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Eph_1:15.[109] Only now, after the general ascription of praise to God for the Christian economy of salvation, which had since Eph_1:3 flowed forth from him in an enraptured stream, does Paul reach that, with which he is wont on other occasions at once to begin—the thanksgiving to God for the Christian position of the readers, and intercession for them.
διὰ τοῦτο ] has reference to Eph_1:13-14 : because this is the case, that ye too are in Christ and have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, etc. See already Theophylact. There is no reason for going farther back and referring it to the whole preceding development from Eph_1:3 onward (Harless, Winzer, Schenkel, and others, following Oecumenius), since thanksgiving and intercession have reference to the readers, and it is only Eph_1:13 that has led over to the latter.
κἀγώ ] I also; for Paul knows that by his exercise of prayer, Eph_1:16, he is co-operating with the readers. Comp. on Col_1:9.
ἀκούσας ] does not serve to prove that the Epistle could not have been written to the Ephesians, or not to them alone (see Introd. § 1); Grotius in fact has already aptly remarked: “Loquitur autem apostolus de profectu evangelii apud Ephesios, ex quo ipse ab illis discesserat.” Comp. Winzer, p. 5; Wiggers in the Stud. u. Krit. 1841, p. 430 f.; Wieseler, p. 445; and already Theodoret in loc. No doubt Olshausen (comp. Bleek) maintains that Paul so expresses himself as to make it apparent that with a great proportion of his readers he was not personally acquainted, appealing to Col_1:4. But may he not here, as at Phm_1:5, have heard respecting those who were known to him, what at Col_1:4 he has heard respecting those who were previously unknown to him?
τὴν καθʼ ὑμᾶς πίστιν ] fidem, quae ad vos pertinet, i.e. vestram fidem. Comp. Act_17:28; Act_18:15; Act_26:3. Thuc. vi. 16. 5 ( τῷ κατʼ αὐτοὺς βίῳ ); Ael. V. H. ii. 12 ( ἡ κατʼ αὐτὸν ἀρετή ). The difference between ἡ καθʼ ὑμᾶς πίστις and ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν lies only in the form of conception, not in the thing itself. Yet the mode of expression, not occurring elsewhere in the letters of the apostle, belongs to the peculiar phenomena of our Epistle. The assertion of Harless, that it denotes the faith of the readers objectively, as in itself a thing to be found among them, while ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν denotes it subjectively, according to its individual character in each one (comp. Matthies and Schenkel), is the less capable of proof, in proportion to the prevalent use among the later Greeks of the periphrasis of the genitival relation by κατά . See Valckenaer, ad Luc. p. 4 f.; Schaefer, ad Long. p. 330; Wesseling, ad Diod. Sic. xiv. 12.
ἐν τῷ κυρίῳ ] belonging to πίστιν (fidem vestram in Christo repositam), and blended without any connecting article into unity of idea with it. See on Gal_3:26. Winzer connects it with ὑμᾶς : “fidem, quae vobis, Domino Jesu veluti insitis, … inest;” but this is forbidden by the order of the words.
καὶ τὴν ἀγάπ . τὴν εἰς πάντας κ . τ . λ .] Here, too, Paul might have left out the second article, so that the sense would be: καὶ τὸ ἀγάπην ὑμᾶς ἔχειν εἰς πάντας (comp. Col_1:4), as at 2Co_7:7 : τὸν ὑμῶν ζῆλον ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ . But he has first thought of the notion of love in itself, and then added thereto, as a special important element, the thought, τὴν εἰς πάντας τ . ἀγ .
πάντας “character Christianismi,” Bengel. Comp. Eph_6:18; Phm_1:5. We may add Chrysostom’s apt remark: πανταχοῦ συνάπτει καὶ συγκολλᾷ τὴν πίστιν καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην θαυμαστήν τινα ξυνωρίδα . Comp. Gal_5:6; 1 Corinthians 13.
[109] On vv. 15–19, see Winzer, Commentat., Lips. 1836.