What Does Ephesians 1:23 Mean in the King James?

Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Ephesians 1:23 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The body is the fullness of the one who is actively filling everything.

THE MEANING

The body is his fullness now; the one filling all things is present through embodied people. The repeated Greek word family ties “fulness” and “filleth” together, holding the body’s fullness within his ongoing act of filling all in all.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that Christ’s fullness is detached from his embodied people.

THE ROOT

πλήρωμα

plērōma

GROWS FROM

⁨πληρόω⁩ (plēroō), family stem ⁨πληρ-⁩ (plēr-)

To fill, make full, bring to fullness.

“fulness / filleth” in this verse is plērōma. The repeated ⁨πληρ-⁩ sound binds “fulness” and “filleth” into one word family. The body is named as the fullness of the one whose ongoing action is to fill all in all.

ALSO GROWS

plērēs: Full, complete.

πλήρης

This related form carries the same sense of fullness that the verse names as the body’s relation to him.

plēroō: To fill, fulfill, bring to completion.

πληρόω

This is the verb behind “filleth”; it connects the body’s fullness with his active filling of all things.

THE PATTERN

God’s fullness extends into all things and takes shape in an embodied people.

And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

Psalm 72:19 · KJVThe whole earth is described as filled with God’s glory, widening the verse’s image of fullness beyond the body.

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Ephesians 3:19 · KJVGod’s fullness is something people receive and embody, echoing the body named as Christ’s fullness.

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

1 Corinthians 12:27 · KJVThe body is made of distinct people held together as Christ’s embodied presence.

THE THREAD

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Ephesians 4:10 · KJV

Ephesians 1:23 places ⁨πλήρωμα⁩ (plērōma, fullness) beside a form of ⁨πληρόω⁩ (plēroō, to fill); Ephesians 4:10 uses ⁨πληρῶσαι⁩ (plērōsai, to fill) for filling all things. Together they join the body’s fullness to his ongoing act of filling.

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