and the verses following. The object of his prayer, or the person to whom it is addressed, is designated, first, as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, i. 6. the God whose work Christ came to do, by whom he was sent, of whom he testified and to whom he has gone ;—and secondly, ὁ πατὴρ τῆς δόξης, the Lather of glory. This designation is variously explained. By glory many of the Fathers understood the divine nature of Christ, and remarked that Paul here calls God, the God of Christ as a man, but his Father as God.* This interpretation of the phrase ‘ Father of glory,’ is with- out the least support from the analogy of Scripture. It means either, the source or author of glory ; or the possessor of glory, i.e. who is glorious. Comp. Acts 7,1. 1 Cor. 2, 8, “Lord of glory.” James 2, 1, and in Ps. 24, 7, “ the king of glory.”
There are three leading petitions expressed in the prayer here recorded. First, for adequate knowledge of divine truth. Second, for due appreciation of the future blessedness of the saints. Third, for a proper understanding of what they themselves had already experienced in their conversion.
His first prayer is thus expressed: Zhat he may giwe unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him. By πνεῦμα σοφίας, the Spirit of wisdom, is to be understood the Holy Spirit, the author of wisdom, and not merely a state of mind,
* So Brencet, who explains the expression thus: Pater gloriae, infinitae ilius, quae refulget in facie Christi; immo gloriae quae est ipse filius Dei.