the Week of Proper 21 / Ordinary 26
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Revised Standard Version
Ephesians 5:32
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalDevotionals:
- DailyParallel Translations
This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
This is hard to understand, but it's another way of saying Jesus and his outfit are one.
This is a great secret: but my words are about Christ and the church.
This mystery is great, but *I* speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly.
This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.
This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ and of the assembly.
This is a great mystery; I mean, concerning Christ and the church.
That is a great truth hitherto kept secret: I mean the truth concerning Christ and the Church.
This is a great mysterie: but I speake concerning Christ and the Church.
The mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ and as to the assembly.
This is a greate secrete: but I speake of Christ and the congregacion.
these words contain a very mystical sense, I mean in reference to Christ and the church.
This mystery [of two becoming one] is great; but I am speaking with reference to [the relationship of] Christ and the church.
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
This is a great secrete but I speake bitwene Christ and the cogregacion.
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
this secret is great, and I speak in regard to Christ and to the assembly;
That secret is very important—I am talking about Christ and the church.
This mystery is great—but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.
This is a great mystery, but I understand it to mean Christ and his church.
There is profound truth hidden here, which I say concerns the Messiah and the Messianic Community.
This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
This is a great secrete, but I speake concerning Christ, and concerning the Church.
This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and his church.
This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Messiah and of the assembly.
This is a great secret, but I am talking about Christ and the church.
This mystery is great; but I speak of the Meshiha and of his church.
This is a great mystery; but I am speaking of the Messiah, and of his church.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
This is hard to understand, but it shows that the church is the body of Christ.
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.
This sacred secret, is, great, - I, however, am speaking as to Christ and as tothe assembly; -
This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the church.
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
(This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.)
This is a great secrete: but I speake of Christe and of the Churche.
That secret truth is very important—I am talking about Christ and the church.
This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
There is a deep secret truth revealed in this scripture, which I understand as applying to Christ and the church.
This sacrament is greet; yhe, Y seie in Crist, and in the chirche.
Contextual Overview
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
Cross-References
The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years; and he had other sons and daughters.
When Jared had lived a hundred and sixty-two years he became the father of Enoch.
Jared lived after the birth of Enoch eight hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methu'selah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
Thus all the days of Methu'selah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
When Lamech had lived a hundred and eighty-two years, he became the father of a son,
And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark,
These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; sons were born to them after the flood.
To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born.
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.
