Ephesians 5:30

members Limbs; the word used above Ephesians 4:25; and cp. Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 6:15 (a strict parallel), 1 Corinthians 12:27.

of his flesh, and of his bones Three important MSS. (AB א) supported by other but not considerable authority, omit these words. It has been suggested that they were inserted by transcribers from Genesis 2:23, as the next verse is certainly quoted from Genesis 2:24. But the phrase here is not verbally close enough to that in Gen. to make this likely. A transcriber would probably have given word for word, while the Apostle would as probably quote with a difference, such as we find here. And the difference is significant. "We" are not said here to be "bone of His bone &c.," which might have seemed to imply that our physical frame is derived from that of the Incarnate Lord, but, more generally, "limbs of His body, out of His flesh and out of His bones." Our true, spiritual, life and being is the derivative of His as He is our Second Adam, in a sense so strong and real as to be figured by the physical derivation of Eve from Adam. "As for any mixture of the substance of His flesh with ours," says Hooker (Eccl. Pol.v. 56, end), "the participation which we have of Christ includeth no such gross surmise [40] ".

[40] The remarkable chapter which thus closes deserves very careful study. It will be seen that Hooker's view of "Christ's body in ours as a cause of immortality" is that it is "a cause by removing, through the death and meritof His own flesh, that which hindered the life of ours."

In brief, this statement, in the light of other Scripture, amounts to the assertion that "we," the believing Church, as such, are, as in the Case of Eve and Adam, at once the product of our Incarnate Lord's existence as Second Adam, and His Bride. This profound and precious truth is not dwelt upon, however. Strictly speaking, it is only incidental here.