And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul is saying that the person who is slightly inferior should not for that reason think that he is unnecessary to the body. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Note that Paul couples the foot with the hand, which is mounted a little above it, and the ear with the eye likewise. This is because we are prone to envy not those who are far above us but those who are only a little bit above.
For if the one being made inferior and the other superior, does not allow their being of the body, the whole is done away. Do not say therefore, I am not the body, because I am inferior. For the foot also has the inferior post, yet is it of the body: for the being or not being part of the body, is not from the one lying in this place and the other in that; (which is what constitutes difference of place;) but from the being conjoined or separated. For the being or not being a body, arises from the having been made one or not. But do thou, I pray, mark his considerate way, how he applies their words to our members. For as he said above, These things have I in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos, 1 Corinthians 4:6 just so likewise here, to make his argument free from invidiousness and acceptable, he introduces the members speaking: that when they shall hear nature answering them, being thus convicted by experience herself and by the general voice, they may have nothing further to o...
