ITI. 1. Τούτου "χάριν ἐγὼ Παῦλος ὁ " δέσμιος τοῦ χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν τῶν ἐθνῶν,2 2. "εἴγε “ἠκούσατε τὴν “οἰκονομίαν τῆς χάριτος Tit. i. 5; 1 John iii. 12; Jude 16 ο δρ xvii. 17.
b Acts xxiii. 18; 2 Tim. i.8; Philem. i. 9;
l. i. 23; ch. v. ar; 2 Cor. v. 3; Gal. iii. 4; Paul only.
1 For χριστ., κυριου C; uno. om. DFG 61, Eth., Victorin.; wo. xp. 115, lect. 1, Syr., Arm., Chr., Cyr., Theophyl., Jer., Ambr., etc.
2 After εθν. add πρεσβενω DE το, Slav., Ambrst.-comm. ; κεκαυχημαι 71, 122, 219.
that opened the Church to those who were not of Israel. This with the view that they should not misunderstand his present position or be discouraged by it. Ver. 1. τούτον χάριν ἐγὼ Παῦλος ὁ δέσμιος τοῦ Χριστοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ: for this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Fesus. The τούτον χάριν is referred by some (Mey., etc.) to the immediately preceding sentence; the fact that they are destined to make a habitation of God, and are being built together with a view to that end, being Paul’s reason for pleading with them and praying for them, It is best referred, however, to the purport of the whole statement just brought to its con- clusion ; the fact that they are now what God’s grace has made them and are meant by Him to form a spiritual habi- tation for Himself, being His reason for what He urges on them and what He does for them. ἐγὼ Παῦλος, a solemn and emphatic designation of the writer by himself, expressive rather of his personal interest in them than the consciousness of his authority (Mey.). For similar occur- rences of the emphatic personal designa- tion, with different shades of meaning, see 2 Cor. x. 1; Gal. v. 2; Col. i. 23; Philem. 19. The article with the δέσμιος ex- presses simply the character in which Paul appears at present or the class to which he belongs (cf. Τιμόθεος ὁ ἀδελφός, Philem. 1); not his pre-eminence among the Lord’s prisoners, as if it= the prisoner par excellence La ps claim surely which would neither be like Paul nor in harmony with the thought of the para- on. The gen. Χριστοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ is probably that of originating cause—one who has been made a prisoner by Christ ; cf. 2 Tim. i. 8; Philem. 9, as also Eph. iv. 1. The’lyngod is omitted by Tisch. on the authority of such MSS, as Ν Ρα but it is rightly retained by most as found in BN-corr.ACD?*>®, Vulg., etc.—imép ὑμῶν τῶν ἔθνων: on behalf of you the Gentiles. Paul was called specially to be a minister of Christ to the Gentiles (Acts xxi. 21, 28, xxii. 21), and his preaching Christ as for the Gentiles equally with the Jews
pr that enmity of the Jews which ed to hisimprisonment. It was thus for the Gentiles that he was a prisoner; and there is probably also the further thought in the ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν that Paul's imprisonment was to be for their good, helpful to their Christian life. For the idea with which the paragraph closes is that his afflictions were their glory (ver. 13). But what of the construction and connection here ? The simplest adjustment is to insert εἰμί after ὁ δέσμιος Χριστοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ: “1 Paul am the prisoner,’ etc. So the Syr., Chrys., Mey. and others, But this takes the point from the ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν and makes Paul assert and exalt himself as a sufferer in a way unlike him. It is best to take it as a broken construction, the statement with which Paul begins being, as in so many other cases, diverted into a different channel by the introduction of some sub- sidiary remark. Here he is turned off from what he meant to say by the polite refer- ence in the εἴγε clause. ere then have we the resumption? Not at chap. iv. 1 (with the AV, Mich., Winer, etc.), for chap. iii, is not part of a parenthesis, but a paragraph complete within itself; nor at ver. 13, which is of too limited scope and fails to meet the full force of the τούτου χάριν; but at ver. 14, where the τούτου χάριν is repeated.