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Is eating meat sacrificed to idols permitted?

Contested

Texts of equal or higher authority genuinely pull both ways, and SAM names both sides.

The texts genuinely pull in opposite directions: Paul permits eating idol-meat bought in the market or served at a private meal (with conscience-based limits), while the risen Jesus in Revelation 2 rebukes the practice as something he holds against entire assemblies, and both are addressing the same Greek word for the same food.

Jesus' own words in Revelation 2:14 and 2:20 rebuke eating eidōlóthyta as a serious wrong, while Paul's own words in 1 Corinthians 10:25–27 permit eating it when bought in the market or served at a private meal, same word, same food, different verdicts from speakers at different authority levels, and the text does not state which context governs the other.

The unresolved tension: Whether Jesus' rebuke in Revelation 2:14 and 2:20 is limited to the cultic-meal context (which Paul also forbids) or extends to the market-purchase and private-dinner contexts Paul permits, the text does not state which scope applies.

Key texts:
1 Corinthians 8:1Tier 4 · Apostle
“Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
1 Corinthians 8:4Tier 4 · Apostle
“Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.”
1 Corinthians 8:7Tier 4 · Apostle
“However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of an idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.”

…and 17 more verses weighed in the full analysis.

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Original-language words behind this answer:
thýō (Greek G2380)árti (Greek G737)olígos (Greek G3641)oikodoméō (Greek G3618)sâʻîyr (Hebrew H8163)agapētós (Greek G27)Israḗl (Greek G2474)ekeî (Greek G1563)chuqqâh (Hebrew H2708)dôwr (Hebrew H1755)

SAM answers from primary-source texts only, weighing each verse by its authority tier. Every quotation is verified word-for-word. How the method works →

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