Dictionaries :: Shambles

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Shambles:

sham'-b'-lz (makellon): A slaughter-house; then a butcher's stall, meat-market. The word is once used in the New Testament in 1Co 10:25.

King James Dictionary

Shambles: Meat Market.

Whatsoever is sold in the SHAMBLES, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. (1 Corinthians 10:25)

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Shambles:

a term of late Greek borrowed from the Latin macellum, denotes a "meat market," translated "shambles" in 1Cr 10:25. The word is found in the koine, or vernacular Greek covering the time of the NT, illustrating this passage (see Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 274). A plan, drawn by Lietzmann, of a forum in Pompeii, shows both the slaughter-house and the meat-shop next to the chapel of Caesar. Some of the meat which had been used for sacrifical purposes was afterwards sold in the markets. The Apostle enjoins upon the believer to enter into no enquiry, so as to avoid the troubling of conscience (contrast 1Cr 10:28).