Ephesians 2:21

ἐν ᾧ πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομὴ συναρμολογουμένη αὔξει εἰς ναὸν ἅγιον ἐν Κυρίῳ : in whom each several building (RV text; “every building,” RV marg.), fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord. The relative refers naturally to the nearest subject, what is also the leading subject, Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, not to the ἀκρογωνιαίου, far less to the remoter θεμελίῳ; the ἐν also has its full sense of in, not by or on. That is to say, it is in Christ Jesus, and only by connection with Him, that the οἰκοδομή is what it is here declared to be. The word οἰκοδομή appears to be confined to late Greek, no certain instance of it having been found in classical Greek. It occurs in Diod., Philo, Plut., Joseph., the LXX, Macc., etc. It is used both for οἰκοδόμησις and οἰκοδόμημα. In the NT it has sometimes the literal sense of οἰκοδόμημα (e.g., Matthew 24:1; Mark 13:1; 2 Corinthians 5:1); and sometimes the figurative sense of edification (Romans 14:19; Romans 15:2; 2 Corinthians 13:10; Ephesians 4:20), or, as here, that of a body of Christian believers. The question of the text here is important. There is considerable support for πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή ([188] [189] [190], Arm., etc.), and it is conceivable that itacism might have caused the omission of the ἡ. But diplomatic evidence is decidedly in favour of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή ([191] [192] [193] [194] [195] [196] [197], etc.). Adopting this reading (with LTTrWHRV) we have to ask whether the phrase is to be rendered the whole building or every building. The former rendering is certainly the one that first suggests itself, while the latter seems at first difficult to relate to the context. The former is defended as legitimate by some weighty authorities; e.g., Winer, on the ground that the subject is “the Church of Christ as a whole,” and Ellicott, who takes it to be a case of grammatical laxity. But the distinction between πᾶς with the article and πᾶς without it is so well maintained in the NT that only an absolutely intolerable sense can justify us in departing from it. The only exceptions to the general rule appear to be those that hold good also for ordinary Greek in general and unqualified statements, with proper names, and with nouns which have acquired so stated a meaning that they can drop the article, etc. (cf. Win.-Moult., p. 138, and especially Buttm., Gram. of N. T. Greek, pp. 119, 120; Blass, Gram. of N. T. Greek, pp. 161, 162). The present instance does not come within the scope of these exceptions. It is not like πᾶς οἶκος Ἰσραήλ (Acts 2:36), nor is it really analogous even to such cases as the πᾶσα γῆ of Thucyd., ii., 43, or the πᾶσα ἐπιστολή of Ignat., Eph., 12. Hence the rendering here must be “every building” or “every several building”. The present participle συναρμολογουμένη (the verb occurs in the NT only here and in Ephesians 4:16, and corresponds to the classical συναρμόζειν) describes the joining together as a process now going on. The pres. αὔξει (a form occurring in the NT only here and in Colossians 2:19, but common in Soph., Thucyd., Pind., etc.) in like manner expresses what is happening now, or, it may be, what is normal. The phrase νάον ἅγιον is sufficiently rendered “ a holy temple” or “sanctuary”. Some (e.g., Mey.), supposing that Paul has the Jewish temple in view and means to say that the Christian Church is now the true Temple of God, the house made His own sanctuary by His dwelling in it, would render it “ the holy temple”. The ἐν Κυρίῳ is connected by some (Harl., etc.) immediately with ἅγιον, = a temple that is holy as being in the Lord; by others with ναὸν ἅγιον (Ell.); by others with αὔξει (Mey.). But it really qualifies the whole statement of the joining and growing. All this is in the Lord, i.e., in Christ, as both the context and the general NT application of Κύριος show. The sense of the whole, therefore, is this in Christ the Lord every several building that goes to make up the ideal Temple of God, every Christian community, the one now addressed not less than others, is at present being surely framed and fitted together, and is growing and harmoniously developing so that it may form part of the great mystical Body of Christ, the vast spiritual fellowship of believers which is God's true Temple.

[188] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[189] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[190] Codex Ephraemi (sæc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.

[191] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[192] Autograph of the original scribe of א.

[193] Autograph of the original scribe of א.

[194] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[195] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

[196] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[197] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.