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Eph_1:18. Πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς κ . τ . λ .] is usually (as also by Rückert, Matthies, Meier, Holzhausen, Harless, Winzer, Olshausen, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Schenkel, Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 272 [E. T. 317]) taken as appositional, and made dependent on δῴη ὑμῖν ; in which case it has been rightly observed that the translation should not be, with Luther: enlightened eyes, but, on account of the article: He may give to you the eyes enlightened, etc. But (1) in general an enlightened understanding is not proper to be set forth as in apposition to the Holy Spirit, but rather as the effect of the same. (2) The conception that God gives to them their eyes (which as such they already have) in the condition of enlightenment, as πεφωτισμένους , remains in any case an awkward one; inasmuch as we should have to transform the giving, which was still a proper and actual giving in Eph_1:17 zeugmatically into the notion of making at Eph_1:18 (Flatt, following Heinsius, quite arbitrarily supplies εἶναι ), in order to remove the incongruity caused by the presence of the article. Bengel, with his fine insight, aptly remarks: “Quodsi ὀφθαλμούς esset sine articulo, posset in sensu abstracto sumi (enlightened eyes) et cum det construi.” Hence, with Beza, Bengel, Koppe, Bleek, πεφωτισμ . is to be taken as the so-called accusative absolute, such as, from a mingling in the conception of two sorts of construction, is to be met with often also in classical writers—and that without repeating the subject ( ὑμᾶς ) in the accusative (in opposition to Buttmann)—instead of another case which would be required in strict accordance with the construction, particularly instead of the dative ( ὕπεστί μοι θράσος ἁδυπνόνων κλύουσαν ἀρτίως ὀνειράτων , Soph. El. 479 f.; Plat. Lach. p. 186 D; Thuc. v. 79. 1); and thus Beza’s proposal to read πεφωτισμένοις was entirely uncalled for. Comp. Act_26:3. See, generally, Brunck, ad Soph. l.c.; Jacobs, ad Athen. p. 97; Stallbaum, ad Plat. Symp. p. 176 D, and ad Rep. pp. 386 B, 500 C, 586 E; Kühner and Krüger, ad Xen. Anab. i. 2. 1; Nägelsb. on Iliad, ed. 3, p. 181. Accordingly, πεφωτισμ . relates to ὑμῖν , and τοὺς ὀφθ . is the accusative of more precise definition: enlightened in respect of the eyes of your heart, i.e. so that ye are then enlightened, etc., with which is expressed the result of the communication of the Spirit prayed for (1Th_3:13; Php_3:21; Hermann, ad Viger. p. 897 f.; Pflugk, ad Eur. Hec. 690).
τοὺς ὀφθαλμ . τῆς καρδ . ὑμ .] figurative designation of the understanding (Plat. Pol. vii. p. 533 D: τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμμα , Soph. p. 254 A; comp. Ovid. Met. xv. 64, and see Grotius and Wetstein), which is enlightened, when man discerns the divine truth. The opposite: Rom_1:21; Rom_11:8; Rom_11:10. The reference of the enlightenment to knowledge is necessarily given by ὀφθαλμούς , and should not have been regarded as one-sided (in opposition to Harless); and the power of the new life is not here included under the πεφωτισμ ., since it is not the heart in general, but the eyes of the heart that are set forth as enlightened, consequently the organ of cognition. Comp. Clem. ad Cor. 1.Eph 19: ἐμβλέψομεν τοῖς ὄμμασι τῆς ψυχῆς εἰς τὸ μακρόθυμον αὐτοῦ βούλημα ; and 1.Eph 36: ἠνεῴχθησαν ἡμῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ τῆς καρδίας .
καρδία ] does not merely denote, according to the popular biblical usage, the faculty of emotion and desire (Olshausen, Opusc. p. 159; Stirm in the Tüb. Zeitschr. 1834, 3, p. 53), but is the concrete expression for the central seat of the psychicopneumatic personality, consequently embracing together all the agencies (thinking, willing, feeling) in the exercise of which man has the consciousness of his personal inward experience; in which case the context must suggest what side of the self-conscious inner activity of life (here, the cognitive) is in particular to be thought of. Comp. Rom_1:21; 2Co_4:6; Heb_4:12; Php_4:7; 2Pe_1:19; and see, on the activity of the heart in thinking and cognition, Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 248 f., as also Krumm, de notionib. psychol. Paul. p. 50.[114]
εἰς τὸ εἰδέναι ὑμᾶς ] aim of ΠΕΦΩΤΙΣΜ . Κ . Τ . Λ .: in order that ye may know what (quanta) is the hope of His calling, i.e. what a great and glorious hope is given to the man, whom God has called to the kingdom of the Messiah, by means of that calling ( τῆς κλήσ . is genitive of the efficient cause). ἘΛΠΊς , accordingly, is not here, any more than elsewhere (Rom_8:24; Gal_5:5; Col_1:5, al.), res specrata, as the majority, including Meier and Olshausen, take it. Observe also here the three main elements in the subjective state of Christians: faith, and love, and hope (Eph_1:15; Eph_1:18); in presence of faith and love the enlightenment by the Holy Spirit is to make the glory of hope more and more known; for the πολίτευμα of Christians is in heaven (Php_3:20), whither their whole thoughts and efforts are directed. Faith, with the love which accompanies it, remains the centre of Christianity; but hope withal encourages and animates by holding before them the constant object of their aim. Comp. Rom_5:2; Rom_8:18 ff.; 1Co_9:24 ff.; 2Co_4:17; 2Co_13:12 f.; Gal_6:9; Php_3:12 ff.; Col_1:23; Col_3:1 ff. This in opposition to Weiss, who here finds hope brought into prominence, “quite after the Petrine manner,” as the centre of Christianity (Petrin. Lehrbegr. p. 427).
καὶ τίς ὁ πλοῦτος κ . τ . λ .] this is now the object of the hope. The repetition of τίς , as well as the ΚΑῚ ΤΊς … ΚΑῚ ΤΊ , has rhetorical emphasis (comp. Rom_11:34 f.); and, in Ὁ ΠΛΟῦΤΟς Τῆς ΔΌΞΗς Τῆς ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΊΑς ΑὐΤΟῦ , what a copious and grand accumulation, mirroring, as it were, the weightiness of the thing itself! which is not to be weakened by adjectival resolution of the genitives. Comp. Col_1:27; 2Co_4:17. ΔΌΞΑ , glory, is the essential characteristic of the Messianic salvation to be received from God as an inheritance at the Parousia (Rom_8:17); and how great the rich fulness of this glory is, the readers are called to realize. ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις does not mean: in the Holiest of all (Heb_9:12), as Homberg and Calovius conjectured, for this is not suggested by the context; but: among the saints (Num_18:23; Job_42:15; Act_20:32; Act_26:18); for the community of believers (these are the ἅγιοι , Eph_1:1; Eph_1:4), inasmuch as they are to be the subjects of the Messianic bliss, is the sphere, outside of which this ΠΛΟῦΤΟς Κ . Τ . Λ . will not be found. Comp. Ὁ ΚΛῆΡΟς ΤῶΝ ἉΓΊΩΝ , Col_1:12. It is connected with the ἘΣΤΊ to be mentally supplied after ΤΊς , so that we have to translate, as is required by the article before ΠΛΟῦΤΟς : what, i.e. how great and exceeding, is the riches, etc., among the saints. Harless objects that Paul must have written ὁ ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις , and that ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ἉΓΊΟΙς receives unduly the main stress. But the construction ΤΊς ἘΣΤΙΝ Ὁ ΠΛΟῦΤΟς ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ἉΓΊΟΙς is in fact logically quite correct, and ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ἉΓΊΟΙς would have of necessity the main emphasis only if it stood after ΤΊς . Usually (as by Rückert, Harless, Winzer, Olshausen, but not by Koppe and de Wette) ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ἉΓΊΟΙς is regarded as an appendage to Τῆς ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜ . ΑὐΤΟῦ : “the inheritance given by God among the saints,” in connection with which Rückert, quite at variance with N.T. usage, explains ΟἹ ἍΓΙΟΙ of the “collective body of morally good beings in the other world.” But since Ἡ ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΊΑ ΘΕΟῦ is completely and formally defined by this very ΘΕΟῦ ( ΑὐΤΟῦ ), and does not first receive its completeness by means of ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ἉΓΊΟΙς (see, on the contrary, Rom_8:17; Gal_4:7), this more precisely defining addition must have been attached by means of Τῆς , and passages like Rom_9:3; 1Ti_6:17; 1Co_10:18; 2Co_7:7 (see Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 195 f.), are not analogous. If αὐτοῦ were not in the text, ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις might be the definition of the ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΊΑ here meant, and blended with Τῆς ΚΛΗΡΟΝΟΜΊΑς so as to form one idea. We may add, that Harless wrongly refers the riches of the glory, etc., preponderantly to the present earthly βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ . Comp. de Wette. It is only the future kingdom of God, to be set up at the Parousia, that is the object of the κληρονομία (1Co_6:9; 1Co_15:50; Gal_5:21; Eph_5:5; Mat_25:34); and here in particular the context ( ἘΛΠΊς , Eph_1:18; ἘΓΕΊΡΑς Κ . Τ . Λ ., Eph_1:20) still points to the future glory, which Paul realizes as already present.
[114] The observation of the latter, that the cognitive activity of the heart is based on internal experience (which, however, holds good not only as to St. Paul, but also elsewhere in the N.T.), is not refuted by the rejoinder of Delitzsch, p. 177. In this very passage (comp. Eph_3:18) the cognition is not merely discursive, but the experience, in which it has its root, is that of the divine communication of the Spirit and enlightenment. Analogous is the case with 2Co_4:6. As to Php_4:7, see on that passage. The heart, as the seat of self-consciousness and of the conscience, is the receptacle of experience and elaborates it. Comp. Beck, bibl. Seelenl. p. 67. If it does not admit the experience, or does not elaborate it unto saving knowledge, it is closed (Act_14:16), hardened (Eph_4:18), slothful (Luk_24:25), covered as with a veil (2Co_3:15), void of understanding, etc. See also Oehler in Herzog’s Encykl. VI. p. 17.