Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Tower of Babel

11 The whole world had one language with a common vocabulary. ² As people moved toward the east,^[a] they found a plain in Shinar [Babylonia] and settled there.

³ They said to one another, “Let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used bricks as stones and tar ^[b] as mortar.

⁴ Then they said, “Let’s build a city for ourselves and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves so that we won’t become scattered all over the face of the earth.”

⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the descendants of Adam were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “They are one people with one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do! Now nothing they plan to do will be too difficult for them. ⁷ Let us go down there and mix up their language so that they won’t understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them all over the face of the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ This is why it was named Babel, because there the Lord turned the language of the whole earth into babble. From that place the Lord scattered them all over the face of the earth.

¹² For example, the body is one unit and yet has many parts. As all the parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether we are Jewish or Greek, slave or free, God gave all of us one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴ As you know, the human body is not made up of only one part, but of many parts. ¹⁵ Suppose a foot says, “I’m not a hand, so I’m not part of the body!” Would that mean it’s no longer part of the body? ¹⁶ Or suppose an ear says, “I’m not an eye, so I’m not a part of the body!” Would that mean it’s no longer part of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell? ¹⁸ So God put each and every part of the body together as he wanted it. ¹⁹ How could it be a body if it only had one part? ²⁰ So there are many parts but one body.

²¹ An eye can’t say to a hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² The opposite is true. The parts of the body that we think are weaker are the ones we really need. ²³ The parts of the body that we think are less honorable are the ones we give special honor. So our unpresentable parts are made more presentable. ²⁴ However, our presentable parts don’t need this kind of treatment. God has put the body together and given special honor to the part that doesn’t have it. ²⁵ God’s purpose was that the body should not be divided but rather that all of its parts should feel the same concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts share its suffering. If one part is praised, all the others share in its happiness.

²⁷ You are Christ’s body and each of you is an individual part of it.