Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 12:17
If the whole body [were] an eye, where [were] the hearing? If the whole [were] hearing, where [were] the smelling?
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.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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 mans 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 mans 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. Superior as the eyeis, it would not do if it were the sole member to the exclusion ofthe rest.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
If the whole body were an eye ( ). The eye is the most wonderful organ and supremely useful (Nu 10:31), the very light of the body (Lu 11:34). And yet how grotesque it would be if there were nothing else but a great round rolling eye! A big “I” surely!
The smelling ( ). Old word from , to smell. Here alone in N.T.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “If the whole body were an eye.” (ei holon to soma ophthalmos) “If all the body (was) an eye.” The supposition, contrary to existing fact, is continued for emphasis of the evident absurdity one member of the body’s dissatisfaction with its own gift of function, or its covetous jealousy of another member’s bodily gift exemplifies.
2) “Where were the hearing?” (pou he akoe) If all of a body were eyes, “where (would) hearing be?” The body would be a blank, staring monstrosity, useless and abhorrent. What other member of the body might do the hearing? Wiser-than-God-one?
3) “If the whole body were hearing,” (ei holon akoe) ” If all (the body) was hearing, for hearing,” an ear, a sound receiver, a mere sound receptacle – If the body were made up of all ears, a grisly, grotesque, hideous, useless vessel it would be.
4) “Where were the smelling?” (pou he osphresis) “Where the smelling?” What member of the body would bear the sense of scent or smelling? The strength of the physical body is in the unity of diversity and the harmonious function of each member of the body’s fulfilling its own work. Even so diversities of spiritual charismatic gifts are distributed by the higher wisdom and will of the Holy Spirit to members of the church body, congregation, or assembly for service and mutual helping and to the church. See? Each member of the body helps to make the other more useful, Eph 4:25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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, (755) conspire for its own ruin and that of the body!”
(755) “ De s’accommoder et soumettre a l’un des autres membres;” — To accommodate itself, and submit to one of the other members.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Whole body If all are clergy where are the laity? If all are captains where are the privates?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Co 12:17. If the whole body were an eye. The Apostle by this intends probably to insinuate, that were there no other gifts in the church but those which they so much extolled in some of their teachers, it would be of very great disadvantage to the body. See Doddridge and Benson.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 12:17 exposes the preposterous character of the preceding language.
] sc [1995] , 1Co 12:19 .
] Plato, Phaed. p. 111 B, the sense of smell .
[1995] c. scilicet .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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 , all eye; Sic spectat universos quasi singulos, sic singulos quasi solos.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
17. ] The necessity of the members to one another , and to the body . Understand in each clause, which is indeed expressed in 1Co 12:19 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
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. ( cf. 1Co 12:9 ) is understood here. is “the sense of smell” not odor , but odoratus (Vg [1909] ).
[1909] Latin Vulgate Translation.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
If. App-118.
smelling. Greek. osphresis. Only here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
17.] The necessity of the members to one another, and to the body. Understand in each clause, which is indeed expressed in 1Co 12:19.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 12:17. , 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?
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 12:17
1Co 12:17
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?-[The very existence of the body as an organism depends on the union of the members of the body endowed with different functions, and it would be absurd to require or expect all the members to perform the same function; and the application to the church is equally plain. It, like the human body, requires a diversity of gifts and offices; all, therefore, are to be satisfied with their allotment; all are to be honored in their proper place.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
1Co 12:21, 1Co 12:29, 1Sa 9:9, Psa 94:9, Psa 139:13-16, Pro 20:12
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 12:17. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If … hearing, then where were the smelling? How preposterous then this rivalry between different gifts of the one Spirit, different functions of the one body of Christ!
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 17. This verse is more easily connected in the second sense of the word . 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.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
12:17 {11} If the whole body [were] an eye, where [were] the hearing? If the whole [were] hearing, where [were] the smelling?
(11) Again speaking to them, he shows them that if that should come to pass which they desire, that is, that all should be equal one to another, there would follow a destruction of the whole body, indeed and of themselves. For it could not be a body unless it were made of many members knit together, and different from one another. And that no man might find fault with this division as unequal, he adds that God himself has joined all these together. Therefore all must remain joined together, that the body may remain in safety.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Different functions as well as different members are necessary in the body (cf. 1Co 12:4). Paul’s point was not the inferiority of some members but the need for all members.