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Eph_1:14. Ὅς ἐστιν ἀῤῥαβὼν τῆς κληρονομίας ἡμ .] stands in significant relation (as affording more precise information) to ἐσφραγίσθητε : who is earnest of our inheritance; for in the reception of the Spirit the recipients have obtained the guarantee—as one receives earnest-money as a guarantee of future payment in full—that they shall become actually partakers of the Messianic blessedness (comp. Rom_8:15-17; Gal_4:6-7). ὅς , applying to the πνεῦμα , not to Christ, agrees in gender with ἀῤῥαβών . See Herm. ad Viger. p. 708; Heindorf, ad Phaedr. p. 279; Buttm. neut. Gr. p. 241 [E. T. 281]. As to the epexegetic relative, see Nägelsb. on Horn. Ilias, ed. 3, p. 3. As to ἀῤῥαβών , see on 2Co_1:22.
εἰς ἀπολύτρωσιν τῆς περιποιήσεως ] unto the redemption, etc., is likewise (comp. also Eph_4:30) the causa finalis of ἐσφραγίσθητε κ . τ . λ ., consequently that, to which the purpose of God was directed, when ye were sealed. Comp. Eph_1:10. Others connect it with ὅς ἐστιν … ἡμῶν (Estius, Flatt, Rückert, Schenkel, Bleek, al.), in which case εἰς is taken by some likewise in a telic sense, by others as usque ad (the latter at variance with the parallel εἰς which follows). But the more precise definition thus resulting would in fact be, after τ . κληρον . ἡμ ., quite self-evident and unnecessary.
The ἀπολύτρωσις is here—in accordance with the whole connection, and because the περιποίησις (see below) is the subject which experiences the ἀπολύτρωσις —the final consummation of the redemption effected by the λύτρον of Christ (Eph_1:7) at the Parousia (Luk_21:28), when suffering, sin, and death are wholly done away, and in the glorifying (resurrection, or relative transformation) of the body there sets in the δόξα of the children of God, and the in all all-determining dominion of God (1Co_15:28). See Rom_8:18-23; 1Co_15:54 ff. Comp. Eph_4:30. Beza aptly terms this final definitive redemption ἀπολύτρωσιν ἐλευθερώσεως .
The περιποίησις αὐτοῦ (for αὐτοῦ at the end does not apply, as it is usually referred, merely to τῆς δόξης , but also to τῆς περιποιήσ ., whereby the latter obtains its definite character, and the discourse gains in vividness and energy[107]) is the acquisition of God, i.e. the people acquired by God for His possession, by which is here meant the whole body of Christians, the true people of God, acquired by God as His property by means of the redeeming work of Christ. Comp. 1Pe_2:9; as also Act_20:28, where the Christian community is presented as the acquisition of Christ (comp. Tit_2:14). The expression quite corresponds to the Hebrew ñÀâËìÌÇä éÀäÉåÈä , by which the people of Israel is designated as the sacred peculium Dei, and opposed to the Gentiles. See Exo_19:5; Deu_7:6; Deu_14:2; Deu_26:18 f; Psa_135:4. The LXX. too, though usually expressing the notion of ñâìä by ΠΕΡΙΟΎΣΙΟς , translate it, Mal_3:17, by ΠΕΡΙΠΟΊΗΣΙς . Comp. also Isa_43:21 : ΛΑΌΝ ΜΟΥ ὋΝ ΠΕΡΙΕΠΟΙΗΣΆΜΗΝ ( éÈöÇøÀúÌÄé ) Κ . Τ . Λ . The objection to this view (which is followed, after the Peshito and Oecumenius, by Erasmus, Calvin, Grotius, and most expositors, including Flatt, Rückert, Meier, Harless, Olshausen, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Schenkel), that ΠΕΡΙΠΟΊΗΣΙς never in itself, without defining addition, signifies the people of God (see specially Koppe), entirely disappears when we take in the ΑὐΤΟῦ : “unto redemption of His acquired possession, unto the praise of His glory.” Others, retaining likewise the signification of acquired possession, explained it in the neuter sense, like Calovius (comp. already Bugenhagen): “plena fruitio redemtionis haereditatis nobis acquisitae.” Comp. Matthies: “unto the redeeming of the promised glorious possession.” But how can it be said of the salvation acquired for us, that it is redeemed? And the plena fruitio is imported. Beza, wrongly denying the concrete use of περιποίησις , insists upon the abstract notion of vindicatio, assertio, and specifies as the meaning: “dum in liberationem vindicemur.” But this would need to be expressed by ΕἸς ΠΕΡΙΠΟΊΗΣΙΝ Τῆς ἈΠΟΛΥΤΡΏΣΕΩς (comp. 1Th_5:9; 2Th_2:14). The word is also taken in the abstract sense by those who understand it as preservation, conservatio (Heb_10:39; 2Ch_14:13; Test. XII. Patr. p. 633; Plat. Defin. p. 415 C; Wetst. II. p. 424), like Bengel, Bos (“redemtio, quae salutem et conservationem affert”), Bretschneider (“redemtio, qua vitae aeternae servamur”), Holzhausen (who, following Homberg, arbitrarily assumes ἈΠΟΛ . Τῆς ΠΕΡΙΠ . to stand for ἈΠΟΛ . ΚΑῚ ΠΕΡΙΠ .). But against these explanations it may be decisively urged that in the case of ΠΕΡΙΠΟΊΗΣΙς the thought: unto everlasting life, or the like, is added arbitrarily, and that the assumed genitive relation does not arise out of the notion of ἀπολύτρωσις , according to which the genitive is either the subject, which is redeemed (Luk_21:28; Rom_8:23), or expresses that, from which one becomes free (Heb_9:15; Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 178). To the erroneous attempts at explanation belongs also that (Vatablus, Koppe) which takes Τῆς ΠΕΡΙΠΟΙΉΣΕΩς for ΤῆΝ ΠΕΡΙΠΟΙΗΘΕῖΣΑΝ , the redemption acquired for us, or (so Bleek) the redemption, which is to become our possession.[108]
εἰς ἔπαινον τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ ] a climactic parallel to what goes before, containing as it does the final aim of God in the sealing with the Holy Spirit. And thus has Paul accordingly reached what he had in view in the joining on of ἐν ᾧ καὶ ὑμεῖς , Eph_1:13, namely, the assigning to the Gentile-Christians the same ultimate destination, which he has in Eph_1:12 predicated of the Jewish-Christians.
The reference of αὐτοῦ to God, as in Eph_1:12; Eph_1:6 (not, with Estius and Hofmann, to Christ), flows from ἐσφραγ ., which is God’s act. See van Hengel, Annot. p. 198 ff. The glory of God is the final aim of the whole unfolding of salvation.
[107] So also Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 29; and Schenkel.
[108] This sense, too, would in fact have needed to be expressed by εἰς περιποίησιν τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως .