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uncials and other important authorities (BRAD 17, Vulg., etc.) insert εἰρήνην (so LTTrWHRV). The repetition has rhetorical force. The καί, again, does not merely connect this statement with the former. It adds to the thought. Not only did Christ effect the recon- ciliation, but He also came and preached the glad tidings of it, and that not to one class but to both. The aor. partic. has probably its proper force of priority in relation to the def. aor. εὐ- ηγγελίσατο. The coming in question preceded the preaching. The best ren- dering, therefore, will be neither ‘‘com- ing ’’ (Eadie), nor ‘‘came and preached” (AV and RY), but “having come” (Mey., EIl., etc.). But to what coming does the ἐλθών refer? Not to the incarnation (Chrys., Anselm, Harl., etc.); for the preceding sentences, which speak of His blood and of the peace effected through His cross, make it clear that the time in view is not before the crucifixion but after it. Nor can the reference well be to the event of His Resurrection, nor even to His own direct teaching during the forty days (Beng.). What is in view is rather His coming in His Spirit (cf John xiv. 18; Acts xxvi. 23, etc.). That the idea of His spiritual Advent in the Holy Ghost which is prominent in the Fourth Gospel is not a Johannine idea only, but one entirely consistent with Paul’s teaching, appears from the Pauline doctrine of the dwelling of Christ Himself or His Spirit in the believer (Rom. viii. 9, 10; 2 Cor. xii. 17, xili. 5; Gal. ii. 20); as also from the relation of the Holy Ghost to the Apostle’s preaching (Rom. xv. 18), etc. The preaching meant by the εὐηγγελίσα- ro, therefore, is Christ’smediate preaching through His Apostles and others, especi- ally that declaration of His truth which made these Gentiles Christians. Those ‘“‘afar off’? are mentioned first, as the Gentiles in the persons of these Ephe- sians and other Asiatics were the writer’s immediate concern.
Ver. 18. ὅτι δι αὐτοῦ ἔχομεν τὴν προ- σαγωγὴν οἱ ἀμφότεροι ἐν ἑνὶ πνεύματι πρὸς τὸν πατέρα: for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father. Some take ὅτι as = that, the mention of the common access being taken as the contents of the εὐηγγελί- σατο. But the subject of the preaching has already been given, viz., εἰρήνη. Hence ὅτι = for, and the verse is a con- firmation of the previous statement in the form of an appeal to the experience of those addressed. The fact that we, both of us, are now brought to God
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