A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

Nicoll, W. Robertson (editor), 1851-1923 • SECTION 289

Προς Εφεσιους

← The Expositor's Greek Testament — Volume 3

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gospel of your salvation. Further defi- nition of the word of the truth”. The preached word which has the truth for its essential content is that which brought you the good tidings of salvation. Here, again, the gen. is not that of αββος. or identity (Harl., etc.), but most probably that of content or subject matter (Mey., Ell., etc.) Elsewhere we have the εὐαγ- γέλιον defined as that of the Kingdom (Matt. ix. 35), of God (Rom. i. 1), of the Kingdom of God (Mark i. 14), of Christ, Fesus Christ, His Son, etc. (Rom. 1. 1, 9, 16; Marki. 1), of peace (Eph. vi. 15), of the grace of God (Acts xx. 24), of the glory of the blessed God (1 Tim. i. 11), of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. iv. 4). No- where in the NT is the word εὐαγγέλιον used so frequently and in such a variety of applications as in the Pauline Epistles. It is never used in Luke’s Gospel, in John’s Gospel or Epistles, in Hebrews, or in James; in Matthew’s Gospel it occurs four times, in Mark eight times, in Acts twice, in Peter once, and in the Apocalypse once. The noun σωτηρία, which has so large a place in the rest of the Pauline writings, is of rare occur- rence in these Epistles of the Captivity. It is found thrice in the Epistle to the Philippians, but only once in this pro- found Epistle to the Ephesians (in vi. 17 we have the other form τὸ σωτήριον), and not even once in the sister Epistle to the Colossians.—év 6: —in whom, I say. With the former ἐν ᾧ the writer turned from the case of those like him- self who, having been Jews, had been made God’s κλῆρος in Christ, to that of Gentiles like these Ephesians who also had been made partakers of God’s grace in Christ, though in a different way, not as having had the hope of the Jews ina promised Messiah, but simply as having heard the word of Christian preaching. The particular gift of grace which it was in his mind to state as bestowed on these Gentile Christians was the sealing of the Spirit. With this second ἐν ᾧ, ‘—in whom, I say,” he takes up the statement which had been interrupted by the men- tion of the way in which they had come to receive the grace, and brings it (with a further reference to the antecedents to the sealing) to its intended conclusion. This ἐν ᾧ, therefore, is not to be dealt with differently from the former and made to relate to the εὐαγγέλιον, as if = ‘in which Gospel having also believed, ye were sealed” (Mey.). It simply continues the idea of the previous ἐν ᾧ, expressing the fact that the grace which came to the Gentile who heard the word of preaching,

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Public domain historical edition (1897); scan/OCR from Internet Archive.

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