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Eph_2:19. Ἄρα οὖν ] draws the inference from Eph_2:14-18; and this inference is the same in its tenor with what was said at Eph_2:13, but is carried out in more detail; for this is just what was to be proved Eph_2:14 ff. (quod erat demonstrandum).
ξένοι ] i.e. such as are not included as belonging to the theocracy, but are related towards it as strangers, who belong to another state; the opposite is συμπολῖται τῶν ἁγίων . Comp. Eph_2:12. The same is indicated by πάροικοι : inquilini,[157] i.e. those who, coming from elsewhere, sojourn in a land or city without having the right of citizenship (Act_7:6; Act_7:29; 1Pe_2:11). See, in general, Wetstein, ad Luc. xxiv. 18; Gesen. Thes. s.v. úåÉùÑÈá . It is the same as is expressed in classic Greek by μέτοικοι (Wolf, prol. Dem. Lept. p. Ixvi. ff.; Hermann, Staatsalterth. § 115), in contradistinction to the πολίτης or ἈΣΤΌς (Plat. Pol. viii. p. 563 A, al.). The Gentiles are in the commonwealth of God only inguilini, sojourners, not citizens; they have no πολιτεία therein; although they are ruled by God (Rom_3:29) and included in the Messianic promise (Rom_4:12 f.), they are so in the second place (Rom_1:16), and without participating in the time-hallowed peculiar prerogatives of the Israelites (Rom_3:1; Rom_9:4 ff.). The referring of πάροικοι to the conception of a household (persons pertaining to the house, members of the family) is not to be made good by linguistic usage (not even by Lev_22:10), and is not demanded by the antithesis of ΟἸΚΕῖΟΙ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ (in opposition to Bengel, Koppe, Flatt, Meier, Harless, Olshausen, Schenkel), inasmuch as ΟἸΚΕῖΟΙ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ sustains a climactic relation to the preceding συμπολ . τῶν ἁγίων , and the two together form the contrast to ΞΈΝΟΙ and πάροικοι . The reference to the proselytes (Anselm, Whitby, Cornelius a Lapide, Calixtus, Baumgarten) is quite at variance with the context (Eph_2:11-13).
ἈΛΛʼ ἘΣΤΈ ] emphatic repetition of the verb after ἈΛΛΆ . Comp. Rom_8:15; 1Co_2:8; Heb_12:18 ff.
ΣΥΜΠΟΛῖΤΑΙ ] belongs to the inferior Greek; Lucian, Soloec. 5; Ael. V. H. iii. 44; Joseph. Antt. xix. 2. 2. See Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 172.
ΤῶΝ ἉΓΊΩΝ ] i.e. of those who constitute the people of God. These were formerly the Jews (Eph_2:12), into whose place, however, the Christians have entered as the ἸΣΡΑῊΛ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ (Gal_6:16), as the true descendants of Abraham (Rom_4:10 ff.) and God’s people (Rom_9:5 ff.), acquired as His property by the work of Christ (see on Eph_1:14). The Ephesians have thus, by becoming Christians, attained to the fellow-citizenship with the saints,—which saints the Christians were,—so that τῶν ἁγίων does not embrace either the Jews (Vorstius, Hammond, Bengel, Morus) or the patriarchs (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, and others; Theodoret: ἁγίους ἐνταῦθα οὐ μόνον τοὺς τῆς χάριτος , ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἐν νόμῳ καὶ τοὺς πρὸ νόμου λέγει ), with whom even the angels have been associated (Calvin, Flatt).
ΟἸΚΕῖΟΙ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ ] members of God’s household. The theocracy is thought of as a family, dwelling in a house, of which God is the ΟἸΚΟΔΕΣΠΌΤΗς . 1Ti_3:15; Heb_3:2; Heb_3:5-6; Heb_10:21; 1Pe_4:17. Comp. áéú éäåä , Num_12:7; Hos_8:1. Harless: belonging to the house of God, as the building-stones of the house, in which God dwells. But thus the following figure is anticipated, and that in a way contrary to the meaning of οἰκεῖος ; and an incongruous contrast is afforded to the πάροικοι .
[157] Among Greek writers πάροικος has not this signification, but is equivalent to neighbour; it has it, however, in the LXX. (Exo_12:45; Lev_25:6-23). Comp. παροικία , Act_13:17, and in the LXX.; Clem. Cor. Eph_2:5.