This loanword from Latin appears in 1 Corinthians 10:25, where Paul addresses the question of eating meat that may have been sacrificed to idols. A macellum was a Roman-style covered market where various foods, especially meat, were sold. Paul's instruction is practical: believers should buy and eat whatever is sold in the public market without raising questions of conscience about its pagan associations. The term's Latin origin reflects the commercial realities of Greco-Roman urban life, where such markets were standard features of city infrastructure.