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Eph_3:1. On this account, namely, in order that ye may be built unto the dwelling of God by means of the Spirit (Eph_2:22),—on this behalf, that your Christian development may advance towards that goal, am I, Paul, the fettered one of Christ Jesus for the sake of you, the Gentiles. The position of Paul in fetters on account of his labours as the apostle of the Gentiles[164] could only exert a beneficial influence upon the development of the Christian life of his churches, as edifying and elevating for them (comp. Eph_3:13), as, on the other hand, it must have redounded as a scandal to them, if he had withdrawn from the persecutions (Gal_6:12; 2Co_11:23 ff.; Php_2:17 f.). Hence the τούτου χάριν emphatically prefixed.
ἐγὼ Παῦλος ] in the consciousness of his personal authority (comp. 2Co_10:1; Gal_5:2; 1Th_2:18; Col_1:23; Phm_1:9), which the bonds could not weaken, but only exalt (2Co_11:23 ff.).
ὁ δέσμιος τοῦ Ἰ . Χ .] The article denotes the bound one of Christ κατʼ ἐξοχήν , such as Paul could not but, in accordance with his special relation to Christ (Gal_1:1; Gal_6:17), appear to himself and others. The genitive expresses the author of the being bound. Comp. 2Ti_1:8; Phm_1:9. See Winer, p. 170 [E. T. 236]. Paul regards himself, in keeping with the consciousness of his entire dependence on Christ (as δοῦλος Χριστοῦ ), as the one whom Christ has put in chains.
As regards the construction, by many the simple εἰμί is rightly supplied after ὁ δέσμιος τοῦ Χρ . Ἰ . (Syriac, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Erasmus, Cajetanus, Beza, Elsner, Calovius, Wolf, Michaelis, Paraphr.; Moras, Koppe, Rosenmüller, and others), so that ὁ δέσμιος τοῦ Χ . Ἰ . is predicate, in connection with which some have neglected the article, others have rightly had regard to it (see especially Beza). He is, however, the δέσμιος of Christ on behalf of the Gentiles; and this thought leads him in the sequel to explain himself more fully regarding his vocation as Apostle of the Gentiles, whereupon he only briefly returns to the point of his imprisonment in Eph_3:13, after having been led away from it by the detailed exposition of the theme, to which he had been incited by the ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐθνῶν . Free movement of thought natural in a letter. Supplementary additions, such as legatione fungor (Ambrosiaster, Castalio, Calvin, Vatablus), or hoc scribo (Camerarius, and the like),[165] are not implied in the context, and are therefore erroneous. Others have regarded the discourse as broken off, and have found the resumption either at Eph_3:8 (Oecumenius, Grotius), or at Eph_3:13 (Zanchius, Cramer, Holzhausen), or at Eph_3:14 (Theodoret, Luther, Piscator, Calixtus, Cornelius a Lapide, Estius, Homberg, Schöttgen, Bengel, Baumgarten, and others, including Flatt, Lachmann, Rückert, Winer, Matthies, Harless, Olshausen, Bisping, Bleek; de Wette, characterizing this construction as “hardly Pauline”), or only at Eph_4:1 (Erasmus Schmid, Hammond, Michaelis in note to his translation). But all these hypotheses are—inasmuch as, according to the above explanation, Eph_3:1 in itself yields with ease and linguistic correctness a complete and suitable sense—unnecessary complications of the discourse. Baumgarten-Crusius regards the discourse as entirely broken off under the pressure of the crowding thoughts, so that it is not at all resumed in the sequel.
After Eph_3:1 only a comma is to be placed.
[164] “Quia gentes Judaeis adaequabat, incidit in suorum popularium odium,” Drusius. Comp. Grotius, Calovius.
[165] Already in early witnesses supplementary additions are met with in the text: πρεσβεύω in D* E 10, followed by Castalio and Calvin; postulo in Clar., Germ.; κεκαύχημαι in 71, 219, al.