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Eph_5:29. Γάρ ] assigns the reason of what immediately precedes, and that so, that this statement of the reason is intended to impel to the exercise of the self-love involved in the love to the wife. The connection of the thoughts, namely, is this: “He who loves his own wife, loves himself; for, if he did not love her, he would hate his own flesh, which is so repugnant to nature that no one has ever yet done it, but rather every one does the opposite, as also Christ—and that gives to this natural relation the highest consecration—acts with regard to the church, because this constitutes the members of His body.”
ποτέ ] ever, not, as Mayerhoff would take it (Koloss. p. 144): formerly, in the heathen state, the contrast to which is supposed to be: but possibly now, under the influence of an asceticism directed against marriage—a view, which the present tenses that follow ought to have precluded.
τὴν ἑαυτοῦ σάρκα ] σάρξ is here indifferent (comp. Hahn, Theol. d. N.T. I. p. 425) without the conception of what is sinful.[282] Paul might have written σῶμα instead (Curtius, vii. Ephesians 1 : “corporibus nostris, quae utique non odimus;” Seneca, Ep. 14: “fateor insitam nobis esse corporis nostri caritatem”), but chose σάρκα , because the idea of the μία σάρξ , which is realized in the married state, is already (see Eph_5:21) present to his mind.
ἀλλʼ ] sc. ἕκαστος . See Stallbaum, ad Plat. Rep. p. 366 D; ad Symp. p. 192 E.
ἐκτρέφει ] enutrit. The compound form denotes the development that is brought about by the nourishing; comp. Eph_6:4. See the passages in Wetstein.
θάλπει ] makes it warm, fovet (Vulgate); Goth: “varmeith.” It is thus to be taken in its proper signification. Hom. Odyss. xxi. 179, 184, 246; Xen. Cyr. v. 1. 11; Soph. Phil. 38; also Theocr. xiv. 38; Deu_22:6; Job_39:14; 1Th_2:8. Bengel aptly says: “id spectat amictum.” The usual interpretation is: “he fosters it,” Luther. Without support from linguistic usage.
It is, we may add, self-evident that οὐδεὶς … αὐτήν expresses a proposition of experience, the correctness of which holds as a general rule, and is not set aside by exceptional cases. The crucifying of the flesh, however, in Gal_5:24, has regard to the sinful σάρξ .
καθὼς καὶ ὁ Χρ . τὴν ἐκκλησ .] sc. ἐκτρέφει καὶ θάλπει , which is here, of course, to be interpreted metaphorically of the loving operation of Christ for the salvation of His church, whose collective prosperity He carefully promotes. To bring out by interpretation specially two elements (Grotius: “nutrit eam verbo et Spiritu, vestit virtutibus”) is arbitrary. According to Kahnis (Abendm. p. 143 f.), Christ nourishes the church as His body by the communication of His body in the Supper. But apart from the fact that θάλπει does not suit this, there is no mention at all of the Lord’s Supper in the whole connection. Comp. on παραστ ., Eph_5:27, and see on Eph_5:30 ff. The καθὼς καὶ ὁ Χρ . τὴν ἐκκλ . is the sacred refrain of the whole Christian ethics of marriage; comp. Eph_5:23; Eph_5:25.
[282] See also Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, I. p. 54.