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Eph_4:17. That οὖν , like the Latin ergo, here resumes Eph_4:1 (Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 22 f.; Klotz, ad Devar. p. 718), is rightly assumed; since the exhortation begun Eph_4:1-3 is really interrupted by the digression, Eph_4:4-16, and the duty now following μηκέτι περιπατεῖν κ . τ . λ ., is but the negative side of the ἀξίως περιπατῆσαι κ . τ . λ . of Eph_4:1. Theodoret aptly observes: πάλιν ἀνέλαβε τῆς παραινέσεως τὸ προοίμιον .
τοῦτο ] to be referred forwards: What follows then (now to return to my exhortations) I say and asseverate, etc.
μαρτύρομαι ] does not signify obsecro, but I testify, i.e. I asseverate, aEphesians Ephesians 4 :See on Gal_5:3. Since, however, there lies in this expression and in λέγω the notion of exhortation and precept, there is no need of supplying δεῖν to the following infinitive. See Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. ii. 2. 1; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 235 [E. T. 273]; also Heind. ad Plat. Prot. p. 346 B.
ἐν κυρίῳ ] not per Dominum (Theodoret: ὑπὸ μάρτυρι γάρ φησι τῷ κυρίῳ ταῦτα λέγω , so already Chrysostom and most expositors, including Koppe, Flatt, Holzhausen), which would be πρὸς κυρίου (comp. on Rom_9:1), and with μαρτύρομαι would have to be denoted by τὸν κύριον (I call the Lord to witness, Plat. Phil. p. 12 B; Eur. Phoen. 629; Soph. Oed. Col. 817); but rather, as at Rom_9:1, 1Th_4:1 : in the Lord, so that Paul expresses that not in respect of his own individuality does he speak and aver, but that Christ withal is the element, in which his thinking and willing moves,—through which, therefore, the λέγω and μαρτύρ . has its distinctively Christian character.
μηκέτι ] after that ye, from being Gentiles, have become Christians.
καθὼς καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἔθνη κ . τ . λ .] The καί has its reference in the former walk of the readers. These are no longer to have such a walk, as was, like their previous walk, that also of the other, i.e. the still unconverted (comp. Eph_2:3; 1Th_4:13) Gentiles.
τὰ λοιπά ] for the readers, although Christians, belonged nationally to the category of Gentiles.
ἐν ματαιότητι τοῦ νοὸς αὐτῶν ] (not αὑτῶν ) is the subjective sphere, in which the walk of the other Gentiles takes place, namely, in nothingness (truthlessness) of their thinking and willing ( νοῦς ), which, however, neither denotes, after the Hebrew äÆáÆì , idol-worship (see, in opposition to this, Fritzsche, ad Rom. i. 21), nor is it to be referred, with Grotius, especially to the philosophers (comp. 1Co_3:20), but is to be understood of the whole intellectual and moral character (comp. 2Pe_2:18) of heathenism, in which the rational and moral principle (the νοῦς ) is theoretically and practically estranged from the truth (Eph_4:18), and subject to error and the service of sin (Eph_4:19). We may add, that the ματαιότης is not an inborn one (Zanchius, Calovius, and others; comp. Calvin), but (Rom_7:7 ff.) one that has come to pass, although it has come to pass φύσει (Eph_2:3). Comp. Rom_1:21; Rom_2:15.