Paul now illustrates the unity (12:12–13), diversity (12:14–20), and integrity (12:21–26) produced at the Spirit’s inspiration among those at Corinth who belong to the body of Christ. Though suggested by Jesus’s words on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4) and by its use in the Greek philosophical traditions of Stoicism (with which Paul shows passing familiarity elsewhere), this figure is used casually in the Pauline Letters (1 Cor. 6:15; 10:17; 11:29), with the exception of these verses.

Just as “the body is a unit though it is made up of many parts . . . so it is with Christ” (12:12). (The cult of Asclepius, the god of healing, and his daughter Hygeia was accorded a prominent place in Corinth, and those who sought healing for a part of the body would often leave a representation of it in t…