1 Corinthians 12 | |
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Book | First Epistle to the Corinthians |
Category | Pauline epistles |
Christian Bible part | New Testament |
Order in the Christian part | 7 |
1 Corinthians 12 is the twelfth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle and Sosthenes in Ephesus. In this chapter, Paul writes about spiritual gifts and the unity of the members of Christ in one body.
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 31 verses.
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
— 1 Corinthians 12:12, New King James Version[1]
Paul refers to the image of unity in one body in several letters: Romans 12:4–5,[2] Ephesians 4:11–16[3] and Colossians 2:19.[4] There is a possibility that Paul was familiar with the fable of Menenius Agrippa (died 493 BC), who used the allegory of human body as a plea for civil unity.[5][6]
Scottish writer William Robertson Nicoll raises a concern that Paul's audience might suppose that "God's sovereign ordination" in making such appointments "supersedes man’s effort".[9]
The final verse in this chapter (verse 31) refers to "striv[ing] for the greater gifts", and "a still more excellent way",[10] the way of love, which Paul sets out in the next chapter. Nicoll sees the expression "but strive" (Greek: ζηλουτε δε, zēloute de) as Paul's counter to the idea that human effort has no part to play in Christian life.[9]