1 Corinthians 12:12

King James Version

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
A person has only one body, but it has many parts. Yes, there are many parts, but all those parts are still just one body. Christ is like that too.

Revised Standard Version
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For as the body is one and hath many mebres and all the membres of one body though they be many yet are but one body: even so is Christ.

Hebrew Names Version
For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Messiah.

International Standard Version
For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, form one body, so it is with Christ.Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Galatians 3:16; Ephesians 4:4,16;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

New Century Version
A person's body is one thing, but it has many parts. Though there are many parts to a body, all those parts make only one body. Christ is like that also.

Update Bible Version
For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.

Webster's Bible Translation
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also [is] Christ.

English Standard Version
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

World English Bible
For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For as the body is one, and yet hath many members, but all the members of the body, many as they are, are one body, so is Christ.

Weymouth's New Testament
For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all its parts, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with the Church of Christ.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For as ther is o body, and hath many membris, and alle the membris of the bodi whanne tho ben manye, ben o bodi, so also Crist.

English Revised Version
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.

Berean Standard Bible
The body is a unit, though it is comprised of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ.

Contemporary English Version
The body of Christ has many different parts, just as any other body does.

Amplified Bible
For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts, though many, form [only] one body, so it is with Christ.

American Standard Version
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.

Bible in Basic English
For as the body is one, and has a number of parts, and all the parts make one body, so is Christ.

Complete Jewish Bible
For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah.

Darby Translation
For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also [is] the Christ.

Etheridge Translation
For, as the body is one, and in it are many members, but all the members of the body, though many, are one body; so also is the Meshiha.

Murdock Translation
For as the body is one, and in it are many members; and all those members of the body, though many, are one body; so also is the Messiah.

King James Version (1611)
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the membrs of that one body, being many, are one bodie: so also is Christ.

New Living Translation
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.

New Life Bible
Our own body has many parts. When all these many parts are put together, they are only one body. The body of Christ is like this.

New Revised Standard
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, which is one, though they be many, yet are but one body: euen so is Christ.

George Lamsa Translation
For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, even though many, are one body, so also is Christ.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, just as, the body, is one, and yet hath many members, but, all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so, also, the Christ; -

Douay-Rheims Bible
For as the body is one and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body: So also is Christ.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For as the body is one, & hath many members, and all the members of one body, though they be many, [yet] are [but] one body: euen so is Christe.

Good News Translation
Christ is like a single body, which has many parts; it is still one body, even though it is made up of different parts.

Christian Standard Bible®
For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ.

Lexham English Bible
For just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, although they are many, are one body, thus also Christ.

Literal Translation
Even as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Young's Literal Translation
For, even as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also [is] the Christ,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For as the body is one, and hath yet many membres, neuertheles all the membres of the body though they be many, are yet but one body: euen so Christ also.

Mace New Testament (1729)
For as the body is one, tho' it has many members, and all the members of that one body, tho' many, are one body: so also is the body of Christ.

THE MESSAGE
You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

New English Translation
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.

New King James Version
Ephesians 4:1-16">[xr] For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Your body is made up of a bunch of different parts that do different things. The same thing applies to the church, or what we like to call, "The Body of Christ."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Legacy Standard Bible
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Contextual Overview

¹² For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. ¹⁴ For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵ If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶ And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? ¹⁸ But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. ¹⁹ And if they were all one member, where were the body? ²⁰ But now are they many members, yet but one body. ²¹ And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

as: 1 Corinthians 10:17, Romans 12:4, Romans 12:5, Ephesians 1:23, Ephesians 4:4, Ephesians 4:12, Ephesians 4:15, Ephesians 4:16, Ephesians 5:23, Ephesians 5:30, Colossians 1:18, Colossians 1:24, Colossians 2:19, Colossians 3:15

so: 1 Corinthians 12:27, Galatians 3:16

Reciprocal: Exodus 12:46 - one house Exodus 26:3 - coupled together Exodus 35:35 - the cunning Exodus 40:33 - up the court Job 29:15 - eyes John 15:5 - vine John 17:11 - that John 17:21 - they all John 17:26 - and I Acts 4:32 - the multitude Acts 9:4 - why Acts 11:26 - were Acts 22:8 - whom 1 Corinthians 8:12 - ye sin against 1 Corinthians 11:11 - General 1 Corinthians 12:14 - General Galatians 3:28 - for Ephesians 1:3 - in Christ Ephesians 2:14 - both Ephesians 3:6 - the same Ephesians 4:3 - General Ephesians 4:25 - for Philippians 1:27 - in one

Cross-References

Genesis 12:8
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord , and called upon the name of the Lord .

Genesis 12:10
And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

Genesis 20:11
And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.

Genesis 26:7
And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

1 Samuel 27:1
And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.

Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

Matthew 10:28
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For as the body is one,.... That is, an human body; for of this the apostle speaks, and takes a simile, and forms a comparison from, showing the union among saints, and their mutual participation of the various gifts of the Spirit; for an human body is but one body, and not more.

And hath many members; as eyes, ears, hands, feet, c].

And all the members of that one body being many are one body as numerous as they may be, they all belong to, and make up but one body; performing different offices, for which they are naturally fitted for the good of the whole:

so also to Christ; not personal, but mystical; not the head alone, or the members by themselves, but head and members as constituting one body, the church. The church, in union with Christ, the head, is but one general assembly, and church of the firstborn written in heaven, though consisting of the various persons of God's elect, who are closely united one to another, and their head Christ; and therefore are denominated from him, and called by his name; see Romans 9:3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For as the body is one - The general sentiment which the apostle had been illustrating and enforcing was, that all the endowments which were possessed in the church were the work of the same Holy Spirit, and that they ought to be appropriately cherished and prized, as being all useful and valuable in their places. This sentiment he now illustrates 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 by a beautiful similitude taken from the mutual dependence of the various parts of the human body. The human body is one, and yet is composed of various members and parts that all unite harmoniously in one whole.

Being many - Or, although they are many; or while they are in some respects separate, and perform distinct and different functions, yet they all unite in one harmonious whole.

So also is Christ - The church is represented as the body of Christ 1 Corinthians 12:27, meaning that it is one, and that he sustains to it the relation of Head; compare Ephesians 1:22-23. As the “head” is the most important part of the body, it may be put for the whole body; and the name “Christ” here, the head of the church, is put for the whole body of which he is the head; and means here the Christian society, or the church. This figure, of a part for the whole, is one that is common in all languages; see the note at Romans 12:4-5.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 12:12. For as the body is one — Though the human body have many members, and though it be composed of a great variety of parts, yet it is but one entire system; every part and member being necessary to the integrity or completeness of the whole.

So also is Christ. — That is, So is the Church the body of Christ, being composed of the different officers already mentioned, and especially those enumerated, 1 Corinthians 12:28, apostles, prophets, teachers, &c. It cannot be supposed that Christ is composed of many members, &c., and therefore the term Church must be understood, unless we suppose, which is not improbable, that the term ο χριστος, Christ, is used to express the Church, or whole body of Christian believers.