The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Ephesians

12

Matt. xvi. 15–18; John xvii. 10: I am glorified in them.

13

See his Saint Paul, Introduction, pp. xii.–xxiii.

14

See Col. ii. 15, 18, 20–23.

15

E.g., in Rom. i. 1–7, viii. 28–30, xi. 33–36, xvi. 25–27.

16

See the Winer-Moulton N. T. Grammar, p. 709: “It is in writers of great mental vivacity – more taken up with the thought than with the mode of its expression – that we may expect to find anacolutha most frequently. Hence they are especially numerous in the epistolary style of the apostle Paul.”

17

Eph. iii. 1; Phil. i. 13; Philem. 9.

18

Ch. i. 15, iv. 20, 21.

19

Col. i. 4, ii. 1; Rom. xv. 15, 16.

20

“My brethren” in ch. vi. 10 is an insertion of the copyists. Even the closing benediction, ch. vi. 23, 24, is in the third person– a thing unexampled in St Paul’s epistles.

21

Ch. vi. 21, 22; Col. iv. 7–9.

22

Compare Maclaren on Colossians and Philemon, p. 406, in this series.

23

Τοῖς ἁγίοις τοῖς οὖσιν … καὶ πιστοῖς ἐν Χριστῳ Ἰησοῦ. The interposition of the heterogeneous attributive between ἁγίοις and πιστοῖς is harsh and improbable – not to say, with Hofmann, “quite incredible.” The two latest German commentaries to hand, that of Beck and of von Soden (in the Hand-Commentar), interpreters of opposite schools, agree with Hofmann in rejecting the local adjunct and regarding πιστοῖς as the complement of τοῖς οὖσιν.

24

Origen, in his fanciful way, makes of τοῖς οὖσιν a predicate by itself: “the saints who are,” who possess real being like God Himself (Exod. iii. 14) – “called from non-existence into existence.” He compares 1 Cor. i. 28.

25

See, e. g., ver. 18, ii. 19, iii. 18, iv. 12, v. 3.

26

Ch. ii. 7, iii. 5, 21; Col. i. 26.

27

Vv. 13, 14; Rom. viii. 2–6, 16; 1 Cor. ii. 12; Gal v. 16, 22–25.

28

εἰς αὐτόν, for Him; not αὐτῳ, to Him.

29

Ch. v. 25–27; Col. i. 27–29; Jude 24.

30

On sonship, see Chapters XV.–XVII. and XIX. in The Epistle to the Galatians (Expositor’s Bible).

31

From a valuable and suggestive paper by W. E. Ball, LL.D., on “St Paul and the Roman Law,” in the Contemporary Review, August 1891.

32

See vv. 12, 13, where Jews and Gentiles, collectively, are distinguished; and ch. ii. 11, 12, iii. 2–6, 21, iv. 4, 5, v. 25–27.

33

The arrangement above made of the lines of this intricate passage is designed to guide the eye to its elucidation. Our disposition of the verses has not been determined by any preconceived interpretation, but by the parallelism of expression and cadences of phrase. The rhythmical structure of the piece, it seems to us, supplies the key to its explanation, and reduces to order its long-drawn and heaped-up relative and prepositional clauses, which are grammatically so unmanageable.

34

Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη. It is impossible to reproduce in English the beautiful assonance – the play of sound and sense – in Gabriel’s greeting, as St Luke renders it.

35

See Rom. i. 16–18, iii. 19–v. 21, vi. 7, vii. 1–6, viii. 1–4, 31–34, x. 6–9; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4, 17, 56, 57; 2 Cor. v. 18–21; Gal. ii. 14–iii. 14, vi. 12–14. The latter passages the writer has endeavoured to expound in Chapters X. to XII. and XXVIII. of his Commentary on Galatians in this series.

36

It is an error to suppose, as one sometimes hears it said, that trespasses or transgressions are a light and comparatively trivial form of sin. Both words denote, in the language of Scripture, definite offences against known law, departures from known duty. Adam’s sin was the typical “transgression” and “trespass” (Rom. v. 14, 15, etc.; comp. ii. 23; Gal. iii. 19).

37

Gal. iii. 13; 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.

38

See The Evangelical Revival, and other Sermons, pp. 149–170, on “The Forgiveness of Sins.”

39

Bishop Ellicott, who advocates the latter rendering, objects to Meyer’s interpretation that it is “doubtful in point of usage.” Pace tanti viri, we must retort this objection upon the new translation. To obtain by lot, to have (a thing) allotted to one, is the meaning regularly given to κληροῦσθαι in the classical dictionaries; and in O.T. usage the lot (κλῆρος) becomes the inheritance (the thing allotted). The verb is repeatedly used by Philo with the meaning to obtain, or receive an inheritance; whereas there seems to be no real parallel to the other rendering. It is true that κληροῦσθαι in the sense of the A.V. requires an object; but that is virtually supplied by ἐν ᾧ: “we had our inheritance allotted in Christ.” Comp. Col. i. 12, “the lot of the saints in the light,” which signifies not the locality, but the nature and content of the saints’ heritage.

40

See Gal. iii. 22 – iv. 7; and Chapters XV. – XVII. in the Expositor’s Bible (Galatians), on Sonship and Inheritance in St Paul.

41

Compare Acts xxvi. 18, which also speaks to this association of ideas in St Paul’s mind, with vers. 4, 5, 7, and 11 in this chapter.

42

Vv. 8, 9, ch. iii. 4, 5; comp. Col. ii. 2, 3; 1 Cor. ii. 6–9.

43

“The fulness of the time,” Gal. iv. 4; “in due season,” Rom. v. 6; “in its own times,” 1 Tim. ii. 6. These are all synonymous expressions for the Messianic era. Comp. Heb. i. 2, ix. 26; 1 Pet. i. 20.

44

Ch. iii. 8, 9; Col. i. 25; 1 Cor. iv. 1; 1 Tim. i. 4, i. 7; 2 Tim. i. 9–11; and especially Rom. xvi. 25, 26.

45

Comp. ch. v. 5; 1 Cor. xv. 24–28; Phil. ii. 9–12; Heb. ii. 8; Rev. i. 5, xi. 15, xvii. 14; Dan. vii. 13, 14.

46

One wonders that our Revisers, so attentive to all points of Greek idiom, did not think it worth while to discriminate between Christ and the Christ in such passages as this. In Ephesians this distinction is especially conspicuous and significant. See vv. 12, 20 iii. 17, iv. 20, v. 23; similarly in 1 Cor. xv. 22; Rom. xv. 3.

47

Exod. xix. 3–6; Deut. iv. 20, 21; 1 Kings viii. 51, 53; Ps. lxxviii. 71, etc. With the above comp. Gen. xv. 8; Numb. xviii. 20; Jos. xiii. 33; Ps. xvi. 5.

48

Ch. iv. 30. The “seal” of 2 Tim. ii. 19 has both the first and third of these meanings.

49

Rom. iv. 11; 1 Cor. ix. 2; John iii. 33, vi. 27.

50

Matt. xxvii. 66; Rev. v. 1, etc.

51

Ch. ii. 11; comp. Rom. i. 28, 29; Gal. v, 5, 6; Phil. iii. 2, 3.

52

Comp. Rom. viii. 9–11; 2 Cor. v. 1–5.

53

Acts i. 4, ii. 33, 39, xiii. 32, xxvi. 6; Rom. iv. 13–20; Gal. iii. 14–29.

54

See Rom. x. 14–18; Gal. iii. 2, 5; Col. i. 6, 23; 1 Thess. ii. 13; 2 Tim. i. 13.

55

1 Tim. ii. 1–7, iv. 10; Tit. ii. 11.

56

1 Thess. v. 9; 2 Thess. ii. 14; Heb. x. 39.

57

Comp. Chapter VIII.

58

For the former usage see, along with ver. 7 and ch. ii. 5, 8; Rom. iii, 24, x. 9; Titus iii. 5; 2 Tim. i. 9; Col. i. 14; Heb. ix. 15; for the latter, ch. iv. 30; Luke xxi. 28; Rom. v. 9, 10, viii. 23; Phil. ii. 12; 1 Thess. v. 8, 9; 2 Tim. ii. 10, iv. 18. It may be doubted whether St Paul ever uses these terms to denote present salvation or redemption without the final issue being also in his thoughts. Perhaps he would have called the redemption of ver. 7, in contrast with that of Rom. viii. 23, “the redemption of the spirit.”

59

Hosea xiii. 14; Isa. xxv. 8.

60

The same incoherence occurs in Gal. iv. 5–7: “that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.”

61

See Westcott and Hort’s New Testament in Greek, vol. ii., pp. 124, 125.

62

Dr. Beet abides by the critical text. He solves the difficulty by giving πίστις a double sense: “the faith among you in the Lord Jesus, and the faithfulness towards all the saints.” See his Commentary on Ephesians, etc., pp. 284–6.

63

In 1 Thess. i. 7–9; 2 Thess. i. 4, the same thought enters into Paul’s thanksgiving; comp. 2 Cor. ix. 2.

64

This is the emphatic ἐπιγνῶσις, so frequent in the later epistles. See Lightfoot’s note on Col. i. 9; or Cremer’s Lexicon to N.T. Greek.

65

See ch. iii. 3–5, iv. 11; and comp. 1 Cor. xiv. 26–40, etc.

66

Adolphe Monod: Explication de l’épître de S. Paul aux Éphésiens. A deeply spiritual and suggestive Commentary.

67

In this amplitude of expression there is no idle heaping up of words. The four synonyms for power have each a distinct force in the sentence. Δύναμις is power in general, as that which is able to effect some purpose; ἐνέργεια is energy, power in effective action and operation; κράτος is might, mastery, sovereign power, – in the New Testament used chiefly of the power of God; ἰσχύς is force, strength, power resident in some person and belonging to him. This is the order in which the words follow each other. Compare vi. 10 in the Greek.

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.