1 Corinthians 12:24

Tempered the body together (sunekerasen to swma). First aorist active indicative of sunkerannumi, to mix together, old word, but in N.T. only here and Hebrews 4:2 . Plato used this very word of the way God compounded (sunekerasato) the various elements of the body in creating soul and body. Paul rejects the idea of the later Gnostics that matter is evil and the physical organs degrading. He gives a noble picture of the body with its wonderful organs planned to be the temple of God's Spirit ( Hebrews 6:19 ) in opposition to the Epicurean sensualists in Corinth. To that part which lacked (twi usteroumenwi). It is a true instinct that gives superior honour to the unseen organs of life.