The church as the body of Christ: the significance of the metaphor in 1 Cor 12:27 for the assessment of the New Testament teaching on the unity of the church

Abstract

Different metaphors depicting one or more facets of the church are used in the New Testament. An interpretation of the different metaphors will contribute to the assessment o f the New Testament teaching on the unity of the church. This chapter envisages to make such an interpretation of the metaphor “you are the body of Christ” in 1 Cor 12:27. This isolation of the metaphor, however, is by no means a reconstruction of the metaphor into a model; it is merely a delimitation to facilitate the interpretation.