Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 12:2

"Ye know that when ye were Gentiles [ye were] led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever ye might led." — 1 Corinthians 12:2 (ASV)

You know, etc. This verse is regarded by many as a parenthesis. But it is not necessary to suppose that it is so, or that it does not cohere with what follows. The design seems to be to remind them of their former miserable condition as idolaters, in order to make them more aware of their advantages as Christians, and that they might be led to appreciate their present condition more highly. Paul often refers Christians to their former condition to excite in them gratitude for the mercies that God has conferred on them in the gospel (see 1 Corinthians 6:11).

Compare Romans 6:17; Ephesians 2:11–12; Titus 3:3.

That you were Gentiles. Pagans; worshippers of idols. The idea is that they were pagans; that they had no knowledge of the true God but were sunk in miserable superstition and idolatry.

Carried away. Led along—that is, deluded by your passions, deluded by your priests, deluded by your vain and splendid rites of worship. The whole system appealed to the senses and bore along its votaries as if by a foreign and irresistible impulse. The word used (apagomenoi) properly conveys the idea of being carried into bondage or led to punishment; it doubtless refers here to the strong means crafty politicians and priests had used in their former state to delude and deceive them.

Unto these dumb idols. These idols, which could not speak—an attribute often given to them to show the folly of worshipping them (Psalms 115:5; Psalms 135:15; Habakkuk 2:18–19).

The ancient priests and politicians deluded the people with the notion that oracles were uttered by the idols whom they worshipped, and thus they maintained the belief in their divinity. The idea of Paul here seems to be:

1. That their idols never could have uttered the oracles ascribed to them, and consequently that they had been deluded.
2. That these idols could never have endowed them with the spiritual privileges they now possessed, and consequently that their present state was far preferable to their former condition.

Even as you were led. You were led by the priests in the temples of the idols. They were under strong delusions and the arts of cunning and unprincipled men. The idea is that they had been under a strong infatuation and were entirely at the control of their spiritual leaders—a description remarkably applicable now to all forms of imposture in the world. No system of paganism consults the freedom and independence of the human mind; instead, it is everywhere characterized as a system of power, not of thought. All its arrangements are made to secure that power without an intelligent assent of the understanding and the heart.