`towards', `until', `throughout', `concerning', `that', `with' and `on' in

this one epistle to the Ephesians, has one underlying meaning however varied

the translation; it indicates a goal `unto' which something tends.  We could

freely translate eis here in Ephesians 1:10 by the words `with a view to'.

The secret of His will and its revelation at this time is with a view to a

What is in view is `a dispensation of the fulness of times'.  When the

Son of God came into the world it was `when the fulness of the Time was come'

(Gal. 4:4), here in Ephesians we look forward to a dispensation of the

fulness of Times.  What is the difference between these two expressions

`time' and `times'?

`Time' is from the same root as `tide', and Aristotle observes `our

conception of time originates in that of motion'.  Time is the measure of

movement.  To say that a motor -car was travelling at sixty miles, says

nothing, the complete statement must be `sixty miles per hour', or day as the

case may be.  `Season' on the other hand derives from the Latin sationem, `a

sowing', and looks not so much at the time but at the fitness and

suitableness of the period under review.

`How many things by season season'd are'

We therefore should revise Ephesians 1:10 and read:

`A dispensation of the fulness of the seasons'.

Gap after gap has been succeeded by fulness after fulness, as we have

already seen in the outworking of the age purpose, and at last we have

arrived at the fulness of these seasons, the many sowings are past, the

harvest is in view.  The outstanding characteristic of the dispensation of

the fulness of the seasons is that therein:

`He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are

in heaven and which are on earth; even in Him'.

Where universality is intended, `things under the earth' are added, as in

Philippians 2:10.  Here the all things headed up in Christ is limited to the

Strictly speaking there is no Greek word for `gather together', and no

Greek word for `in' or `one', this is a free rendering of the one word

anakephalaioomai.  Had the apostle meant to say `gather together' he had the

word sunago ready to his hand.

The Greek word kephale means the `head' and this both in the literal

sense (Matt. 14:11) and in the spiritual (Eph. 4:15): Kephalaion means the

`sum' either a sum of money (Acts 22:28), or a summary or summing up (Heb.

8:1).  It must be remembered that the ancients placed the sum of a column of

figures at the head, and not at the foot as we do now.  Kephalis (Heb. 10:7)

may refer to the brief `contents' that was written on the outside of a

scroll, rather than the complete `volume'.  The word used by Paul in

Ephesians 1:10 therefore means something more than `to gather together in

one', it means `to head up' or `to sum up' in Himself all that compose `the

all things' before

the great day of glory dawns.  In Ephesians 1:22,23 this glorious `summing