Orig., Ath., Chr., Euthal., etc.
A simple, natural figure for prayer, earnest prayer (Calv.)—not as if Paul actually knelt as he wrote (Calov.). The standipg posture in prayer and the kneeling are both mentioned in the NT (e.g., Mark xi, 25; Luke xviii. 11, 13, for the former, and Luke xxii. 41; Acts vii. 60, xx. 36, xxi. 5, for the latter), For kneeling in the OT see 1 Kings viii. 54 ; Dan. vi. 10; cf. also 1 Kings xix. 18.---πρὸς τὸν πα- τέρα: to the Father. The πρὸς takes the place of the simple dat. which usually follows the phrase κάμπτω γόνν (Rom. xi. 4, xiv. 11), the idea here being that of prayer, and of God as the Hearer to whom it was directed. The TR, following N*DFKL, Lat., Syr., Goth., etc., adds τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ. This is an addition which might very readily find a place in the text, the designation being a familiar one, occurring already indeed in this Epistle (i. 3). It does not appear, however, in ΡΝ Ὁ, 17, Copt., Eth., etc., and it is omitted by the best critics (LTTrWHRYV).
Ver. 15. ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐ- ρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ὀνομάζεται: from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. The ἐξ οὗ denotes the origin of the name, the source whence it is derived (cf. Hom., Π., x., 68; Xen., Mem., iv., 5, 8; Soph., Gd. R., 1036). The verb ὀνομάζομαι is also followed by ἀπό (Herod., vi., 129); but ἐκ conveys the idea of more direct origination (cf. Ell., in loc.). The noun πατριά, for which πάτρα is the more usual form in classical Greek, never has the sense of πατρότης, paternitas (Syr., Goth., Vulg., Luth., and, so far, also Harl.). It means sometimes ancestry (Herod., ii., 143 ; iil., 75), but usually family (Exod. vi. 15, xii. 3; Num. i. 2; Luke ii. 4), race or tribe, t.¢., a number of families descended from
a common stock (Herod., i., 200; Num. i. 16), nation or people (1 Chron. xvi. 28; Ps, xxii. 28; Acts ili. 25). In the LXX the
πατριαί are the nnn as dis-
tinguished from the φυλαί, FVD. The Israelites were constituted of twelve φυλαί divided into a number of πατριαί, each of these latter again consisting of so many οἶκοι. Here the word seems to have the widest sense of class, order, nation, community, as the idea of family in the proper sense of the term is inapplicable to the case of the angels, who are indicated by ἐν οὐρανοῖς. Further, the anarthrous πᾶσα πατριά grammatically can only mean “every family” (see under ii. 21
above), not “ the whole family ’’ (Mich.,
Olsh., etc.). All such ideas, therefore, as that angels and men, or the blessed in heaven and the believing on earth, are in view as now making one great family, are excluded. Nor can ὀνομάζεται be made to mean anything else than “are named "—certainly not exist, or called into existence (Estius, etc.), or “are named the children of God” (Beng., etc.). The sense, therefore, is “ τῆς Father, from whom all the related orders of intelligent beings, human and angelic, each by itself, get the significant name of ων, com- munity”. The various classes of men on earth, Jewish, Gentile, and others, and the various orders of angels in heaven, are all related to God, the common Father, and only in virtue of that relation has any of them the name of family. The father makes the family; God is the Father of all; and if any community of intelligent beings, human or angelic, bears the great name of family, the reason for that lies in this relation of God to it. The significant name has its origin in the
5 Penk
14—17.