Passage

Ephesians 5.31

Book: Ephesians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

29. for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; 30. because we are members of his body.

31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. 33. Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her husband. (Ephesians 5:29-33, ASV)

WEB

29. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly; 30. because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.

31. “For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh.”

This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly. 33. Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (Ephesians 5:29-33, WEB)

KJV

29. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

31. 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.

This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. (Ephesians 5:29-33, KJV)

YLT

29. for no one ever his own flesh did hate, but doth nourish and cherish it, as also the Lord, the assembly, 30. because members we are of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones;

31. 'for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and they shall be, the two, for one flesh;'

this secret is great, and I speak in regard to Christ and to the assembly; 33. but ye also, every one in particular, let each his own wife so love as himself, and the wife, that she may reverence the husband. (Ephesians 5:29-33, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle.
Audience: Believers at Ephesus. Several of the earliest witnesses, including P46 and the original hands of Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, lack the words "in Ephesus" at 1:1, which has long suggested the letter circulated among the churches of the Roman province of Asia rather than addressing one congregation alone.
Location: Written from imprisonment. Paul calls himself "the prisoner of Christ Jesus" (Eph 3:1, 4:1) and "an ambassador in chains" (Eph 6:20); the traditional identification is the Roman custody of Acts 28.
Time period: c. AD 60-62 on the traditional Roman-imprisonment dating.

Theological reading

Anti toutou kataleipsei anthrōpos ton patera kai tēn mētera kai proskollēthēsetai pros tēn gynaika autou, kai esontai hoi duo eis sarka mian.

A citation, and a deliberate one. The verse quotes Genesis 2:24 essentially in its Septuagint form, including the phrase hoi duo, "the two," which is present in the Greek and the Samaritan Pentateuch but not in the Masoretic Hebrew. The same wording appears on Jesus' lips at Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:7-8, and in Paul at 1 Corinthians 6:16. The reading tradition is stable across the New Testament's use of the text.

Three verbs describe the union. Kataleipsei, he shall leave, a public break with the family of origin. Proskollēthēsetai, he shall be joined, from kollaō, to glue; the passive suggests the joining is done to him as much as by him. Esontai eis sarka mian, they shall become one flesh, a change of state rather than an arrangement. Leaving, cleaving and becoming is a sequence, and each stage presupposes the one before it.

Why Paul quotes it here. The citation lands at the end of the marriage passage, immediately before verse 32 identifies the mystery as Christ and the church. Its function is to ground the argument in the creation account rather than in household convention, which is what allows Paul to treat marriage as signifying something rather than merely resembling it. The union of Christ and the church is not likened to marriage; marriage is disclosed as having been patterned on it.

"One flesh." Sarx mia is not reducible to the sexual act, though 1 Corinthians 6:16 shows that the act effects it. In Hebrew idiom basar denotes the whole person in bodily existence, so one flesh names a comprehensive union of life, of which the physical is the seal rather than the whole.

Where the verse does work. It is the primary text behind the Christian claim that marriage is a creation ordinance rather than a cultural arrangement, and therefore behind the claim that its shape is given rather than negotiated. Note that the passage argues from creation while Jesus, citing the same verse, argues from creation against a permission granted later under Moses, which is the structure of the argument in Matthew 19.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G4561 - sarx, sarx, Strong's G4561
G3962 - pater, pater, Strong's G3962
G4314 - pros, pros, Strong's G4314

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.