I N D E X
These blessings of Ephesians 1:3 are moreover peculiar in this, that they
are `all spiritual'.  As the record stands in the Authorized Version `all
spiritual blessings' must be considered as plural.  The fact is, however, that
in the original the word is singular, and a literal rendering is `in (or with)
every blessing (that is) spiritual'.  Where the Greek word pas `all' is used of
one it means `the whole', `entire' or `all the ...', but if it is used to cover
several items, it means `every'.
Green, in his handbook, says that where the adjective pas `all' in the
singular number is written without the article `the', it signifies `every', but
with the article it means `the whole of' the object which it qualifies.  Thus
pasa polis means `every city'; pasa he polis, or he pasa polis `the whole city'
and he polis pasa would have a slightly different meaning -- either `the city,
all of it' or `the city in every part'.
The church of the One Body is blessed `with every blessing that is
spiritual'.  This is even wider in its scope than to say `all spiritual
blessings', for if the number of the blessings were but few -- say four, they
could be defined as `all spiritual', whereas the mind reels as it endeavours
to grasp the fact that there is no blessing that comes under the category of
`spiritual' that is omitted.  It is highly improbable that while we are in this
life we shall be able to appreciate a tithe of what is here so freely bestowed.
We turn our attention from this vision of unspeakable glory to consider
the nature of the blessings thus bestowed.  They are `spiritual', Greek
pneumatikos.  Pneuma `spirit' is derived from the idea of `breath' and goes back
to the equivalent terms that are found in the Hebrew.  It would be a mistake
however just here and now to attempt a dissertation on the origin and usage of
pneuma, for that would take us so far afield that we should be in danger of
forgetting our immediate quest.  First of all, we discover that pneumatikos
occurs three times in Ephesians:
`All spiritual blessings' (1:3).
`Hymns and spiritual songs' (5:19).
`Spiritual wickedness' (6:12).
Without comparison or consideration, we might have been tempted to think
that `spiritual' blessing must mean any blessing that comes from God; that they
must be good, that they must refer to redemption and so on.  But Ephesians 6:12
gives us pause, for there we read of `spiritual Wickedness'.  It is manifestly
absurd to speak of `good' `holy' or `Divine' wickedness, and therefore we
realize that the word spiritual has other and different connotations if it can
be used in the same epistle of both `blessing' and `wickedness'.  In Ephesians
6:12 `spiritual' wickedness is set over against `flesh and blood'.  It is
evident that the word `spiritual' is the opposite of the word `corporeal', and
this is what we find elsewhere.  Paul, writing in the epistle to the Romans
places the idea of `spiritual' over against the `carnal', `for we know that the
law is spiritual (pneumatikos): but I am carnal (sarkikos)' (Rom. 7:14).  `For
if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty
is also to minister unto them in carnal things' (Rom. 15:27).  In first
Corinthians he not only contrasts spiritual with carnal, but also with
`natural'.
`The natural man (psuchikos) ... but he that is spiritual' (1 Cor.
2:14,15).
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