The Mystery of Marriage
In one of the most quoted marriage passages in the Bible, Paul makes a startling move. After discussing the relationship between husbands and wives, he suddenly declares that he has been talking about something far larger all along.
The Key Passage: Ephesians 5:31-32
"'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."— Ephesians 5:31-32 (ESV)
Paul quotes Genesis 2:24, one of the foundational texts for marriage in the Bible, and then identifies it as a mystery — specifically, a mystery that "refers to Christ and the church." The word "profound" (mega, literally "great") emphasizes the weight of what he is claiming: that the one-flesh union described in Genesis was always pointing beyond itself to the relationship between Christ and His people.
Marriage as a Picture
Throughout Ephesians 5:22-33, Paul draws a sustained parallel between the husband-wife relationship and the Christ-church relationship. The husband is called to love the wife "as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (v.25). The wife is called to respect and submit to the husband "as the church submits to Christ" (v.24). These are not arbitrary comparisons. Paul is saying that marriage was designed to reflect this deeper reality.
The "mystery" is that marriage has always been more than a social institution. It has been a living metaphor of the gospel — the sacrificial love of Christ for a people He is making holy.
Connection to the Mystery of Christ
The mystery of marriage is closely linked to the mystery of Christ in Ephesians 3. There, the mystery is that Gentiles are fellow members of one body with Jewish believers. Here in Ephesians 5, the mystery is about the union between Christ and that body. Together, these passages paint a picture of a redeemed community (the church) that is united with its head (Christ) in an intimacy that marriage merely foreshadows.
Old Testament Roots
The imagery of God as husband and Israel as bride runs throughout the Old Testament. Hosea, Isaiah 54, Jeremiah 2-3, and Ezekiel 16 all use marriage language to describe the covenant between God and His people. Paul's mystery claim in Ephesians 5 takes this imagery and locates its deepest meaning in the Christ-church relationship. What the prophets glimpsed partially, Paul sees fully in light of the gospel.
Translation Note
In the Latin Vulgate, mystērion in Ephesians 5:32 was translated as sacramentum, which is one reason marriage came to be classified as a sacrament in Catholic theology. Protestant interpreters typically note that Paul is using the word in its standard Pauline sense (a revealed truth) rather than establishing a liturgical category. This translation choice is discussed further at How Bible Translations Handle Mystērion.