Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Ephesians 1:23
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Which is his body - This comparison of the church with “a person” or body, of which the Lord Jesus is the head, is not uncommon in the New Testament; compare the notes at 1Co 11:3; 1 Corinthians 12:27, note; Ephesians 4:15-16, notes. The fulness of him - The word rendered here as “fulness” - πλήρωμα plērōma - means properly, that with which anything is filled; the filling up; the contents; notes, Romans 11:12. The exact idea here, however, is not very clear, and interpreters have been by no means united in their opinions of the meaning. It seems probable that the sense is, that the church is the “completion or filling up” of his power and glory. It is that without which his dominion would not be complete. He has control over the angels and over distant worlds, but; his dominion would not be complete without the control over his church, and that is so glorious, that it “fills up” the honor of the universal dominion, and makes his empire complete. According to Rosenmuller, the word “fulness” here means a “great number” or multitude; a multitude, says he, which, not confined to its own territory, spreads afar, and fills various regions. Koppe also regards it as synonymous with “multitude or many,” and supposes it to mean all the dominion of the Redeemer over the body - the church. He proposes to translate the whole verse, “He has made him the Head over his church, that he might rule it as his own body - the whole wide state of his universal kingdom.” “This,” says Calvin (in loc.), “is the highest honor of the church, that the Son of God regards himself as in a certain sense imperfect unless he is joined to us.” The church constitutes the “complete body” of the Redeemer. A body is complete when it has all its members and limbs in proper proportions, and those members might be said to be the “completion,” or the filling-up, or the “fulness” - πλήρωμα plērōma - of the body or the person. This language would not, indeed, be such as would usually be adopted to express the idea now; but this is evidently the sense in which Paul uses it here. The meaning is, that the church sustains the same relation to Christ, which the body does to the head. It helps to form the entire person. There is a close and necessary union. The one is not complete without the other. And one is dependent on the other. When the body has all its members in due proportion, and is in sound and vigorous health, the whole person then is complete and entire. So it is to be in the kingdom of the Redeemer. He is the head; and that redeemed Church is the body, the fulness, the completion, the filling-up of the entire empire over which he presides, and which he rules. On the meaning of the word “fulness” - πλήρωμα plērōma - the reader may consult Storr’s Opuscula, vol. i. pp. 144-187, particularly pp. 160-183. Storr understands the word in the sense of full or abundant mercy, and supposes that it refers to the great benignity which “God” has shown to his people, and renders it, “The great benignity of him who filleth all things with good, as he called Jesus from tile dead to life and placed him in heaven, so even you, sprung from the pagan, who were dead in sin on account of your many offences in which you formerly lived, etc. - hath he called to life by Christ.” This verse, therefore, he would connect with the following chapter, and he regards it all as designed to illustrate the great power and goodness of God. Mr. Locke renders it, “Which is his body, which is complet…
This public page shows a contextual excerpt from the locally available source text.
How to use this source
This excerpt is attributed to its named commentary. It is included as a historical study resource and should be evaluated in light of Scripture and other relevant evidence.
