pleroma

A Dictionary of the Bible | 1997 | 508 words | Copyright

pleroma Greek for ‘fullness’, and used in Eph. 1: 23 and Col. 1: 24; it can have either an active or a passive sense ‘that which fills up’ or ‘that which is filled up’; therefore the meaning is either that the Church (Eph. 1: 22) completes Christ, or that the Church is filled by Christ. The word (which the epistles may have hijacked from Gnostic terminology) may refer to Christ as both over the Church, as its head, but also within the Church, which is his Body.

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W. R. F. BROWNING. "pleroma." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

W. R. F. BROWNING. "pleroma." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-pleroma.html

W. R. F. BROWNING. "pleroma." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-pleroma.html

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