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If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?
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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10
18th Century
Presbyterian
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…
If the whole body were an eye (ε ολον το σωμα οφθαλμος). The eye is the most wonderful organ and supremely useful ([Reference Numb…
19th Century
Anglican
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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Baptist
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…
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…
16th Century
Protestant
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…
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17th Century
Reformed Baptist
If the whole body were an eye And nothing else,
where were the hearing ? there…
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…
13th Century
Catholic
Having laid out the distinction among spiritual gifts, the Apostle now explains it using the analogy of a natural body. He first presents the analo…
