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a line drawn through Gen. 1: 2. Most of the teaching is veiled or distorted if we adopt
the translation of aion in terms of eternity. The A.V. reads `The eternal purpose which
He purposed in Christ Jesus' (Eph. 3: 11) as though the word `purpose' was repeated.
The second word translated `purposes' is the verb poieo `to make'. At first sight, the idea
of `making' does not seem so fitting, and the A.V. seems more reasonable. However, we
believe that the choice of the word poieo must be considered as under the
superintendence of the Holy Spirit, and therefore to attain the truth intended we must
consider the usage of this word. In Heb. 1: 2 we read `by Whom also He made the
worlds' where the word `worlds' should read `ages'. Here again `making' is employed in
connection with the ages. In the same epistle poieo is used, where the A.V. reads
`appointed' and `kept' (Heb. 3: 2; 11: 28). In Eph. 2: 3 poieo is translated `fulfilling'.
In Eph. 2: 10, where we read `we are His workmanship', the word so translated is
poiema. Solomon, writing in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, says that there is a season
and a time to every purpose under heaven, and after itemizing fourteen pairs of
experiences, states in verse 11:
"He hath made everything beautiful in his time; also He hath set the world in their
heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the
end."
Everything is not beautiful at present, but `in its proper season' it will be. The word
`world' is literally the `age', and this so pre-occupies the heart of man, that he cannot
comprehend the work of God that goes back before the ages, and which will go on when
the ages have ceased. The LXX uses an expressive term ta sumpanta for `everything',
all things together, a complete and completed whole. Here also we find the Greek word
poiema `the work that God maketh'. It occurs again in verse 17 allied with `purpose',
"every purpose and every work". `The work of God' (Eccles. 1: 13) include apparently
things that at present are `crooked', yet which will be beautiful `in their season'. Again
poiema is used in Eccles 8: 17 "Then I beheld all (sumpanta) the work (ta poiemata)
of God, that a man cannot find out the work (poiema) that is done under the sun . . . . . he
shall not find it". The concealed nature of these poiemata is indicated in 11: 5, where
once again the comprehensive sumpanta is found. Both terms sumpanta and poiemata
are used of man as well as of God, for the last verse of chapter 12: says:
"God will bring every work (sumpan to poiema) into judgment."
The choice of the word poieo therefore, in Eph. 3: 11 is in line with the use of the
word in that quest concerning the purpose of the ages which is found in the book of
Ecclesiastes. To make, or to do, while satisfying many occurrences, by no means present
a full account of the verb poieo as the following extracts from Grimm-Thayer's Lexicon,
will show:
"With the names of things, to produce, construct, form, fashion . . . . . joined to nouns
denoting state or condition, it signifies to be the author, to cause . . . . ."
The fact that poiema becomes in English a `poem' shows that something beyond mere
doing or making is in mind. What a lovely thought it is, that at last, out of the agony of
the ages, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, there will emerge a poem unto His