# G4138 - pleroma **Strong's:** [G4138](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g4138/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** play'-ro-mah **Part of speech:** neuter noun **Root:** from *G4137 - pleroo* (πληρόω, "to fill, fulfill, make complete") **NT occurrences:** 17 ## Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG) 1. **(Passive) That which is filled**, the body of believers filled with God's presence; the church as Christ's *plērōma* ([Ephesians 1:23](/codex/ephesians-1-23/)). 2. **(Active) That which fills**, the content with which a thing is filled; a patch filling a hole ([Mark 2:21](/codex/mark-2-21/)). 3. **Fullness, abundance**, the totality of what fills. 4. **Completion, fulfillment, accomplishment**, the bringing-to-completion of a thing ([Romans 13:10](/codex/romans-13-10/), "love is the *plērōma* of the law"). 5. **(Christological / cosmic, in Colossians)**, the totality of divine being / divine attributes that dwells in Christ. ## Theological force, Christ as *plērōma* of deity The word's most theologically loaded use is in Colossians, where Paul deliberately appropriates a term already loaded by proto-Gnostic and Greek philosophical speculation. In **Hellenistic Gnostic / Platonic systems**, the *plērōma* was the realm of divine fullness, populated by *aeons* (intermediary divine beings) emanating downward from the high God toward the material world. Salvation involved escaping the lower material realm and ascending into the *plērōma*. Paul's response in Colossians: - **[Colossians 1:19](/codex/colossians-1-19/)**, "in [Christ] all the *plērōma* was pleased to dwell" - **[Colossians 2:9](/codex/colossians-2-9/)**, "in Him all the *plērōma* of the *theotēs* dwells in bodily form" (*katoikei sōmatikōs*) The Pauline counter-claim: there is no need for a hierarchy of intermediary aeons. **All** the divine fullness dwells **bodily** in Christ, fully, not partially; in human flesh, not merely in heavenly realms. The *plērōma* is concentrated in one person, not spread across emanations. This collapses the Gnostic system at its center. The pairing of *plērōma* with [G2320 - theotes](/codex/g2320-theotes/) (essential deity, not mere divine quality) in [Colossians 2:9](/codex/colossians-2-9/) is a maximal Christological claim: *the totality of what makes God God* dwells in Christ, in His incarnate body. ## Notable verses ### Christological, the fullness in Christ - **[Colossians 2.9](/codex/colossians-2-9/)**, *en autō katoikei pan to plērōma tēs theotētos sōmatikōs*, "in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" - **[Colossians 1:19](/codex/colossians-1-19/)**, "in Him all the *plērōma* was pleased to dwell" - **[John 1:16](/codex/john-1-16/)**, "of His *plērōma* we have all received, and grace upon grace" ### Ecclesiological, the church as Christ's fullness - **[Ephesians 1:23](/codex/ephesians-1-23/)**, "[the church] which is His body, the *plērōma* of Him who fills all in all" - **[Ephesians 4:13](/codex/ephesians-4-13/)**, "until we all attain to the unity of the faith… to the measure of the stature which belongs to the *plērōma* of Christ" - **[Ephesians 3:19](/codex/ephesians-3-19/)**, "to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the *plērōma* of God" ### Eschatological, the fullness of time / Gentiles - **[Galatians 4:4](/codex/galatians-4-4/)**, "when the *plērōma* of the time came, God sent forth His Son" - **[Romans 11:25](/codex/romans-11-25/)**, "until the *plērōma* of the Gentiles has come in" - **[Ephesians 1:10](/codex/ephesians-1-10/)**, "the dispensation of the *plērōma* of the times" ### Quantitative / abundance - **[Romans 11:12](/codex/romans-11-12/)**, "if their transgression is riches for the world… how much more will their *plērōma* be" - **[Romans 13:10](/codex/romans-13-10/)**, "love is the *plērōma* of the law" (fulfillment / completion) - **[Romans 15:29](/codex/romans-15-29/)**, "the *plērōma* of the blessing of Christ" - **[Mark 2:21](/codex/mark-2-21/)**, patch (*plērōma*) on garment - **[Mark 6:43](/codex/mark-6-43/); 8:20**, basketfuls (*plērōmata*) of fragments ## Patristic / scholarly note Irenaeus (*Against Heresies* I, c. AD 180) attacks the Valentinian Gnostic *plērōma*-system, a hierarchy of 30 *aeons* emanating from the high God. He uses [Colossians 2:9](/codex/colossians-2-9/) explicitly: if the entire *plērōma* dwells in Christ, the Gnostic emanation hierarchy is destroyed; there's no salvific intermediary realm to ascend into. Origen, Athanasius, and [Cyril of Alexandria](/codex/cyril-of-alexandria/) all develop the [Colossians 2:9](/codex/colossians-2-9/) use against subsequent Christological heresies (Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism). The "in bodily form" (*sōmatikōs*) prevents reduction to a metaphorical divine indwelling, Christ's incarnate humanity is the locus of full deity. Modern conservative scholarship (F. F. Bruce, *Colossians* NICNT; Doug Moo, *Colossians and Philemon* PNTC, 2008) treats the verse as the high-water-mark Christological claim of Pauline theology, equal to [John 1:1](/codex/john-1-1/) and 14 in importance for the doctrine of Christ's deity. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ ## See also - *G4137 - pleroo*, the cognate verb "to fill / fulfill" - [G2320 - theotes](/codex/g2320-theotes/), "deity", paired in [Colossians 2:9](/codex/colossians-2-9/) - [G2316 - theos](/codex/g2316-theos/) - [Colossians 2.9](/codex/colossians-2-9/), locus classicus