1 Corinthians 12:20

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
So there are many parts, but only one body.

Revised Standard Version
As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Now are ther many membres yet but one body.

Hebrew Names Version
But now they are many members, but one body.

International Standard Version
So there are many parts, but one body.

New American Standard Bible
But now there are many parts, but one body.

New Century Version
So then there are many parts, but only one body.

Update Bible Version
But now there are many members, but one body.

Webster's Bible Translation
But now [are they] many members, yet but one body.

English Standard Version
As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

World English Bible
But now they are many members, but one body.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Whereas now there are indeed many members, yet but one body.

Weymouth's New Testament
But, as a matter of fact, there are many parts and but one body.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But now ther ben many membris, but o bodi.

English Revised Version
But now they are many members, but one body.

Berean Standard Bible
As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Contemporary English Version
It takes many parts to make a single body.

Amplified Bible
But now [as things really are] there are many parts [different limbs and organs], but a single body.

American Standard Version
But now they are many members, but one body.

Bible in Basic English
But now they are all different parts, but one body.

Complete Jewish Bible
But as it is, there are indeed many parts, yet just one body.

Darby Translation
But now the members [are] many, and the body one.

Etheridge Translation
But now the members are many, but the body one.

Murdock Translation
But now they are many members, yet but one body.

King James Version (1611)
But now are they many members, yet but one body.

New Living Translation
Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.

New Life Bible
But now there are many parts, but one body.

New Revised Standard
As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

Geneva Bible (1587)
But now are there many members, yet but one body.

George Lamsa Translation
But now they are many members, yet but one body.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, however there are many members, yet one body;

Douay-Rheims Bible
But now there are many members indeed, yet one body.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Nowe are there many members, yet but one body.

Good News Translation
As it is, there are many parts but one body.

Christian Standard Bible®
As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

King James Version
But now are they many members, yet but one body.

Lexham English Bible
But now there are many members, but one body.

Literal Translation
But now, indeed, many are the members, but one body.

Young's Literal Translation
and now, indeed, [are] many members, and one body;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But now are the membres many, yet is the body but one.

Mace New Testament (1729)
thus, tho' there are many members, yet there is but one body.

New English Translation
So now there are many members, but one body.

New King James Version
But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

Simplified Cowboy Version
There are many different parts in the church, but only one body.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
But now there are many members, but one body.

Legacy Standard Bible
But now there are many members, but one body.

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

Reciprocal: Exodus 36:10 - General Exodus 36:13 - so it became Romans 12:5 - General Ephesians 4:4 - one body

Cross-References

Genesis 12:14
When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians took one look and saw that his wife was stunningly beautiful. Pharaoh's princes raved over her to Pharaoh. She was taken to live with Pharaoh.

Proverbs 21:1
Good leadership is a channel of water controlled by God ; he directs it to whatever ends he chooses.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But now are they many members,.... Of different make and shape, in different parts and places, and of different use and service:

yet but one body; all are united together, and make up one complete body, and which without each of them would not be perfect: so there are many members in the body of Christ, the church; some are teachers, others are hearers; some give, and others receive; but all make up but one church, of which Christ is the head; nor can anyone of them be spared; was anyone wanting, even the meanest, there would be a deficiency, and the church would not be the fulness of him that filleth all in all.