Book of Common Prayer

Meat offered to idols

8 Now when it comes to meat offered to idols, we know that “We all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs you up, but love builds you up! ² If anybody thinks they “know” something, they don’t yet “know” in the way they ought to know. ³ But if anybody loves God, they are “known”—by him.

⁴ So when it comes to food that has been offered to idols, we know that “idols are nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.” ⁵ Yes, indeed: there may be many so-called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many “gods” and many “lords.” ⁶ But for us

Respecting weak consciences

⁷ The problem is that not everybody has this “knowledge.” Some have been accustomed up to now to eating idol-food with the assumption that it really does belong to the idol. This has left them with a weak conscience, and now that conscience will be polluted. ⁸ But the food we eat won’t recommend us to God. We won’t be any worse off if we don’t eat, and we won’t be any better off if we do.

⁹ But you must take care in case this official right of yours becomes a danger to the weak. ¹⁰ Look at it like this: if someone with a weak conscience sees you, a person with “knowledge,” sitting down to eat in an idol-house, that conscience of theirs is likely to make up its mind actually to eat idol-food, isn’t it? ¹¹ And so, you see, the weak person—a brother or sister for whom the Messiah died!—is then destroyed by your “knowledge.” ¹² That means you’ll be sinning against your brother or sister, and attacking their weak conscience; and in doing this you’ll be sinning against the Messiah. ¹³ So, for this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to stumble, I will never ever eat meat, so that I won’t make my brother or sister trip up.

¹³ They cast out several demons; and they anointed many sick people with oil, and cured them.

The speculations of Herod

¹⁴ Jesus’ name became well known, and reached the ears of King Herod.

“It’s John the Baptist,” he said, “risen from the dead! That’s why these powers are at work in him.”

¹⁵ Other people said, “It’s Elijah!”

Others said, “He’s a prophet, like one of the old prophets.”

¹⁶ “No,” said Herod when he heard this. “It’s John. I cut off his head, and he’s been raised.”

Herod and John the Baptist

¹⁷ What had happened was this. Herod had married Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. ¹⁸ John regularly told Herod it wasn’t right for him to take his brother’s wife; so Herod gave the word, arrested him and tied him up in prison. ¹⁹ Herodias kept up a grudge against him and wanted to kill him, but couldn’t; ²⁰ Herod knew that John was a just and holy man, and he was afraid of him. So he protected him, and used to listen to him regularly. What he heard disturbed him greatly, and yet he enjoyed listening to him.

²¹ And then, one day, the moment came. There was a great party. It was Herod’s birthday, and he gave a feast for his leading retainers, militia officers, and the great and good of Galilee. ²² Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, and Herod and his guests were delighted.

“Tell me what you’d like,” said the king to the girl, “and I’ll give it you!”

²³ He swore to her, over and over again, “Whatever you ask me, I’ll give it you—right up to half my kingdom!”

²⁴ She went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”

“The head of John the Baptist,” she replied.

²⁵ So she went back at once to the king, all eager, and made her request: “I want you to give me, right now, on a dish—the head of John the Baptist!”

²⁶ The king was distraught. But his oaths on the one hand, and his guests on the other, meant he hadn’t the guts to refuse her. ²⁷ So he sent a jailer straight away with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, ²⁸ brought the head on a dish, and gave it to the girl. The girl gave it to her mother.

²⁹ When John’s followers heard about it, they came and took his body, and buried it in a tomb.