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(1) 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).
(2) 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).
(3) The future generation.
"To Him be glory in the church, in Christ Jesus, unto all the generations of the age of
the ages" (Eph. 3: 21).
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 `fullness' 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 fullness 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 subject for which the Apostle prayed both in Eph. 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 Eph. 1: 9; 2: 7
and `which passeth' of Eph. 3: 19 is the Greek hyperballo, and it would be natural to
believe that in verse 20 the word `exceeding' will be one more occurrence of hyperballo.
This however is not so. Hyper comes twice, translated in the A.V. `above' and together
with other words `exceeding abundantly' but the word hyperballo 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 `beyond', possibly because that
which surrounds a thing lies beyond the thing itself. We have perisseuo `to exceed'
(Rom. 5: 15), perisseia `abundance' (Rom. 5: 17), perissos `exceeding' (Rom. 3: 1