What Does Ephesians 5:32 Mean in the King James?
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
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 one-flesh union remains a human joining, and it also opens onto the bond between the Anointed One and the assembly.
THE MEANING
The joining named just before this verse carries a further depth: it reveals the bond between the Anointed One and the assembly. The mystery is hidden meaning now being spoken into the open. The human joining and this wider union remain together; neither erases the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that the passage is only about marriage or only a metaphor: the verse holds both the human joining and the Anointed One’s bond with the assembly in view.
THE ROOT
μυστήριον
mystērion
GROWS FROM
μυ-
my-
The related word family carries the idea of what is hidden and of initiation into hidden knowledge; the exact etymological path is uncertain.
Here, “mystery” is not an unsolvable riddle: it is hidden meaning being spoken aloud. The verse names that meaning as the bond between the Anointed One and the assembly.
ALSO GROWS
mystēs: An initiate, someone admitted to a mystery.
μύστης
It echoes the sense of hidden knowledge opened to those brought into it.
mystikos: Belonging to a mystery or initiation.
μυστικός
It shares the word-family’s association with what is hidden, giving “mystery” more depth than a puzzle.
ἐκκλησία
ekklēsia
GROWS FROM
καλέω
kaleō
To call or summon; this word-family connects with the idea of people summoned into an assembly.
The KJV word “church” can suggest a building or institution, while the Greek word means an assembly. Its connection with calling and summons makes the people in this verse a gathered body in relation to the Anointed One.
ALSO GROWS
klēsis: A calling or summons.
κλῆσις
It carries the sense of people being called into a gathered life.
klētos: Called or summoned.
κλητός
It echoes the calling that brings people into an assembly.
Χριστός
christos
GROWS FROM
χρίω
chriō
To anoint, including the application of oil.
“Christ” names the Anointed One; it is not a surname. The verse speaks of a relationship with one marked by anointing, alongside a people gathered as an assembly.
ALSO GROWS
chrisma: Anointing or an anointing substance.
χρῖσμα
It makes the anointing in the title concrete as an act and its mark.
christianos: One identified with the Anointed One.
χριστιανός
It extends the same name-root to those identified with him.
THE PATTERN
A human joining can reveal a wider covenantal union without losing its human meaning.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: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 5:31 quotes this verse immediately before calling the matter a great mystery. Genesis names the one-flesh joining; Ephesians 5:32 opens that joining onto the bond between the Anointed One and the assembly.
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