If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?
Parallel Translations
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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?
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If all the body were an eye where were then the eare? If all were hearynge: where were the smellynge?
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If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smellling?
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to 1 Corinthians 12:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 139:13-16 For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well. My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.
- Psalms 94:9 He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear? He who formed the eye, won’t he see?
- Proverbs 20:12 The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them.
- 1 Corinthians 12:21 The eye can’t tell the hand, “I have no need for you,” or again the head to the feet, “I have no need for you.”
- 1 Corinthians 12:29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracle workers?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 17. If the whole body were an eye He…
17. If the whole body were an eye He sets aside a foolish aiming at equality, by showing the impossibility of it. “If all the members,” says he, “desire the honor that belongs to the eye, the consequence will be, that the whole body will perish; for it is impossible that the body should remain safe and sound, if the members have not different functions, and a mutual correspondence between them. Hence equality interferes with the welfare of the body, because it produces a confusion that entails present ruin. What madness, then, would it be, should one member, instead of giving way to another, conspire for its own ruin and that of the body!”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Again, speaking to them, he showeth them that if…
Again, speaking to them, he showeth them that if that should come to pass which they desire, to wit, that all should be equal one to another, there would follow a destruction of the whole body, yea, and of themselves: for it could not be a body, unless it were made of many members knit together, and divers one from another. And that no man might find fault with this division as unequal, he addeth that God himself hath coupled all these together. Therefore all must remain coupled together, that the body may remain in safety.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 17 If the whole body were an eye, where…
17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
Ver. 17. If the whole body, &c.] It is proper to God to be πανοφθαλμος, all eye; Sic spectat universos quasi singulos, sic singulos quasi solos.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain There are several actions to be performed by the…
There are several actions to be performed by the body of a man, either for the support and the upholding of it in life, or for the accommodation of it while it lives; seeing, hearing, and smelling (which are the three actions here mentioned) are not indeed necessary for the upholding of life, but they are highly useful for a man’s better being, and the accommodation of bodily life; therefore there is need of a variety of bodily members, organs or instruments of sight as well as of hearing, and organs of smelling as well as hearing; the wise God hath created no member of man’s body in vain, each one hath its use in order to the being or well-being of the body: so it is in the church of God, as the apostle, 1Co 12:27, argueth; but he goes yet further on, first, in his comparison of the natural and mystical body.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain If the whole body were an eye,.... And nothing…
If the whole body were an eye,.... And nothing else,
where were the hearing? there would be no ear, and so no sense of hearing: and if the whole were hearing: or only consisted of a member capable of the sense of hearing,
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where were the smelling? there would be no nose, the organ of smelling, and that sense would be wanting: thus if the church only consisted of ministers of the Gospel, of men of eminent light and knowledge, qualified for the preaching of the word to others, there would be no hearers; and on the other hand, if it only consisted of hearers, of such who only could hear the word to their own advantage, there would be none of a quick understanding, or of a quick smell to discern perverse things, to distinguish truth from error, to discern spirits, and direct the rest of the members to wholesome and savoury food, and preserve them from what would be hurtful and pernicious to them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain If the whole body ... - The idea in…
If the whole body ... - 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 absurd to require or expect that all the members of the church should have the same endowments, as it would be to attempt to make the body “all eye.” If all were the same; if all had the same endowments, important offices which are now secured by the other members would be unknown. All, therefore, are to be satisfied with their allotment; all are to be honored in their appropriate place.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Superior as the eye is, it would not do…
Superior as the eye is, it would not do if it were the sole member to the exclusion of the rest.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 17. Whole body—If all are clergy where are the…
17. Whole body—If all are clergy where are the laity? If all are captains where are the privates?
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 17. If the whole body were an eye, where…
17. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?] “Observe here the difference between the Christian doctrine of unity and equality, and the world’s idea of levelling all to one standard. The intention of God with respect to the body is not that the rude hand should have the delicacy of the eye, or the foot have the power of the brain.”—Robertson. “To desire such an equality as this,” says Calvin, “would produce a confusion which would bring about immediate ruin.” The duty of each is to do his work in the place in which God has set him, with a proper consideration for the rights and the needs of his brother Christians who occupy other positions in the world. “If each man,” continues Robertson, “had the spirit of self-surrender, the spirit of the Cross, it would not matter to himself whether he were doing the work of the main-spring or of one of the inferior parts.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (17) If the whole body were an eye.—Here is…
(17) 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 1Co_12:19 is shown the converse absurdity of the members losing their individuality. There is a corporate body composed of divers members. That is the difference between a dead machine and a living organism.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain If the whole body were an eye, etc. In…
If the whole body were an eye, etc. In the body there is between the members an identity of common interest and a perfection of separate functions. All are not equal in strength and delicacy, but each is happy, and each is necessary to the well being of all. There could be no better image of the ideal relation of Christians to each other and to the Church.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain If the whole body were an eye, where were…
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.