VINCENT'S WORD STUDIES

EPHESIANS 2

CHAPTER II

vers 1.
And you. Taking up the closing thought of the preceding chapter, the magnitude of God's power toward believers as exhibited in Christ's resurrection. He now shows that the same power is applied to his readers. Hence the connection is: "When He raised Him from the dead, etc., and you did He quicken, even as He quickened Christ." The structure of the passage is broken. Paul having prominently in mind the thought God quickened you as He did Christ, begins with you also. Then the connection is interrupted by vers. 2, 3, which describe their previous condition. Then ver. 1 is taken up in ver. 4, by but God, God introducing a new sentence. Who were dead (ontav nekrouv). Better, Rev., when ye were dead, thus giving the sense of the continued state in the past expressed by the participle being.

Trespasses - sins (paraptwmasin - amartiaiv). See on Matthew i. 21; vi. 14. Trespasses, special acts. Sins, all forms and phases of sin: more general.

vers 2.
Course (aiwna). Lit., age. See on John i. 9.

Power (exousiav). Collective, the whole empire of evil spirits.

The air. According to Paul's usage, in the simple physical sense. See Acts xxii. 23; 1 Cor. ix. 26; 1 Thess. iv. 17; Apoc. xvi. 17. The air is regarded as the region of the demons' might.

The spirit. See on 1 Cor. ii. 12. The term designates the power over which Satan rules, on the side of its operation in men's hearts.

Now. With an implied reference to its former working in his readers. Compare once, ver. 3 Children of disobedience (uioiv thv apeiqeiav). Compare ch. v. 6. A Hebraistic expression. Compare son of perdition, John xvii. 12; children of obedience, 1 Pet. i. 14; children of cursing, 2 Pet. ii. 14. Rev., correctly, sons of disobedience: belonging to disobedience as sons to a parent.

vers 3.
Had our conversation (anestrafhmen). See on the kindred noun conversation, 1 Pet. i. 15. Rev., more simply, lived.

Fulfilling (poiountev). Rev., doing. The verb implies carrying out or accomplishing, so that the A.V. is more nearly correct. See on Romans vii. 15; John iii. 21.

Desires (qelhmata). Lit., willings. See on Col. iii. 12.

Mind (dianoiwn). More strictly, thoughts. See on Mark xii. 30; Luke i. 51.

By nature children of wrath. See on ver. 2. Children (tekna) emphasizes the connection by birth; see on John i. 12. Wrath (orghv) is God's holy hatred of sin; His essential, necessary antagonism to everything evil, Rom. i. 18. By nature (fusei) accords with children, implying what; is innate. That man is born with a sinful nature, and that God and sin are essentially antagonistic, are conceded on all hands: but that unconscious human beings come into the world under the blaze of God's indignation, hardly consists with Christ's assertion that to little children belongs the kingdom of heaven. It is true that there is a birth-principle of evil, which, if suffered to develop, will bring upon itself the wrath of God. Whether Paul means more than this I do not know. 167 Others (oi loipoi). Rev., correctly, the rest.

vers 4.
But God. Resuming ver. 1.

For His great love (dia). For the sake of, in order to satisfy His love. Quickened us together. Spiritually. Compare Col. ii. 13; Romans vi. 11-14; viii. 10, 11 "What God wrought in Christ He wrought, ipso facto, in all who are united with Him" (Ellicott).

vers 6.
Raised us up. Compare Rom. vi. 5.

Made us sit together (sunekaqisen). Compare set Him, ch. i. 20.

Together is ambiguous. Render with Him, as Rev. "Even now we sit there in Him, and shall sit with Him in the end" (Andrews, cited by Ellicott). Compare Rom. viii. 30; Apoc. iii. 21. Meyer renders hath given us joint seat.

In Christ Jesus. Connect with raised up, made us sit, and in heavenly places. Resurrection, enthronement, heaven, all are in Christ.

vers 7.
The ages to come (toiv aijwsin toiv ejpercomenoiv). Lit., the ages, those which are coming on. Which are successively arriving until Christ's second coming.

He might show (endeixhtai). The middle voice denotes for His own glory. See on Col. i. 6.

In kindness (en crhstothti). See on easy, Matt. xi. 30. The grace of God is to be displayed in His actual benefits.

vers 8.
For by grace, etc. This may truly be called exceeding riches of grace, for ye are saved by grace. Grace has the article, the grace of God, in vers. 5, 7. And that. Not faith, but the salvation.

Of God. Emphatic. Of God is it the gift.

vers 10.
For we are His workmanship. A reason why no man should glory. If we are God's workmanship, our salvation cannot be of ourselves. His is emphatic. His workmanship are we.

Created (ktisqentev). See on John i. 3. The verb originally means to make habitable, to people. Hence to found. God is called ktisthv creator, 1 Pet. iv. 19, and oJ ktisav he that created, Rom. i. 25. Compare Apoc. iv. 11. Ktisiv is used of the whole sum of created things, Mark x. 6; Rom. viii. 22.

Afore prepared (prohtoimasen). Rev, more correctly, prepared. Made ready beforehand. God prearranged a sphere of moral action for us to walk in. Not only are works the necessary outcome of faith, but the character and direction of the works are made ready by God.

That we should walk. In order that; to the end that.

vers 11.
Uncircumcision - circumcision. Abstract for concrete terms, the uncircumcised and circumcised.

Which is called. Notice the irony, giving back the called of the circumcised.

vers 12.
Being aliens (aphllotriwmenoi). Rev., better, giving the force of the verb, alienated. As they had once been otherwise. Paul speaks ideally of a spiritual commonwealth in which Jew and Gentile were together at peace with God, and of which the commonwealth of Israel is a type.

Israel. Selecting the most honorable title to describe the Jew. See on Acts iii. 12. The reference is to the spiritual rather than to the national distinction. In being separated from Christ, they were separated from that commonwealth in which, according to the promise, Christ would have been to them, as to the faithful Israelites, the object of their faith and the ground of their salvation.

Covenants. The several renewals of God's covenant with the patriarchs.

Of promise (thv epaggeliav). Better, the promise. The messianic promise, which was the basis of all the covenants.

Without God (aqeoi). God-forsaken. It might also mean godless or impious. The gentile gods were no gods.

vers 13.
Now in Christ Jesus. Now, in contrast with at that time. In Christ Jesus, in contrast with alienated from, etc. Jesus is added because the Christ who was the subject of promise, the Messiah, has come into the world under that personal name. The phrase includes the promised Messiah and the actual Savior.

vers 14.
Our peace (h eirhnh hmwn). Christ is similarly described in abstract terms in 1 Cor. i. 30; wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. So Col. i. 27, hope of glory. Christ is thus not merely our peace-maker, but our very peace itself.

Both (ta amfotera). Lit., the both. The neuter gender shows that Jews and Gentiles are conceived by the writer merely as two facts. The masculine is used in vers. 15, 16.

Hath broken down (lusav). Lit, loosened or dissolved. Rev., giving the force of the aorist tense, brake down. The participle has an explanatory force, in that He brake down.

The middle-wall of partition (to mesotoicon tou fragmou). Lit., the middle wall of the fence or hedge. The wall which pertained to the fence; the fact of separation being emphasized in wall, and the instrument of separation in fence. The hedge was the whole Mosaic economy which separated Jew from Gentile. Some suppose a reference to the stone screen which bounded the court of the Gentiles in the temple.

vers 15.
Having abolished in His flesh the enmity (thn ecqran en th sarki autou katarghsav). The enmity immediately follows the middle wall of partition, and should be rendered in apposition with and as defining it, and as dependent on brake down, not on abolished: the middle wall which was the enmity. It is used abstractly, as peace in ver. 14. The enmity was the result and working of the law regarded as a separative system; as it separated Jew from Gentile, and both from God. See Romans iii. 20; iv. 15; v. 20; vii. 7-11. For abolished, see on cumbereth, Luke xiii. 7, and make without effect, Rom. iii. 3.

The law of commandments contained in ordinances (ton nomon twn entolwn en dogmasin). The law, etc., depends in construction on having abolished, and is not in apposition with the enmity, as A.V. The middle wall of partition, the enmity, was dissolved by the abolition of the law of commandments. Construe in His flesh with having abolished. Law is general, and its contents are defined by commandments, special injunctions, which injunctions in turn were formulated in definite decrees. Render the entire passage: brake down the middle-wall of partition, even the enmity, by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments contained in ordinances.

For to make (ina ktish). Rev., that He might create. See on created, ver.

vers 10.
The work was to be a new creation on a new foundation.

In Himself. As the medium of reconciliation.

Of the twain one new man (touv duo eiv ena kainon anqrwpon). The Greek is livelier: make the two into one new man. Kainon new, emphasizes the new quality; not newness in point of time. See on Matt. xxvi. 29.

vers 16.
Might reconcile (apokatallaxh). Only here and Col. i. 20, 21. See on Col. i. 20. The new man precedes the reconciling in Paul's statement, though, as a fact, the order is the reverse. The verb contains a hint of restoration to a primal unity. See on ver. 12.

Thereby (en autw). Or upon it - the cross.

vers 17.
You which were afar off. Gentiles.

Them that were nigh. Jews. See on Rom. iii. 30. As children of the messianic covenant. See on ver. 12. Compare Isa. lvii. 9, where the Septuagint reads, peace upon peace to those who are far and to those who are near.

vers 18.
Access (prosagwghn). See on Rom. v. 2. Notice the three persons of the Godhead: through Him (Christ); one Spirit, the Father.

vers 19.
Foreigners (paroikoi). See on Luke xxiv. 18. Rev., better, sojourners. Without rights of citizenship.

vers 20.
Of the apostles and prophets. The foundation laid by them.

Prophets are New-Testament prophets. See ch. iii. 5; iv. 11. See on 1 Corinthians xii. 10.

Chief corner-stone (akrogwniaou). Only here and 1 Pet. ii. 6.

vers 21.
All the building (pasa oikodomh). Lit., every building. Rev., each several building. But the reference is evidently to one building, and the rendering of A.V. should be retained though the article is wanting. Fitly framed together (sunarmologoumenh). The present participle indicates the framing as in progress.

Temple (naon). Sanctuary. See on Matt. iv. 5. The more sacred portion of the structure is chosen for the figure.

vers 22.
Are builded together (sunoikodomeisqe). As component parts of the one building. The reference is to individual Christians, not to communities.

Habitation (katoikhthrion). Answering to temple. Only here and Apoc. xviii. 2. Indicating a permanent dwelling. See on dwell, Luke xi. 26; Acts ii. 5; Mark v. 3. In marked contrast with sojourners, ver. 19. Through the Spirit (en). Better, as Rev., in. In the fellowship of the indwelling Spirit.

GOTO NEXT CHAPTER - Main Index