the Week of Proper 23 / Ordinary 28
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THE MESSAGE
1 Corinthians 12:2
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
You remember the lives you lived before you were believers. You let yourselves be influenced and led away to worship idols—things that have no life.
You know that when you were heathen, you were led astray to dumb idols, however you may have been moved.
Ye knowe that ye were gentyls and went youre wayes vnto domme ydoles even as ye were ledde.
You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.
You know that when you were Gentiles, you were enticed and led away to idols that couldn't even speak.Psalm 115:5; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 2:11-12; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; Titus 3:3; 1 Peter 4:3;">[xr]
You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.
You know the way you lived before you were believers. You let yourselves be influenced and led away to worship idols—things that could not speak.
You know that when you were Gentiles [you were] led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.
You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.
Ye know that when ye were heathens, ye were carried away after dumb idols, as ye were led.
You know that when you were heathens you went astray after dumb idols, wherever you happened to be led.
For ye witen, that whanne ye weren hethene men, hou ye weren led goynge to doumbe maumetis.
Ye know that when ye were Gentiles [ye were] led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might be led.
You know that when you were pagans, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
I want you to remember that before you became followers of the Lord, you were led in all the wrong ways by idols that cannot even talk.
You know that when you were pagans, you were led off after speechless idols; however you were led off [whether by impulse or habit].
Ye know that when ye were Gentiles ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might be led.
You are conscious that when you were Gentiles, in whatever way you were guided, you went after images without voice or power.
You know that when you were pagans, no matter how you felt you were being led, you were being led astray to idols, which can't speak at all.
Ye know that when ye were [of the] nations [ye were] led away to dumb idols, in whatever way ye might be led.
that you were Heathens, and unto idols which have no voice you were led without discernment .
that ye have been pagans; and have been, without distinction, led away after idols, in which there is no speech.
Yee know that yee were Gentiles, caryed away vnto these dumbe idoles, euen as ye were led.
You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols.
You know that before you were Christians you were led to worship false gods. None of these gods could speak.
You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, and were caried away vnto the dumme Idoles, as ye were led.
That once you were pagans, and without exception you were carried away by dumb idols.
Ye know that, when ye were of the nations, unto the dumb idols, howsoever ye were being led, ye were seduced.
You know that when you were heathens, you went to dumb idols, according as you were led.
Ye knowe yt ye were gentiles, and caryed away vnto dumbe idols, as ye were led.
You know that while you were still heathen, you were led astray in many ways to the worship of lifeless idols.
You know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led astray by mute idols.
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the speechless idols, however you were led.
You know that being led away, you nations were led to voiceless idols.
ye have known that ye were nations, unto the dumb idols -- as ye were led -- being carried away;
Ye knowe that ye were Heythe and wente youre wayes vnto dome Idols, eue as ye were led.
when you were Gentiles, you know how you were seduced by your leaders, to the worship of dumb idols.
You know that when you were pagans you were often led astray by speechless idols, however you were led.
You know that [fn] you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.
There was a time, before you were one of God's cowboys, that you followed your own desires and worshiped rocks and sticks and other people.
You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.
You know that when you were pagans, you were being led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
that: 1 Corinthians 6:11, Galatians 4:8, Ephesians 2:11, Ephesians 2:12, Ephesians 4:17, Ephesians 4:18, 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Titus 3:3, 1 Peter 4:3
dumb: Psalms 115:5, Psalms 115:7, Psalms 135:16, Habakkuk 2:18, Habakkuk 2:19
even: Matthew 15:14, 1 Peter 1:18
Reciprocal: 1 Kings 18:26 - no voice Psalms 68:13 - ye have Jeremiah 10:5 - speak Acts 19:26 - that they Romans 1:23 - an image Romans 10:19 - foolish Galatians 2:13 - carried Ephesians 4:14 - carried 2 Timothy 3:6 - led 1 John 2:22 - he that
Cross-References
So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound. Abram passed through the country as far as Shechem and the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites occupied the land.
He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God .
Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev.
Then a famine came to the land. Abram went down to Egypt to live; it was a hard famine. As he drew near to Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, "Look. We both know that you're a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you they're going to say, ‘Aha! That's his wife!' and kill me. But they'll let you live. Do me a favor: tell them you're my sister. Because of you, they'll welcome me and let me live."
When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians took one look and saw that his wife was stunningly beautiful. Pharaoh's princes raved over her to Pharaoh. She was taken to live with Pharaoh.
Because of her, Abram got along very well: he accumulated sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, men and women servants, and camels. But God hit Pharaoh hard because of Abram's wife Sarai; everybody in the palace got seriously sick.
Pharaoh called for Abram, "What's this that you've done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she's your wife? Why did you say, ‘She's my sister' so that I'd take her as my wife? Here's your wife back—take her and get out!"
Then he took him outside and said, "Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You're going to have a big family, Abram!"
And that's the story: When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.
God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation—a whole company of nations!— will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Ye know that ye were Gentiles,.... That is, by religion; hence the Syriac version renders it חנפא, "profane" persons, given up to wickedness, bigotry, and superstition; for by nation they were Gentiles still; and which must be understood of one part of this church only; for some of them were Jews, as is clear from many passages in the epistle to this church, and practices referred to. This the apostle observes to humble them, by putting them in mind of what they had been formerly; they were born and brought up in the Heathen religion, when they knew not the true God, much less had any knowledge of Christ, and still less of the Spirit of God; and therefore if they were favoured with any of his gifts, these must be owing to his grace, and not to their deserts, and therefore they ought not to glory: he adds, with the same view,
carried away unto these dumb idols; to idols that were nothing in the world, had no divinity in them, as he had before asserted; to dumb ones, that had mouths, but could not speak, the oracles that were delivered from them, being spoken not by them, but were either satanical delusions, or the jugglings of a priest; to these they were carried by the power of Satan, the influence of their priests, and the orders of their magistrates, to consult them as oracles, to pay their devotions to them, and do them service:
even as ye were led; that is, to these dumb idols; the Syriac adds,
דלא פורשן, "without any difference", not being able to distinguish between these and the true God; and to whom they were led as brute beasts were, that were sacrificed unto them, or as blind men are led by the blind, as they were by their blind and ignorant priests; and therefore, if they had now received the Spirit, and his gifts, they ought to ascribe the whole to the free grace of God, and be humble under a sense of their unworthiness.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Ye know ... - This verse is regarded by many as a parenthesis. But it is not necessary to suppose that it is so, or that it does not cohere with that which follows. The design seems to be to remind them of their former miserable condition as idolaters, in order to make them more sensible of their advantages as Christians, and that they might be led more highly to appreciate their present condition. Paul often refers Christians to their former condition, to excite in them gratitude for the mercies that God has conferred on them in the gospel; see the note at 1 Corinthians 6:11, compare Romans 6:17; Ephesians 2:11-12; Titus 3:3.
That ye were Gentiles - Heathen; worshippers of idols. The idea is, that they were pagans; that they had no knowledge of the true God, but were sunk in miserable superstition and idolatry.
Carried away - Led along; that is, deluded by your passions, deluded by your priests, deluded by your vain and splendid rites of worship. The whole system made an appeal to the senses, and “bore along” its votaries as if by a foreign and irresistible impulse. The word which is used ἀπαγόμενοι apagomenoi conveys properly the idea of being carried into bondage, or being led to punishment, and refers here doubtless to the strong means which had been used by crafty politicians and priests in their former state to delude and deceive them.
Unto these dumb idols - These idols which could not speak - an attribute which is often given to them, to show the folly of worshipping them; Psalms 115:5; Psalms 135:15; Habakkuk 2:18-19. The ancient priests and politicians deluded the people with the notion that oracles were uttered by the idols whom they worshipped, and thus they maintained the belief in their divinity. The idea of Patti here seems to be:
(1) That their idols never could have uttered the oracles which were ascribed to them, and consequently that they had been deluded.
(2) That these idols could never have endowed them with such spiritual privileges as they now had, and consequently that their present state was far preferable to their former condition.
Even as ye were led - Were led by the priests in the temples of the idols. They were under strong delusions and the arts of cunning and unprincipled people. The idea is, that they had been under a strong infatuation, and were entirely at the control of their spiritual leaders - a description remarkably applicable now to all forms of imposture in the world, No system of paganism consults the freedom and independence of the mind of man; but it is everywhere characterized as a system of “power,” and not of “thought;” and all its arrangements are made to secure that power without an intelligent assent of the understanding and the heart.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 1 Corinthians 12:2. Ye were Gentiles — Previously to your conversion to the Christian faith; ye were heathens, carried away, not guided by reason or truth, but hurried by your passions into a senseless worship, the chief part of which was calculated only to excite and gratify animal propensities.
Dumb idols — Though often supplicated, could never return an answer; so that not only the image could not speak, but the god or demon pretended to be represented by it could not speak: a full proof that an idol was nothing in the world.
