Their Face, Our Heart, Your Body

by Oliver Watts
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 1, March 31, 1990

In the King James and American Standard Versions, "your" is always plural. It means belonging to more than one person spoken to. Unlike how we talk now, when "belonging to one person spoken to" was meant, the word "thy" was used.

This fact has caused some otherwise good Bible students, teachers, and preachers to fall into an error. These claim that "your," followed by the name of a single thing owned, means that what is owned belongs to "all of you" together. Hence, it is concluded that "your body" in I Corinthians 6:19 must mean the church rather than each Christian’s own body. That, too, even though I Corinthians 18 spoke of "a man" and "his own body."

In this, we shall show that in the Greek language (exactly as in English), an expression like "your body" was often used to indicate such a thought as "the body of each one of you." We quote from the 564-page Handbook to the Grammar of the Greek Testament, by Dr. Samuel G. Green. Page 202 has the heading, The Number of Nouns. Under this is the subtitle, "Chapter III, the Noun Substantive," followed by the topic, Number. This has six numbered sections, of which we quote one in its entirety.

Section 237:

Some words, like soma, body, kardia, heart, when predicated of several individuals, are occasionally employed in the singular. The plural, however, is more common. Thus we read, to soma humon and ta somata humon, your body or bodies: he kardia or hai kardaia auton, their heart or hearts.

The word prosopon, face, is always singular in such phrases as they fell upon their face, except in Revelation, vii. 11, xi. 16.

We needed to look up "predicate," a verb with an accent on the last syllable. It means simply "to affirm or declare."

In examining a complete concordance, one is surprised to find how frequently a plural possessive pronoun or noun is used with the singular of each of the three nouns Dr. Green gives. "Face" is one "predicated (declared) of several individuals."

Face

Matthew 17:6 states, "They fell on their faces." If we forget that we say the same thing and are going to be picky, we might ask, "Did all of them together have only one face?" We know it means "the face of each of them."

Luke 2:31 tells that God had prepared His salvation "before the face (singular) of all peoples (Plural)." Another plural possessive noun was used by Stephen (Acts 7:45) in speaking of "the nations that God thrust out before the face of our fathers."

Since we are dealing particularly with "your," we note two times when Paul wrote it to modify the singular "face." In I Thessalonians 3:10, he wrote, "praying that we may see your face." "Your" is plural, referring to the whole church. But the meaning clearly is "your face," or "the face of each one of you."

Heart

Mark 8:17 records that Jesus asked, "Have ye your heart yet hardened?" In Greek, the pronoun "your" and verb are plural. In King James English, both pronouns ("ye" and "your" are, too. But "heart" is singular in both. He said  in Luke 12:34, "There will your heart be also." If He had been addressing one person, it would have been translated, "There will thy heart be also." The same would have been true of John 14:1, "Let not your (plural) heart (singular) be troubled."

"Your heart" was said to be "filled with sorrow" (John 16:6), predicted as "shall rejoice" (John 16:22) mentioned in "making melody with your heart" (Ephesians 5:19), and "singleness of your heart" (Ephesians 6:5).

Two other plural possessive pronouns are used with the singular "heart." "If our heart condemn us" is in I John 3:20, and the same is true with "not" in I John 3:21. The same word pairing is also in I John 3:19, Luke 24:32, and II Corinthians 6:11.

"Their heart" occurs in two previously cited verses and fifteen other times in the New Testament.

Plural possessive nouns are also written as if each group collectively had only one heart. Some examples are "people’s heart" in Matthew 13:15 and Acts 28:27 and "heart of men" in Mark 7:21.

Body

Many times in the New Testament, "thy body" is found. Then, in several instances, a plural possessive pronoun is used with "body" to mean "the body of each" and every one of a group.

James 3:3 points out that with a bridle for horses, "we turn about their (plural) whole body (singular) also." Question: Did a group of horses share one body? Another such pronoun is "our" as in II Corinthians 4:10, "that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body." In I Corinthians 4:11, it is called "our mortal flesh." Romans 8:23 should be read to see how "the redemption of our body” is used.

Certainly, in Philippians 3:21, the individual physical body of each Christian is indicated by "the body (singular) of our (plural) humiliation." In no way can "body" be construed to refer to the church.

We began with "your body" in I Corinthians 16:19-20. This pairing of words was used by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 6:25, "...nor yet for your body." If one disciple had been addressed individually, the KJV and ASV would have "thy body." If we claim that this indicates "the body of you all" (which it does), we must also admit that it means "the body of each one of you all."

Romans 6:12 uses plural verbs and pronouns to accompany the phrase "in your mortal body. "Your" is plural. The church is not mortal, but the body of each Christian is.

Conclusion

From all these verses, we can see that in I Corinthians 6, we need not twist Paul’s meaning in I Corinthians 6:19 to make him change the subject (use of "body") unnaturally. Speaking of fornication, I Corinthians 6:18 mentioned a man’s own body twice. The thought continued with the word "or," beginning in I Corinthians 6:19. Each Christian’s physical body is a "temple of the Holy Spirit." In each mortal body (of them all), each is to glorify God.