Ephesians 5:32

This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and the church. Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her husband.

Hendriksen pointed out that the Vulgate mistranslation of the passage, "This mystery is Great" reads thus "sacramentum hoc magnum".[33] "It is upon this sole basis that the Roman church set up the claim that marriage is a sacrament.[34] As Hendriksen said, "If the simple fact had been observed that Mystery is the word Paul used here, (such) a mistake would never have occurred."[35]

The RSV rendition of "This mystery is great" reads, "I take it to mean"! However, as Foy E. Wallace said, "Paul did not take it to mean anything; he said exactly what the great mystery is;[36] The exalted view, both of marriage and of the church of Jesus Christ, shines forth in this text. The sacredness of marriage is seen in God's design of it, from the very beginning, to be a figure of the union of Christ and his church; and the glorious importance of the church appears in the fact of its having been in the design of God from the very beginning. Despite all of these wonderful thoughts, however, Paul, will still conclude with a practical thought:

Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife ... Let the husband think of himself as the protection, defender and provider for his wife, even as Christ is of the church.

And let each wife see that she fears her husband ... This has none of the connotations usually associated with "fear" in common speech today. "It means reverence and respect. It is the kind of fear that the Bible so frequently calls on individuals to show before God.[37]

[33] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 256.

[34] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 346.

[35] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 256.

[36] Foy. E. Wallace, Jr. A Review of the New Versions (Fort Worth, Texas: Foy E. Wallace, Jr. Publications, 1973), p. 445.

[37] Francis Foulkes, op. cit., p. 163.