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1 Corinthians

About this book
Chapter 12

1 With regard to spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were often led astray by speechless idols, however you were led. 3 So I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. 7 To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all. 8 For one person is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, and another the message of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another performance of miracles, to another prophecy, and to another discernment of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things. 12 For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body,⁠ so too is Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not a single member, but many.⁠ 15 If the foot says, “Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. 16 And if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. 17 If the whole body were an eye, what part would do the hearing? If the whole were an ear, what part would exercise the sense of smell? 18 But as a matter of fact, God has placed each of the members in the body just as he decided. 19 If they were all the same member, where would the body be? 20 So now there are many members, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor in turn can the head say to the foot, “I do not need you.”⁠ 22 On the contrary, those members that seem to be weaker are essential, 23 and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members are clothed with dignity, 24 but our presentable members do not need this. Instead, God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another. 26 If one member suffers, everyone suffers with it. If a member is honored, all rejoice with it. 27 Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, gifts of healing, helps, gifts of leadership, different kinds of tongues. 29 Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all perform miracles, do they? 30 Not all have gifts of healing, do they? Not all speak in tongues, do they? Not all interpret, do they? 31 But you should be eager for the greater gifts. And now I will show you a way that is beyond comparison.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Corinthians 12:12 and Hierocles, On Fraternal Love

New Testament · Classical

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Summary

In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes the church as one body with many parts, each needed by the others. The Stoic philosopher calls brothers parts of each other like eyes and hands, sharing this common image of a group as one body.

Passages

1 Corinthians 12:12

New Testament
11 It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things. 12 For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

Hierocles, On Fraternal Love

Classical · On Brotherly Love
In our behavior, therefore, towards every man, and in a much greater degree towards a brother, we should imitate the reply of Socrates to one who said to him, "May I die unless I am revenged on you." For his answer was, "May I die, if I do not make you my friend." And thus much concerning these particulars. In the next place, a man should consider that after a manner his brothers are parts of him, just as my eyes are parts of me; and likewise my legs, my hands, and the remaining members of my body. For brothers have the same relation to a family considered as one thing [as the parts to the whole of the body]. As, therefore, the eyes and the hands, if each of them should receive a peculiar soul and intellect, would, by every possible contrivance, pay a guardian attention to the remaining parts of the body, on account of the beforementioned communion, because they could not perform their proper office well without the presence of the other members; thus also it is requisite that we who are men, and who acknowledge that we have a soul, should omit no offices which it becomes us to perform to our brothers. For again, brothers are more naturally adapted to assist each other, than are the parts of the body.
120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hierocles, On Fraternal Love

References

... In the case of brothers, thanks to their consanguinity, oikeiôsis is particularly evident: they are directly part of our own body, and, still more, of our self. In addition, the equal relationship that binds one to a brother makes ‘appropriation’ easier; in the case of other ties that are less equal and not so much between like partners, such as those cited by Hierocles in this passage, between parents and children or masters and slaves, the reciprocal exchange of identities is not so immediate. In Dissertation 15B Musonius too had extolled the bond of brotherhood, noting its beauty and usefulness: ‘What can one compare for beauty with the goodwill of a brother in regard to a brother? What more pleasing partner of one’s goods could one have than an upright brother? I believe that the most enviable man is he who lives among many likeminded brothers, and I consider that man most dear to God who derives his goods from his own home’ ...
Ilaria Ramelli, Hierocles the Stoic: Elements of Ethics, Fragments, and Excerpts, ed. Translated by David Konstan (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), 124.

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1 Corinthians 12:12 and Hierocles, On Fraternal Love

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