1 Corinthians 12:27

The figure of the body, developed from 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 with deliberation and completeness, is now applied in detail to the Church, where the same solidarity of manifold parts and powers obtains (1 Corinthians 12:4 ff.): “Now you are (ὑμεῖς δέ ἐστε) a body of (in relation to) Christ, and members severally” scarcely “ the body of Christ” specifically (El [1935]), as if P. might have written τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ (as in Ephesians 4:12, etc.); this has not yet become the recognised title of the Church (see note on 1 Corinthians 12:12 above); nor is the anarthrous σῶμα to be read distributively, as though the Cor [1936] Church were thought of as one amongst many σῶματα. P. is interpreting his parable: the Cor [1937] are, in their relation to Christ, what the body is to the man. Χριστοῦ is anarthrous by correlation (cf. note on Θεοῦ σοφίαν, 1 Corinthians 2:7). ἐκ μέρους signifies the partial by contrast, not as in 1 Corinthians 13:9 with the perfect, but with the whole (body) particulatim (Bz [1938]): ἐκ of the point of view “ from (and so according to) the part (allotted to each)”; see 1 Corinthians 12:11; cf. also μερίζομαι in 1 Corinthians 7:17, etc.; similarly, ἐκ μέτρου in John 3:34, ἐξ ἰσότητος in 2 Corinthians 8:13.

[1935] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[1936] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1937] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1938] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).