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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 2:4 - 2:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
4. πλούσιος. See note on τὸ πλοῦτος, Eph 1:7.
ἐν ἐλέει. Cf. Rom 15:9; Tit 3:5; Luk 1:78; and esp. 1Pe 1:3 and the declaration of the Name of the Lord to Moses in Exo 34:6. Mercy is not inconsistent with wrath. They are both aspects of the same love.
διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην. In his earliest Epistles (1Th 1:4; 2Th 2:13) St Paul notes that the love which Jehovah had lavished on His Israel (Deu 33:12) was now shared by Gentile Christians. In 2Th 2:16 this love is connected with the gift of ‘eternal consolation and good hope in grace.’ Elsewhere the only passages outside the Johannine writings in which the phrase occurs are in Rom 5:5; Rom 5:8; Rom 8:39; 2Co 13:13; Jud 1:21; cf. Tit 3:4 ἡ φιλανθρωπία.
ἣν ἠγάπησεν. Cognate acc. as in Joh 17:26 ἡ ἀγάπη ἣν ἠγάπησάς με. ἡμᾶς clearly here used inclusively.