Commenting on 1 Cor 10:21 and Paul’s theology of the Eucharist (“Sacrament”), David Capes offered the following, which also touches upon Christology:
When Paul warns the Corinthians to avoid pagan easts, he alludes to an OT YHWH text in 1 Cor. 10:21 with the phrase “the table of the Lord [YHWH/kyrios].” The context of the passage is the unfortunate way the Corinthians are behaving in regard to “the Lord’s Supper” (10:16-17). The allusion comes from Mal. 1:7, 12, a passage in which the Lord condemns the priests or defiling the altar, that is, “the table of the LORD [YHWH/kyrios],” by sacrificing blind and crippled animals. The law is clear that only unblemished, healthy animals are acceptable to YHWH (e.g., Exod. 12:5; 29:1; Lev. 1:3, 10; 22:22). For similar reasons, Paul considers it unacceptable for the Corinthians to participate in pagan cultic rites, especially if they think they can remain immune to their influences.
Paul’s use of the phrase “the table of the Lord” within the context of the “Lord’s Supper” does not appear to reflect pagan cultic meals, for there is no evidence that pagans employed this sort of terminology in their religious feasts. They may have dedicated a meal to Lord Serapis or some other local deity, but they did not refer to the table as “Lord’s Serapis’s table.” So the phrase must have come down to him through Jewish tradition. Now this does not mean that Christ followers had a literal table they reclined around called “the table of the Lord” in their house churches. The phrase is metaphorical, signifying an act, not a piece of furniture. So “the table of the Lord” in Paul (= the Lord’s Supper) is associated with “the table of the Lord” in Malachi (= the altar in the temple) above all through the image of sacrifice. Paul’s interpretation of the Lord’s Supper appear to bear this out: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). The acts of eating “this bread” and drinking “this cup” are linked to the Lord’s death. Here, of course, “Lord” means Jesus, and the notion of sacrifice occupies the foreground of Paul’s rhetoric and theology of the Lord’s table (1 Cor. 10:20-21): “No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and table of demons.”
The sacrificial imagery in this passage is clear. Christ followers must not think that they cannot sit in the shadow of a pagan temple and eat food sacrificed to idols; to do so is to become a partner with demons. “The Lord’s table” is exclusive; it demands single-hearted devotion not unlike the altar (YHWH’s table) in the temple in Jerusalem. The Lord’s table is the unique place where believers participate in the body and blood of Christ and enact the gospel. That act is to continue as a regular feature of the church’s life until the parousia. (David B. Capes, The Divine Christ: Paul, The Lord Jesus, and the Scriptures of Israel [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2018], 138-39)
Further Reading
