I N D E X
Until He is pleased to remove the veil, wisdom may lead to a consciousness of
the need of a revelation, but it cannot provide it.  The two together however,
`wisdom and revelation', are what the apostle prayed for and what we all must
receive.  This spirit of wisdom and revelation, we have already discovered is
related to `acknowledging' Him.
(2)
We come therefore to the next preparation:
`The eyes of your understanding being enlightened' (Eph. 1:18).
This is not another gift, it is rather a presupposed condition `having been
enlightened'.  The apostle uses the word photizo `to enlighten' three times in
his earlier epistles and three times in his later epistles.  The three in the
later Prison epistles are (author's translations):
Eph. 1:18
Eyes of understanding having been enlightened.
Eph. 3:9
To make all men see what is the dispensation.
2 Tim. 1:10 Hath brought life and immortality to light.
`Understanding', dianoia `a thinking through', is the faculty of reflection, and
is found in Ephesians 2:3; 4:18 and Colossians 1:21.  The Revised text however
reads kardia `heart'.  It is important to remember that the critical passage
Isaiah 6:9,10, that marks the failure of Israel both in Matthew 13:15 and Acts
28:27, speaks of understanding with the heart, as though the blindness of Israel
was the result rather of wilfulness than poorness of intellect.
The relation of the eyes to understanding is a constant figure in the
Scriptures.  We read of the single eye and the evil eye, and Israel closed their
eyes before they failed to understand with their heart.  When Paul made known
that he was about to enter his prison ministry, he gave a summary of its
characteristics and among them he placed `to open their eyes' (Acts 26:18).
This threefold preparation, the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the
acknowledging, and the illumination of the eyes of the heart, leads on to the
knowledge which is the burden of this prayer.
(3) This knowledge also is threefold, thus:
That ye may know
(1)
What is the hope of His calling.
(2)
What (is) the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints.
(3)What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-
ward who believe.
Notice too, the thrice repeated `His'.  In this prayer, as we have already seen,
our thoughts are directed away and upward and outside of ourselves, and it is
only when the glorious teaching of chapters 2 and 3 has been received, that the
apostle in his second prayer turns the believer's attention to `the inner man',
to Christ dwelling `in your hearts by faith', to the saints being `filled'.
Strange spiritual aberration may follow the reversal of this divine order.  To
be taken up with the `inner man' apart from the power of the risen Christ is
dangerous in the extreme.
Let us pause before we proceed to the question of `hope', `riches' and
`power' to acquaint ourselves with the meaning of this word `know', for there
are two Greek words, which between them supply the thought of knowing in the New
Testament, namely ginosko and oida.  The former when prefixed with epi provides
us with the word `knowledge' in Ephesians 1:17 or, as we have translated,
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