1 Cor 3:16:
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16
Οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ναὸς Θεοῦ ἐστε καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν
Not {you (pl) know} that temple {of God} {you are} and the Spirit {of the} God lives in {you plural}
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
1 Corinthians 6:19
ἢ οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι τὸ σῶμα ὑμῶν ναὸς τοῦ ἐν ὑμῖν Αγίου Πνεύματός ἐστιν οὗ ἔχετε ἀπὸ Θεοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἐστὲ ἑαυτῶν;
or not {you (pl) know} that the body {of you plural} temple {of the} in {you plural} Holy Spirit is which given by God {and/even} not {is / exist} {of yourselves}
I will leave you to look at the verses above and study them to see what you can make of them.
Have you done that?
- You are the temple of the Spirit.
- You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
- The living in you Holy Spirit.
- In His temple that He dwells in. Wow.
You are that temple. Yes that is right – YOU. Ah but which you? English is a good language but like all languages it has it short comings. One of them is the fact that English has no way of separating “we inclusive” from “ we exclusive” . When I say “we” does that include you or not? Another more fundamental short coming is that the second person pronoun “you” does not have a separate form for singular or plural. Most other languages distinguish between them. But English doesn’t. You already know from reading Bible Gem 330 that the you involved in 1 Cor 3:16 is plural. Well would it surprise you to know that same is true for 1 Cor 6:19. In both cases the “you” is plural. That is odd, don’t you think? Why would the “you” be plural in 1 Cor 6:19?
We know Paul is referring the whole body in 3:16. He is making the point related to their squabbles and favouritism of one person over another. He is addressing issue of the unity of the body and oneness in Christ. It makes perfect sense that he would say YOU PLURAL are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Don’t ruin it with your partisanship. But why would the YOU of 6:19 be plural too? How can you be plural when he is talking about someone uniting themselves to a prostitute? All those in the church, the body of Christ, don’t lie with the temple prostitute. Only one person. Why would Paul repeat again the PLURAL YOU?
Take time to think about it. Tell me your thoughts. I want to see how many of you this is touching and sparking you to think. If I get no response I will probably stop doing Gems. This really is deep stuff. Put your brain in gear and engage it. it might be a pleasant experience. Apart from anything else the practice will give it some exercise. I will share your thoughts with the other gemmers and of course add my own in the next Gem. The main reason I am doing Gems is to help people get deeper into the Bible.
I aspire to inspire you before I expire.
Loved the wedding, invite me to the marriage. God
Mediocrity is the willingness to accept the ordinary, because of an unwillingness to press for the extraordinary. Robb Thompson
“Good enough” is NEVER good enough. Ian