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About this book

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 12:21 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 37:5

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In 1 Clement, the author tells the Corinthians that the head is nothing without the feet, a comparison of the church to a body that Paul had made to the same church in 1 Corinthians, and sets it beside an army in which each rank obeys the one above.

Passages

1 Corinthians 12:21

New Testament
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.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 37:5

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
3 Not all are prefects, nor rulers of thousands, nor rulers of hundreds, nor rulers of fifties, and so on; but each man in his own rank carries out the orders given by the king and the governors. 4 The great cannot exist without the small, nor the small without the great. There is a certain blending in all things, and in this there is usefulness. 5 Let us take our body as an example. The head without the feet is nothing; and likewise the feet without the head are nothing: even the smallest parts of our body are necessary and useful for the whole body: but all the members work together and unite in subjection, so that the whole body may be saved.
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

References

“... Paul’s metaphor of the body is found in 1 Corinthians, Romans, and Ephesians. But the detailed correlation between 1 Clement and 1 Corinthians makes it very likely that in this instance Clement draws on the metaphor as it is developed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. As Lindemann observes, there is ‘eine erhebliche Wahrscheinlichkeit’ that we find here evidence of direct literary dependence on 1 Corinthians. ...”
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 146.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Corinthians 12:21 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 37:5

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