Every one taketh before other, &c.— This circumstance of their rapacious and indecent behaviour at their feasts is finely illustrated by a passage from Xenophon, Memorab. lib. 3 : 100: 41 in which he observes, that Socrates was much offended with the Athenians for their conduct at their common suppers, as some prepared delicately for themselves, while others were but slenderly provided for: he endeavoured to shame them out of this low taste, by offering his provisions to all the company. Socrates,theecclesiasticalhistorian,speaksofsomeEgyptianslivingnearAlexandria, who partook of the sacrament in a very particular manner, much, as it seems, after the Corinthianfashion;introducingit with a jovial feast, in which they regaled themselves with all kinds of food. It may be proper just to observe, that many well-disposed Christians being deterred from communicating at the Lord's supper, by passages in this chapter, particularly 1 Corinthians 11:27; 1 Corinthians 11:29 they have no need to fear the unworthy receiving so strongly condemned here by St. Paul; since the abuses which crept into the Corinthian church are such, as can never be admitted in ours, upon the present mode of receiving the sacrament.
Related Commentaries of 1 Corinthians 11:21
1 Corinthians 11:21
21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.