forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
commanding to abstain from meats: The second false doctrine to arise will likewise emerge from a false asceticism: "commanding to abstain from meats." The words "and commanding" do not appear in the original. Most of the writers (MacKnight and Vincent included) believe they are supplied correctly and that the figure is an ellipsis. However, there are some (Lenski and Kent, for example) who recognize the figure zeugma here. Lenski says, "in a zeugma the first term fits exactly but the second does not, although the sense is perfectly plain (622). Bullinger also lists this passage as a zeugma in Figures of Speech Used in the Bible (134). He defines the figure as a kind of ellipsis, saying, "This name is given to the figure because one verb is yoked on to two subjects while grammatically it strictly refers to only one of them" (131). The figure is used for emphasis. All the major English translations agree on the sense exactly as it is expressed in the King James Version.