1 Corinthians 12:17

1Co 12:17. Εἰ ὅλον ἀκοὴ, if the whole were an ear) It is not said, and if, for the etc. is supplied at the end of the verse, or if the whole were smelling, where were the taste and the touch?

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_12:17 exposes the preposterous character of the preceding language.

ὀφθαλμός] sc[1995] ἦν, 1Co_12:19.

ὌΣΦΡΗΣΙς] Plato, Phaed. p. 111 B, the sense of smell.

[1995] c. scilicet.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 12:17 expostulates in the vein of 1Co 12:15 f. with those who exalt one order of gifts (either as possessing it themselves or envying it in their neighbours) to the contempt of others; the despised function is as needful as the admired to make up the body: “If all the body (were) eye, where the hearing? if all (were) hearing, where the smelling?” The senses are set in order of dignity; the ear wishes to be the eye (1Co 12:16 ), but then its indispensable service of hearing would be undischarged; so the nose might desire promotion to the rank of an ear, leaving the body impotent to smell . The discontent of the lower members and the scornfulness of the higher are alike signs of a selfish individualism, indifferent to the welfare of the body ecclesiastic. ἦν ( cf. 1Co 12:9 ) is understood here. Ἡ ὄσφρησις is “the sense of smell” not odor , but odoratus (Vg [1909] ).

[1909] Latin Vulgate Translation.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_12:17

If the whole body (were) an eye, where (were) the hearing? If the whole (were) hearing, where (were) the smelling?

The obvious meaning of this verse is, that the very existence of the body as an organization depends on the union of members endowed with different functions. And the application of this idea to the church is equally plain. It also requires to its existence a diversity of gifts and offices. If all were apostles where would be the church?

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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. Text via Bolls.life.

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.

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.

(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.

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

17. εἰ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα ὀφθαλμός. ‘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 mainspring or of one of the inferior parts.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17.] The necessity of the members to one another, and to the body. Understand ἧν in each clause, which is indeed expressed in ver. 19.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. εἰ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα. “If the whole body (Luk 11:34) were eye (Num 10:31), where were the hearing?’ Each member has a function which it alone can discharge, and no organ ought to think little of its own function, or covet that of another organ. * In class. Grk. ὄσφρησις is common, but it occurs nowhere else in the Bible.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 17. This verse is more easily connected in the second sense of the word τοῦτο. If, from the fact that the foot is not the hand, etc., it followed that it did not form part of the body, the admirable variety of the senses would be excluded, and the perfection of the human organism destroyed.

There now follows the counterpart: what Divine wisdom has done in answer to the senseless talk of the foot and the ear.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.