What Does Ephesians 5:26 Mean?
That he might set her apart, cleansing her with the bath of water by the word.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,THE KEY
The word is the setting of the washing through which cleansing and being set apart become one movement.
THE MEANING
Your cleansing and your being set apart belong together: the verse places the washing in the word. What soils is removed as you are made set apart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that being set apart is only a label: the verse binds it to cleansing.
THE ROOT
καθαρίσας
katharisas
GROWS FROM
καθαρ-
kathar-
Clean, pure; the state of being free from defilement.
The Greek word for cleansing belongs to the same family as the word for clean. The verse presents cleansing as the movement into cleanness, joined to being set apart.
ALSO GROWS
katharos: Clean, pure.
καθαρός
This is the word for “clean” in Jesus’ statement that his hearers are clean through his word.
katharismos: Cleansing, purification.
καθαρισμός
This noun keeps the same root while naming the act of cleansing itself.
ἁγιάσῃ
hagiase
GROWS FROM
ἁγι-
hagi-
Set apart; consecrate as belonging to what is sacred.
“sanctify” in this verse is hagiase. The verse pairs being set apart with being cleansed, holding them together in one movement. The word family makes the nature of sanctification concrete: to be set apart.
ALSO GROWS
hagios: Set apart; holy.
ἅγιος
This is the adjective for what belongs to the set-apart sphere.
hagiasmos: Setting apart; sanctification.
ἁγιασμός
This noun names the process of becoming set apart, echoing the movement in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures cleansing as water and word removing defilement and bringing a person into cleanness.
How does a young man cleanse his way? By guarding it according to your word.Then I will sprinkle clean waters upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols.Already you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.THE THREAD
Already you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.Ephesians uses καθαρίζω (katharizō), “cleanse”; Jesus calls his hearers καθαροί (katharoi), “clean,” through his word. The shared root ties the word to the washing itself: it is where cleansing takes place.
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