“For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife. Then the two will become one flesh.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 28–31. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. Saint Paul would have this a love like that which a man hath for himself, or for his own flesh, when they are now joined in wedlock, and are become as it were one flesh and one person, as to a civil life and society. See Matthew 19:5. The wife is to be considered as a part of the husband, as a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. The words are to be taken with an allusion to what Adam said, (Genesis 2:23) This is now bone of my bones, and so forth And so, according to the apostle, speaking figuratively, the Church, which is the spouse of Christ, is framed as it were of his bones and of his flesh sacrificed on the cross. Witham.