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Eph 4:18. Ἐσκοτισμένοι τῇ διανοίᾳ ὄντες, Having the understanding darkened) This verse has four clauses. The third is to be referred to the first, and in it οὖσαν answers to ὄντες; the fourth, to the second. For ὄντες is connected also in Tit 1:16, as here, with the preceding epithet [βδελυκτοὶ ὄντες]. The participles, darkened, alienated, take for granted, that the Gentiles, before they had revolted from the faith of their fathers, nay rather before Adam’s fall, had been partakers of light and life; comp. be renewed, Eph 4:23.[66]-Τῆς ΖΩῆς, the life) of which, ch. Eph 2:5.-τοῦ Θεοῦ, of God) The spiritual life is kindled in believers from the very life of God,-[67]πώρωσιν [Engl. Vers. blindness], hardness) The antithesis is life: life and feeling (opposed to hardness) exist and fail together. Comp. Mar 3:5, note. Πώρωσις, hardness, is contradistinguished from blindness, where the latter is expressly noticed; otherwise it includes it in itself.-καρδίας, of heart) Rom 1:21.
[66] Implying a previous state of innocence.-ED.
[67] Διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν, on account of the ignorance) This of itself is the commencement of their wretched condition. Rom 1:21; Rom 1:23, [also Eph 4:28].-V.g.