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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 8:3 - 8:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The same is known of Him (οὗτος ἔγνωσται ὑπ' αὐτοῦ)
The same, i.e., this same man who loves God. He does not say knows God, but implies this in the larger truth, is known by God. Compare Gal 4:9; 1Jo 4:7, 1Jo 4:8, 1Jo 4:16; 2Ti 2:19. Γινώσκω in New-Testament Greek often denotes a personal relation between the knower and the known, so that the knowledge of an object implies the influence of that object upon the knower. So Joh 2:24, Joh 2:25; 1Co 2:8; 1Jo 4:8. In John the relation itself is expressed by the verb. Joh 17:3, Joh 17:25; 1Jo 5:20; 1Jo 4:6; 1Jo 2:3, 1Jo 2:4, 1Jo 2:5.
An idol is nothing in the world (οὐδὲν εἴδωλον ἐν κόσμῳ)
Rev., no idol is anything. An idol is a nonentity. The emphasis is on the nothingness of the idol, hence the emphatic position of οὐδὲν nothing. It is a mere stock or stone, having no real significance in heaven or on earth. One of the Old Testament names for heathen gods is elilim nothings. Idol (εἴδωλον) is primarily an image or likeness. In Greek writers it is sometimes used of the shades of the dead, or the fantasies of the mind. In the Old Testament, the number and variety of the words representing the objects of heathen worship, are a striking commentary upon the general prevalence of idolatry. Εἴδωλον image stands in the Septuagint for several of the different Hebrew terms for idols; as, elilim things of nought; gillulim things rolled about, as logs or masses of stone; chammanium sun-pillars, etc. Other words are also used to translate the same Hebrew terms, but in all cases the idea is that of the material object as shaped by mechanical processes, or as being in itself an object of terror, or a vain or abominable thing, a mere device of man.