What Does Ephesians 5:31 Mean in the King James?
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
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 word translated “joined” pictures two lives glued fast into one shared flesh.
THE MEANING
This verse names a reordering of kinship: a man leaves the bond of father and mother and joins his wife. The word translated “joined” carries the sense of adhering or being glued fast, and that attachment is described as two becoming one flesh, a shared embodied life.
THE ROOT
προσκολληθήσεται
proskollēthēsetai
GROWS FROM
κολλάω
kollaō
To glue, stick, or adhere; with πρός (pros), to join closely to.
The Greek makes “joined” more tactile than a loose association: it is the language of sticking fast. The verse connects that adhesion with two becoming one flesh, so unity is pictured as a shared embodied bond.
ALSO GROWS
kollaō: To glue, stick, or join.
κολλάω
This is the verb’s seed sense: the union carries the image of attachment.
proskollaō: To adhere or join closely to.
προσκολλάω
This is the compound verb used here, applying the image of adhesion to the bond between husband and wife.
kollōmenos: Joining or attaching oneself.
κολλώμενος
The same verb family appears in 1 Corinthians 6:16, where joining another is described as becoming one body.
THE PATTERN
Where two bodies are joined, Scripture describes their union as one flesh.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.THE THREAD
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.Ephesians uses the same Greek joining verb as the Septuagint’s rendering of Genesis 2:24, where the Hebrew is דָּבַק (dāvaq, “cling fast”). The shared image is adhesion: two are joined into one flesh.
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