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Eph_3:9. Καὶ φωτίσαι πάντας ] According to Harless, who is followed by Olshausen, Paul makes a transition to all men: “not, however, to the Gentiles alone, but to all.” Wrongly, since Paul must have written καὶ πάντας φωτίσαι , as he had before prefixed τοῖς ἔθνεσιν . πάντας applies to all Gentiles, and the progress of the discourse has regard not to the persons, but to a particular main point ( καί , and in particular), upon which Paul in his proclamation of the riches of Christ gives information to all Gentiles.
φωτίσαι ] collustrare, of the enlightenment of the mind (Joh_1:9), which is here to be conceived of as brought about by means of the preaching. Comp. Heb_6:4 (and Bleek, ad loc.), Heb_10:32; Psa_119:130; Sir_45:17. Docere (Grotius, Bengel, Rosenmüller, and others) hits doubtless the real sense, but unwarrantably abandons the figure. The possible difficulty that Christ Himself is in fact the light (Joh_1:9; Joh_12:35) disappears on considering that the apostles are mediately the enlightened ones (2Co_4:4; Mat_5:14), the proclaimers and bearers (Act_26:18) of the divine light and its moral powers (v. 8).
τίς ἡ οἰκονομία κ . τ . λ .] i.e. what is the arrangement, which is made with regard to the mystery, etc. As to οἰκονομία , see on Eph_1:10, Eph_3:2; the mystery is that indicated as to its contents in Eph_3:6; and what has been adjusted or arranged with regard thereto ( ἡ οἰκονομία τοῦ μυστηρίου ), consists in the fact that this mystery, hidden in God from the very first, was to be made known in the present time through the church to the heavenly powers. See what follows.
ἀποκεκρυμ .] σεσιγημένου , Rom_16:25. Comp. 1Co_2:7; Col_1:26.
ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων ] from the world-periods, since they have begun to run their course, from the very beginning. The mystery, namely, was decreed already πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων , 1Co_2:7, comp. Eph_1:4, but is conceived of as hidden only since the beginning of the ages, because there was no one previously for whom it could be hidden. The same thing with ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων here is denoted at Rom_16:25 by the popular expression χρόνοις αἰωνίοις . We may add that ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων occurs in the N.T. only here and Col_1:26; elsewhere is found the expression current also in Greek authors, ἀπʼ αἰῶνος (Luk_1:70; Act_3:21), and ἐκ τοῦ αἰῶνος (Joh_9:32).
τῷ τὰ πάντα κτίσαντι ] quippe qui omnia[176] creavit. Herein lies—and this is the significant bearing of this more precise designation of God—a confirmation of what has just been said, τοῦ ἀποκεκρυμ . ἀπὸ τῶν αἰών . ἐν τῷ Θεῷ . Bengel aptly observes: “rerum omnium creatio fundamentum est omnis reliquae oeconomiae, pro potestate Dei universali liberrime dispensatae.” He who has created all that exists must already have had implicitly contained in His creative plan the great unfolding of the world, which forms the contents of this mystery, so that thus the latter was ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων hidden in God. Comp. on Ὁ ΠΟΙῶΝ ΤΑῦΤΑ ΓΝΩΣΤᾺ ἈΠʼ ΑἸῶΝΟς , Act_15:18, and as to the idea which underlies our passage also, that already the creative word contemplated Christ as its aim,[177] Col_1:16 ff., and the commentary thereon. Rückert thinks that Paul wishes to indicate how far it may not surprise us that He, from whom all things are derived, should have concealed a part of His all-embracing plan, in order to bring it to light only at the due time. But, apart from the fact that the creation of all things does not at all involve as a logical inference the concealment of a part of the divine plan, it was not the ἀποκεκρυμ . in itself that needed a ground assigned for it, since in fact this predicate is necessarily implied in the notion of μυστήριον , but the ἈΠΟΚΕΚΡ . ἈΠῸ ΤῶΝ ΑἸΏΝΩΝ . This ἈΠῸ ΤῶΝ ΑἸΏΝΩΝ is the terminus a quo, which was introduced with the κτίσις τῶν πάντων . At variance with the context, Olshausen holds that Paul wished to call attention to the fact that the establishment of redemption itself [of which the apostle in fact is not speaking] is a creative act of God, which could have proceeded only from Him who created all things. Harless places Τῷ ΤᾺ ΠΆΝΤΑ ΚΤΊΣ . in connection with ἽΝΑ Κ . Τ . Λ ., Eph_3:10. But see on Eph_3:10.
[176] The totality of that which exists, the whole world. Every limitation of this universal meaning is unwarranted, as when Beza, Piscator, Flatt, and others refer it to mankind. “Unus Deus omnes populos condidit, sic etiam nunc omnes ad se vocat,” Beza. Holzhausen, too, arbitrarily limits it to all spiritual beings, called to everlasting life; while Matthies mixes up also in κτίσαντι the effecting of the spiritual blessedness.
[177] Hence εἰς Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν would have been a more correct gloss than διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χρ ., which the Recepta has.
REMARK.
When διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ is recognised as not genuine (see the critical remarks), the possibility is taken away of referring κτίσαντι to the moral creation by Christ, as is done by Calvin, Zanchius, Calixtus, Grotius, Crell, Locke, Semler, Morus, Koppe, Usteri, Meier, Baumgarten-Crusius, and others. But even if those words were genuine, the formal and absolute κτίζειν , as well as the emphatically prefixed and unlimited τὰ πάντα , would justify only the reference to the physical creation, Genesis 1. Comp. Calovius and Reiche.