1 CORINTHIANS 6:13 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.”
Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both. — Another probable Corinthian slogan treating the body as morally neutral, comparing eating to bodily function destined for destruction. Paul grants the validity for food specifically but then pivots radically: The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. The body is not merely biological substrate but member of Christ's eschatological people. This reframes embodied existence: bodies matter eternally because they belong to the Lord himself.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 6:13
“Meats for the belly.” By “the belly” here he means not the stomach, but the stomach's voraciousness. As when he says, Philippians 3:19 “Whose God is their belly:” not speaking about that part of the body, but about greediness. To prove that so it is, hear what follows: “And the belly for meats; but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord.” And yet “the belly” also is of “the body.” But he puts down two pairs of things, “meats” and gluttony, (which he terms “the…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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