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Eph_1:22. While Paul has before been setting forth the exaltation of Christ over all things, he now expresses the subjection therewith accomplished of all things under Christ: καὶ πάντα … αὐτοῦ , with which consequently the same thing—the installation into the highest κυριότης (Php_2:10 f.)—is expressed, only from another point of view (from below, from the standpoint of the object subjected; previously from above, from the seat of the exalted Lord), in order to present it in a thoroughly exhaustive manner. Such a representation is not tautological, but emphatic. Theodoret, with whom Harless agrees, makes the purpose: καὶ τὴν προφητικὴν ἐπήγαγε μαρτυρίαν . But the words, while doubtless a reminiscence of Psa_8:7 (6), in such wise that Paul makes the expression of the Psalm his own, are not a citation, since he does not in the least indicate this, as he has done at 1Co_15:27 by the following ὅταν δὲ εἴπῃ . Certainly, however, he recognised that, which is said in Psalms 8. of man as such, as receiving its antitypical fulfilment in the exalted Christ (see on 1 Cor. l.c., comp. also Heb_2:8), and thereby it was the more natural for him, when speaking here of the dominion of Christ. to appropriate the words of the Psalm.
πάντα has the emphasis, like πάσης and παντός before. All—all that is created
God has subjected to Christ If Paul had meant simply all that resists Christ (Grotius, Rosenmüller, Holzhausen, Olshausen), he must have said so, since there is no mention of subjecting what is hostile either before or in the eighth Psalm.
καὶ αὐτὸν κ . τ . λ .] and Him, the One thus exalted and ruling over all, Him even He gave, etc.; observe the emphasis of the αὐτόν prefixed. What dignity of the church in Him!
ἔδωκε ] is usually taken in the sense of τίθημι (Harless: “and installed Him as Head over all things for the church;” comp. Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 117); but here as arbitrarily as at Eph_4:11. Grotius and Rückert rightly take it as: He gave Him … to the church. If Paul had conceived of τῇ ἐκκλ . not as dependent on ἔδωκε , but as attached to κεφ . ὑπὲρ πάντα , it would be difficult to see why he should not have written τῆς ἐκκλησίας .[117] Comp. Col_1:18.
ὑπὲρ πάντα ] exalted above all things, is neither transposed (Peshito, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Erasmus, Grotius, Estius, and others): “ipsum super omnia (sc. positum) dedit ecclesiae ut caput ejus,” Grot.; nor does it signify especially ( ἐπὶ πᾶσιν , Eph_6:16), as Boyd and Baumgarten would have it; nor is it, in its true connection with κεφαλ ., to be taken as summum caput (Beza, Morus, Koppe, Rückert, Holzhausen, Meier, Olshausen, Bleek, comp. Matthies); by which, according to Koppe and Olshausen, it is meant to be indicated that Christ is higher than the apostles, bishops, etc. In opposition to this interpretation, it may be decisively urged that only One Head to the church can at all be thought of, and that πάντα here calls for the same explanation as above in the case of πάντα ὑπέταξ . Hence rather: and Him He gave as Head over all things (to which position, as just shown, He had exalted Him) to the church (Christians as a whole). Since He, as Head over all things, was given to the church, it is obvious that He was to belong to her in a very special sense as her own Head; hence it is, in accordance with a well-known breviloquentia (Matthiae, p. 1533; Kühner, II. p. 602), unnecessary to supply κεφαλήν again before τῇ ἐκκλ .
[117] Hofmann no doubt thinks that, if ἔδωκε τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ , were to be taken together, Paul would not have inserted κεφαλ . ὑπὲρ πάντα . But why not? The very position assigned to κεφ . ὑπ . π ., as placed apart from αὐτόν , is in keeping with the importance of this definition of quality, which at the same time, so placed, brings together with striking emphasis ὑπὲρ πάντα and τῆ ἐκκλ . Christ has He given as Head over all things to the church. So high and august is His esteem for it!