Il.
f Acts xxii. λοτριωμένοι τῆς ᾿ πολιτείας τοῦ ᾿Ισραὴλ καὶ " ξένοι τῶν " διαθηκῶν
only; 2 Macc. ἘΝ μων oc f. Soph., Gd. T. g Constr., here only; ¢/. Soph., ‘Yr I ix. 4; Gal. iv. 24 only. i Gal. iv. 23;
τῆς ᾿᾿ἐπαγγελίας, ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες καὶ " ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ.
220, Plato, A i. b. iv. 17 al. a
h Acts iii. 25; plur., Rom. k Here only. oi Bis
! xoop. τοντω FG, Or., etc.
Bleek). It describes their former con- dition as one in which they had no connection with Christ; in i re- 5 they were in a position ly in- τ λα to that of the Jews whose atti-
nificance that are in view. That the Mosaic Law or the Sinaitic Covenant is not in view seems to follow from the men- tion of the ἐπαγγελία ; for that Covenant was not distinctively of the Promise, but
tude was one of hoping and waiting for “is described by Paul as coming in after it
Christ, the Messiah. Their apartness from Christ, their lack of all relation to Him—this is the first stroke in the dark picture of their former heathen life, and the four to which the eye is directed in the subsequent clauses all follow from Όναι.---ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι τῆς πολιτείας τοῦ πραεὺ τ alienated from the common- wealth of Israel. The alienation is ex- pressed by ἀπαλλοτριοῦσθαι, a strong verb, common enough in classical Greek (at least from Plato's time), corresponding
to the OT “V8 (cf. Ps. "νι, 4), and used
again in Eph. iv. 18; Col.i.21. It does not necessarily imply a lapse from a former condition of attachment or fellowship, but expresses generally the idea of being a stranger as contrasted with one who is at home with a person or an object. The term πολιτεία has two main senses—a state or commonwealth (e.g., 2 Macc, iv. 11, viii. 17), and citizenship or the rights of a citizen (Acts xxii. 28). The first of these is most in harmony with the theo- cratic term τοῦ Ισραήλ, and so it is understood by most. These Ephesians, therefore, had no part in the theocracy, the OT constitution under which God made Himself known to the Jew and en- tered into relation with him.—kai ξένοι τῶν διαθηκῶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας : and stran- ers from the covenants o the Promise.
he τῶν διαθηκῶν is probably the gen. of ον κράμα or removal. That idea is usually expressed by a prep., but with verbs like ὑποχωρεῖν, ρειν, ἀπο- στερεῖσθαι, and with some adjectives, it is also expressed by the simple gen. an ae pp. 243, 244). The word évos, which has the particular meaning of one who is not a member of a state or city, is used here in the general sense of forcign to a thing, having no share in it. The διαθῆκαι are the covenants with Abraham and the patriarchs (cf. Wisd. xviii. 22; 2 Mace. viii. 5. It is ob- viously the covenants of ianic sig-
and provisionally (Gal. iii. 17-19). The ἐπαγγελία is the Promise, the one dis- tinctively so called, the great Messianic Promise given to the fathers of the Hebrew people (Gen. xiii. 15, xv. 18, xvii. 8, εἰς). The defining τῆς ἐπαγ- γελίας is attached by some (Rosenmiiller, etc.) to the following ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες. But the covenants and the promise are kindred ideas, and make one thought πετε.---ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες : having no hope. With participles the subjective negative is much more frequently used than οὐ. In cases like the present, where the participle does not belong to the class of those expressing command, purpose, condition or the like, the use of μή is due to the aspect in which the matter in κκ τῆ presents itself to the writer—to ¢ fact, ¢.g., that he has a genus, not the individual, in view; cf. Ell. on 1 Thess. ii. 15, and Win.-Moult., p. 606. statement here is absolute—éAqiSa, not τὴν ἐλπίδα. It is not only that they had not the hope, the Messianic hope which was one of the distinctions of the Israel- ite, but that they were utterly without hope. Ignorant of the Divine salvation and of Christ in whom it was found, th had nothing to hope for beyond this world. --καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ: and without God in the world, The last element in the darkness and misery of their former life. The adj. ἄθεος, which is never found in the LXX or in the Apocrypha, and only this once in the NT, in classical Greek means impious in the sense of denying or neglecting the gods of the State; but it is also used occasionally in the sense of knowing or worshipping no God (ΕΙ, V. h., 2, 31), or in that of abandoned by God (Soph., Gd. R., 633). Three renderings are possible ε- ignorant of God, denying God, forsaken of God. The third is preferred by many (Mey., Ell., εἰς), who think that the darkest colour is given to the picture of their old heathen condition by this men-