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And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,
Ephesians 1:22 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,
  • KJV And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
  • NKJV And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
  • NASB And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church,
  • NLT God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God placed everything under Christ's feet and made him head over all things for the church. It declares Christ's universal lordship exercised for his people's good.

Overview

Echoing Psalm 8 and Psalm 110, Paul declares that all things are subjected to Christ. Strikingly, God gave the cosmic Christ 'to be head over all things for the assembly' — his universal reign is exercised for the benefit of the church. Christ's supremacy and his care for his people are inseparable.

Cross-references & the web

Theme

Cross-references · 17

  • Col 1:18And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.
  • Col 2:10And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
  • 1 Cor 15:25–27For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
  • Ps 8:6–8You made him ruler of the works of Your hands; You have placed everything under his feet:
  • Heb 2:8and placed everything under his feet.” When God subjected all things to him, He left nothing outside of his control. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.
  • Col 2:19He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.
  • Eph 4:15–16Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.
  • 1 Cor 11:3But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
  • Eph 5:23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
  • Acts 20:28Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
  • Eph 3:21to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
  • Matt 16:18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
  • Gen 3:15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
  • 1 Tim 3:15in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
  • Ps 91:13You will tread on the lion and cobra; you will trample the young lion and serpent.
  • Col 1:8and who also informed us of your love in the Spirit.
  • Heb 12:22–24Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Ephesians videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Ephesians 1:22YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on EphesiansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Every spiritual blessing is 'in Christ,' the head over all things for the church, in whom Jew and Gentile are made one new man by his blood.

How Ephesians 1:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.