THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS - Chapter 12 - Verse 15
Verse 15. If the foot shall say, etc. The same figure and
illustration which Paul here uses occurs also in heathen writers. It
occurs in the apologue which was used by Menenius Agrippa, as related
by Livy, (lib. ii. cap. 32,) in which he attempted to repress a
rebellion which had been excited against the nobles and senators, as
useless and cumbersome to the state. Menenius, in order to show the
folly of this, represents the different members of the body as
conspiring against the stomach, as being inactive, and as refusing to
labour, and consuming everything. The consequence of the conspiracy
which the feet, and hands, and mouth entered into, was a universal
wasting away of the whole frame, for want of the nutriment which would
have been supplied from the stomach. Thus he argued it would be
by the conspiracy against the nobles, as being inactive, and as
consuming all things. The representation had the desired effect, and
quelled the rebellion. The same figure is used also by AEsop. The
idea here is, that as the foot and the ear could not pretend that they
were not parts of the body, and even not important, because they
were not the eye, etc., that is, were not more honourable parts of
the body, so no Christian, however humble his endowments, could
pretend that he was useless because he was not more highly gifted,
and did not occupy a more elevated rank.
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