A Troublesome Translation
The passage at issue is 1 Corinthians 11:20. The difficulty arises from the mistranslation of an infinitive. The KJV is quite accurate here: “For when ye come together therefore in one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.” The point of the verse is to reveal the problem in the Corinthian Church: the people were gathering together, well enough; but they were gathering together for the wrong reason. Instead of gathering together to eat the Body of the Savior and to drink His most precious Blood, they were having a good old time at the congregational potluck. Verse 21 shows the result of each doing his own thing there: one is hungry and another drunk. Paul seeks to call them back to the “better thing” (literal, vs. 17).
But most modern version simply lose this entire nuance and instead foster a most pernicious doctrine. Take the ESV as a case in point: “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat.” The NIV is substantially the same. (Of modern translations, I believe that only NKJV and NRSV get the correct meaning.)
What the ESV and NIV put forward is that the Corinthians’ ill behavior has the power to destroy the Supper. What they are eating is then NOT the Lord’s Supper because they are abusing this meal. But this is utter nonsense. It quite misses the point that it was the Supper that was most certainly being celebrated, even to the point that their misuse was sickening and killing them (vs. 30). The Lord’s Body and Blood were there whether they behaved rudely and cruelly to one another or not.
The Lord’s Body and Blood will indeed bring judgment to all who eat “without examining themselves.” In other words, it is incumbent on all the guests at the Lord’s table to ask: “Why am I coming here? What do I hope to receive?” For then one behaves with reverence toward the Eucharist, toward one’s fellow-guests, toward the Church of God.
The solution if you’ve got an ESV or an NIV is to cross the troublesome passage out and write the correction in the margin – that’s the old practice in the Church after all.
