From this point on Paul explains the image of the body as referring to the church, the body of Christ. This verse takes up the thought of verse 12. For this reason and in order to make the contrast between verses 27a and 27b clearer, several translations agree with Good News Bible in expanding you to “all of you.” For example, Jerusalem Bible has “Now you together are Christ’s body…”; New Jerusalem Bible “Now Christ’s body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole.”

Are the body of Christ may be expressed as “make up Christ’s body.” The body of Christ means not “the body which is Christ” but “the body which belongs to Christ.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• All of you are the body which belongs to Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .