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Tuesday, April 29th, 2025
the Second Week after Easter
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Efesianëve 5:32

Por secili nga ju kështu ta dojë gruan e vet sikurse e do veten e vet; dhe po kështu gruaja ta respektojë burrin.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Church;   Fellowship;   Husband;   Marriage;   Righteous;   Scofield Reference Index - Bride;   Christ;   Church;   Thompson Chain Reference - Great;   Mysteries, Great;   Mysteries-Revelations;   The Topic Concordance - Body;   Marriage;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Christ Is God;   Husbands;   Marriage;   Union with Christ;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Solomon's Song;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Ethics;   Marriage;   Wife;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Body of Christ;   Family Life and Relations;   Head, Headship;   Marriage;   New Jerusalem;   Overseer;   Paul the Apostle;   Sexuality, Human;   Union with Christ;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Church;   Marriage;   Self-Denial;   Union to Christ;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Mystery;   Wife;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Adam (1);   Adultery;   Canticles;   ;   Church;   Divorce;   Eve;   Marriage;   Mystery;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Body of Christ;   Ephesians, Book of;   Family;   Head;   Marriage;   Paul;   Sex, Biblical Teaching on;   Song of Solomon;   Woman;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Marriage;   Mystery;   Peter, First Epistle of;   Sacraments;   Woman;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Abstinence;   Adultery ;   Brethren of the Lord (2);   Character;   Commandment;   Ephesians Epistle to the;   Family;   Fig-Tree ;   Marriage;   Marriage (I.);   Mediation Mediator;   Mystery ;   Sacraments;   Type;   Woman;   Worldliness;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Adam ;   Eve;   Marriage;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Body;   Church;   Lamech;   Marriage;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Church;   Mystery;   Solomon the song of;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Mystery;   Roman Catholics;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Ephesians, Epistle to the;   Essenes, the;   Mystery;   Purity;   Sacraments;   Song of Songs;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Bride;   Marriage;   Saul of Tarsus;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for March 7;  

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a great: Ephesians 6:19, Colossians 2:2, 1 Timothy 3:8, 1 Timothy 3:16

speak: Psalms 45:9-17, Song of Solomon 1:1 - Song of Solomon 8:14, Isaiah 54:5, Isaiah 62:4, Isaiah 62:5, John 3:29, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Revelation 19:7, Revelation 19:8, Revelation 21:2

Reciprocal: Psalms 45:1 - A song Matthew 13:11 - mysteries Matthew 16:18 - my John 17:26 - that 1 Corinthians 15:51 - I show Galatians 3:16 - which Ephesians 3:4 - the mystery 1 Timothy 3:5 - the church Revelation 12:1 - a woman

Gill's Notes on the Bible

This is a great mystery,.... It has something mysterious in it; it is a figure and emblem of the mysterious union between Christ and his people: for so it follows,

but I speak concerning Christ and the church; or mention this law and institution of marriage, with respect to them; for the leaving of father and mother prefigured Christ's coming forth from the Father, and coming into this world in human nature, and his disregard to his earthly parents, in comparison with his people, and his service for them; the man cleaving to the wife very aptly expresses the strong affection of Christ to his church, and the near communion there is between them; and their being one flesh denotes the union of them; and indeed, the marriage of Adam and Eve was a type of Christ and his church; for in this the first Adam was a figure of him that was to come, as well as in being a federal head to his posterity: Adam was before Eve, so Christ was before his church; God thought it not proper that man should be alone, so neither Christ, but that he should have some fellows and companions with him: the formation of Eve from Adam was typical of the church's production from Christ; she was made of him while he was asleep, which sleep was from the Lord, and it was not an ordinary one; which may resemble the sufferings and death of Christ, which were from the Lord, and were not common; and which are the redemption of his church and people; and which secure their comfort and happiness, and wellbeing: she was taken out of his side, and built up a woman of one of his ribs; both the justification and sanctification of the church are from Christ, from the water and the blood which issued out of his side, when on the cross: the bringing and presentation of Eve to Adam has its mystery; it was God that brought her to him; and she was the same that was made out of him; and to the same Adam was she brought of whose rib she was made, and that not against her will: so it is God that draws souls to Christ, and espouses them to him, even the same that he has chosen in him, and Christ has redeemed by his blood; and to the same are they brought, who was wounded for their transgressions, and bruised for their sins; and they are made willing in the day of his power upon them, to come and give themselves to him. Adam's consent and acknowledgment of Eve to be his wife, shadow forth Christ's hearty reception and acknowledgment of the saints, as being of him, and his, when they are brought unto him under the influences of his grace and Spirit.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This is a great mystery - The Latin Vulgate translates this, “sacramentum hoc magnum est” - “this is a great sacrament” - and this is the proof, I suppose, and the only proof adduced by the papists that marriage is a “sacrament.” But the original here conveys no such idea. The word “mystery” - μυστήριον mustērion - means something which is concealed, hidden, before unknown; something into which one must be “initiated” or instructed before he can understand it. It does not mean that it is “incomprehensible” when it is disclosed, but that hitherto it has been kept secret. When disclosed it may be as intelligible as any other truth; see the word explained in the notes on Ephesians 1:9. Here it means simply, that there was much about the union of the Redeemer with his people, resembling the marriage connection, which was not obvious, except to those who were instructed; which was obscure to those who were not initiated; which they did not understand who had not been “taught.” It does not mean that no one could understand it, but that it pertained to the class of truths into which it was necessary for one to be “initiated” in order to comprehend them. The truth that was so great a mystery was, that the eternal Son of God should form such an union with people; that he should take them into a connection with himself, implying an ardor of attachment, and a strength of affection superior to even that which exists in the marriage relation. This was a great and profound truth, to understand which, it was necessary to receive instruction. No one would have understood it without a revelation; no one understands it now except they who are taught of God.

But I speak concerning Christ and the church - This, it seems to me, is an explicit disclaimer of any intention to be understood as affirming that the marriage contract was designed to be a “type” of the union of the Redeemer and his people. The apostle says expressly, that his remarks do not refer to “marriage at all” when he speaks of the mystery. They refer “solely” to the union of the Redeemer and his people. How strange and unwarranted, therefore, are all the comments of expositors on this passage designed to explain marriage as “a mysterious type” of the union of Christ and the church! If people would allow the apostle to speak for himself, and not force on him sentiments which he expressly disclaims, the world would be saved from such insipid allegories as Macknight and others have derived from this passage. The Bible is a book of sense; and the time will come, it is hoped, when, freed from all such allegorizing expositions, it will commend itself to the good sense of mankind. Marriage is an important, a holy, a noble, a pure institution, altogether worthy of God; but it does not thence follow that marriage was designed to be a type of the union between Christ and the church, and it is certain that the apostle Paul meant; to teach no such thing.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 32. This is a great mystery — τομυστηριον τουτο μεγα εστιν. This mystery is great. Sacramentum hoc magnum est; this sacrament is great. - VULGATE. And on the evidence of this version the Church of Rome has made matrimony a sacrament, which, as they use it, is no meaning of the original. By mystery, here, we may understand a natural thing by which some spiritual matter is signified, which signification the Spirit of God alone can give. So, here, the creation and union of Adam and Eve, were intended, in the design of God, to point out the union of Christ and the Church: a union the most important that can be conceived; and therefore the apostle calls it a great mystery. See the observations at the end of this chapter.


 
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