Historicized Pleroma

Gnostics used the term pleroma , fullness, to describe the realm of emanations from the high God, the realm of perfection and life.

Paul had pre-refuted this later development by giving pleroma an earthly address and a history.  The body, He says, is the pleroma of Chrit (Ephesians 1:23), and this fullness is not achieved all at once but over time, as we all mature into the “fullness of Christ” (4:13).  Gnostics looking for the pleroma did not need to ascend beyond this world or the body, because the fullness was right there in front of them, in the body of the one in whom all the fullness dwelt in bodily form.