(Acts28:30).  Among those who visited him during these two years were Timothy,

many of the brethren, Epaphroditus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Marcus, Jesus named

Justus, Epaphras, Luke and Demas, and through the ministry of these brethren

travelling back and forth between the assemblies and the Roman prison, all

the churches would have become apprized of the new dispensation that had been

given unto the apostle for the Gentiles.

Even when the apostle suffered a severer imprisonment with much more

irksome restrictions, as a malefactor, he could rejoice that the preaching had

been fully known and that all the Gentiles had heard (2 Tim. 4:17).  Doubtless

we should like to have heard, but in the wisdom of God, we learn by study, by

prayer, by meditation, so that they who have ears to hear shall hear, but those

not so blessed will pass this high and holy calling by and protest that `they

see nothing in it'.  For us, it is as certain as the day, that for two years the

believer had the opportunity to hear and that many did so with blessed results.

In Ephesians 3 the apostle is but reminding them of what was acknowledged among

them, to pass on to a more detailed exposition of some of the distinctive

features of this new dispensation.

`The dispensation of the grace of God'.  The word `dispensation' in the

sense of a stewardship comes into our language from the Latin which uses

dispensatio as a translation of the Greek oikonomia.  The Oxford Dictionary

`Theol.  A religious order or system, conceived as a stage in a

progressive revelation, expressly adapted to a particular nation or age,

as the Patriarchal, Mosaic, Christian dispensation'.

A dispensation was used of a steward, but is rarely

so used now.  Dispensative means administrative.  The objection made by some to

the use of the word `dispensation' in Ephesians 3:2 and in similar passages is

a quibble, and prompted by a desire to avoid the consequences of accepting the

teaching that makes Paul, the prisoner, the steward of an entirely new

dispensation.  Oikonomia is translated in Luke 16:2,3 and 4 by `stewardship',

even as oikonomos is translated in Luke 16:1,3 and 8 by `steward'.  Paul claimed

to be a steward of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1,2), and the fact that the

word is used of a `chamberlain' of a city (Rom. 16:23), or of `governors' who

were responsible for an heir during his minority (Gal. 4:2) further illustrates

the meaning of the term.  The LXX uses the word oikonomos of one `that was over

the household' (Isa. 37:2), which if read in connection with Ephesians 2:19,

will show the nature and extent of the apostle's claim.  Ephesians 3:9 reads in

the Authorized Version `fellowship of the mystery' which is corrected in the

Revised Version to `dispensation of the mystery'.  It is a slip of the pen that

any scribe might make, and write koi instead of oik, koinonia being `fellowship'

and oikonomia `dispensation'.

Let us examine this structure before attempting the analysis of details,

for if we comprehend the structure we shall perceive the scope of the apostle's

argument, and if we perceive the scope we shall avoid that ever present danger

of failing `to see the wood for the trees'.  It will be observed that he returns

in the thirteenth verse to his imprisonment, saying this time `My afflictions

for you' and in Acts 20:23, when he first visualized this new ministry `bonds

and afflictions' were linked together.