The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Ephesians

68

See the note upon this definite article on p. 47.

69

Πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, Col. i. 18: comp. Rom. vi. 13, x. 7, for the force of the preposition. Hence the peculiar ἐξανάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν of Phil. iii. 10, 11, – the out-and-out resurrection, which will utterly remove us from the sphere of death.

70

Ver. 3, ch. ii. 6, iii. 10, vi. 12; nowhere else in the New Testament. Comp., however, 1 Cor. xv. 40, 48; Phil. ii. 10; Heb. viii. 5, ix. 23, xi. 16, xii. 22, where the adjective has the same kind of use.

71

Note on Col. i. 16.

72

Matt. xxii. 41–46, also in Mark and Luke; Acts ii. 34, 35; Rom. viii. 34; Col. iii. 1; Heb. i. 13; 1 Peter iii. 22, etc.

73

The reader of the Old Testament, unless otherwise advertized, must inevitably have referred the words who filleth all things in all to the Supreme God. See Jer. xxiii. 24; Isai. vi. 1, 3; Hag. ii. 7; Ps. xxxiii. 5, etc.; Exod. xxxi. 3. “That filleth all in all” is an attribute belonging to “the same God, that worketh all in all” (1 Cor. xii. 6). Comp. iv. 6.

74

For the antithesis of “you” and “we,” comp. vv. 11–18, ch. i, 12, 13; also Rom. iii. 19, 23 (For there is no distinction), Gal. ii. 15.

75

Ποιοῦντες τὰ θελήματα τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν διανοιῶν (ver. 3).

76

Perhaps this double rendering may bring out the force of κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου.

77

In the posthumous Erklärung des Briefes Pauli an die Epheser– a valuable exposition, marked by Beck’s theological acumen and lucidity.

78

The φύσει of verse 3 thus corresponds to the ἐξουσία τοῦ ἀέρος of verse 2. “Sin entered into the world” (κόσμος), Rom. v. 12, which signifies more than the nature of individual men.

79

I John iii. 8; comp. John viii. 41–44.

80

Rom. xii. 1; 2 Cor. i. 3; Phil. i. 8, ii. 1; comp. Luke i. 78. The οἰκτιρμοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ, σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί, rendered in our Version “mercies of God,” denotes something even more affecting, – God’s sense of the woefulness of human life, – “the pitying tenderness Divine.”

81

Comp. Rom. ix. 22, 23.

82

On grace, comp. The Epistle to the Galatians (Expositor’s Bible), Chapter X.

83

Compare also, on Faith, The Epistle to the Galatians (Expositor’s Bible), Chapters X.–XII. and XV.

84

Ἐστὲ σεσωσμένοι: for the peculiar emphasis of this form of the verb, implying a settled fact, an assured state, compare ver. 12, ἢτε … ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι; Col. ii. 10; Gal. ii. 11, iv. 3; 2 Cor. iv. 3, etc.

85

Rom. viii. 31–39; comp. vv. 9–17; also 1 Thess. v. 23, 24; 2 Thess. iii. 3–5; 1 Cor. i. 4–9; Phil. i. 6, iii. 13, 14; 2 Tim. i. 12, iv. 18, for St Paul’s doctrine of Assurance.

86

Rom. i. 19–23; comp. John i. 10: “He [the true Light] was in the world, and the world knew Him not.”

87

Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo.Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto.Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primumDesinet, ac toto surget gens aurea mundo,Casta, fave, Lucina.

88

Observe the perfect participle ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι, which signifies an abiding fact or fixed condition. Similar is the turn of expression in ch. iii. 9, and in Col. i. 26, Rom. xvi. 25, Matt. xiii. 35.

89

See to this effect such passages as Rom. i. 16 (to the Jew first), ix. 4, 5; and especially xi. 13–32.

90

Gal. iii. 28; Col. iii. 11. Comp. John x. 16, xi. 52. See The Epistle to the Galatians (Expositor’s Bible), Chapter XV.

91

Πᾶσα οἰκοδομή, according to the well-established critical reading. For πᾶς without the article, implying a various whole, compare πάσης κτίσεως in Col. i. 15; πᾶσα γραφή, 2 Tim. iii. 16; ἐν πάσῃ ἀναστροφῇ, 1 Peter i. 15; and Θεὸς πάσης χάριτος, 1 Peter v. 10.

92

See Gal. iii. 7, v. 5; Rom. viii. 14–25; 1 Peter i. 4, 5.

93

See note on p. 47; also pp. 83, 189.

94

See ch. i. 17, ii. 18, 22, and especially ch. iv. 4–6.

95

See pp. 47, 83, 169.

96

Lectures on Ephesians, pp. 235–8. No one who has read Dr. R. W. Dale’s noble Lectures on this epistle, can write upon the same subject without being deeply in his debt.

97

Der Brief Pauli an die Epheser, p. 138. Hofmann is one of those writers from whom one constantly learns, although one must as often differ from him as agree with him.

98

See ch. v. 14; 1 Tim. i. 17, ii. 5, 6, vi. 15, 16; 2 Tim. ii. 11–13.

99

Comp. Hebrews x. 1, 2, 10–14 with xi. 13–16, 39, 40, xii. 23, 24; also vi. 12.

100

The words of David in Browning’s Saul, turned from the future tense into the present.

101

2 Cor. ii. 14; comp. Eph. ii. 6, 7.

102

2 Tim. iv. 5; Acts viii. 26–40, xxi. 8.

103

In Acts xiv. 4, 14, Barnabas and Paul are “apostles”; 1 Thess. ii. 6, Paul and Silas and Timothy. Comp. Rom. xvi. 7; 2 Cor. viii. 23, xi. 13; Phil. ii. 25; Rev. ii. 2.

104

Comp. ch. ii. 20, iii. 5 for the association of prophets with apostles.

105

Εἰς ἕνα καινὸν ἄνθρωπον (homo), ch. ii. 15; similarly in iv. 22, 24; Rom. vi. 6; 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47, etc. Here εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον (vir); comp. 1 Cor. xiii. 11; James iii. 2. To call the Church ἀνήρ would be highly incongruous, in view of ch. v. 23, etc.; comp. 2 Cor. xi. 2.

106

Col. i. 22, 28, 29; 2 Tim. ii. 10.

107

For this association of metaphor, comp. Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar, Act V., Scene 1: —

“Blow, wind; swell, billow; and swim, bark!The storm is up; and all is on the hazard!”

108

Vulgate: per omnem juncturam ministrationis. St Paul’s word here is διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς, through every touching. See Lightfoot’s valuable note on the medical and philosophical use of the word by Greek authors, in his Commentary on Colossians (ii. 19).

109

Comp. ch. i. 13: “in whom you also [Gentiles, along with us Jews] found hope”; also Rom. iii. 29, 30; Tit. i. 4, “my true child according to a common faith.”

110

See the connexion of thought in Col. ii. 8–10, 18, 19.

111

Compare 1 Cor. ii. 6, iii. 1–3, xiv. 20, xvi. 13; Gal. iv. 19; Heb. v. 11–14.

112

“The persons here denounced,” says Lightfoot on Phil. iii. 18, “are not the Judaizing teachers, but the antinomian reactionists… The stress of Paul’s grief lies in the fact that they degraded the true doctrine of liberty, so as to minister to their profligate and worldly living.” Comp. 1 Peter iv. 3, 4; 2 Peter ii. 18–22.

113

Comp. Col. ii. 20–iii. 4; Gal. vi. 14, 15.

114

Phæao: § xxxv.

115

See p. 129.

116

“When human life to view lay foully prostrate upon earth, crushed down under the weight of religion, who showed her head from the quarters of heaven with hideous aspect lowering upon mortals, a man of Greece ventured first to lift up his mortal eyes to her face and first to withstand her to her face” (Munro).

117

1 Thess. iv. 5; 2 Thess. i. 8; Gal. iv. 8, 9.

118

Quid si post οὕτως distinctionem ascribas? Vos autem non ita (subaudi facere convenit), qui didicistis, etc.

119

Comp. Numb. xii. 7; Ps. i. 4; Luke xxii. 26, for this Hebraistic turn of expression.

120

Comp. Phil. iii. 2, 18; Titus i. 16.

121

See pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.

122

Ἐστὶν ἀληθεία ἐν τῷ Ἰησοῦ. The article with the proper name is most significant. It points to the definite image of Jesus, in His actual person, that was made familiar by the preaching of Paul and the other apostles.

123

L’Antéchrist, pp. i. ii. 1, 2. This is a powerful and impressive work, of whose value those who know only the Vie de Jésus can have little conception. Renan’s faults are many and deplorable; but he is a writer of genius and of candour. His rationalism teems with precious inconsistencies. One hears in him always the Church bells ringing under the sea, the witness of a faith buried in the heart and never silenced, to which he confesses touchingly in the Preface to his Souvenirs.

124

ἀνανεοῦσθαι δὲ τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐνδυσασθαι τὸν καίνον ἄνθρωπον, τὸν κατὰ Θεὸν κτισθέντα.

125

Comp. pp. 29, 30.

126

It is important to distinguish the Greek adjectives ἅγιος and ὅσιος, with their derivatives. See Cremer’s N. T. Lexicon on these words, and Trench’s N. T. Synonyms, § lxxxviii. Of the latter word, 1 Thess. ii. 10; 1 Tim. i. 9, ii. 8; 2 Tim. iii. 3; Tit. i. 8 are the only examples in St Paul.

127

Διὸ ἀποθέμενοι τὸ ψεῦδος. Despite the commentators, we must hold to it that the lie, the falsehood is objective and concrete; not lying, or falsehood as a subjective act, habit, or quality, – which would have been rather ψευδολογία (comp. μωρολογία, v. 4; and 1 Tim. iv. 2, ψευδολόγων), or τὸ ψευδές. So in Rom. i. 25, τὸ ψεῦδος is “the [one great] lie” which runs through all idolatry; and in 2 Thess. ii. 11 it denotes “the lie” which Antichrist imposes on those ready to believe it, – viz., that he himself is God. Accordingly, we take the participle ἀποθέμενοι to signify not what the readers are to do, but what they had done in renouncing heathenism. The apostle requires consistency: “Since you are now of the truth, be truth-speaking men.”

128

2 Cor. i. 18, 19, xi. 10.

129

See ch. i. 13, 14, and 18 (last clause).

130

Trench: N. T. Synonyms, § xxxiv.

131

Χαριζόμενοι ἐαυτοῖς, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Θεὸς ἐν Χριστῷ ἐχαρίσατο ὑμῖν. So in Col. ii. 13, iii. 13; Rom. viii. 32; 2 Cor. ii. 7, 10; Luke vii. 42, 43.

132

Comp. pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.

133

Vol. iv., pp. 22, 41 (Eng. Trans.).

134

Comte, vol. iv., p. 30.

135

Mr. Wesley adopted this and other emendations from Bengel, “that great light of the Christian world,” in the translation accompanying his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament. He there supplied the Methodist preachers with many of the most valuable improvements made in the Revised Version, a hundred years before the time.

136

The word belongs to Paul’s vocabulary; it is found besides in 2 Thess. i. 11; Rom. xv. 14; and Gal. v. 22. See the Commentary on this last epistle in the Expositor’s Bible, pp. 384, 385.

137

F. W. Robertson: Sermons (First Series), xix., on “The Kingdom of the Truth.”

138

See ch. i. 5–11, ii. 21, iii. 11, v. 10, vi. 6; comp. Col. i. 9, 27, iv. 12; Phil. ii. 13, – epistles of the same group.

139

See Dr. Maclaren’s admirable words on this subject in Colossians and Philemon (Expositor’s Bible), pp. 336–40; and Dr. Dale’s Lectures on Ephesians, Lect. xix., “Wives and Husbands.”

140

In verse 24 St Paul resumes with ἀλλά, the but of opposition and not mere contrast, indicating a case where the claims of husband and Saviour may, conceivably, be in competition.

141

Compare pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.

142

Heb. ii. 9–12, ix. 14, 15, x. 5–22, xiii. 12.

143

See Rom. vi. 1–11; Col. ii. 11, 12; 1 Cor. x. 2, xii. 13.

144

Ἐν ῥήματι. Λόγος is word as expressive of thought. Ῥῆμα, the utterance of a living voice, – a sentence, pronouncement, message; it is the Greek term employed in all the passages here cited.

145

The words “of His flesh and of His bones,” following “members of His body” in the A.V., appear to be an ancient gloss adopted by the Greek copyists, which was suggested by Gen. ii. 23. They are unsuitable to the idea of a spiritual union, and interrupt rather than help the apostle’s exposition.

146

St Paul changes the Ἕνεκεν τούτου of the original to Ἀντὶ τούτου, which conveys the idea that marriage has its counterpart in the fact that we are members of Christ.

147

Ecclesiastical Polity; v. 56 7.

148

We cannot absolutely prove infant baptism from the New Testament texts adduced on its behalf; but they afford a strong presumption in its favour, which is confirmed on the one hand by the analogy of circumcision, and on the other by the immemorial usage of the early Church. Titus i. 6 shows that stress was laid on the faith of children, and that discrimination was used in their recognition as Church members.

149

1 Cor. xi. 32; Heb. xii. 5, 11, etc.

150

Acts vii. 22, xxii. 3; Rom. ii. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 25, iii. 14.

151

1 Cor. x. 11; Col. i. 28, iii. 16; 1 Thess. v. 14, etc.

152

The word family (Latin familia) denoted originally the servants of the establishment, the domestic slaves. Its modern usage is an index to the elevating influence of Christianity upon social relations.

153

Rom. i. 1; 2 Cor. iv. 5; Gal. i. 10, etc.

154

Ἐνδυναμοῦσθε [from δύναμις] ἐν Κυρίῳ καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ. See the note on these synonyms, on p. 76. Comp., for this verb, Col. i. II; 2 Tim. iv. 17; Phil. iv. 13: Πάντα ἰσχύω ἐν τῳ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με, – “I have strength for everything in Him that enables me.”

155

Comp. remark on μεθοδεία (iv. 14), p. 247.

156

John xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11: comp. Luke iv. 5–7; Heb. ii. 14.

157

2 Cor. ii. 11, xi. 3; 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10; 2 Tim. ii. 26, etc.

158

Rev. xii, 7–10; Gen. iii. 4, 5; Zech. iii. 1; Job i.

159

Ch. iv. 27; 2 Cor. ii. 11; Luke xxii. 31.

160

Luke x. 17–20, xi. 14–26.

161

Col. i. 13: comp. Acts xxvi. 18, etc.

162

Luke xvi. 8, xviii. 6.

163

Τὰ πνευματικὰ tῆs πονηρίας.

164

Mr. Moule aptly observes, in his excellent and most useful Commentary on Ephesians in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: St Paul’s “testimony to the real and objective existence” of evil spirits “gains in strength when it is remembered that the epistle was addressed (at least, among other designations) to Ephesus, and that Ephesus (see Acts xix.) was a peculiarly active scene of asserted magical and other dealings with the unseen darkness. Supposing that the right line to take in dealing with such beliefs and practices had been to say that the whole basis of them was a fiction of the human mind, not only would such a verse as this [vi. 12] not have been written, but, we may well assume, something would have been written strongly contradictory to the thought of it” (p. 176).

165

See p. 103.

166

The objection against the common rendering taken from the absence of the Greek article (τά) before the phrase ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις, required to link it to τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας, is not decisive.

167

Col. ii. 8–10, iii. 1–4; Phil. iii. 20, 21: comp. Eph. i. 3, ii. 6, 18, iv. 10, 15; Heb. vi. 19, 20, etc.

168

Comp. Rom. viii. 37, xvi. 20. To bring down, overpower, conquer is the military sense of κατεργάζομαι, – not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but, as it seems to us, unmistakable here. It occurs in Ezek. xxxiv. 4 (LXX), and 1 Esdr. iv. 4.

169

Col. i. 23, ii. 5; Phil. i. 27–30, iv. 1: comp. 1 Thess. v. 8; Rom. xiii. 11–14; 1 Cor. xvi. 13; 2 Cor. x. 3–6.

170

2 Thess. ii. 3; Acts xx. 29, 30; 1 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Tim. iii. 1.

171

Ch. 1. 17–23, iii. 16–19, iv. 13–15, 20–24.

172

Ἑτοιμασία is adopted by the Greek translators as the equivalent of the Hebrew word for foundation, or base, in Ps. lxxxix. 14; Ezra ii. 68, iii. 3; Dan. xi. 7, 20, 21. See, however, the note of Meyer, who thinks that they misunderstood the Hebrew.

173

Θυρεός: Latin scutum; only here in N.T.

174

Rev. i. 16, ii. 12, xix. 13–15.

175

Ἐν πάσῃ προσκαρτερήσει: in every kind of persistence, – a perseverance that tries all arts and holds its ground at every point. The verb προσκαρτερέω appears in the parallel passages: Col. iv. 2; Rom. xii. 12; also in Acts i. 14.

176

Col. i. 24 – ii. 1; Phil. i. 16.

177

Ch. ii. 7, iii. 10; Phil. i. 20; 2 Tim. iv. 17.

178

I Thess. v. 25; 2 Thess. iii. 1; Rom. xv. 30–32; Col. iv. 3, etc.

179

Out of the instances in which the English Version renders λόγος in St Paul by utterance, the Revisers have substituted word for utterance only in Col. iv. 3. One wishes they had done so throughout. For λόγος surely implies the content, the import of what is said. This passage reminds us of John xvii. 14: “I have given them Thy word”; and xiv. 24: “The word which ye hear is not mine, but His.”

180

Ἐν παρρησίᾳ: comp. iii. 12; Phil. i. 20; Philem. 8; 2 Cor. vii. 4; 1 Thess. ii. 2, etc.

181

Phil. i. 25, 26, ii. 23, 24; Philem. 22.

182

2 Tim. i. 7–12, ii. 3–10.

183

Comp. Phil. i. 24–26.

184

See pp. 13–17.

185

Ch. i. 14, iv. 30. See Chapter IV., above.

186

Rom. ii. 7; 1 Cor. xv. 42, 50, 53, 54; 2 Tim. i. 10. See Alford’s excellent note on this passage.

187

Ἀφθορία: ἀφθαρσία is deleted in the critical texts.