and adequate conclusion and completion
of the idea of the indwelling. Many (in- cluding Meyer, Winer, Buttm., AV, RV, etc.) connect the whole clause with the ἵνα, = “in order that, being rooted and grounded in love, ye may be able”. This gives an excellent sense, and examples of the transposition of part of a sentence from the natural place after the tva to one before it are found elsewhere in the NT (ος Acts xix, αν τ Cor. ix. 15; 2 605. ii. 4; Gal. ii. το; Col. iv. 16; 2 Thess. ii. 7; cf. Buttm., Gr. of N. T. Greek, p. 389). On the other hand, the relevancy of most, if not all, of these examples is not above suspicion (cf. Ell. and Abb. zm loc.), and it does not appear that in the present passage there is any such emphasis on the ἐν ἀγάπῃ as can explain its peculiar position. Hence it is better on the whole to connect it with the preceding (as is done in one way or other by Chrys., Luth., Harl., Bleek, De Wette, Alf., Ell., Abb., etc.), and take it as another instance of the nom. absol. or participial anaco- louthon (cf. Win.-Moult., p. 715 ; Kriger, Sprachl., ὃ 56,9, 4; Buttm., Gr. of N. T. Greek, p. 298; Blass, Gr. of Ν. T. Greek, Ρ. 285). So we translate it—‘‘ ye having been rooted and grounded in love in order that ye may be able,” etc. The rooting and grounding are expressed by the perf. part., as they indicate the state which must be realised in connection with the indwelling of Christ before the ability for comprehending the love of Christ can be acquired,
Ver. 18. ἵνα ἐξισχύσητε καταλαβέσ- θαι σῦν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις: that ye may be fully able to comprehend with all the saints. The “ may be strong” of the RV is a less happy rendering than usual, as it obscures the fact that the verb is different from that expressing the strengthened in ver. 16. The strong compound ἐξισχύ- ειν, = to be eminently able, to have full capacity, occurs only this once in the NT and is rare in ordinary Greek. καταλαμ- βάνειν, = ‘take hold of” (1 Cor. ix. 24; Phil. iii, 12, etc.) or in the sense of mental grasp (Plato, Phaedr., 250 D), in its vari- ous NT occurrences in the Middle Voice (Acts iv. 13, x. 34, xxv. 25) has only the latter meaning. Here, therefore, it is = understand, not =occupare, take possession of (Goth., Kypke). The RV substitutes the more neutral apprehend—a word capable of either sense—for the ‘‘ comprehend ”’ of the AV. This gift of spiritual compre- hension is contemplated further as to be possessed and exercised σῦν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις, not as a matter of private ex- perience, the peculiar faculty of some, or an exceptional bestowment like the rare