What Does Ephesians 5:27 Mean?
That he might stand her beside himself as a weighty assembly, having no stain or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she be set apart and without blemish.
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 present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.THE KEY
The Greek says he brings the assembly to stand beside himself, radiant with every mark of disfigurement gone.
THE MEANING
The verse pictures a people being brought before him, radiant, with nothing left to mar them. Their set-apartness and lack of blemish describe who they are in his presence. You are not reduced to the marks the verse says are gone; its final image is wholeness disclosed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the marks on you are the final truth, or that you must make yourself whole before you can be brought near.
THE ROOT
παραστήσῃ
parastēsē
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand or set in place.
The verb translated “present” carries the image of bringing something to stand beside someone. The assembly’s radiance is pictured in the nearness of being brought to him.
ALSO GROWS
paristēmi: To stand beside; to present.
παρίστημι
This is the verb family behind “present,” revealing nearness within the act of presentation.
anistēmi: To stand up; to rise.
ἀνίστημι
The same word family retains the image of standing, making the presentation more than an abstract display.
ἔνδοξον
endoxon
GROWS FROM
δόξα
doxa
Weight, honor, or glory: the substantial presence carried by what is honored.
“weighty” in this verse is endoxon. The word translated “glorious” belongs to the family of δόξα (doxa), which carries the sense of weight and honor. The assembly’s glory is its weight made visible in the presence of the one who receives it.
ALSO GROWS
doxazō: To glorify; to give honor.
δοξάζω
The related verb links glory with giving weight or honor.
doxologia: A doxology; an expression of praise.
δοξολογία
Praise gives voice to honor, another branch of the word family behind “glorious.”
ἁγία
hagia
GROWS FROM
ἅγιος
hagios
Set apart; belonging to a sacred purpose.
“Holy” describes the assembly as set apart, as his own. Paired with being without blemish, it presents belonging and freedom from what mars as parts of one picture.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: To set apart; to consecrate.
ἁγιάζω
The verb shows the same word family describing the act of setting apart.
hagiasmos: Setting apart; consecration.
ἁγιασμός
This noun names the condition of belonging to what is set apart.
THE PATTERN
The beloved is pictured as radiant and whole when every mark that mars it is gone.
You are all fair, my companion; there is no blemish in you.but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.And I, John, see the set-apart city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, made ready as a bride arranged for her husband.THE THREAD
Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, so that we might be set apart and unblemished before his eyes in love.Ephesians 1:4 uses the same Greek words, ἅγιος (hagios, set apart) and ἄμωμος (amōmos, without blemish), and places them “before him in love.” The repeated pair makes this verse’s presentation image part of a recurring description of being in his presence.
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