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Dr. Bullinger in his Lexicon illustrates the meaning of these words thus:
"If this counsel or this work be of men (ean followed by the subjunctive a point which
the result will decide)" "But if it be of God (ei with the indicative, a case which I put)"
Acts 5: 38, 39.
"If ye know these things (ei with indicative, assuming the case as a fact)", "happy are
ye if ye do them (ean followed by the subjunctive a result which remains to be seen)"
John 13: 17.
No uncertainty therefore must be read into Eph. 3: 2; 4: 21 or Col. 1: 23.
"Assuming that ye have heard" would translate the Apostle's meaning. Here in this
opening epistle of the new dispensation Paul assumes that those to whom he now writes
`had heard'. How and when did they hear? The elders of Ephesus had heard, at least in
part, as Acts 20: 17-25 makes clear, and after the setting aside of Israel in Acts 28:,
we read "Paul dwelt TWO YEARS in his own hired house, and received all that came in
unto him" (Acts 28: 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 traveling 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, even as a malefactor, he could rejoice that the preaching had been fully
known and that all the Gentiles had heard (II 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 Eph. 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 says:
"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
Eph. 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