Ephesians 1:23

ἥτις ἐστὶν τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ : which is His body. The ἥτις (not ἥ) introduces a profound statement, the interpretation of which is much contested. It is supplementary to the preceding, and further defines the relation between Christ and the Church in respect of His Headship. The ἥτις, therefore, has something of its qualitative force, pointing to what belongs to the nature of the Church (Meyer), and in that way giving the ground of God's gift of Christ to the ἐκκλησία. Or (with Ell., etc.) it may be taken in the subdued, explanatory sense “which indeed”. The word σῶμα, which passes readily from its literal meaning into the figurative sense of a society, a number of men constituting a social or ethical union (cf. Ephesians 4:4), is frequently applied in the NT Epistles to the Church, with or without τοῦ Χριστοῦ, as the mystical body of Christ, the fellowship of believers regarded as an organic, spiritual unity in a living relation to Christ, subject to Him, animated by Him, and having His power operating in it. The relation between Christ and the Church, therefore, is not an external relation, or one simply of Superior and inferior, Sovereign and subject, but one of life and incorporation. The Church is not merely an institution ruled by Him as President, a Kingdom in which He is the Supreme Authority, or a vast company of men in moral sympathy with Him, but a Society which is in vital connection with Him, having the source of its life in Him, sustained and directed by His power, the instrument also by which He works. τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν πληρουμένου : the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. The preceding sentence carries the idea of the Church far beyond the limited conception of a concrete institution or outward, visible organisation, and lifts us to the grander conception of a great spiritual fellowship, which is one under all varieties of external form and constitution in virtue of the presence of Christ's Spirit in it, and catholic as embracing all believers and existing wherever any such are found. It is the conception of the Church which pervades this Epistle (cf. Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 3:21; Ephesians 5:23-25; Ephesians 5:27; Ephesians 5:29; Ephesians 5:32). It appears again in similar terms in the sister Epistle (Colossians 1:18; Colossians 1:24), and elsewhere in the varied phraseology of the “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) and the “Church of the Firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23). It is this supreme idea of the Church as a spiritual order the essence of which is a living relation to Christ, that receives further expression in the profound sentence with which the paragraph closes. The great difficulty here is with the term πλήρωμα itself. The other terms are easier. For the πάντα of the TR, which has the most meagre attestation, τὰ πάντα (supported by the great uncials, etc.) must be substituted (with Beng., Griesb., LTTr WRV). The “all” therefore must be taken here in the sense which it has in Ephesians 1:10 “ the all,” the whole system of things, made by Christ and having in Him the ground of its being, its continuance, its order (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:16-17; 1 Corinthians 8:6). The ἐν πᾶσιν will have a corresponding extension of meaning, “with all things ” not merely with all blessings, gifts or spiritual requirements. The universe itself and all the things that make its fulness (cf. “the earth … and the fulness thereof,” Psalms 24:1) are alike made and maintained by Christ. The prep, is taken by some in its primary force of in. But it is difficult then to find a natural sense for the clause; the interpretations proposed, e.g., “in all points” (Harless), “in all modes of manifestation” (Bleek), etc., going beyond the actual terms. It is best to understand it as the instrumental ἐν, of which we have an instance in ch. Ephesians 5:18 (Mey., Ell., Alf., and most) “with all things”. Some strangely take ἐν πᾶσιν as masc. here, supposing the point to be that Christ supplies in all His believing members all the things with which they need to be provided (Haupt, Moule). The πληρουμένου may be a pure passive, and so it is taken by some (Vulg., Chrys., etc.). In that case Christ would be described as Himself “filled as to all things”. It occurs, however, also as a middle with an active sense (Xen., Hell., v., 4, 56; vi., 2, 14, etc.). So it is rendered here by some of the Versions (Syr., Copt., Goth., Arm.), and the sense of “filling” best suits the context. The middle, however, probably retains something of its proper reciprocal or reflexive force, conveying the idea of filling the totality of things for Himself.

What is to be said now of the term πλήρωμα itself? There are some interpretations which may at once be set aside, e.g., the means of fulfilling (Rück.), the Church being described as the medium or instrument by which Christ accomplishes His destined work of bringing all things back to God; coetus numerosus, with reference to the multitude of those who are subject to Christ (Storr, Rosenm., etc.); perfection, in the objective sense of the term, the Church being Christ's perfect work (Oltr.) a meaning which goes beyond the term itself; the totality of the aeons, in the Gnostic sense, Christ and the Church being viewed here in union and the two ideas, “that which makes full” and “that which is made full,” being supposed to pass over the one into the other (Baur). The choice is between the active sense of “that which fills or completes” and the passive sense of “that which is filled”. The former is favoured by Chrys., Œcum., Aquin., Schwegler, Abb., etc., and it must be admitted to be linguistically possible. Verbals in - μα, it is true, have usually the pass, sense, and this one formed from πληοῦν (which means both to fill and to fulfil) would most naturally be taken as = “that which is filled,” or “that which is fulfilled or completed”. It is argued indeed by Light, in a weighty dissertation on “The meaning of πλήρωμα ” (Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, pp. 257 273) that nouns of this formation are always passive, expressing either the product of the action denoted by the active verb, or that action itself regarded as a completed thing; and further that in the case of πλήρωμα, if we follow out the idea of fulfilling rather than that of filling, we shall not require to give it now an active sense and again a passive, but shall be able to take it in all its occurrences as a real passive, denoting result in one aspect or another. But, while it is possible enough to understand it in this way in all the passages in the Epistles, it is difficult to carry the passive sense through the various occurrences in the Gospels (e.g., Matthew 9:16; Mark 2:27; Mark 8:20). Nor does it seem easy to adjust the properly passive sense to all the passages either in the LXX (cf. Ezekiel 5:2; Daniel 10:3), or in profane Greek (e.g., Soph., Trach., 1203; Eurip., Troad., 824; Philo, de Abr., ii., p. 39), without putting somewhat strained interpretations on some of the cases. The idea, however, that results from allowing πλήρωμα to have the active sense here is not germane to the general scope of the paragraph. That idea is that the Church is that which makes Christ Himself complete. A head, however perfect in itself, if it is without members, is something incomplete. So Christ, who is the Head of the Church, requires the Church to make His completeness, just as the Church which is His body requires Him as the Head to make it a complete and living thing. But the main thought of the whole paragraph is what Christ is and does in relation to the universe and the Church, not what the Church is to Him or does for Him, and the πληρουμένου cannot have the sense of “Him who is being filled” without putting a forced meaning on the τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν. Hence πλήρωμα is to be taken in the passive sense here, as is done by most commentators, and the idea is that the Church is not only Christ's body but that which is filled by Him. In Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:9 the whole πλήρωμα, or every plenitude of the Godhead, the very fulness of the Godhead, the totality of the Divine powers and qualities, is said to be in Christ, so that He alone is to be recognised as Framer and Governor of the world, and there is neither need nor place for any intermediate beings as agents in those works of creating, upholding and administering. Here the conception is that this plenitude of the Divine powers and qualities which is in Christ is imparted by Him to His Church, so that the latter is pervaded by His presence, animated by His life, filled with His gifts and energies and graces. He is the sole Head of the universe, which is supplied by Him with all that is needed for its being and order. He is also the sole Head of the Church, which receives from Him what He Himself possesses and is endowed by Him with all that it requires for the realisation of its vocation.