Ephesians 5:30

Ephesians 5:30. Because we are members of his body. The thought is quite familiar (see marginal references); here it gives a reason for Christ's nourishing and cherishing His Church; it is His mystical body, made up of members, ‘integral parts,' of one organic whole. This organic whole is not the ‘church' which is included in the term ‘we,' but Christ mystical, the Head and the members, Christ and His Church. This holds good, even if we omit the latter half of the verse, which seems necessary, now that the weight of the Sinaitic manuscript (first hand) has been added to that of the two next in age (and of other authorities). It was probably inserted from Genesis 2:23 (where however the order is reversed). As however the omission can be accounted for, many good editors retain it. If retained it should be referred to the mystical relation between Christ and His people, which is analogous to the physical derivation of Eve from Adam (comp. Genesis 2:23, of which the clause is a reminiscence) and the union between them. The idea of vital union with Christ is included as well as that of the derivation of our spiritual life from Him. But the sacramentarian interpretation, which refers it to our partaking of the substance of Christ's body, fosters materialistic conceptions of the union, and seeks to explain one mystery by propounding another. Moreover as this passage does not speak of ‘body and blood,' but of ‘flesh and bones,' the reference to the Lord's Supper is quite doubtful.