i Luke i. 17 πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ ᾿ ppovycer! 9. "γνωρίσας ” ἡμῖν τὸ ' μυστήριον τοῦ Kings ti θελήματος αὐτοῦ, κατὰ τὴν "' εὐδοκίαν αὐτοῦ ἣν " προέθετο ° ἐν
k John xvii. 26; Ezek. xliv. 23; Eph. and Col. fr. iv.11; Dan. ii. 29 al. m ver. 5 reff.
1 For Φρονησ., γνωσει 17; συνεσει 71.
n Rom. i. 13, iii. 25 only; Exod. xl. 4.
1 Ch. iii. 3, vi. 19 al.; Col. i. 26 al.; Mark xl. ο Vv. 3, 4 reff.
Ξγνωρισαι FG 76, ἆ, e, f, g, Vig., Goth., Hil, Theophyl., Victorin., Ambrst.,
Aug., etc.
Σαντον om. DEFG, d, e, g, Goth., Copt., Tert., Victorin., Hil.
tical use of wisdom, the product of wisdom (cf. Prov. x. 23, ἡ δὲ σοφία ἀνδρὶ τίκτει φρόνησιν), “the right use and applica- tion of the φρήν ” (Trench), the faculty of discerning the proper disposition or action. The riches, the abounding riches, of the grace expended on us stood revealed in the bestowal of these gifts of spiritual comprehension and practical discernment with reference to the deep things of the Divine Counsel and the Divine Revela- tion.
Ver. 9. γνωρίσας ἡμῖν: having made known unto us. Better, “in that He made known unto us”. As in ver. 5 the aor. part. is modal, not temporal, ex- pressing an act not conceived as prior to that intimated by the definite tense, but coincident with it and stating the way in which it took effect. The ἡμῖν means to us Christians generally, not to us Apostles particularly, and the knowledge in question is spiritual understanding or insight. It was in giving us to know a certain secret of His counsel that God made His grace to abound toward us in all wisdom and discernment. The reve- lation of this secret to our minds meant the bestowal on us of all that is implied in wisdom and intelligence.—ré μνστήριον τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ: the mystery (or secret) of His will. The gen. is the ordinary gen. objecti, the mystery touch- ing or concerning His will; not the gen. subjecti, the mystery originating in His will, nor the appositive gen., as if it were simply another form for ‘* His hidden will”. The word μυστήριον, which in classical Greek meant something secret, especially the secrets of religion com- municated only to the initiated and by them to be kept untold, is used in the Apocryphal books of things hidden, ¢.g., the counsels of God (Wisd. ii. 22; Judith fi. 2), and in the NT occasionally of things not clear to the understanding (1 Cor. xiii. 2, xiv. 2), or of the mystic meaning of things — sayings, names, appearances (Eph. v. 32; Rev. i. 20, xvii. 5). But its distinctive sense in the NT is that of something once hidden and now revealed,
a secret now open. In this sense it is applied to the Divine plan of redemption as a whole (Rom. xvi. 25; 1 Cor. li. 7; Eph. vi. το; Col. i. 26; 1 Tim. iii. 9, 16, etc.), or to particular things belonging to that Divine plan—the inclusion of the Gentiles (Rom. xi, 25; Eph. iii. 3, 9), the transformation of Christians alive on earth at Christ’s return (1 Cor, xv. 52), the union of Christ and the Church (Eph. v. 32). It does not convey the idea of something that we cannot take in or understand even when it is declared to us. It is peculiarly frequent in the kindred Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, ten out of the twenty-six or twenty-seven occurrences being found in them. Nor is it confined absolutely to the things of grace. Paul speaks also of the ‘mystery of lawlessness” (2 Thess. ii. 7). The redemption accomplished through Christ—this is the secret hidden for ages in the Divine Counsel and now revealed. This also is the truth, the dis- closure of which to our understandings meant so large a gift of grace in the way of insight and spiritual discernment.— κατὰ αι εὐδοκίαν αὐτοῦ: according to His good pleasure. This isto γ᾽ τρια neither to the μυστήριον τοῦ TOS αὐτοῦ, which . . further definition, nor to the following προέθετο, κ.τ.λ., but to the γνωρίσας, precisely as the previous προορίσας was declared to be κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ (ver. 5). The opening of this secret to us after the silence of ages had its ground and reason in nothing else than the gracious counsel or free purpose of God.—fv προέθετο: which He purposed. This verb προτί- θεμαι occurs only thrice in the NT, and all three instances are in the Pauline Epistles: once of human purpose (Rom. i. 13), once of the Divine action (Rom. iii, 25), and once (here) of the Divine purpose. The efernal purpose of God is in view, as the context shows. The προ in the compound verb, however, does not express the idea of the pre-temforal. It appears to have the local sense-— setting before oneself and so determining.