129 Livy, History 2.32.9-12.
129Livy, History 2.32.9-12.
130The analogy of the body was also applied by the Stoics to the state, in which each citizen had his part to play as has each member of a body. According to W. L. Knox (St. Paul and the Church of the Gentiles, p. 161), the political developments of the Hellenistic age modified the form of this analogy so that the emphasis was transferred from the mutual duties of the members to the superior importance of the head: “it is likely enough that the transition was accomplished in Alexandria in favour of the Ptolemies before it became a convenient method of flattering the Roman Emperors.” He derives Paul’s conception of the church as the body of Christ from this Stoic commonplace.
131Pope, Essay on Man, i.267-68.
132In 1 Cor. 6:15 the bodies of believers are said to be “members of Christ”; but the idea of the body corporate is not explicit there. Indeed, whoever “is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Cor. 6:17), not “one body” (but for the close association of “one spirit” and “one body” see 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:4).