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Verse Takeaways
1
The Folly of Sameness
Paul uses a deliberately absurd image—a body that is just one giant eye—to show the foolishness of everyone in the church wanting the same role or gift. Commentators explain that such uniformity would lead to the 'immediate ruin' of the body. A church where everyone is a preacher would have no one to hear, making it completely non-functional.
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Book Overview
1 Corinthians
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Commentaries
9
Albert Barnes
On 1 Corinthians 12:17
18th Century
Theologian
If the whole body, etc. The idea in this verse is that all the parts of the body are useful in their proper place, and that it would be as…
AT Robertson
On 1 Corinthians 12:17
If the whole body were an eye (ε ολον το σωμα οφθαλμος). The eye is the most wonderful organ and supremely useful ([Reference Numb…
Charles Ellicott
On 1 Corinthians 12:17
19th Century
Bishop
If the whole body were an eye.—Here is shown how absurd it would be for the body to be merely one member, and in [Referen…
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Charles Spurgeon
On 1 Corinthians 12:16–17
19th Century
Preacher
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? If the whole body were an eye, where…
Expositor's Bible Commentary
On 1 Corinthians 12:17
Paul now emphasizes the necessity of having diversity in a body for it to operate as one. Each part (such as the eye or the ear) must be willing to…
John Calvin
On 1 Corinthians 12:17
16th Century
Theologian
If the whole body were an eye. He sets aside a foolish aiming at equality by showing its impossibility. "If all the members," he says, "de…
John Gill
On 1 Corinthians 12:17
17th Century
Pastor
If the whole body were an eye
And nothing else,
where were the hearing ?
there…
Matthew Henry
On 1 Corinthians 12:12–26
17th Century
Minister
Christ and His church form one body, as Head and members. Christians become members of this body by baptism. The outward rite is of divine institut…