garment: else the new piece that filled it up (pleroma) taketh away from

the old, and the rent (schisma) is made worse' (Mark 2:21).

`No man putteth a piece of a new (kainos) garment upon an old; if

otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent (schizo), and the piece that

was taken out of (epiblema) the new agreeth (sumphoneo) not with the old'

(Luke 5:36).

The words that call for attention are: `that which is put in to fill up';

this is the translation of the Greek pleroma `fulness'.  In contrast with this

`fulness' is the word `rent' which in the Greek is schisma.  Two words

translated `new' are used: in Matthew 9:16, and in Mark 2:21 agnaphos, not yet

fulled, or dressed, from gnapheus, a fuller, and kainos, which is used in Luke

5:36, which means newly made.  In place of `put into' or `put upon' used in

Matthew 9:16 and Luke 5:36, we find the word `to sew on', epirrhapto employed in

Mark 2:21.  One other word is suggestive, the word translated `agree' in Luke

5:36.  It is the Greek sumphoneo.  As these terms will be referred to in the

course of the following exposition, we will take the present opportunity of

enlarging a little on their meaning and relationship here, and so prepare the

Pleroma.  This word, derived from pleroo `to fill', occurs seventeen times

in the New Testament.  Two of these occurrences are in Matthew and Mark, the

remaining fifteen occurrences are found in John's Gospel and in Paul's epistles.

It is noteworthy that the word pleroma `fulness' is never used in the epistles

of the Circumcision.  When Peter referred to the problem of the gap suggested by

the words `where is the promise of His coming?' he referred his readers to the

epistles of Paul, who, said he, deals with this matter of longsuffering and

apparent postponement and speaks of these things (2 Pet. 3:15,16).  The word

pleroma is used in the Septuagint some fifteen times.  Some occurrences we will

record for the benefit of the reader who may not have access to that ancient

translation.  1 Chronicles 16:32: `let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof'.

So, Psalms 96:11 and 98:7.  `The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof'

(Psa. 24:1), and with slight variations, Psalms 50:12; 89:11.

In several passages, the fulness, or `all that is therein' is set over

against flood or famine, as Jeremiah 8:16; 47:2; Ezekiel 12:19; 19:7; and 30:12.

Some of the words used in the context of these Septuagint references are too

suggestive to be passed over without comment.  Instead of `time of healing' we

find `anxiety', the land `quaking', `deadly serpents' and a `distressed heart'

(Jer. 8:15-18 LXX).  Again in Jeremiah 47:2 (29:2 in the LXX) we have such words

of prophetic and age time importance as `an overflowing flood', Greek

katakluzomai, kataklusmos and variants, a word used with dispensational

significance in 2 Peter 2:5 and 3:6, and preserved in the English cataclysm, a

word of similar import to that which we have translated `the overthrow' of the

In the context of the word `fulness' found in Ezekiel 12:19 (LXX), we have

such words as `scatter' diaspero, a word used in James 1:1 and in 1 Peter 1:1 of

the `dispersed' and `scattered' tribes of Israel; also the word `waste' which

calls up such passages of prophetic import as Isaiah 34:10,11 and Jeremiah 4:23-

27, where the actual words employed in Genesis 1:2 are repeated.  The pleroma or

`fulness' is placed in direct contrast with desolation, waste, flood, fire and a

condition that is without form and void.  Schisma, the word translated `rent' in