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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Ephesians 5:32 - 5:32
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Rather, “This mystery is a great one.” This profound truth, beyond man’s power of discovering, but now revealed, namely, of the spiritual union of Christ and the Church, represented by the marriage union, is a great one, of deep import. See on Eph 5:30. So “mystery” is used of a divine truth not to be discovered save by revelation of God (Rom 11:25; 1Co 15:51). The Vulgate wrongly translates, “This is a great sacrament,” which is made the plea by the Romish Church (in spite of the blunder having been long ago exposed by their own commentators, Cajetan and Estius) for making marriage a sacrament; it is plain not marriage in general, but that of Christ and the Church, is what is pronounced to be a “great mystery,” as the words following prove, “I [emphatic] say it in regard to Christ and to the Church” (so the Greek is best translated). “I, while I quote these words out of Scripture, use them in a higher sense” [Conybeare and Howson].