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II. 1. Καὶ ὑμᾶς 1 ὄντας “νεκροὺς τοῖς " παραπτώµασιν καὶ ταῖς a—John ν. ὃς ~ 25; Rom. > ἁμαρτίαις," 2. ἐν ais ποτὲ ὃ “ περιεπατήσατε “ κατὰ τὸν “ αἰῶνα τοῦ xi. 15; 3 ο = Col. ii. ἁκόσμου τούτου, “κατὰ τὸν °dpxovta τῆς ‘ ἐξουσίας τοῦ “ἀέρος, τοῦ 13; Rev.
b Here only; παρ. Matt. vi. 14. d Here only ; see Gal. i. 4.
ἢ Rom, viii. 1, 4, xiv. 15; 1 Cor. iii. 3 al. ; e=John Xii. 31, Xiv. 30, xvi. 11.
iil. 1, 2 John 6.
f Ch. 1, 21 reff, g Acts xxii. 23;
1 Cor. ix. 26, xiv. 9; 1 Thess. iv. 17; Rev. ix. 2, xvi. 17 only; Ps. xvii. 11.
Iypas 44, 45, 48, etc.
2 For αµαρτ., επιθυµιαις B. After ap. ins. ὑμων Euthal., Thdrt., mss., Ar.-pol., Chr.-text-comm., παν, ΓΗ
4πτοντου FG, etc.
Syr., Copt., Eth., Goth., Or.,
8 Omit, L.
a further manifestation of that power of God which was seen in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, namely, in the raising of the Ephesians themselves from the death of sin into a new life unto God, and that not of works but of grace.
Ver. 1. καὶ ὑμᾶς ὄντας νεκρούς: and you, being dead. ‘The construction is broken, the writer turning off into two relative sentences (vv. 2, 3) before he introduces his leading verb. His original statement is taken up again, assome think, at the καὶ ὄντας νεκρούς of ver. 5 (Griesb., Riick., etc.). But the resumption begins rather with the ὁ δὲ Θεὸς of ver. 4 (Mey., Ell., εἰς). So the ὑμᾶς ὄντας here is under the regimen of the συνεζωοποίησε (ver. 5), and the καί has the force of ‘and you too,” “you, also, as well as Christ”. The ὄντας expresses the con- dition they were in when God’s power wrought in them. The νεκρούς means neither dying nor mortal, nor yet, again, condemned to death, but dead. Meyer, indeed, contends for the sense of ‘‘ made liable to eternal death,” ashealso takes the following συνεζώοποιησεν, συνήγειρεν, συνεκάθισεν as proleptic terms. But the whole series of terms is best understood to express things done then and states belonging to the actual present. The νεκρούς, therefore, means ethically or spiritually dead, and what had been said of the power of God in Christ’s case is now applied to the case of the readers themselves. The power that raised.Christ from the dead and exalted Him is also the power that took them out of the state of spiritual death and gave them a new life andanew dignity with Christ.—rois παρ- απτώμασιν καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις : through your trespasses and sins. On the authority ofsuch uncials as ἢ ΒΗ 6, such Versions as the Syr. and the Vulg., and such Fathers as Theod., ὑμῶν is to be inserted after ἁμαρτίαις. ‘The dat. is the instru- mental dat., ‘‘by trespasses,” not in them, nor even in respect of them
NBDEFGP, d, e, f, g, m*’, Vulg., Luc., Victorin., etc. ; text KL, most Oec.
(Moule). Etymologically, παράπτωμα points to sin as a fall, and ἁμαρτία to sin as failure. It is impossible to es- tablish any clear distinction between the two nouns in the plural forms, as if the one expressed acts and the other states of sin, or as if the former meant single trespasses and the latter all kinds of sins. Here sin is that which makes dead—the cause of the death-state. In the kindred passage in Col. ii. 13 we have the same idea expressed by τοῖς παραπτώμασι καὶ ἀκροβυστίᾳ τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν, if, with the best MSS. and critics, we omit ἐν. The TR inserts ἐν before παραπτώμασι, in which case sin would be presented there as itself the state of death.
Ver. 2. ἐν αἷς ποτὲ περιεπατήσατε: wherein in time past (RV, ‘aforetime’’) ye walked. ‘The ats takes the gender of the nearer noun, but refers to both the παραπτώμασι andthe ἁμαρτίαις. Tres- passes and sins were the domain in which they had their habitual course of life in their former heathen ἁαγς.-- κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου: according to the course (or age) of this world. As the év of the former clause gave the stated sphere within which their pre-Christian life moved, so the κατά of this clause and the next gives the standard to which it conformed and the spirit by which it was ruled. The phrase κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον might have sufficed, the fuller form which introduces both αἰὼν and κόσμος is more expressive. The κόσμος is the world as the objective system of things, and that as evil. The αἰών is the world as a world- period—the world as transitory. Insucha connection as the present αἰὼν comes near what we understand by “the spirit of the age,’ but is perhaps most happily ren- dered course, as that word conveys the three ideas of tenor, development, and limited continuance. This course of a world which is evil is itself evil, and to live in accordance with it is to live in trespasses and sins.—kata τὸν ἄρχοντα