Plērōma appears four times in Ephesians, with each instance suggesting the idea of completeness. In 1:10, Paul refers to God’s “plan for the fullness of time,” which refers to the completeness of time. The same word appears in reference to the “fullness of him who fills all in all” (1:23), the “fullness of God” (3:19), and the “fullness of Christ” (4:13). While fullness in reference to time may be clear enough, the other uses resist straightforward explanations based on the fact that they refer either to God or Christ, rather than to an abstraction like time. Nevertheless, it is common to find plērōma being taken by commentators to refer to the filling of the church with God’s presence, i.e., God’s power, moral excellence, and/or glory; and of course, this reading draws support from the fact that God’s glory fills the tabernacle in the OT. However, the position taken in this paper will be that Paul uses plērōma in these last three instances (1:23; 3:19; and 4:13) to signify the “planned fullness” or “material completeness” of the church under construction by God, with the redeemed themselves depicted as God’s chosen materials.
To make this case, the following four-part argument will be presented. Section one will consider the basic challenges presented by Paul’s use of plērōma in Ephesians 1:23; 3:19; and 4:13). Section two will examine the most commonly given alternative interpretations of these verses, noting their strengths and weaknesses. Section three will then consider the use of plērōma in Greco-Roman sources that are related to construction, with an emphasis on this term’s role in specifying the planned completeness (i.e., fullness) of buildings. Section four will then apply these findings to the three instances cited above, with concluding theological reflections given as well.