Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

11 (S: vii) The whole earth used the same language, the same words. ² It came about that as they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shin‘ar and lived there. ³ They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them in the fire.” So they had bricks for building-stone and clay for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city with a tower that has its top reaching up into heaven, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.”

⁵ Adonai came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ Adonai said, “Look, the people are united, they all have a single language, and see what they’re starting to do! At this rate, nothing they set out to accomplish will be impossible for them! ⁷ Come, let’s go down and confuse their language, so that they won’t understand each other’s speech.” ⁸ So from there Adonai scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ For this reason it is called Bavel [confusion] — because there Adonai confused the language of the whole earth, and from there Adonai scattered them all over the earth.

¹² For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah. ¹³ For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴ For indeed the body is not one part but many. ¹⁵ If the foot says, “I’m not a hand, so I’m not part of the body,” that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear says, “I’m not an eye, so I’m not part of the body,” that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If it were all hearing, how could it smell? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged each of the parts in the body exactly as he wanted them. ¹⁹ Now if they were all just one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ But as it is, there are indeed many parts, yet just one body. ²¹ So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you”; or the head to the feet, “I don’t need you.” ²² On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be less important turn out to be all the more necessary; ²³ and upon body parts which we consider less dignified we bestow greater dignity; and the parts that aren’t attractive are the ones we make as attractive as we can, ²⁴ while our attractive parts have no need for such treatment. Indeed, God has put the body together in such a way that he gives greater dignity to the parts that lack it, ²⁵ So that there will be no disagreements within the body, but rather all the parts will be equally concerned for all the others. ²⁶ Thus if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; and if one part is honored, all the parts share its happiness.

²⁷ Now you together constitute the body of the Messiah, and individually you are parts of it.