doxology envisages `the generations' of the ages to come.  The Prison Epistles

speak of:

Generations past.

`Ages' or literally `generations' past, to which the truth of the

Mystery of Christ was not so clearly revealed as it is now (Eph. 3:5).

The Mystery itself (as distinct from the ever unfolding mystery of Christ)

had been `hid' (not gradually revealed) both from the `ages' and from the

`generations' (Col. 1:26).

The present generation.

In the midst of a crooked and perverse `generation' among whom the

church shines as a light in the world (Phil. 2:15).

The future generations.

`To Him be glory in the church, in Christ Jesus, unto all the

generations of the age of the ages' (Eph. 3:21 author's translation).

The epistles contain but one other occurrence of genea and that refers

back to Israel in the wilderness (Heb. 3:10), and so is distinct from those

spoken of in the epistles of the Mystery, as we should expect.  It is evident

that these future generations are placed in contrast with the past and the

present.  In contrast with the past, they will be to the glory of God in two

capacities, (1) in the church, (2) in Christ Jesus, and these two echo the two

mysteries, `the Mystery of Christ' only partly revealed in generations past, and

`the Mystery' itself which had been hidden from ages and generations.  This

points to the fact that `glory' is associated both with `knowledge' and with

`fulness' as may be seen in prophecies of other spheres, for example:

`The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as

the waters cover the sea' (Hab. 2:14).

`His glory is the fulness of the whole earth' (Isa. 6:3 margin).

The generation that shall glorify the Lord is the generation that knows

Him, a generation in contrast with all those from whom the truth of the Mystery

had been hidden.  It will be also a generation in blessed contrast

with the wicked and perverse generation that alas is the description of the

world in which the revelation of the Mystery was given.  The subjects for which

the apostle prayed both in Ephesians 1 and 3 demand something more than ordinary

grace and power for their realization.  Paul associates them with the mighty

power that raised Christ from the dead and set Him at the right hand on high; he

contrasts it with the spiritual energy that works its will in the wicked and

perverse generation that knows not God.

The reader has already been informed that the word `exceeding' of

Ephesians 1:19; 2:7 and `which passeth' of Ephesians 3:19 is the Greek

huperballo, and it would be natural to believe that in verse 20 the word

`exceeding' will be one more occurrence of huperballo.  This however is not so.

Huper comes twice, translated in the Authorized Version `above' and together

with other words `exceeding abundantly', but the word huperballo is not used.

Instead we have the phrase huper ek perissou.  The word perissos is a form of

the preposition peri `concerning', `about' and in combination expresses the idea

`beyond', possibly because that which surrounds a thing lies beyond the thing

itself.  We have perisseuo `to abound' (Rom. 5:15), perisseia `abundance' (Rom.

5:17), perissos `exceeding' (Rom. 3:1 `advantage'), perissoteros `more