Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Ephesians 1:22,23 -- All in All

And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church. Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.-- Ephesians 1:22,23 King James Version.

Verse 23, especially, is often cited as proof that Jesus is "ominipresent", and thus it is imagined, assumed, and added to the scripture that Jesus possesses an attribute that only belongs to God Almighty.

The word "things" is added twice by the translators.

God is presented throughout this chapter as being only one person, "the God and Father of Jesus". (Ephesians 1:3). It is Jesus' God and Father who put all under Jesus' feet, and who has made Jesus head over all pertaining to the church. In subjecting all to Jesus, Paul elsewhere states that it is evident the God is excepted. -- 1 Corinthians 15:27.

Whatever is being spoken of related to Jesus is referring to what the one person who is "God" has given to Jesus. It is not speaking of what Jesus was while in the days of his flesh, nor even what Jesus was before his God prepared a body of flesh for Jesus. (Hebrews 10:5; Matthew 1:20) Rather than presenting Jesus as being God, Paul speaks of God as being Jesus' God:

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him [God]. -- Ephesians 1:17, KJV.

Ephesians 1:19 and what the exceeding greatness of his [God] power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his [God's] might
Ephesians 1:20 which he [God] wrought in Christ [Micah 5:4], when he [God]raised him [Jesus] from the dead, and made him to sit at his [God's] right hand in the heavenly places ,
Ephesians 1:21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
Ephesians 1:22 and he [God] put all things in subjection under his {Jesus'] feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church,
Ephesians 1:23 which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. -- American Standard Version

1 Corinthians 15:27 For “God has put everything under His feet.” Now when it says that everything has been put under Him, this clearly does not include the One [the God and Father of Jesus] who put everything under Him.

So whatever glory to which God exalted Jesus, it excludes the glory that belongs exclusively to God who exalted Jesus. 

However, it is obviously being imagined and assumed that "filleth all in all" means omnipresence. Actually, it is speaking of the church, the body of Christ, In context, it appears that Paul was speaking of Christ as filling all that is needed in every member of his body.

Of course, in exalting Jesus bodily with the plenitude of power to be head over every ruler and power (Colossians 2:9,10), it would be necessarily that God also give to Jesus the bodily power to -- in some way -- be present in many places at once.

Regardless, any idea that there is anything anywhere in Ephesians 1 (or anywhere else in the entire Bible) that is referring to Jesus as being God Almighty has to be created beyond what is written. There is definitely nothing at all in Ephesians 1 that presents the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Acts 3:13) as being more than one person, or that Jesus is a person of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or that suggests that Paul had any intent of presenting Jesus as being the "one God" from whom are all. -- 1 Corinthians 8:6.