1 Corinthians 12:19

THE MESSAGE

But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

Parallel Translations

Revised Standard Version
If all were a single organ, where would the body be?

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
If they were all one member: where were the body?

Hebrew Names Version
If they were all one member, where would the body be?

International Standard Version
Now if they were all one part, where would the body be?

New American Standard Bible
If they were all one part, where would the body be?

Update Bible Version
And if there is only one member, where is the body?

Webster's Bible Translation
And if they were all one member, where [were] the body?

English Standard Version
If all were a single member, where would the body be?

World English Bible
If they were all one member, where would the body be?

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And if all were one member, where were the body?

Weymouth's New Testament
If they were all one part, where would the body be?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
That if alle weren o membre, where were the bodi?

English Revised Version
And if they were all one member, where were the body?

Berean Standard Bible
If they were all one part, where would the body be?

Contemporary English Version
A body isn't really a body, unless there is more than one part.

Amplified Bible
If they all were a single organ, where would [the rest of] the body be?

American Standard Version
And if they were all one member, where were the body?

Bible in Basic English
And if they were all one part, where would the body be?

Complete Jewish Bible
Now if they were all just one part, where would the body be?

Darby Translation
But if all were one member, where the body?

Etheridge Translation
But if all were one member, where would be the body ?

Murdock Translation
And if they were all one member, where would be the body?

King James Version (1611)
And if they were all one member, where were the body?

New Living Translation
How strange a body would be if it had only one part!

New Life Bible
If all the parts were the same, it could not be a body.

New Revised Standard
If all were a single member, where would the body be?

Geneva Bible (1587)
For if they were all one member, where were the body?

George Lamsa Translation
If they were all one member, where would the body be?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But, if they all had been one member, Where had been, the body?

Douay-Rheims Bible
And if they all were one member, where would be the body?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For yf they were all one member, where were the body?

Good News Translation
There would not be a body if it were all only one part!

Christian Standard Bible®
And if they were all the same part, where would the body be?

King James Version
And if they were all one member, where were the body?

Lexham English Bible
And if they all were one member, where would the body be?

Literal Translation
But if all was one member, where would the body be ?

Young's Literal Translation
and if all were one member, where the body?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Neuertheles yf all the mebres were one membre, where were then the body?

Mace New Testament (1729)
but if they were all one member, where would be the body?

New English Translation
If they were all the same member, where would the body be?

New King James Version
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

Simplified Cowboy Version
If your body wouldn't function with just one part, how do you expect the church to function with just one part?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
If they were all one member, where would the body be?

Legacy Standard Bible
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

Contextual Overview

¹²You 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. ¹⁴I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. ¹⁹But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? ²⁵The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Corinthians 12:14

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And if they were all one member,.... As all eye, or all ear, or all hand, or all foot:

where were the body? where would be the body? it would not be a body consisting of such proper and suitable members, as now it is: so if the community of the saints were either all ministers, or all hearers, c. there would be no body, consisting of different persons, to receive any benefit or usefulness from either the church of Christ would not be that uniform, useful, and consistent community it is.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And if all were one member - If there were nothing but an eye, an ear, or a limb, there would be no body The idea which this seems intended to illustrate is, that if there was not variety of talent and endowment in the church, the church could not itself exist. If, for example, there were nothing but apostles, or prophets, or teachers; if there were none but those who spoke with tongues or could interpret them, the church could not exist. A variety of talents and attainments in their proper places is as useful as are the various members of the human body.