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each part in due measure (Eph. 4:16) of its proper function towards the whole. Thus the material unity of Judaism is transformed into the moral unity of the Apocalypse.’

The Church the Bride of Christ.

The image used in prophetical books of the Old Testament (Hos. 2:19, Ezek. 16, Mal. 2:11) to describe the relation between Jehovah and His people, is in the New Testament applied to Christ and the Church. Suggested, in the Synoptic Gospels, by the imagery of the Parables of the Marriage-feast (Matt. 22:1 ff.) and of the Ten Virgins (id. 25:1 ff., also Matt. 9:15) is signified in the Gospel of St John by the language of the Baptist (John 3:29 f.): ‘He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.’ The Christ was gathering round Him the disciples who were the beginnings of His Church—representatives of the spiritual Israel—the divine Bride—brought by the forerunner to Christ—the Bridegroom.

In 2 Cor. 11:2 zhlw' ga;r uJma'" qeou' zhvlw/, hJrmosavmhn ga;r uJma'" eJni; ajndri; parqevnon aJgnh;n parasth'sai tw'/ cristw'/ , St Paul applies the figure to the connexion of Christ with a particular body of Christians; even as in Ephesians (Eph. 5:32 ff.) he uses it (v. supr.) of the relation of Christ to His Church as a whole,—the Church ‘contemplated as distinct from Christ, though most closely bound to Him as His bride.’

In the Apocalypse (Apoc. 19:7, 21:2, 9, 22:17) the Holy City, the New Jerusalem is seen ‘as a bride adorned for her husband’: and ‘the bride’ is ‘the wife of the Lamb.’

The Church Universal.

‘Every Family,’ every Fatherhood, derives that, in virtue of which it is what it is, from the One Father (Eph. 3:15); from Him comes all fellowship and unity in heaven and on earth.

The Church, of which the Family is the type and monument, is the herald and witness of the revelation of a living God,—‘the interpreter of the world in the light of the Incarnation,’—‘the appointed organ of the gifts of Christ.’

And it is in the Epistle to the Ephesians that the idea of the One Church, having a mission thus manifold and universal, is first developed.

‘Here, for the first time, we hear Christians throughout the world described as together making up a single Ecclesia, a single assembly of God, or Church’ (Hort: Prolegomena , p. 128).

Use of the word ajpokavluyi" in the N.T.

A. Pauline usage:—

Thess. 1:7. ejn th'/ ajpokaluvyei t. kurivou jIhsou' ajpj oujranou' . Cor. 1:7. th;n ajpokavluyin t. kurivou hJmw'n jI. Cristou' .
:6.
h] ejn ajpokaluvyei h] ejn gnwvsei h] ejn profhteiva/ h] ejn didach'/ .

. yalmo;n didach;n ajpokavluyin .


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