What event is Paul referring to in 1 Corinthians 10:8?
Paul refers to the event around the golden calf, when Israel committed fornication or immorality and God's anger brought a plague and punishment. In 1 Corinthians 10:8 he cites the twenty-three thousand who fell in one day, connecting it to that same occasion of Israel's sin and divine judgment.
Les explains that Paul is referring back to the incident around the golden calf, when Israel's immorality provoked God's anger. God brought a plague, and the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: they went into the camp and put to death those they knew were guilty, so about three thousand men fell that day, not counting the women. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:8, says, 'Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day twenty-three thousand.' Les notes that scoffers seize on the difference between the three thousand and the twenty-three thousand, claiming the Bible contradicts itself, but he identifies Paul's reference as this very event around the golden calf and God's punishment of Israel.
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.