rocks that were `rent' at the time of the Saviour's death and resurrection.

Two words translated `new' have been mentioned.  One, agnaphos, refers to

the work of a fuller, who smoothes a cloth by carding.  The work of a fuller

also includes the washing and scouring process in which fuller's earth or

fuller's soap (Mal. 3:2; Mark 9:3) is employed.  A piece of cloth thus treated

loses its original harshness, and more readily yields to the cloth that has been

more often washed.  The whole purpose of the ages is set forth under the symbol

of the work of a fuller, who by beating and by bleaching, at length produces a

material which is the acme of human attainment; for when the Scriptures would

describe the excellent glory of the Lord, His garments are said to have been

`exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them' (Mark 9:3).

So, too, the effect upon Israel of the Second Coming is likened to `a

refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap' (Mal. 3:2).  It is this `fulled' cloth

that makes the `fulness', although there is no etymological connection between

the fuller and the fulness.  The other word translated `new' is kainos, and has

the meaning of `fresh, as opposed to old', `new, different from the former' and

as a compound the meaning `to renew'.  It is the word that is used when speaking

of the new covenant, the new creation, the new man, and the new heaven and

earth.  We shall have to take this into account when we are developing the

meaning and purpose of the fulness.  The only reason for lifting out the word

translated `to sew' is the significant use of the word in the Septuagint version

of Job 14:12 `till the heavens are unsewn'.  The bearing of this upon the

argument of 2 Peter 3, the present firmament and the fulness will appear when we

call to mind the passages which speak of the heavens as `curtains' or a `tent'

as Isaiah 40:22.  Finally, we have the word sumphoneo `to agree'.  Sumphonia is

translated `musick' in Luke 15:25, and of course is the Greek original of our

word `symphony'.  In Ecclesiastes 7:15 (LXX)

the word is used with a rather different meaning from `agreement'.  The Church

of the one Body is the great outstanding anticipation of the goal of the ages.

It is associated with Him, under Whose feet are all things, it is associated

with a dispensation of the fulness of the seasons, when all things are to be

summed up in Him, and it is itself called:

`The fulness of Him that filleth all in all' (Eph. 1:23).

How are we to try to understand this statement?  It falls into line with the

last occurrence of pleroma in Colossians, and for that matter, in the New

`For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily'

(Col. 2:9).

The first occurrence of pleroma in Ephesians, stands by itself (Eph. 1:10) the

remainder form a group that expand the theme, thus:

A

`The Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in

all' (Eph. 1:22,23).

B

`The whole family in heaven and earth ... that Christ may dwell in

your hearts by faith ... filled  to (unto) all the fulness of God'