Greek word · G3111
μάκελλον
makellon
meat market
A food market or provisions hall, especially for meat and fish. It is Latin macellum borrowed into Greek. A macellum was usually a purpose-built courtyard building with stalls around it, sometimes with a fountain or a small shrine in the middle.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
μάκελλον, -ου, τό (Lat. macellum),
a meat-market: 1 Corinthians 10:25 (see Deiss., LAE, 274; MM, xvi).†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of 1 Corinthians 10:25
- Range of meaning
A food market or provisions hall, especially for meat and fish. It is Latin macellum borrowed into Greek. A macellum was usually a purpose-built courtyard building with stalls around it, sometimes with a fountain or a small shrine in the middle. It was run by market officials and sold fresh meat, fish and other foods, often the more expensive ones.
- Against the English
"Meat market" (BSB, NIV, ESV, YLT) is close but a bit narrow. "Butcher shop" (WEB) makes it sound like one small shop instead of a civic market complex. KJV "shambles" was accurate in 1611 (a row of meat stalls) but means something quite different to modern readers.
- How it drifted
No drift in the Greek. The English renderings have aged: "shambles" went from "meat stalls" to "slaughterhouse" and then to "a scene of chaos".
- Used elsewhere in the period
Rare in Greek and plainly a borrowing from Latin; this is its only New Testament use. Fitting for Corinth, which was refounded as a Roman colony in 44 BC and used Latin for its official inscriptions. A Latin inscription from Corinth naming the city's macellum was published by H. J. Cadbury (JBL 1934). Well-preserved macella survive at Pompeii and Puteoli. Pliny the Younger (Letters 10.96, about AD 112) reports that once Christianity was suppressed in Bithynia, the "flesh of sacrificial victims" was again finding buyers, which shows sacrificed meat really did reach the retail market.
Where it appears
1 Corinthians · 1
-
1 Corinthians 10:25 μακέλλῳ the meat market
Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,
Here: A Latin loanword (macellum): the city's covered food market, where butchers and fishmongers sold meat, fish and other provisions. In Roman Corinth this was an actual building near the forum.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.