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Eph_4:19. The estrangement of the Gentiles from the divine life, indicated in Eph_4:18, is now more precisely proved in conformity with experience: οἵτινες , quippe qui, etc.: being such as, void of feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness.
ἀπηλγηκότες ] ἀναίσθητοι γενόμενοι , Hesychius. The “verbum significantissimum” (Bengel), from ἀλγεῖν and ἀπό , is equivalent to dedolere, to cease to feel pain, then to be void of feeling, whether there be meant by it the apathy of intelligence, or the state of despair, or, as here, the moral indolence, in which one has ceased to feel reproaches of conscience,[234] consequently the securitas carnalis; see Wetstein, and also Matthaei, ed. min. in loc. The explanation having despaired (comp. Polyb. ix. 40. Ephesians 4 : ἀπαλγοῦντες ταῖς ἐλπίσι ) imports a special definition of the meaning without warrant from the context, but is found already in Syr. Arm. Vulg. It. Ambrosiaster, and from it has arisen the reading ἈΠΗΛΠΙΚΌΤΕς (D E F G have ἈΦΗΛΠΙΚ .), which probably already those vss. followed.
ἙΑΥΤΟΎς ] with deterrent emphasis. To bring into prominence what was done on the part of their own freedom, was here in accordance with the paraenetic aim. It is otherwise put at Rom_1:24 : παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεός . The two modes of regarding the matter are not contrary to one another, but go side by side (see on Rom_1:24); and according to the respective aims and connection of the discourse, both have their warrant and their full truth.
τῇ ἀσελγείᾳ ] personified. It is to be understood of sensual lasciviousness (comp. on Rom_13:13; 2Co_12:21; Gal_5:19), as, subsequently, ἀκαθαρσίας of sensual filthiness (comp. Rom_1:24; 2Co_12:21; Gal_5:19), not of ethical wantonness and impurity generally (Harless, Matthies, Meier, and others), since the πλεονεξία connected with it is likewise a special vice, as indeed, on the other hand (Rom_1:24; comp. Eph_4:29 and Col_3:5), unchastity appears as the first and chief vice of the Gentiles.
εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης ] aim of this self-surrender to the ἈΣΈΛΓΕΙΑ (comp. Rom_6:19): for the prosecution of every uncleanness, in order to practise every sort of uncleanness. On ἐργασία , comp. LXX. Exo_26:1; 2Ch_15:7; Isa_1:31, al.; Plat. Prot. p. 353 D: τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐργασίαν , Eryx. p. 403 E: ἐργασίας πραγμάτων μοχθηρῶν . Koppe takes it as trade (Act_16:16; Act_19:19; Act_24:2-9). But could the trade of prostitution (Dem. 270. 15, Reiske, and thereon Dissen, de Cor. p. 301) be thus generally predicated with truth of the Gentiles? This at the same time tells in opposition to the explanation followed by Grotius, Bengel, Stolz, Koppe, Flatt, and Meier, of the ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ that follows as quaestus ex impudicitia (on the thing itself, see Aristaen. i. 14). In fact, ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ adds to the vice of sensuality the other chief vice of the heathen, and signifies: with covetousness. The explanations: with unsatiableness (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Erasmus, Calvin, Estius, and others, including Matthies), or certatim (“quasi agatur de lucro, ita ut alius alium superare contendat,” Beza), or with haughtiness (Holzhausen), or in gluttony (Harless[235]), are all of them at variance with linguistic usage, partly in general, partly of the N.T. in particular, in which πλεονεξία never means anything else than covetousness. Sensuality and covetousness are the two cardinal vices of the heathen, which are to be avoided by the Christians. See Eph_5:3; 1Co_5:10 f.; Col_3:5. Comp. 2Pe_2:2; 2Pe_3:14.
[234] “Homines a Deo relicti sopita conscientia, extincto divini judicii timore, amisso denique sensu tanquam attoniti, belluino impetu se ad omnem turpitudinem projiciunt,” Calvin.
[235] He is followed by Olshausen, who explains πλεονεξία of repletion with meat and drink, and terms this physical greed! According to classical usage, πλεονεξία might mean superabundance, but not gluttony.