to God to find out what was going on. God told her, Two nations are in your womb, two peoples butting heads while still in your body. One people will overpower the other, and the older will serve the younger.

Genesis 29:31
When God realized that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. Leah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Reuben (Look-It's-a-Boy!). "This is a sign," she said, "that God has seen my misery; and a sign that now my husband will love me."

Judges 13:2
At that time there was a man named Manoah from Zorah from the tribe of Dan. His wife was barren and childless. The angel of God appeared to her and told her, "I know that you are barren and childless, but you're going to become pregnant and bear a son. But take much care: Drink no wine or beer; eat nothing ritually unclean. You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God's Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression."

Luke 1:36
"And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God." And Mary said, Yes, I see it all now: I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say. Then the angel left her.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For this cause many are weak and sickly,.... Because of their unworthy participation of the Lord's supper, many in the Corinthian church were attended with bodily infirmities and diseases; either by way of fatherly chastisement and correction in such who were truly the Lord's people, though they had behaved unworthily; or by way of punishment to such who were not, and had sinned very grossly:

and many sleep; that is, die a corporeal death, which is often in Scripture signified by sleep, and frequently used of the saints, and their death, and may intend and include some of them here; for though the Lord might resent so far their unworthy conduct and behaviour at his table, as to remove them out of this world by death, yet their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For this cause - On account of the improper manner of celebrating the Lord’s Supper; see 1 Corinthians 11:21.

Many are weak - (ἀσθενεῖς astheneis). Evidently referring to prevailing bodily sickness and disease. This is the natural and obvious interpretation of this passage. The sense clearly is, that God had sent among them bodily distempers as an expression of the divine displeasure and judgment for their improper mode of celebrating the Lord’s Supper. That it was not uncommon in those times for God in an extraordinary manner to punish people with calamity, sickness, or death for their sins is evident from the New Testament; see the 1 Corinthians 5:5 note; Acts 5:1-10; Acts 13:11 notes; 1 Timothy 1:20 note; and perhaps 1 John 5:16 note; and James 5:14-15 notes. It may possibly have been the case that the intemperance and gluttony which prevailed on these occasions was the direct cause of no small part of the bodily disease which prevailed, and which in some cases terminated in death.

And many sleep - Have died. The death of Christians in the Scriptures is commonly represented under the image of “sleep;” Dan, 1 Corinthians 12:2; John 11:11-12; 1 Corinthians 15:51; 1Th 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:10. Perhaps it may be implied by the use of this mild term here, instead of the harsher word “death,” that these were true Christians. This sentiment is in accordance with all that Paul states in regard to the church at Corinth. Notwithstanding all their irregularities, he does not deny that they were sincere Christians, and all his appeals and reasonings proceed on that supposition, though there was among them much ignorance and irregularity. God often visits his own people with trial; and though they are his children, yet this does not exempt them from affliction and discipline on account of their imperfections, errors, and sins. The “practical lesson” taught by this is, that Christians should serve God with purity; that they should avoid sin in every form; and that the commission of sin will expose them, as well as others, to the divine displeasure. The reason why this judgment was inflicted on the Corinthians was, that there might be a suitable impression made of the holy nature of that ordinance, and that Christians might be led to observe it in a proper manner. If it be asked whether God ever visits his people now with his displeasure for their improper manner of observing this ordinance, we may reply:

1. That we have no reason to suppose that he inflicts “bodily” diseases and corporeal punishments on account of it. But,
2. There is no reason to doubt that the improper observance of the Lord’s Supper, like the improper observance of any other religious duty, will be followed with the expression of God’s displeasure, and with a spiritual blightling on the soul. This may be evinced in the following modes:
1. In hardening the heart by an improper familiarity with the most sacred and solemn ordinances of religion.
2. Increased coldness and deadness in the service of God. If the ordinances of the gospel are not the means of making us better, they are the means of making us worse.
3. The loss of the favor of God, or of those pure, and spiritual, and elevated joys which we might have obtained by a proper observance of the ordinance.

There is no reason to doubt that God may make it the occasion of manifesting his displeasure. It may be followed by a lack of spiritual comfort and peace; by a loss of communion with God; and by a withholding of those comforts from the soul which might have been enjoyed, and which are imparted to those who observe it in a proper manner. The general principle is, that an improper discharge of any duty will expose us to his displeasure, and to the certain loss of all those favors which might have resulted from a proper discharge of the duty, and to the tokens of the divine displeasure. And this is as true of prayer, or of any other religious duty, as of an improper observance of the Lord’s Supper.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 30. For this cause — That they partook of this sacred ordinance without discerning the Lord's body; many are weak and sickly: it is hard to say whether these words refer to the consequences of their own intemperance or to some extraordinary disorders inflicted immediately by God himself. That there were disorders of the most reprehensible kind among these people at this sacred supper, the preceding verses sufficiently point out; and after such excesses, many might be weak and sickly among them, and many might sleep, i.e. die; for continual experience shows us that many fall victims to their own intemperance. How ever, acting as they did in this solemn and awful sacrament, they might have "provoked God to plague them with divers diseases and sundry kinds of death." Communion service.