<p>10:8 <em>Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed- </em>The fornication in view here isn&rsquo;t going too far with one&rsquo;s unmarried partner, but the fornication associated with idol worship; indeed, this is the context of most of the NT warnings against &ldquo;fornication&rdquo;, and the implication is that fornication was practiced at the breaking of bread, and taught by &ldquo;Jezebel&rdquo;, because that service had been mixed with idol worship. Hence Paul has to make the point that feasting and drunkenness shouldn&rsquo;t be practiced at the memorial meeting- clearly they had turned it into the kind of feast which accompanied idol worship.</p><p>The reference is apparently to the worship of Baal Peor and sleeping with the Moabite religious prostitutes (although see later on this verse). We note that Israel were led into that sin by their leaders (Num. 25:4), and perhaps that was the same in the Corinthian church.</p><p><em>And so in one day twenty three thousand died- </em>Num. 25:9 gives a figure of 24,000. Perhaps the key to understanding the difference is the phrase &quot;in one day&quot;. Num. 25:9 says that 24,000 died as a result of a plague sent to punish them- but it is not recorded how quickly they died from the plague. We can assume that a &quot;plague&quot; took some time period to kill them. But Num. 25:4,5 records that immediately, that day, the judges of Israel were commanded to kill by the sword those who had committed the fornication, and Phinehas arose in response. Those deaths by the sword were different to those from the plague- perhaps 23,000 died that day from these executions, and then 24,000 died from the plague subsequently. Another option is to note that there were 23,000 Levites (Num. 26:62). If each Levite killed a man (which Num. 25:5 &quot;Let every one kill his man&quot; might imply, cp. Ex. 32:27), this would mean 23,000 died in that one day, and if 1,000 died subsequently from the plague, we then have the 24,000 of Num. 25:9. Or it may be that 1 Cor. 10:8 is actually continuing to refer to the golden calf incident mentioned in :7; for Ex. 32:28 LXX says that 23,000 died at that time. The Masoretic text says 3,000. This possibility is strengthened by the fact that Ex. 32:28 specifically states that this slaughter happened in one day.</p>