Part 2: Understanding Paul's Quotation of Genesis 2:24 in Ephesians 5
Today we’re going to finish considering why Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 at the end of Ephesians 5 by looking through the narratives of Jesus in the Gospel of John.
But first, let’s remember what we learned last week. Here is the passage from Ephesians 5 that we are trying to better understand.
Ephesians 5:28-32:
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are parts of His body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
Last week, I told you that I followed Paul’s analogy about the flesh and body husband (like Adam, Gen. 2) corresponding to Christ’s body. And followed how husbands ought to love their wives like they love their own bodies (just as Eve was literally made form Adam’s body, Gen. 2) just as Christ loves the Church, which are parts of His body.
But the difficult part for me to understand was why Paul quoted Genesis 2:24 at this point in the discussion and explicit explains that he is referencing Christ and the Church.
What does a man leaving his father and mother have to do with Christ and the church?
We started answering that question in the last episode of #CanonicalMondays by pointing out the Old Testament the reoccurrence of God’s specially chosen men (like Isaac and Jacob, as well as Joseph, Moses, Boaz, and David) who follow that pattern of leaving father and mother and finding a wife.
We focused in on Isaac and Jacob and how they followed the patterns set in Genesis 2 and summed up our observations like this:
There is a leaving of the parents to find a wife for the son. She is found in a spot that’s characterized both by family and water (like the garden).
He finds a wife, they have children, and this moves the Old Testament forward from one chosen man of God to the next.
There are many ways that this line of men resemble one another and perpetuate the story. This pattern is prophetic. God’s man, all these potential Messiahs, will leave his father and mother to find a suitable wife.
And now, after following the patterns of finding a wife for the special son through the Old Testament, we are expecting that the Christ—the Messiah—will walk in the patterns of His forebearers and leave His father and find a wife.
And the Messiah – Jesus – does just that! Let’s take a closer look at the Gospel of John and see how the Christ is clearly portrayed as fulfilling Genesis 2:24. This will help us to understand what Paul was referring to at the end of Ephesians 5!
The Gospel of John
John 1 starts right off the bat with Genesis-Creation language and we immediately see that Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God begins filling the prophetic patterns started and carried through the Old Testament:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. …
9This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him…
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Some Observations:
The eternal Word came in the flesh, to His own people and land, and dwelt (“tabernacled”) among them. That Word is specifically called the only Son from the Father.
This directly connects us back to the line of God’s men, a special son of the father, who leaves his father in order to find the right kind of wife from among his own people![1]
To be fair, there is no mention of finding a wife here in these paragraphs.
But turn the page just over to Chapter 2, starting off with another Creation echo (“on the third day”), where Jesus and His mother are at a wedding.
For the canonical reader of the Old Testament starting the Gospel of John, it would be forgivable if he or she assumed Jesus was about to get married here! The Son has left the Father, gone to His own people! Surely a wedding is coming! But, of course, this is not a wedding for Jesus, just a wedding that He is attending.
Then, we see John the Baptist in John 3:29 referring to Jesus, saying, “He who has the bride is the groom, but the friend of the groom (John, his forerunner), who stands and listens to Him, rejoices greatly because of the groom’s voice[2]. So this joy of mine has been made full.”[3] What bride does Jesus the groom have?
John 4
Then, we turn to John 4, in a scene set to look just like the Garden and the stories of Isaac and Jacob finding their wife at a well:
On a mountain, on a piece of land given to Joseph by Jacob, and the scene focus in on the interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. John 4:7 sees Jesus first words to her: A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” This is significant because not only did He meet this woman at a well, but the first thing He speaks to her is a request for water[4]. Just like the marriage stories in the Old Testament that include watering from a well!
There, Jesus and this woman talk about living water, and they talk about marriage. But again, though a Canonical reader may expect this to be Jesus’ proposal to a woman, this is not Jesus’ bride. Yet, in this narrative, though not getting married, Jesus confirms to this woman that He is indeed the long-awaited Messiah (4:25-26).
John 20
Now, let’s head over to the end of the book of John, where again, we see the Eden scene laid out in Chapter 20.
On the sunrise of the first day of a new week in a mountainside garden, a woman comes to the empty tomb of Jesus. The first thing that risen Jesus says to her is “Woman.” Just as the first thing that Adam said to Eve was “woman.” Then not knowing who He was, thinking He was the gardener, does not recognize Him until she hears His voice calling her name. And then, she recognized Him, by His voice!
As we saw earlier in John 3, the groom’s voice is speaking, calling His own, His bride to Himself, and those who listen to His voice and respond to Him, receive life.[5]
Importantly here, Jesus again does not literally marry this woman.[6] But He tells her to go and tell the good news to the disciples: go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” vs. 17
Jesus didn’t literally marry that woman, but His Bride was created by His death on the cross. That death, the His giving up of His life, made His Bride a part of His body (Eph 5:25, He gave Himself up…in order to present to Himself a holy Church (bride); 5:30, we are parts of His body).
And, He has made His followers into His family. The disciples become brothers. Jesus’ own Father becomes their Father. Just as the sons in the Old Testament were able create family once they took a bride!
Already, Not Yet
And, we know this isn’t the end the story. The Church is the Bride of Christ and the Church is still growing. The family is still growing. And the Church is washed in order to be presented as a spotless Bride (Eph 5:26-27[7]). The Church is the Bride, the wedding has begun but is not fully complete.
One day, all who belong to this Bride – members of Christ’s own body – will celebrate the completion of the marriage of the Lamb to the Bride that has made herself ready (Rev. 19).
This is the completion of the prophetic pattern begun in Genesis 2: just as the perfectly compatible bride was chosen for the son – that son who has left father and mother and clings to his wife – so too, the Church, purified and spotless and glorified, will finally be perfectly compatible to the Son, and they will dwell together forever.
Summary
This walk through of the narratives in the Gospel of John have been for the purpose of highlighting how Jesus follows the Old Testament pattern of God’s special man, a son, who leaves his father and mother and takes a bride (and produces family).
John shows us that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, who left His father, in order to find a wife. And He purchases that Bride with His own body on the crucifixion tree, where He laid down His life—gave it up—for her.
Once we have seen how Jesus follows in the prophetic pattern of his forefathers, our confusion over Paul’s interpretation of Genesis 2:24 in Ephesians 5 is cleared away. Yes, Paul knows what he’s talking about! And we can see his logic, too. Genesis 2:24 is indeed talking about Jesus and His Bride, the church.
NOTES
[1] Not only is Jesus shown to be following the patterns of the men in the Old Testament, He is explicitly said to be the One who was written about in the Law of Moses (the whole Pentateuch, Genesis–Deuteronomy) and the Prophets: Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses wrote in the Law, and the prophets also wrote: Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth!” John 1:45. A good question is, why did Philip think that Moses wrote about Jesus? They knew that they were waiting for a Messiah that would like the patriarchs through the Pentateuch, like Moses, like Elijah, like David, etc. What they looked like/did, through intentionally repeating patterns of narratives, were prophesying what the Messiah would look like/do when He came.
[2] Voice—another important connection between Jesus and the Old Testament, God of Israel. God’s people are called to listen to His voice. And in a connected pattern, the Messiah will be a Shepherd, a theme seen in the Gospel of John, representing Jesus as the Good Shepherd whose sheep (people) know His voice. But, to circle back, this Good Shepherd who is known by His voice (John 10) is also known as the groom, who is known by His voice (John 3:29), revealing God the Father and giving baptism and eternal life to all those who come to Him (John 3:25-36).
[3] Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers discusses this portion of John 3 in a helpfully succinct way: “The bridegroom is the Messiah; the bride is the Kingdom of God--the church, consisting of all who with pure hearts are willing to receive Him; the friend who has arranged the betrothal, who has prepared these hearts, is John himself. He now stands and hears the Bridegroom. Some of those who had been prepared by him for the Bridegroom would have come, it may be, and told him of his words. He is now near at hand. Throngs crowd to Him. The bride is approaching. Do they see in all this matter for envy? It is to him the consummation of all hopes. The life-work has not been in vain. The cup runs over. The joy is fulfilled.” (You can read this commentary here, where I accessed that quote: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/john/3.htm)
[4] They talk about Jacob, water and food. The narrative also mentions harvesting fields. These are all prominent threads throughout the marriage stories in the Old Testament:
When the servant finds a wife for Isaac, he asks her for water. She gives it to him, and waters his camels. He tells her he’s looking for a wife for the son of his master; he goes to her family’s home, eats with them and lodges with them before heading back to Isaac, where Rebekah first meets him in a field. This parallels Jacob, who meets Rachel, shepherdess, at a well in a field, and there he waters her sheep, and then eats with the family and resides there. Zipporah meets Moses at a well, where she is watering the flock and Moses rescues her and her sisters; Moses eats with the family, resides with them, and becomes a shepherd. Boaz meets Ruth and a field, and he offers her water that the servants have drawn up and then shares a meal with her.
[5] And as we read in John 10, the sheep of the Good Shepherd are called by name and know His voice. Here in John 20, after Jesus has laid down His life, confirming what He predicted in John 10, He speaks to His first sheep, the woman, who knows Him by His voice. Ephesians 5, the passage we’ve been observing, also uses this terminology with groom and bride. Jesus the groom gave Himself up for the Church, in order to sanctify her and…so that He might present to Himself a holy and blameless Church (bride).
[6] Interestingly, He tells her not to continue clinging to Him. That word for clinging is the same word used in the Greek version of the Old Testament (the LXX) in Genesis 2:24, where it says, and he will cling to his wife…
[7] cf 2 Cor 11:1-4, the bride who remains pure by continuing to listen to the true Christ, not receiving any false Christs
Author: Mary Busby
Mary has an MA in Professional Counseling (Liberty University), a BA in Linguistics (University of Florida), and is currently studying for a Master’s certificate in Biblical Hebrew.