Ephesians 2:21

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.—There is some difficulty about the rendering-”all the building.” Generally the best MSS. omit the article in the original. But the sense seems to demand the rendering of the text, unless, indeed, we adopt the only other possible rendering, “in whom every act of building”—that is, every addition to the building—“is bonded to the rest, and grows,” &c. The clause agrees substantially, and almost verbally with Ephesians 4:16—“From whom the whole body, fitly joined (framed) together and compacted . . . maketh increase of the body unto the edifying (building up) of itself.” In this latter passage the leading idea is of the close union of the body to the head, to which, indeed, the metaphor more properly applies than to the relation of the building to the corner-stone. For we note that St. Paul, apparently finding this relation too slight to express the full truth of the unity of the Church with Christ, first speaks of the whole building as compacted together in the corner-stone, and growing—that is, being gradually built up—in that closely compacted union; and next, calls the temple so built up a “temple holy in the Lord” (i.e., the Lord Jesus Christ), deriving, therefore, all its sacredness as a temple from a pervading unity with Him. The corner-stone is only a part, though a dominant part, of the building. Christ not only “keeps all together, whether you speak of roof, or wall, or any other part whatsoever” (Chrys.), but by contact with Himself makes the building to be a temple.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:19-22 The church is compared to a city, and every converted sinner is free of it. It is also compared to a house, and every converted sinner is one of the family; a servant, and a child in God's house. The church is also compared to a building, founded on the doctrine of Christ; delivered by the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles of the New. God dwells in all believers now; they become the temple of God through the working of the blessed Spirit. Let us then ask if our hopes are fixed on Christ, according to the doctrine of his word? Have we devoted ourselves as holy temples to God through him? Are we habitations of God by the Spirit, are we spiritually-minded, and do we bring forth the fruits of the Spirit? Let us take heed not to grieve the holy Comforter. Let us desire his gracious presence, and his influences upon our hearts. Let us seek to discharge the duties allotted to us, to the glory of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In whom - That is, "by" whom, or "upon" whom. It was in connection with him, or by being reared on him as a foundation.

All the building - The whole church of Christ.

Fitly framed together - The word used here means "to joint together," as a carpenter does the frame-work of a building. The materials are accurately and carefully united by mortises and tenons. so that the building shall be firm. Different materials may be used, and different kinds of timber may be employed, but one part shall be worked into another, so as to constitute a durable and beautiful edifice. So in the church. The different materials of the Jews and Gentiles; the people of various nations, though heretofore separated and discordant, become now united, and form an harmonious society. They believe the same doctrines; worship the same God; practice the same holiness; and look forward to the same heaven.

Groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord - see the 1 Corinthians 3:17 note; 2 Corinthians 6:16 note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. In whom—as holding together the whole.

fitly framed—so as exactly to fit together.

groweth—"is growing" continually. Here an additional thought is added to the image; the Church has the growth of a living organism, not the mere increase of a building. Compare 1Pe 2:5; "lively stones … built up a spiritual house." Compare Eph 4:16; Zec 6:12, "The Branch shall build the temple of the Lord," where similarly the growth of a branch, and the building of a temple, are joined.

holy—as being the "habitation of God" (Eph 2:22). So "in the Lord" (Christ) answers to "through the Spirit" (Eph 2:22; compare Eph 3:16, 17). "Christ is the inclusive Head of all the building, the element in which it has its being and now its growth" [Alford].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In whom; or upon whom, viz. Christ the foundation.

All the building; whatsoever is built on Christ the foundation, and so all particular believers, as the several parts of the building.

Fitly framed together; joined and united both to Christ the foundation by faith, and to each other by love.

Groweth; either:

1. Ariseth; the building goeth on till it comes to be a temple. Or:

2. It notes the stones or materials of the house to be living ones, receiving life from Christ, 1 Peter 2:5. Growth supposeth life. The verb is in the present tense, to signify that the builders are still at work, and this temple not yet finished.

Unto an holy temple; in allusion to the temple at Jerusalem; whereas the holy of holies was a type of heaven, so the temple itself was a type of the church, both as it was the place of God’s presence, and of his worship.

In the Lord: either this must be joined to

groweth, and then it is a pleonasm, the antecedent being here repeated, though the relative had been expressed, and it implies the growth of believers (the materials of this spiritual building) to be from Christ; or it may be joined with holy, and then it signifies that they have their holiness from Christ; or it may be read, holy to the Lord, and then it expresses the nature of this temple, that it is undefiled, consecrated to the Lord, and meet for him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In whom all the building fitly framed together,.... This building is to be understood of all the saints, and people of God; of the whole universal church, which is God's building; and is a building of a spiritual nature, and will abide for ever: and this is fitly framed together; it consists of various parts, as a building does; some saints are comparable to beams, some to rafters, others to pillars, &c. and these are joined and united to one another, and are set in an exact symmetry and proportion, and in a proper subserviency to each other; and so as to make for the good, the strength, and beauty of the whole. And it all centres in Christ; he has a great concern in this building; he is the master builder, and the foundation and cornerstone; and it being knit together in him,

groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: it grows by an accession of new stones, or of souls called by grace, and added to it; for this building is not yet openly and visibly completed, as it will be; in order to which the ministry of the word, and administration of ordinances are continued; and this will be in the latter day, when the number of God's elect, among Jews and Gentiles, shall be gathered in: and this growth may be understood also of an increase of those, who are openly laid in the building; of their spiritual growth into their head, Christ; and of an, increase of grace in them; which the word and ordinances are means of, under a divine blessing: and this building grows unto an "holy temple", the Gospel church state, called a "temple", in allusion to the temple at Jerusalem; whose materials were stones made ready and hewn, before they were brought thither; and whose magnificence, beauty, and glory, were very great; and it was the place of public worship, and of the divine abode, and was a very significant emblem of the church of God; see 2 Corinthians 6:16, which is an "holy" one, set apart for holy uses, and internally sanctified by the Spirit of God; and which is discovered by external holiness of life, and conversation in the members of it: and this is said to be "in the Lord"; which phrase may refer to the word "groweth", and denotes that growth and increase, both of persons and grace, the church has in, and from the Lord Jesus Christ; or to the word "holy", and intimates, that the holiness of the church, and every member of it, is also in and from the Lord; or to the word "temple", which is built for him to dwell in.

Geneva Study Bible

In whom all the building {s} fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

(s) So that God is the workman not only of the foundation, but also of the whole building.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Ephesians 2:21. An elucidation to ὄντος ἀκρογ. αὐτοῦ Ἰ. Χ., bearing on the matter in hand, and placing in yet clearer light the thought of Ephesians 2:19 f.; in whom each community, in whom also yours (Ephesians 2:22), organically developes itself unto its holy destination.[161]

ἐν ᾧ] means neither by whom (Castalio, Vatablus, Menochius, Morus, and others, including Flatt), nor upon whom (Estius, Koppe, and others), but: in whom, so that Christ (for ᾧ applies neither to ἀκρογ., as Castalio, Estius, and Koppe suppose, nor to τῷ θεμελίῳ, as Holzshausen would have it, but to the nearest and emphatic αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χ.) appears as that wherein the joining together of the building has its common point of support (comp. Ephesians 1:10).

πᾶσα οἰκοδομή] not: the whole building (Oecumenius, Harless, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Bleek), which would be at variance with linguistic usage, and would absolutely require the reading (on that account preferred by Matthies, Winer, and others) πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή (see the critical remarks), but: every building. The former interpretation, moreover, the opposition of which to linguistic usage is rightly urged also by Reiche,[162] is by no means logically necessary, since Paul was not obliged to proceed from the conception of the whole body of Christians to the community of the readers (Ephesians 2:22), but might pass equally well from the conception “every community” to the conception “also ye” (Ephesians 2:22), and thus subordinate the particular to the general. The objection that there is only one οἰκοδομή (de Wette) is baseless, since the collective body of Christians might be just as reasonably, as every community for itself, conceived as a temple-building. The latter conception is found, as in 1 Corinthians 3:16, so also here, where the former is linguistically impossible. Chrysostom, however, is wrong in holding that by πᾶσα οἰκοδ. is signified every part of the building (wall, roof, etc.), since οἰκοδομή rather denotes the aggregate of the single parts of the building, the edifice, and since not a wall, a roof, etc., but only the building as a whole which is thought of, can grow unto a temple.

συναρμολ.] becoming framed together; for the present participle represents the edifice as still in the process of building, as indeed every community is engaged in the progressive development of its frame of Christian life until the Parousia (comp. on 1 Corinthians 3:15). The participle is closely connected with ἐν ᾧ: every building, while its framing together, i.e. the harmonious combination of its parts into the corresponding whole, takes place in Christ, grows, etc. The compound συναρμολογεῖν (with classical writers συναρμόζειν) is met with only here and Ephesians 4:16, but ἁρμολογεῖν in Philipp. Thess. 78.

αὔξει] On this form of the present, read in the N.T. only here and at Colossians 2:19, but genuinely classical, see Matthiae, p. 541.

εἰς ναὸν ἅγιον] Final result of this growth. It is not, however, to be translated: unto a holy temple, for the conception of several temples was foreign to the apostle with his Jewish nationality, but: unto the holy temple, in which there was no need of the article (see on 1 Corinthians 3:16). To realize the idea of the one temple—that is the goal unto which every community, while its organic development of life has its firm support in Christ, groweth up.

ἐν κυρίῳ] By this not God is meant, as Michaelis, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Holzshausen, and others suppose, but Christ (see the following ἐν ᾧ). By the majority it is connected with ἅγιον, in which case it would not have, with Beza, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Flatt, to be taken for the dative, but (so also de Wette, Hofmann, Bleek) would have to be explained of the ἁγιότης of the temple, having its causal ground in Christ, thus specifically Christian. But the holiness of the temple lies in the dwelling of God therein (see Ephesians 2:22); it does not, therefore, first come into existence in Christ, but is already existent, and the church becomes in Christ that which the holy temple is, inasmuch as in this church the idea of the holy temple realizes itself. Others have rightly, therefore, connected it with αὔξει, although ἐν is not, with Grotius, Wolf, et al., to be translated by per. In the case of every building which is framed together in Christ, the growing into the holy temple takes place also in Christ (as the one on whom this further development depends). The being framed together and the growing up of the building to its sacred destination—both not otherwise than in the Lord.

[161] Observe the apostle’s view of the church, as a whole and in its single parts, as one living organism. Comp. Thiersch, die Kirche im apost. Zeitalt. p. 154, 162; Ehrenfeuchier, prakt. Theol. I. p. 55 ff.

[162] The admissibility of the anarthrous form πᾶσα αἰκοδομή, in the sense of “the whole building,” cannot be at all conceded, since οἰκοδομή is neither a proper name, nor to be regarded as equivalent to such. See Winer, p. 101 [E. T. 140]; Buttmann, neut. Gram. p. 78 [E. T. 86]. In general πᾶς in the sense of whole can only be without an article, when the substantive to which it belongs would not need the article even without πᾶς (Krüger, § 50, 11. 9). Hence πᾶσα οἰκοδ. can only signify either every building, or else a building utterly. In the latter sense Chrysostom appears, very unsuitably, no doubt (see above), to have taken it. According to Hofmann, II. 2, p. 123, πᾶσα οἰκοδ. is meant to signify “whatever becomes a constituent part of a building” (thus also the Gentiles who become Christians). As if οἰκοδομή could mean constituent part of a building! It signifies, even in Matthew 24:1, Mark 13:1 f., edifice. And as if πᾶσα, every part of the building, when in fact only two constituent parts, namely Jews and Gentiles, could be thought of, were in harmony with this relation! The rendering is linguistically and logically incorrect.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Ephesians 2:21. ἐν ᾧ πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομὴ συναρμολογουμένη αὔξει εἰς ναὸν ἅγιον ἐν Κυρίῳ: in whom each several building (RV text; “every building,” RV marg.), fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord. The relative refers naturally to the nearest subject, what is also the leading subject, Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, not to the ἀκρογωνιαίου, far less to the remoter θεμελίῳ; the ἐν also has its full sense of in, not by or on. That is to say, it is in Christ Jesus, and only by connection with Him, that the οἰκοδομή is what it is here declared to be. The word οἰκοδομή appears to be confined to late Greek, no certain instance of it having been found in classical Greek. It occurs in Diod., Philo, Plut., Joseph., the LXX, Macc., etc. It is used both for οἰκοδόμησις and οἰκοδόμημα. In the NT it has sometimes the literal sense of οἰκοδόμημα (e.g., Matthew 24:1; Mark 13:1; 2 Corinthians 5:1); and sometimes the figurative sense of edification (Romans 14:19; Romans 15:2; 2 Corinthians 13:10; Ephesians 4:20), or, as here, that of a body of Christian believers. The question of the text here is important. There is considerable support for πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή ([188] [189] [190], Arm., etc.), and it is conceivable that itacism might have caused the omission of the ἡ. But diplomatic evidence is decidedly in favour of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή ([191] [192] [193] [194] [195] [196] [197], etc.). Adopting this reading (with LTTrWHRV) we have to ask whether the phrase is to be rendered the whole building or every building. The former rendering is certainly the one that first suggests itself, while the latter seems at first difficult to relate to the context. The former is defended as legitimate by some weighty authorities; e.g., Winer, on the ground that the subject is “the Church of Christ as a whole,” and Ellicott, who takes it to be a case of grammatical laxity. But the distinction between πᾶς with the article and πᾶς without it is so well maintained in the NT that only an absolutely intolerable sense can justify us in departing from it. The only exceptions to the general rule appear to be those that hold good also for ordinary Greek—in general and unqualified statements, with proper names, and with nouns which have acquired so stated a meaning that they can drop the article, etc. (cf. Win.-Moult., p. 138, and especially Buttm., Gram. of N. T. Greek, pp. 119, 120; Blass, Gram. of N. T. Greek, pp. 161, 162). The present instance does not come within the scope of these exceptions. It is not like πᾶς οἶκος Ἰσραήλ (Acts 2:36), nor is it really analogous even to such cases as the πᾶσα γῆ of Thucyd., ii., 43, or the πᾶσα ἐπιστολή of Ignat., Eph., 12. Hence the rendering here must be “every building” or “every several building”. The present participle συναρμολογουμένη (the verb occurs in the NT only here and in Ephesians 4:16, and corresponds to the classical συναρμόζειν) describes the joining together as a process now going on. The pres. αὔξει (a form occurring in the NT only here and in Colossians 2:19, but common in Soph., Thucyd., Pind., etc.) in like manner expresses what is happening now, or, it may be, what is normal. The phrase νάον ἅγιον is sufficiently rendered “a holy temple” or “sanctuary”. Some (e.g., Mey.), supposing that Paul has the Jewish temple in view and means to say that the Christian Church is now the true Temple of God, the house made His own sanctuary by His dwelling in it, would render it “the holy temple”. The ἐν Κυρίῳ is connected by some (Harl., etc.) immediately with ἅγιον, = a temple that is holy as being in the Lord; by others with ναὸν ἅγιον (Ell.); by others with αὔξει (Mey.). But it really qualifies the whole statement of the joining and growing. All this is in the Lord, i.e., in Christ, as both the context and the general NT application of Κύριος show. The sense of the whole, therefore, is this—in Christ the Lord every several building that goes to make up the ideal Temple of God, every Christian community, the one now addressed not less than others, is at present being surely framed and fitted together, and is growing and harmoniously developing so that it may form part of the great mystical Body of Christ, the vast spiritual fellowship of believers which is God’s true Temple.

[188] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[189] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[190] Codex Ephraemi (sæc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.

[191] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[192] Autograph of the original scribe of א.

[193] Autograph of the original scribe of א.

[194] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[195] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

[196] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[197] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. in whom] In close and vital connexion with Whom. See last note.

all the building] R. V., “each several building;” as if the great Temple were viewed for the moment in its multiplicity of porches, courts, and towers; each connected with the great bond of the substructure, in and on which the whole architecture was rising.—An interesting grammatical question arises over the reading here and this rendering, and will occur again Ephesians 3:15 :—does the Greek phrase, in the best attested reading, demand the rendering of the R. V. as against that of the A. V.? We incline to the reply that it does not. The law of the definite article (the absence of which here occasions the question) is undoubtedly somewhat less exact in the Greek of the Scriptures than in that of the classics. And this leaves us free to use (with caution) the context to decide problems which in the classics would be decided by pure grammar. Such a case we take this to be; and the question to ask is, does the context favour the imagery of detail or that of total? Surely the latter. The idea points to one great building, getting completed within itself, rising to its ideal. We retain accordingly the A. V. See further, next note.

fitly framed together] One word, a present participle, in the Greek. The same occurs below, Ephesians 4:16 (“fitly joined together”), and nowhere else in N. T. The idea is not of a completed but of a progressive work, a “framing together” of the structure ever more closely and firmly. The building shrinks into greater solidity, binds itself into more intense coherence, as it grows. The spiritual union of the saints needs but to be more believed and realized to tell more on their actual closeness of connexion.—The idea conveyed by this word, which is of course in the singular number, is (see last note) far rather that of one great building growing in internal solidity than of many buildings growing in contact.

groweth] with the perpetual addition of new “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) and the resulting new connexions. Observe two distinct ideas in harmony; growth in compactness, growth in extension.

unto a holy temple] R. V., margin, “into an holy sanctuary.” The Greek (nâos) is not the temple-area with its courts and porches (hiëron), but the temple-house; the place of the Presence.—The phrase, “unto,” “into,” suggests (like that in the next verse) a sanctuary not yet complete and ready for the Presence. The true Church, indeed, is already (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16; and cp. 1 Corinthians 6:19 of its individual members) “the sanctuary of the living God.” But it is this as a still imperfect thing, and still imperfectly; the absolute and final in the matter is yet to come; and this will so transcend the partial and actual that it is spoken of as if the Indwelling were not yet. We may faintly illustrate by an unfinished cathedral, used already for Divine worship, but not yet ideally prepared for it.—See Revelation 21:22 for another side of truth in temple-imagery. There, in the final state, there is “no sanctuary,” for God and the Lamb “are the sanctuary of” the holy City. All, absolutely all, is hallowed by Their Presence indwelling; Sanctuary and Shechinah are, as it were, one; and nothing is there that is not Sanctuary.

Great indeed is the conception in this passage. The saints, in their community “in the Lord,” are preparing, through an Indwelling partial though real, for an Indwelling complete and eternal; the two being, in continuity, one. In no mere figure of speech, their God already “dwells” in their bodies, and in their community; dwells there as in a Sanctuary—in manifested Light, in Peace of covenant and propitiation, in Oracle-speech of “the Spirit’s witness,” in eternal Life. And this precious present fact is germinating to the future result of a heavenly and everlasting Indwelling (likewise in individuals and in community), when the Sanctuary shall reflect without a flaw its Indweller’s glory; when our union and communion with Him, in other words, shall be perfect, absolute, ideal. “We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”

in the Lord] The Lord Christ. We have “God” in the next verse, in a way which indicates this distinctive reference here. The imagery leaves the precise idea of the Corner Stone, to present the Lord as the living bond and principle, the secret both of growth and sanctity.

Bengel's Gnomen

Ephesians 2:21. Ἐν ᾧ, in whom) In Christ. This, by Anaphora [repetition to mark beginnings], is repeated in the following verse.—συναρμολογουμένη αὔξει, fitly framed together, groweth) Words that have relation to a living mass, ch. Ephesians 3:18, note; and 1 Peter 2:5. So συναρμολογούμενον, fitly joined together, ch. Ephesians 4:16.[38] So the branch and the house are combined, Zechariah 6:12.—ναὸν, a temple) It is a house, and that too a holy house, to which the temple of Diana of Ephesus must yield.—ἅγιον, holy) i.e. of God, Ephesians 2:22 [which answers to ἅγιον, Ephesians 2:21].—ἘΝ ΚΥΡΊῼ, in the Lord) in Christ. To this expression [Ephesians 2:21], the words, [through or] in the Spirit, correspond in Ephesians 2:22. So also ch. Ephesians 3:17; Ephesians 3:16.

[38] It occurs nowhere else in New Test. The two images here are combined of a building and of a living growing organism.—ED.

—————

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - In whom all the building. Not even the figure of a building can keep the apostle from his favorite idea of vital fellowship with Christ as the soul of all Christianity - "in whom." Πᾶσα οἰκοδομὴ is rendered in R.V. "each several building." But surely the want of the article does not make imperative a rendering which is out of keeping with the apostle's object, viz. to illustrate the organic unity of believers, Jewish and Gentile, as one great body (comp. Ephesians 4:4, "There is one body"). If there had been many several or separate buildings in the apostle's view, why not a Jewish building and a Gentile building? Or how could the separate buildings have their lines directed by the one chief Cornerstone? In Acts 2:36 πᾶς οϊκος Ισραήλ is not "every house of Israel," but "all the house of Israel." Fitly framed together. There is a jointing and joining of the various parts to each other, forming a symmetrical, compact, well-ordered building. The Church has many members in one body, and all members have not the same office. It is a co-operative body, each aiding in his own way and with his own talent. The Church is not a collection of loose stones and timbers; its members are in vital union with Christ, and ought to be in living and loving and considerate fellowship with each other. Groweth into a holy temple in the Lord. Increase is an essential property of the Church; wherever there is life there is growth. But the growth of the Church is not mere increase of members or size; the growth is towards a temple, of which the character is holy, and it is in the Lord. The world-famed temple of Diana at Ephesus may have been in the apostle's mind - its symmetry, its glory, the relation of each several part to the rest and to the whole, as a suitable external emblem of the spiritual body which is being built up in Christ; but the Christian Church is a holy temple, dedicated to God, purified by his Spirit, entirely foreign to those defilements which disgraced the temple of Diana. The ἐν ω΅ι at the beginning of the verse is followed by ἐν Κυρίῳ at the end, as if the union of the Church to Christ could not be too often brought out. In him we are born into it; in him we grow in it; in him the whole temple grows towards the final consummation, when the topstone shall be brought out with shouts of "Grace, grace unto it." Ephesians 2:21

Vincent's Word Studies

All the building (πᾶσα οικοδομὴ)

Lit., every building. Rev., each several building. But the reference is evidently to one building, and the rendering of A.V. should be retained though the article is wanting.

Fitly framed together (συναρμολογουμένη)

The present participle indicates the framing as in progress.

Temple (ναὸν)

Sanctuary. See on Matthew 4:5. The more sacred portion of the structure is chosen for the figure.