1 Corinthians 12: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul turns to the subject of spiritual gifts. He says the Spirit gives many different gifts to different people, but it is the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God at work in all of them, and each gift is given for the good of everyone. He then compares the church to a human body: many parts, one body, with no part able to tell another part it is not needed and no part able to opt out. He lists roles God has placed in the church, asks a series of questions showing that no one has every gift, and points ahead to a better way still.

Claim by Claim

1. 12:1
   • Paul addresses the recipients as brethren.
   • Paul says he does not want them to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts.
2. 12:2
   • Paul says they know that they were once Gentiles.
   • Paul says they were carried away to dumb idols.
   • Paul says the idols are dumb, unable to speak.
   • Paul says they were led as they were carried away.
3. 12:3
   • Paul says he gives them to understand what follows.
   • No one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed.
   • No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Ghost.
4. 12:4
   • There are varieties of gifts.
   • The Spirit is the same.
5. 12:5
   • There are differences of ministries.
   • The Lord is the same.
6. 12:6
   • There are varieties of workings.
   • It is the same God who works all things in all.
7. 12:7
   • The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person.
   • The manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit.
8. 12:8
   • To one is given the word of wisdom by the Spirit.
   • To another is given the word of knowledge by the same Spirit.
9. 12:9
   • To another is given faith by the same Spirit.
   • To another are given gifts of healing by the same Spirit.
10. 12:10
    • To another is given the working of miracles.
    • To another is given prophecy.
    • To another is given the discerning of spirits.
    • To another are given various kinds of tongues.
    • To another is given the interpretation of tongues.
11. 12:11
    • One and the same Spirit works all these things.
    • The Spirit distributes to each person individually.
    • The Spirit distributes as the Spirit wills.
12. 12:12
    • The body is one.
    • The body has many members.
    • All the members of the one body, being many, are one body.
    • So also is Christ.
13. 12:13
    • By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.
    • This applies whether Jews or Greeks.
    • This applies whether slaves or free.
    • We have all been made to drink of one Spirit.
14. 12:14
    • The body is not one member.
    • The body is many members.
15. 12:15
    • Suppose the foot says that because it is not the hand, it is not of the body.
    • The foot is not therefore not of the body.
16. 12:16
    • Suppose the ear says that because it is not the eye, it is not of the body.
    • The ear is not therefore not of the body.
17. 12:17
    • If the whole body were an eye, there would be no hearing.
    • If the whole body were hearing, there would be no smelling.
18. 12:18
    • God has set the members in the body.
    • God set each one of the members.
    • God set them as it pleased him.
19. 12:19
    • If they were all one member, there would be no body.
20. 12:20
    • There are many members.
    • There is one body.
21. 12:21
    • The eye cannot say to the hand that it has no need of the hand.
    • The head cannot say to the feet that it has no need of them.
22. 12:22
    • The members of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary.
    • They are necessary much more than the others.
23. 12:23
    • We bestow more abundant honor on the members of the body we think to be less honorable.
    • Our unpresentable parts have more abundant comeliness.
24. 12:24
    • Our presentable parts have no need.
    • God has composed the body together.
    • God has given more abundant honor to the part that lacked.
25. 12:25
    • God did this so that there should be no division in the body.
    • God did this so that the members should have the same care for one another.
26. 12:26
    • If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
    • If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27. 12:27
    • You are the body of Christ.
    • You are members individually.
28. 12:28
    • God has set some in the church.
    • First, apostles.
    • Second, prophets.
    • Third, teachers.
    • After that, miracles.
    • Then gifts of healings.
    • Then helps.
    • Then governments.
    • Then various kinds of tongues.
29. 12:29
    • Not all are apostles.
    • Not all are prophets.
    • Not all are teachers.
    • Not all work miracles.
30. 12:30
    • Not all have gifts of healing.
    • Not all speak with tongues.
    • Not all interpret.
31. 12:31
    • Paul tells them to earnestly desire the greater gifts.
    • Paul says he shows them a more excellent way.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

12:1

The King James "spiritual gifts" translates a single Greek word (pneumatikon) that means "spiritual things" or possibly "spiritual people"; the word "gifts" is not in the Greek at this point. Paul introduces the actual word for gifts (charismata) in verse 4. "Brethren" is the ordinary Greek way of addressing a whole congregation, women included.

12:2

"Gentiles" translates a word meaning the nations, that is, everyone who is not Jewish; here it points to the readers' former life as pagans, before they joined this assembly. "Dumb" in 1611 English meant unable to speak and carried no suggestion of stupidity: the contrast is with a Spirit who speaks, in the next verse. The middle of the sentence, "carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led," is awkward in Greek as well, and translators differ on exactly what it describes.

12:3

"Accursed" renders anathema, a formal curse that hands a person or thing over to destruction; it was a public, legal-sounding word, not mere bad language. "Lord" renders kyrios, the word the Greek Old Testament uses in place of God's name, and also the everyday title given to a slave owner and to the Roman emperor. "Holy Ghost" is not a different being from the "Spirit of God" earlier in the verse: ghost in 1611 simply meant spirit, and both phrases translate the same Greek word.

12:4

"Diversities" means varieties, different kinds. "Gifts" here is charismata, built on the word for grace or favor: something handed over freely rather than earned or bought.

12:5

"Administrations" does not mean management or paperwork. The Greek word is diakoniai, acts of service or waiting on others; it is the root behind the English word deacon.

12:6

"Operations" translates a Greek word meaning activities, things being worked or brought about. "Worketh all in all" means works all of these things in all people.

12:7

"Manifestation" means a making visible: the Spirit becoming evident in a person where others can see it. "To profit withal" is 1611 English for "to profit with," that is, for the benefit of the group, not for the individual's own advantage.

12:8

"The word of wisdom" and "the word of knowledge" use logos, which here means a message or an utterance, something spoken aloud in the meeting, rather than a single word.

12:9

"Faith" appears here as one gift among several, given to some people and not to others, so the word is being used in a narrower sense than the basic trust Paul assumes all the Corinthian Christians already have.

12:10

"Discerning of spirits" means telling apart the sources behind inspired speech, judging which spirit is speaking. "Divers" is the older spelling of diverse, meaning various; it has nothing to do with diving. "Tongues" translates glossa, which means both the organ in the mouth and a language. Whether Paul has in mind actual human languages or unintelligible ecstatic speech is disputed, and the Greek word leaves both open; "interpretation" can likewise mean either translating or explaining.

12:11

"Severally" means separately, to each person individually. "As he will" means as he chooses, the decision resting with the Spirit rather than with the recipient.

12:12

"Members" throughout this chapter means limbs and organs, the parts of a physical body. It has nothing to do with membership in a club or an organization. The comparison of a community to a human body was a stock image in Greek and Roman political speech, usually used to tell the lower ranks to stay in their place; Paul turns it in the opposite direction in verses 22 to 25.

12:13

The Greek verb behind "baptized" means to dip or immerse. "Gentiles" here translates a different word from the one in verse 2: it is Hellenes, Greeks, and "Jews or Greeks" was a standard shorthand for everybody. "Bond" means enslaved, the opposite of free. "Made to drink into one Spirit" is a strained rendering of a Greek phrase meaning we were all given one Spirit to drink, or possibly all watered with one Spirit, as a field is irrigated.

12:17

"Where were the hearing" is old English for "where would the hearing be." "Hearing" and "smelling" stand in for the ear and the nose, the body parts that do those jobs.

12:18

"As it hath pleased him" means as he decided, according to his own choice, not as it gave him pleasure.

12:21

The King James pronouns preserve a distinction the Greek has and modern English has lost. "I have no need of thee" to the hand is singular, addressed to one part; "I have no need of you" to the feet is plural, addressed to two.

12:22

"Feeble" means weaker, less robust. "Necessary" here carries the stronger sense of indispensable, the parts you cannot do without.

12:23

"Uncomely" and "comeliness" are about presentability, not ugliness: the uncomely parts are the ones kept covered in public, the genitals in particular. The "more abundant honour" bestowed on them is the clothing that hides them. Honor and shame in this culture were public matters of standing and display, so dressing a part was literally treating it with honor.

12:24

"Tempered the body together" uses a Greek word for blending or mixing ingredients into a single compound. "That part which lacked" means the part that was short on honor.

12:25

"Schism" translates schisma, which means a tear or a split, as in torn cloth. It is the same word Paul used at the start of this letter for the rival factions in the Corinthian assembly, so the body image is aimed at a specific quarrel, not offered as a general principle.

12:27

"Members in particular" means that each one of you is individually a part of it, rather than that you are parts in some partial or limited way.

12:28

"Apostles" means those sent out, envoys or delegates. "Prophets" in this setting means people who speak a message from God to the gathered assembly; predicting the future is only one possible form of that. "Helps" translates a word for acts of support or relief, the sort given to people in need. "Governments" translates a word taken from steering a ship, so it means piloting, guiding, keeping the group on course, not government in the political sense. Note also that the numbering stops after "thirdly": the remaining items are listed without rank.

12:29

In Greek these questions are phrased in the form that expects the answer no. The King James word order keeps the questions but loses that signal.

12:31

"Covet" in 1611 English simply meant to desire strongly, with no necessary suggestion of wrongdoing. Two ambiguities sit in this verse. The Greek verb form is identical for a command ("desire the greater gifts") and a statement ("you are desiring the greater gifts"), so readers have long disagreed about which Paul meant. And manuscripts differ between "greater" and "best." "Shew" is the old spelling of show; the "more excellent way" is what chapter 13 goes on to describe.