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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 1:9 - 1:9
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
9. γνωρίσας ἡμῖν κ.τ.λ., ‘by making known to us the secret of His will.’ The communication of this knowledge of the ultimate purpose of God, as a consequence of the favour that God has towards us, is the root from which the faculties of ‘wisdom’ and ‘prudence’ are developed in us. In Col 1:9, conversely, our power to discern God’s will in its application to our own lives grows with our growth in wisdom and all spiritual understanding. γνωρίζω is constantly connected with the declaration of hidden truths. See Eph 3:3, Eph 6:19; Rom 16:26, &c.
τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ. God’s purpose for the world was the secret that He shared with His chosen. It is stated here in its widest scope. It is nothing less than the establishment or re-establishment of the whole creation in perfect harmony in the Christ. Cf. Rom 11:36. So in Rom 16:25. The first step towards that goal was taken when God’s covenant was seen to include the Gentiles, Eph 3:2; Eph 3:4. The knowledge of this stage in the development of God’s plan and its relation to the end was the special revelation entrusted to St Paul. In its relation to the Gentiles it has a double aspect. On the one hand the Gentiles are revealed to the Jews in their true light as members of the one body in Christ, Eph 3:4; Eph 3:6; cf. Luk 2:32. On the other their own eyes are opened to see ‘Christ in them, the hope of glory,’ Col 1:27. In relation to the Jews the first effect of this extension of the circle of God’s chosen seemed disastrous. A part, and a large part, of Israel was shut out. But the revelation granted to St Paul contained a solution of this difficulty also, Rom 11:25. Their exclusion was only temporary with a view to the ultimate all-inclusive triumph of the mercy and the wisdom of God. The key to the whole revelation lay in the true apprehension of the person of Christ. So St Paul speaks of Him as τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ θεοῦ, the treasury in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were kept for those who were in the secret (Col 2:2), and the Gospel itself, which is essentially the revelation of Jesus Christ, is the means by which that secret is made known, Eph 3:6, Eph 6:19; Col 4:3. The use of the word in 1Ti 3:9, τὸ μυστήριον τῆς πίστεως, is identical with its use in the phrase τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, Eph 6:19. If there is anything novel in its use in 1Ti 3:16, when it stands (as in Col 2:3) in apposition to words descriptive of the personal Christ, the novelty does not lie in the use of the word μυστήριον but of εὐσέβεια which is no doubt characteristic of the Pastoral Epistles. It was a mark of special friendship to communicate the knowledge of a secret purpose, cf. Joh 15:15. This confidence therefore comes in naturally as a token of χάρις, Psa 25:14.
κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν αὐτοῦ. The parallel phrase in Eph 1:5 (κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ) suggests that these words are to be taken closely with τοῦ θελήματος. God’s will had been moulded by His gracious purpose. It is, however, possible that the clause goes back to ἐπερίσσευσεν, as in Eph 1:5 it goes back to ἐξελέξατο. This abounding of grace in wisdom was ‘in accordance with His gracious purpose.’
εὐδοκία. This word is used to describe Jehovah’s attitude to His people, e.g. Psa 5:12; Psa 50:20; Psa 105:4; cf. Luk 2:14, εἰρήνη ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας; but it also describes a course of action that has approved itself to God, cf. ηὐδόκησεν in Luk 12:32; Col 1:19, &c.; e.g. Luk 10:21 = Mat 11:26, and this meaning is required here by the context.
ἣν προέθετο ἐν αὐτῷ, ‘which He set before Himself in Him.’ These words might mean ‘which He set forth (or displayed) in Him,’ cf. Rom 3:25. But this meaning is excluded here by the use of πρόθεσις in Eph 1:11 (cf. Eph 3:11) which can only mean ‘purpose,’ as in Rom 8:28; Rom 9:11; 2Ti 1:9; cf. Act 27:13; 2Ma 3:8. The thought therefore must be of the original purpose of creation which God formed ‘in Him.’ The thought and the language recur in Eph 3:11 and are strictly parallel to ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα in Col 1:16, cf. Joh 1:4, ὃ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν. This fits in also with the hint in Eph 3:9 that the secret had been hid ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων ἐν τῷ θεῷ τῷ τὰ πάντα κτίσαντι.