to `God' is attributed in chapter 6 to Christ, for He is `King of kings and Lord
of lords'. The following abbreviated structure may exhibit the relationship of
these two doxologies to the teaching of the epistle as a whole.
1 Timothy
A
1:1,2.
Salutation.
B
1:3-20.
Teach no other doctrine (1:3).
Committed to trust (1:11).
The Doxology.
The King, incorruptible, invisible (1:17).
Shipwreck (1:19).
C
2:1-7.
The salvation of all men (2:4).
D
2:8 to 3:15. I hope to come (3:14).
E
3:15,16.
mystery
God Manifest.
E
4:1-8.
apostasy
Demons.
C
4:9-12. The Saviour of all men (4:10).
D
4:13 to 6:2. Till I come (4:13).
B
6:3-20.
Teach otherwise (6:3).
Committed to trust (6:20).
The Doxology.
King, Immortal, Unseen (6:15,16).
Drown (6:9).
A
6:21.
Salutation.
We return therefore to the closing doxology of Ephesians 3 with the
assurance that the phraseology used, however exultant, was under the
superintendence of the Spirit Who inspired all Scripture. Let us attempt a more
literal rendering than is found in the Authorized Version which while not
readable enough to be a substitute, will throw into prominence essential
features:
`Now to Him Who is of power (dunameno) above all things to do above what
we ask or think, according to the power (dunamin) that inworketh
(energoumenen) in us, to Him be the glory in the church in Christ Jesus,
unto all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen'.
It will be perceived that `power' is brought over from the body of the prayer,
once translated in the Authorized Version `to be able' which is correct, and
once translated `power'. This we have enforced by translating dunameno `to be
of power'. The word translated in the Authorized Version `worketh' is the Greek
energeo our word `energize', which comes in the earlier prayer of Ephesians
1:19,20. This `power that worketh in us' is moreover very pointedly contrasted
with Ephesians 2:2, where another force is seen at work, `The Prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience'.
This reference in Ephesians 2 takes on a deeper significance when we realize
that it is aligned with the answering of our prayers, for that surely is
travestied by the blinding and undoing of the children of disobedience, in the
fulfilling of the desires of such.
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