texts in its favour.

Accordingly, Ephesians speaks of a dispensation three times:

A dispensation or stewardship of the fulness of times (1:10).

The dispensation or stewardship of the grace of God (3:2).

The dispensation or stewardship of the mystery (3:9).

In addition to this we must include the one reference in Colossians, where

Paul says:

`Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which

is given to me for you' (Col. 1:25).

It is a well-known fact that Colossians supplements Ephesians, and these

four passages can be taken together.

A

A dispensation of the fulness of times, according to His good pleasure,

which He hath purposed in Himself.

B  The dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me to you-

A

The dispensation of the mystery ... according to the eternal

which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

B

The dispensation of God which is given to me for you.

If these four passages belong to the same subject, then we cannot use the term

`the fulness of times' as though it looked down the ages to the day when God

should be all in all, but that rather it refers to the dispensation of the

mystery now obtaining.

Let us examine this expression, `the fulness of times'.  The word

translated `fulness' is the Greek word pleroma, the word `times' is the Greek

word kairos.  Pleroma, is a word of such significance that it demands a treatise

to itself (see An Alphabetical Analysis, part 3).  In Galatians 4:4 we read of

`the fulness of the time' when God sent forth His Son, but here the word `time'

is chronos.  Kairos means `season' rather than `time', and in Ephesians 2:12 the

beggary and degradation of the Gentile `at that time' (kairos season), are

placed in contrast with the fulness of blessing that is theirs in this present

season of grace.  This word can be used of the `time' of harvest (Matt. 13:30),

which cannot refer to the time of the clock but to the season.  It is used of

the `time' of figs for the same reason.  It is not without significance that

where Luke speaks of the `times' kairos of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24), Paul

speaks of the `fulness' of the Gentiles (Rom. 11:25).

The great characteristic of this dispensation of the fulness of the

seasons is that then shall be gathered together in one all things in Christ.  In

the many passages where we read `gather together' in the New Testament, the

Greek word is either episunago, sunago, sullego, or sunathroizo.  Ephesians 1:10

uses a word that occurs nowhere else in the New Testament except in Romans

13:9 where it is translated `is briefly comprehended'.  Anakephalaioomai is

composed of ana `up' and the verbal form of kephale `head', and so does not mean

`together' but `to head up'.  The Revised Version has rendered the phrase `to

sum up all things in Christ'.  While this is nearer to the meaning, as seen in

the `briefly comprehended' of Romans 13:9, it has the disadvantage of failing to

reveal the connection of this passage with Ephesians 1:22,23, where `head' and