εἰδωλόθυτος
eidōlothutos
sacrificed to idols
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Greek word εἰδωλόθυτος (eidōlothutos) refers to something that has been sacrificed to idols. This phrase is likely used to describe food or drink that has been offered to false gods and subsequently acquired by others. As a result, eating or consuming something εἰδωλόθυτος is a sensitive issue in the New Testament, reflecting concerns about the implications of idolatrous worship. The word εἰδωλόthytos appears 9 times in the Bible, most notably in passages in the New Testament that address dietary practices and community unity. In these contexts, the term often serves as a focal point for discussions about faith, morality, and the boundaries between Christians and non-Christians. The significance of εἰδωλόthytos lies in its association with the broader themes of idolatry, faithfulness, and inclusivity in the early Christian communities.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
9 total occurrences across the text
that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”
Acts 21:25But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from food offered to idols, from blood, from strangled things, and from sexual immorality.”
1 Corinthians 8:1Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
1 Corinthians 8:4Therefore 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 8:7However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
1 Corinthians 8:10For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols?
1 Corinthians 10:19What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
Revelation 2:14But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
Revelation 2:20But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.