1st Corinthians Chapter 3 verse 2 Holy Bible
I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able `to bear it': nay, not even now are ye able;
read chapter 3 in ASV
I gave you milk and not meat, because you were, then, unable to take it, and even now you are not able;
read chapter 3 in BBE
I have given you milk to drink, not meat, for ye have not yet been able, nor indeed are ye yet able;
read chapter 3 in DARBY
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
read chapter 3 in KJV
read chapter 3 in WBT
I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren't yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready,
read chapter 3 in WEB
with milk I fed you, and not with meat, for ye were not yet able, but not even yet are ye now able,
read chapter 3 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - I fed you with milk. The metaphor is expanded in Hebrews 5:13, "Every one that partaketh of milk is without experience of the Word of righteousness; for he is a babe." The same metaphor is found in Philo; and the young pupils of the rabbis were called "sucklings" (תינוקות) and "little ones" (camp. Matthew 10:42). Not with meat; not with solid food, which is for full grown or spiritually perfect men (Hebrews 5:14). For hitherto; rather, for ye were not yet - when I preached to you - able to bear it. The same phrase is used by our Lord in John 16:12, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now;" and he taught them in parables, "as they were able to bear it" (Mark 4:33). Not even now are ye able. Though you imagine that you have advanced so far beyond my simpler teaching.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) Milk . . . meat.--The use of the word "infant" naturally suggests these two images for the higher wisdom and for the simpler truths of the gospel respectively.Hitherto ye were not able.--Better, for ye were not yet able. Up to this point the Apostle has been speaking of the condition in which he found the Corinthians when he came first to Corinth, and he proceeds from this to rebuke them for continuing in this condition. He does not blame them for having been "babes" at the outset, but he does in the following passage blame them for not having yet grown up out of infancy.(2, 3) Neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal.--Better, but not even now are ye able, for ye are still carnal. It is for this absence of growth--for their continuing up to this time in the same condition--that the Apostle reproaches them; and he shows that the fault which they find with him for not having given them more advanced teaching really lies at their own door.
