1-corinthians 12:2
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, even as you were led.
American King James Version (AKJV)
You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, even as you were led.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Ye know that when ye were Gentiles ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might led.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
You are conscious that when you were Gentiles, in whatever way you were guided, you went after images without voice or power.
Webster's Revision
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
World English Bible
You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Ye know that when ye were Gentiles ye were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might be led.
Definitions for 1-corinthians 12:2
Clarke's 1-corinthians 12:2 Bible Commentary
Ye were Gentiles - Previously to your conversion to the Christian faith; ye were heathens, carried away, not guided by reason or truth, but hurried by your passions into a senseless worship, the chief part of which was calculated only to excite and gratify animal propensities.
Dumb idols - Though often supplicated, could never return an answer; so that not only the image could not speak, but the god or demon pretended to be represented by it could not speak: a full proof that an idol was nothing in the world.
Barnes's 1-corinthians 12:2 Bible Commentary
Ye know ... - This verse is regarded by many as a parenthesis. But it is not necessary to suppose that it is so, or that it does not cohere with that which follows. The design seems to be to remind them of their former miserable condition as idolaters, in order to make them more sensible of their advantages as Christians, and that they might be led more highly to appreciate their present condition. Paul often refers Christians to their former condition, to excite in them gratitude for the mercies that God has conferred on them in the gospel; see the note at 1 Corinthians 6:11, compare Romans 6:17; Ephesians 2:11-12; Titus 3:3.
That ye were Gentiles - Heathen; worshippers of idols. The idea is, that they were pagans; that they had no knowledge of the true God, but were sunk in miserable superstition and idolatry.
Carried away - Led along; that is, deluded by your passions, deluded by your priests, deluded by your vain and splendid rites of worship. The whole system made an appeal to the senses, and "bore along" its votaries as if by a foreign and irresistible impulse. The word which is used ἀπαγόμενοι apagomenoi conveys properly the idea of being carried into bondage, or being led to punishment, and refers here doubtless to the strong means which had been used by crafty politicians and priests in their former state to delude and deceive them.
Unto these dumb idols - These idols which could not speak - an attribute which is often given to them, to show the folly of worshipping them; Psalm 115:5; Psalm 135:15; Habakkuk 2:18-19. The ancient priests and politicians deluded the people with the notion that oracles were uttered by the idols whom they worshipped, and thus they maintained the belief in their divinity. The idea of Patti here seems to be:
(1) That their idols never could have uttered the oracles which were ascribed to them, and consequently that they had been deluded.
(2) that these idols could never have endowed them with such spiritual privileges as they now had, and consequently that their present state was far preferable to their former condition.
Even as ye were led - Were led by the priests in the temples of the idols. They were under strong delusions and the arts of cunning and unprincipled people. The idea is, that they had been under a strong infatuation, and were entirely at the control of their spiritual leaders - a description remarkably applicable now to all forms of imposture in the world, No system of paganism consults the freedom and independence of the mind of man; but it is everywhere characterized as a system of "power," and not of "thought;" and all its arrangements are made to secure that power without an intelligent assent of the understanding and the heart.
Wesley's 1-corinthians 12:2 Bible Commentary
12:2 Ye were heathens - Therefore, whatever gifts ye have received, it is from the free grace of God. Carried away - By a blind credulity. After dumb idols - The blind to the dumb; idols of wood and stone, unable to speak themselves, and much more to open your mouths, as God has done. As ye were led - By the subtlety of your priests.