Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Dispersion of the Nations at Babel

11 The whole earth^[a] had a common language and a common vocabulary.^{[b] 2} When the people^[c] moved eastward,^[d] they found a plain in Shinar^[e] and settled there. ³ Then they said to one another,^[f] “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”^[g] (They had brick instead of stone and tar^[h] instead of mortar.)^{[i] 4} Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens^[j] so that^[k] we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise^[l] we will be scattered^[m] across the face of the entire earth.”

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people^[n] had started^[o] building. ⁶ And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language^[p] they have begun to do this, then^[q] nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.^{[r] 7} Come, let’s go down and confuse^[s] their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”^[t]

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building^[u] the city. ⁹ That is why its name was called^[v] Babel^[w]—because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

Different Members in One Body

¹² For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves^[a] or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit. ¹⁴ For in fact the body is not a single member, but many. ¹⁵ If the foot says, “Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. ¹⁶ And if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, what part would do the hearing? If the whole were an ear, what part would exercise the sense of smell? ¹⁸ But as a matter of fact, God has placed each of the members in the body just as he decided. ¹⁹ If they were all the same member, where would the body be? ²⁰ So now there are many members, but one body. ²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor in turn can the head say to the foot, “I do not need you.” ²² On the contrary, those members that seem to be weaker are essential, ²³ and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members are clothed with dignity,^{[b] 24} but our presentable members do not need this. Instead, God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, ²⁵ so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, everyone suffers with it. If a^[c] member is honored, all rejoice with it.

²⁷ Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it.