Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin
Commentary on the Corinthians
I have no doubt that he intended to make an allusion to the similitude of the sign. There is, however, no correspondence between drinking and baptism. Now, though the cup forms but the half of the Supper, there is no difficulty arising from that, for it is a common thing in Scripture to speak of the sacraments by synecdoche. 752 Thus he mentioned above in the tenth chapter (1 Corinthians 10:17) simply the bread, making no mention of the cup. The meaning, therefore, will be this — that participation in the cup has an eye to this — that we drink, all of us, of the same cup. For in that ordinance we drink of the life-giving blood of Christ, that we may have life in common with him — which we truly have, when he lives in us by his Spirit. He teaches, therefore, that believers, so soon as they are initiated by the baptism of Christ, are already imbued with a desire of cultivating mutual unity, 753 and then afterwards, when they receive the sacred Supper, they are again conducted by degrees to the same unity, as they are all refreshed at the same time with the same drink.
1 Corinthians 12:14-27
1 Corinthians 12:14-27 14. For the body is not one member, but many. 14. Etenim corpus non est unum membrum, sed multa. 15. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
15. Si dixerit pes: Quoniam non sum manus, non sum ex corpore: an propterea non est ex corpore?
16. And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
16. Et si dixerit auris: Quia non sum oculus, non sum ex corpore: an propterea non est ex corpore?
17. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
17. Si toturn corpus oculus, ubi auditus? si totum auditus, ubi olfactus? 18. But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
18. Nunc vero Deus posuit merebra, unumquodque ipsorum in corpore prout voluit.
19. And if they were all one member, where were the body? 19. Quodsi essent omnia unum membrum, ubi corpus? 20. But now are they many members, yet but one body.
752A figure of speech, by which a part is put for the whole. See Quinctilian. (lnst. 8. 6, 19.) 753"Si tost qu'ils sont amenez a Christ par le baptesme, desia leur est donne un goust de l'affection qu'ils doyuent auoir d'entretenir entr'eux unite et conionction naturelie;" — "So soon as they are brought to Christ by baptism, there is already given to them some taste of the disposition which they ought to have, to maintain among themselves a natural unity and connection."