CHAP. I. VER. 8. 43

and explanation. 1. They may be connected with the preceding verb and qualify the action of God therein expressed. God, in the exercise of wisdom and pru- dence, has abounded in grace towards us. 2. They may be connected with the following clause: ‘In all wisdom and prudence making known, &c.’ 3. They may be connected with the preceding relative pronoun. ‘Which (grace) in connection with, or together with, all wisdom and prudence he has caused to abound.’ That is, the grace manifested by God and received by us, is received in connection with the divine wisdom or knowledge of which the subsequent clause goes on to speak. This last explanation seems decidedly prefer- able because the terms here used, particularly the word φρόνησις prudence, is not in its ordinary sense properly referable to God. Cicero de Off. 1.43. Prudentia enim, quam Graeci φρόνησιν dicunt, est rerum expetendarum fugiendarumque scientia. And because the sense af- forded by the third mentioned interpretation is so appro- priate to the context and so agreeable to other passages of Scripture. The apostle often celebrates the good- ness of God in communicating to men the true wisdom ; not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, but the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world to our glory. See 1 Cor. 1, 17 to the end, and the whole second chapter of that epistle—Similar modes of ex- pression are common with the apostle. As here he speaks of grace being given (ἐν) im connection with wisdom, so in v.17 he prays that the Ephesians may