Saturday, January 9, 2021

Ephesians 5:25-27: The New Eve as the Church

Some early Christians interpreted the person of Mary to be the New Eve. This has resulted in many Roman Catholic apologists and theologians to abuse such a typology to support the claim the Immaculate Conception is a tradition that is apostolic in origin. On this, see:

  

Refuting Lizzie Reezay on the Implications of Early Christians Viewing Mary as the "New Eve"

 

Interestingly, it is possible that Eph 5:25-27 supports a "New Eve" typology, but not one focused on the person of Mary, but the Church. Andrew Perry, a Christadelphian, wrote the following:


A typology is suggested in Ephesians,

 

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 (KJV)

 

The point here is that the ecclesia is a “woman” and the recipient of attention by Christ (“the man”) whose aim is to obtain a “glorious” ecclesia. It follows from this that the ecclesia has glory from her Lord and as such is his glory – the glory of the man. This is an Adamic typology whereby the ecclesia represents a new Eve who has her source of life in an Adam (cf. 1 Cor 11:8-9). The women of the ecclesia represent the glory of a new creation. The symbology of the head-covering represents the fact that the woman is the glory of the man. For a woman to discard a head-covering would dis-honour Christ: the head-covering represents her created status in Christ, and she represents the ecclesia. The symbolic role of the men in the ecclesia complements this role on the part of women. They are representative of their head – Christ – the image and glory of God. (Andrew Perry, Pauline Hermeneutics and Christology, pp. 7-8, emphasis in bold added)

 

In other words, for Paul, the Church, not Mary, is the New Eve, with Jesus being the New Adam from whom the New Eve is generated, like how the Old Eve was generated from the First Adam.