seven verses of this chapter form one sentence, which is so long and complicated that the apostle is forced, before getting to the end of it, slightly to vary the con- struction ; a thing of very frequent occurrence in his writings. He dwells so long in vs. 2, 3, 4, on the natural state of the Ephesians, that he is obliged in v. 5, to repeat substantially the beginning of v. 1, in order to complete the sentence there commenced. ‘ You dead on account of sin,—wherein ye walked according to the course of the world, subject to Satan, associated with the children of disobedience, among whom we also had our conversation, and were the children of wrath even as others—us, dead on account of trespasses hath God quickened.’ This is the way the passage stands. It is plain, therefore, that the sentence begun in the first verse, is resumed with slight variation in the fifth. This is the view taken by our translators, who borrow from the fifth verse the verb ἐζωοποίησε neces- sary to complete the sense of the first.
Paul describes his readers before their conversion as dead. In Scripture the word life is the term commonly used to express a state of union with God, and death a state of alienation from him. Life, therefore, includes holiness, happiness and activity ; and death, corruption, misery and helplessness. All the higher forms of life are wanting in those spiritually dead ; they are secluded from all the sources of true blessedness, and they are beyond the reach of any help from creatures. They are dead.
The English version renders the clause, τοῖς trapa-
CHAP. Il. VER. 2. 97
πτώμασι καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις, ‘dead wm trespasses and sins.’ But there is no preposition in the original text, and therefore, the great majority of commentators consider the apostle as assigning the cause, and not describing the nature of this death, ‘Dead on account of trespasses and sins.’ * The former of these words is generally considered as referring to outward transgres- sions, the latter is more indefinite, and includes all sin- ful manifestations of ἁμαρτία, i. 6. of sin considered ag an inherent principle.t
V.2. Wherein in time past ye walked. Their former condition, briefly described in the first verse, as a state of spiritual death, is in this and the verses following more particularly characterized. They walked in sin. They were daily conversant with it, and devoted to it. They were surrounded by it, and clothed with it. They lived according to the course of this world. In this clause we have not only the character of their life stated, but the governing principle which controlled their con- duct. They lived according to, and under the control of, the spirit of the world. The expression τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου does not elsewhere occur, and is variously ex-
* Dicit mortuos fuisse: et simul exprimit mortis causam ; nempe pec- cata.—CALVIN,
+ “The word ἁμαρτίαι," says HARuEss, “has, according to the metony- mical use of the plurals of abstract nouns, a different sense from the singu- lar; viz. manifestations of sin, undetermined however, whether by word or deed or some other way. The assertion of David Schulz that ἁμαρτία never expresses a condition, but always an act, deserves no refutation, as such
refutation may be found in any grammar.”
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