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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 11:29 - 11:29
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Unworthily
Omit.
Damnation (κρῖμα)
See on Mar 16:16; see on Joh 9:39. This false and horrible rendering has destroyed the peace of more sincere and earnest souls than any other misread passage in the New Testament. It has kept hundreds from the Lord's table. Κρῖμα is a temporary judgment, and so is distinguished from κατάκριμα condemnation, from which this temporary judgment is intended to save the participant. The distinction appears in 1Co 11:32 (see note). The A.V. of the whole passage, 1Co 11:28-34, is marked by a confusion of the renderings of κρίνειν to judge and its compounds.
Not discerning (μὴ διακρίνων)
Rev., if he discern not, bringing out the conditional force of the negative particle. The verb primarily means to separate, and hence to make a distinction, discriminate. Rev., in margin, discriminating. Such also is the primary meaning of discern (discernere to part or separate), so that discerning implies a mental act of discriminating between different things. So Bacon: “Nothing more variable than voices, yet men can likewise discern these personally.” This sense has possibly become a little obscured in popular usage. From this the transition is easy and natural to the sense of doubting, disputing, judging, all of these involving the recognition of differences. The object of the discrimination here referred to, may, I think, be regarded as complex. After Paul's words (1Co 11:20, 1Co 11:22), about the degradation of the Lord's Supper, the discrimination between the Lord's body and common food may naturally be contemplated; but further, such discernment of the peculiar significance and sacredness of the Lord's body as shall make him shrink from profanation and shall stimulate him to penitence and faith.
The Lord's body
Omit Lord's and read the body. This adds force to discerning.