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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 1:13 - 1:13
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13. ἐν ᾦ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἀκούσαντες … ἐν ᾧ καὶ πιστεύσαντες ἐσφραγίσθητε. St Paul marks three distinct stages by which the Gentiles passed into their assured position in Christ, hearing, believing, and being sealed. But these stages, though distinct, are organically connected, and the whole process is conceived as taking place ‘in Him.’ This is most easily seen in connexion with the ‘sealing’ which, as in the case of Our Lord at His Baptism (Joh 6:27), and of the disciples on the Day of Pentecost (Act 11:17), and of the household of Cornelius (Act 10:44; Act 15:8), was at once the Divine attestation of a spiritual fact already revealed and appropriated and the means by which the recipient was empowered to live up to the truth he had heard and believed.
ἀκούσαντες κ.τ.λ. ‘Hearing,’ according to Rom 10:14-17, necessarily precedes ‘believing.’ It means giving heed to a message coming from Christ.
τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς σωτηρίας ὑμῶν. The message is defined from two points of view. It is (1) a declaration of eternal reality, of the truth, cf. Eph 4:24. The truth is the opposite of ἡ πλάνη Eph 4:14, ἡ ἀπάτη Eph 4:22, τὸ ψεῦδος Eph 4:25. The word reveals the true relation in which men stand to one another and to God in Christ. The phrase is found in 2Ti 2:15, and in a fuller form ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου in Col 1:5; cf. 2Co 6:7. This view of the Gospel is characteristic of St John. See esp. Joh 1:17, Joh 18:37. It has also (2) consequences directly affecting the Gentiles. It is ‘the Gospel of their salvation.’
τῆς σωτηρίας ὑμῶν. Cf. 1Pe 1:10 with Hort’s notes. The salvation expressly included the heathen in its scope; cf. also Eph 2:5.
ἐν ᾧ καὶ πιστεύσαντες. ‘Hearing’ in itself is a sign of grace, but only as the prelude to ‘believing’; cf. Luk 8:12; Luk 8:14-15; Act 15:7.
ἐσφραγίσθητε τῷ πνεύματι τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τῷ ἁγίῳ. In O.T. the Spirit of God came on men who had a special work for God to do as Judges (Jdg 3:10, &c.), Kings (1Sa 16:13) or Prophets (Num 11:29). And as the thought of the Messianic age grew in the minds of the later prophets a promise was given not only that the Spirit should rest on the Messiah (Isa 11:2) and on the Servant of the Lord (Isa 42:1; Isa 61:1), but also on the whole people of God (Joe 2:28; Isa 44:3; Eze 36:27). In the Gospels the fulfilment of the first part of this promise was the sign by which the Baptist was to recognize ‘the Mightier than he’ who (Joh 1:33) would be able to baptize others with the same Holy Spirit that had come to rest upon Himself. And our Lord before His Ascension declared that the time for this Baptism was at hand (Luk 24:49; Act 1:8; cf. Joh 14:26). The fulfilment of the promise began on the day of Pentecost, and was accompanied by extraordinary signs, esp. speaking with tongues (Act 2:33). Similar signs attended the outpouring of the Spirit on a new class of hearers or in a new region, e.g. Act 8:15 ff; Act 10:47; Act 19:2. These manifestations of miraculous power were, as St Paul points out in 1 Cor., only part and not the deepest or most abiding effect of the gift of the Spirit. But they were regarded, taken in conjunction with the deeper evidence of spiritual conversions (1Th 1:9), as tokens of the Divine approval of the different stages in the missionary activity of the Apostles. See esp. Act 11:17; Act 14:27; Act 15:12; Gal 2:8; Gal 3:5; 1Th 1:5; 2Co 12:12. So the gift of the Spirit to his converts became for St Paul ‘a seal’ of his own apostleship (1Co 9:2) and an assurance of their election (1Th 1:4 f.). It was natural therefore to regard the gift of the Spirit as a seal set by God on the Gentiles to mark them out as belonging to and kept by Him. The figure occurs in Eph 4:30 and 2Co 1:12. See Additional Note on σφραγίς.
τῷ πνεύματι τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τῷ ἁγίῳ. Cf. Rom 9:8, τὰ τέκνα τῆς ἐπαγγελίας. The genitive is virtually a genitive of apposition. All the blessings, the inheritance, &c., promised by God to His people are included in the gift of the Spirit. No translation can give the full effect of the phrase. It includes, but is not satisfied by, ‘The promised Spirit.’ ἐπαγγελία, cf. Eph 2:12, Eph 3:6, is curiously rare in LXX., there being no distinctive word in Hebrew to express the thought. In Psalms 55(56):9 and Amo 9:6 it appears as a paraphrase or mistranslation. 2Ma 2:18 καθὼς ἐπηγγείλατο διὰ τοῦ νόμου, seems the only instance of the use of the root to express a Divine promise. The thought is common in Deuteronomic passages and in reference to the promise made to David. In the Gospels it occurs only in a word of the Lord in Luk 24:49, ‘The promise of the Father,’ cf. Act 1:4, repeated by St Peter at Pentecost, Act 2:33. In all these cases it refers directly to the Holy Spirit. St Stephen uses it Act 7:17 of the promised land, and it is common in St Paul, both in his speeches and in his letters, of the hope of Israel. It occurs 14 times in this sense in Hebrews. It is used in 2 Pet. of the παρουσία.