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It is this passage that the Apostle quotes in Eph. 5: 31, adding the comment: "This is
a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (Eph. 5: 32). The
husband is exhorted here to consider his wife as his own body and his own flesh. The
Apostle refers to this union of husband and wife as a great mystery, but adds that he is
concerned with that of which this union was a symbol--"Christ and His church".
The Apostle uses the word duo, "two" or "twain", only twice in the Epistle to the
Ephesians:
"To make in Himself of the twain one new man" (Eph. 2: 15).
"They two shall be one flesh" (Eph. 5: 31).
It is difficult to believe that there is no intentional connection between these two
passages.
The statements we have quoted from Genesis are all associated with Paradise, before
the entry of the Serpent and before the fall. The Mystery likewise is not associated with
the rest of Adam's story, except for the fact that members of the Body, in common with
all men, were by nature children of wrath even as others.
To sum up, then, we have found that the Apostle has most definitely associated the
Mystery with the first two chapters of Genesis and that he has actually quoted the
reference to "the twain being one flesh" in a practical context, where the literal union of
husband and wife is linked with the mystery of Christ and His church. The way in which
these things bear upon the question before us must be considered in our next article.
#4.
"The Joint Body" in the light of Eph. 2: 15, 4: 13, 5: 31,
and Gen. 1: 27 & 2: 24.
pp. 66 - 69
In our exposition of the Epistle to the Ephesians, we drew attention to the fact that the
word translated "man" in Eph. 4: 13 is the same as that translated "husband" in
Eph. 5: 22, 23, 24, 25 and 33. As the word aner is translated "husband" as many as
fifty times, it would seem that we are right in saying that the Church, which is His body,
is to be the perfect "husband". Now the word "husband" is a relative term, and is
meaningless without the related word "wife". The word aner must refer to a man who is
either actually married, or is capable of marriage. When, however, the Apostle speaks of
the "new man", he does not use aner but anthropos, a word which is much wider in its
scope, and includes men, women and children. This is the word that is found in
Eph. 2: 15 and 5: 24, and is implied in Col. 3: 10 (see Col. 3: 9, where it is used in
the expression "the old man"). It is clear, therefore, that the word anthropos, while
including the aner of Eph. 4: 13, could also include any other company of believers,