V.1. For this cause, i. e. because you Gentiles are fellow-citizens of the saints, and specially because you Ephesians are included in the temple of God.
As there is no verb of which the words, ἐγὼ Παῦλος, I Paul, are the nominative, there is great diversity of opinion as to the proper construction of the passage. The most common view is that the sentence here begun is recommenced and finished in vy. 14, where the words, “For this cause” are repeated. The apostle intended saying at the beginning of the chapter what he says in v.14. “For this cause, I Paul, bow my knees,” i. 6. ‘because you Ephesians have been brought to God, I pray for your confirmation and growth in grace.’
Others supply simply the substantive verb (εἰμὴ). ‘For this cause I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ.’ But in this case to say the least, the article (ὁ δέσμιος) before the predicate is unnecessary. Others make the clause, the prisoner of Christ, to be in apposition to I Paul, and supply the predicate J am a prisoner. The sense would then be, ‘I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, am a prisoner, and in bonds for you Gen- tiles.’ This is better than any of the various modes of explanation which have been proposed, except the one first mentioned, which gives a far better sense. It is
far more elevated and more in keeping with Paul’s character, for him to say, ‘Because you are now part
of God’s spiritual temple, I pray for your confirmation and growth ;’ than, ‘Because you are introduced into