Greek word · G4954
σύσσωμος
syssōmos
of the same body
'Of the same body', 'co-bodied', meaning sharing membership in one single body.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Ephesians 3:6
- Range of meaning
'Of the same body', 'co-bodied', meaning sharing membership in one single body.
- Against the English
KJV 'of the same body' and ESV 'members of the same body' keep the sense of one shared body. BSB, WEB and NASB 'fellow members of the body' add the word 'members', which is not in the Greek, though the idea is implied.
- How it drifted
In older English a 'member' was a limb of a body. Today it usually means someone enrolled in an organisation, and that weakens the bodily picture.
- Used elsewhere in the period
No earlier occurrence in Greek literature is known. Lexicons such as BDAG treat it as first appearing here, and it shows up afterwards in Christian writers who are commenting on this passage. It may have been coined to complete the three 'co-' terms.
Where it appears
Ephesians · 1
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Ephesians 3:6 σύσσωμα a joint-body
This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
Here: This is a striking word that may have been coined for this verse. It means belonging to one and the same body. It echoes 2:16, where Jew and Gentile are reconciled 'in one body', and 1:23, which calls the church Christ's body.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.