V.14. This verse resumes the connection inter- rupted in verse Ist. The prayer which the apostle there commenced, he here begins anew. Sor this cause, τούτου χάριν, repeated from v. 1, and therefore the connection is the same here as there, i. e. because you Ephesians are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ. J bow my knees. The posture of prayer, for prayer itself. Unto the Hather of our Lord Jesus Christ.* The peculiar Christian designa- tion of God, as expressing the covenant relation in which he stands to believers. It is because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our incarnate God and Saviour, that he is our Father, and accessible to us in prayer. We can approach him acceptably in no other character than as the God who sent the Lord Jesus to be our propitiation and mediator. It is therefore by faith in him as reconciled, that we address him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
V.15. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. The word πατριά is a collective term for the descendants of the same father, immediate or remote. In Luke 2, 4, we read of the house and family
* The MSS. A. B. C. 17. 67, the Coptic-#thiopic, and Vulgate ver- sions, and many of the Fathers omit the words τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. As however important external authorities and the context are in their favour, the majority of recent editions and commentators retain them.