Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5:25-27)
[T]he first clear parallel between Ezek. 16 and Eph. 5:25b-7 has to do with the detailed and overriding concern to set forth the beauty and purity of the bride. Ezekiel’s presentation has the function of setting the stage of the impact of v. 15, in which it is stated that Jerusalem ‘trusted in your beauty and played the harlot’. Her beauty, as expressed in the description of garments and ornaments, has been misused to advance her harlotries.
A second close affinity may be seen between Ezek. 16:9—‘then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you’—and Eph. 5:26—‘that he might sanctify her, having been cleansed her by the washing of water with the word’. Eph. 5:26 contained the first ινα clause that is dependent upon verse 25b—‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’. Within the ινα clause is the participial phase: καθαρισας τω λουτρω του υδατος εν ρηματι, ‘having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word’. Leaving apart for the present the question of the function of εν ρηματι., Ezekiel provides a certain parallel to this participial phrase. In 16:8ff. Ezekiel portrays YHWH as passing by youthful Jerusalem a second time, finding her ‘at the age for love’ (עֵת דֹּדִים or ιδου καιρος σου). He plighted his troth to her and made a covenant with her (16:8). Simmerli states that there can be no doubt that the Hebrew וָאָבוֹא בִבְרִית אֹתָךְ indicates that a betrothal is intended. In conjunction with this betrothal and the covenant signifies it, Jerusalem becomes YHWH’s Ezek. 16:9, in this connection reads: ‘Then I bathed you with water’ (אֶרְחָצֵךְ בַּמַּיִם καλ ελουσα σε εν υδατι). In Ezekiel, as in Ephesians, the washing with water is directly related to the act of the husband’s purifying his bride.
Further reinforcing the lines that may be drawn between Ezekiel and Ephesians on this particular issue is the currency of the association of Jerusalem with the church, as discussed by Paul Minear in his Images of the Church in the New Testament. The interplay of conceptions of Jerusalem and of the church in Galatians, Hebrews and Revelation points up the prevalence of these understandings in the early Christian communities, and probably indicates that the author of Ephesians has here taken over earlier church or Christian traditions and informed them with further details from Ezek. 16.
Also in this connection, the identification is even further confirmed if K.G. Kuhn’s judgment be correct, that, in rabbinic literature, קָדַשׁ often means ‘to espouse a wife’. Kuhn, in his treatment of holiness in rabbinic Judaism, points to what he describes as a ‘secular use’ of קָדַשׁ with the prefixed preposition L that must be translated ‘to espouse a wife’, literally, ‘to select or separate oneself, as wife’.
In rabbinic literature קָדַשׁ takes over the function of the biblical word קָנָה to express the action of betrothal. This use of קָדַשׁ pervades the tractate BT Kiddushin. In the marital context, then, קָדַשׁ means that the husband renders his wife as הֶקְדֵשׁ, a consecrated object, to all other men. BUT Kiddushin 41 a is illustrative and incorporates many features that are related also in Eph. 5:21-33: (1) its use of קָדַשׁ for betrothal is the same as Ephesians’ use of αγιαζω (5:26a); (2) Kiddushin’s ‘lest he see something repulsive in her’ relates closely to Ephesians’ insistence that the church be without spot, blemish, etc.; and (3) both use Lev. 19:18. In the context of a discussion of betrothal through an agent, the argument continues: ‘Rab Judah said in the same of Rab: A man may not betroth a woman before he sees her, lest he see something repulsive in her, and she become loathsome to him, whereas the All-Merciful said, “but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”.’
Corresponding to this of קָדַשׁ in some sections of rabbinic literature, the αγιαζω of Eph. 5:26a means not only ‘set apart’, of Eph. 5:26 must also be interpreted in precisely the same context of betrothal and marriage that, according to Zimmerli, is accomplished by the ‘I bathed you with water’ of Ezek. 16:8-9. According to this view, therefore, the αγιαζω of Eph. 5:26a parallels the וָאָבוֹא בִבְרִית אֹתָךְ of Ezek. 16:8 and the וָאֶרְחָצֵךְ בַּמַּיִם of Ezek. 16:9 is paralleled by the τω λουτρω του υδατος of Eph. 5:26b. Even the order is the same in Ephesians as it is in Ezekiel.
Thus Eph 5:25-27 has close affinity to Ezek. 16:8ff in that both reflect a hieros gamos (YHWH—Jerusalem, Christian—church) in which the groom cleanses his bride by a washing with water and in which the result is a strong emphasis on the beauty and purity of the bride. Here is the first clear evidence that behind the Ephesian verses is the pattern of YHWH’s marriage to Israel-Jerusalem as the basis for the understanding of the relation of Christ and the church . . . Verses 26-7a are composed of two parallel clauses that must be taken as dependent on both the verbs in v. 25 b-c. They are translated by the RSV: ‘that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that the church might be presented before him in splendour’.
In the two ινα clauses (vv. 26a and 27a) Christ is clearly understood as the subject of acting upon the church. A third ινα clause (v. 27c) has as its subject the church: ‘in order that she might be holy’. The first two ινα clauses are coordinate, final clauses resulting from and explaining the significance of Christ’s love and giving up of himself for the church.
In the ινα clause (v. 26), the verb αγιαζω raises, to be sure, a range of meanings that has to do with sanctification or purification. It means to set apart, to make holy, or to purify; but, as a technical term, it may means to separate out for oneself namely in the sense of marriage. Αγιαζω (v. 26 a) retains the breadth of meaning from a sense of purity or sanctity to an understanding of marriage or selecting a wife.
The object of ινα αγιαση is αυτην, clearly the feminine pronoun standing for την εκκλησιαν. There is some concern among commentators for the position of αυτην since the object occurs prior to the verb αγιαση. Schlier, for example, has suggested that the author wants to emphasize that the church and the church along is the object of Christ’s sanctification. This does not seem to be the only, or even the best, explanation for the position of αυτην. Perhaps it precedes the verb αγιαση so that the participle καθαρισας and αγιαση may be related more closely to one another as a means of emphasizing that Christ is subject of both the verb and the participle. Also its preposition ties together more closely the range of meanings in αγιαζω and in καθαριζω, a connection that is to be verified by the author’s own development in v. 27.
The participial phrase that constitutes v. 26b—καθαρισας τω λουτρω του υδατος εν ρηματι—has a circumstantial or adverbial function with regard to Christ’s sanctifying or betrothing the church to himself. There seems to be a temporal relationship between the participle καθαρισας and the finite verb αγιαση . . . Following the participle καθαρισας in 5:26b is the phrase τω λουτρω του υδατος is used only twice in the NT; apart from Eph 5;26 it is found in Titus 3:5: αλλα κατα το αυτου ελεος εσωσεν ημας δια λουτρου παλιγγενεσιας και ανακαινωσεως πνευματος αγιου. In Titus 3:4 ff. the author talks of salvation coming not because of good works but by the mercy of God, ‘by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit. Baptism of believers is clearly in view in Titus 3:4 ff. as the means and occasion for the renewal and regeneration imperative for the Christian life. The washing of baptism is connected with the death of Christ. There is no reason to suppose that in Ephesians the washing is unrelated to baptism. However, in view of the connection of 5:26b f. to Ezek 16 and YHWH’s washing of the bride-to-be Israel, one could not possibly assume that το λουτρον has reference only to early Christian baptism. The remainder of v. 26 may provide the needed basis upon which to reach some interpretive decision concerning το λουτρον (Whether related to baptism or not, the author of Ephesians takes το λουτρον as the means by which the church is cleansed by Christ. The author of Titus takes το λουρτον as a bath of regeneration. Heb. 10:22—και λελουσμενοι το σωμα υδατι καθαρω—shows a phrase with some similarities to that in Eph. 5:26b) . . . In Eph. 5:26 εν ρηματι seems to function in an instrumental manner. Schlier is right; the addition of εν ρηματι at the close of v. 26 is difficult to understand apart from baptism, especially which associated with το λουτρον, which in later literature is one way of referring to baptism. From such a perspective, it is also possible to relate the αγιαζω and καθαριζω of v. 26a-b to baptism.
In view of these claims, should the earlier treatment of Eph. 5:26 be withdrawn or modified? The previous examination of the backgrounds of the traditions incorporated into vv. 26 f. has established that much of the material here is best understood in terms of the hieros gamos of YHWH and Israel. That includes even the participial phrase καυαρισας τω λουτρω του υδατος of v. 26.
It remains clear that the author’s predominant concern in vv. 26 f. is an explication of the relationship of the church to Christ in view of the hieros gamos of YHWH and Israel. However, the parallelism between Christ-church and YHWH-Israel is so clearly established that the author can, at the suggestion of the phrase καθαρισας τω λουτρω του υδατος from Ezek. 16 allude to baptism by means of the same phrase with the addition of εν ρηματι. In the context of 5:25 ff. the καθαρισας τω λουτρω του υδατος εν ρηματι of v. 26 does double duty: (1) it refers to the purification of the church as the bride of Christ by analogy from the cleansing of Israel; and (2) it is made relevant to the reader by turning it to speak of baptism, the means by which each of the readers became incorporated into the church. (J. Paul Sampley, ‘And the Two Shall Become One Flesh’: A Study of Traditions in Ephesians 5:21-33 [Society for New Testament Studies Monograph series 16; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971], 41-43, 128-29, 130-31, 132-33)
For more on water baptism, see, for e.g.:
Baptism, Salvation, and the New Testament: John 3:1-7
I have many other articles on other texts relating to this topic, too.
I have many other articles on other texts relating to this topic, too.