k Ch. i. το ‘Gos, 19. γνῶναί te! τὴν " ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς | γνώσεως ἀγάπην 3 Τ.
eff, l=1 Cor. Viii. 1, xiii. 2, 8 (see 1 Tim. vi. 20).
Ίπεοτῃ. DFG, Copt.
m= Rom. i. 29, xv. 13; 2 Cor. vii. 4 al.
τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἵνα ™ πληρωθῆτε “eis πᾶν ὃ τὸ " πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ.
n=Rom, xv. 20.
2 ay. της γν. A 74, 115, Syr., Ar.-pol., Jer. (scientiam caritatis Aug.)).
Siva πληρωθη παν Β 73, 116.
847; Bernhardy, Synt., iii., 48 B). That the Χριστοῦ is the gen. subj., Christ's love to us, is made clear by the descrip- tion of it as surpassing knowledge, which could not be said of our love to Him. The repetition of the same idea in con- trasting senses in the γνῶναι and the γνώ- σεως has its point not in any antithesis between theoretical or discursive know- ledge (Ell.) and practical knowledge, or between false knowledge and true (Holz), or between Auman knowledge and divine (Chrys.), but in the simple fact that there is a real knowledge of Christ’s love pos- sible to us, a knowledge that is capable of increase as we are the more strength- ened by power in the inner man, while a complete or exhaustive knowledge must ever remain beyond our capacity. This petition for the gift of a true and enlarging knowledge (a knowledge which is obvi- ously not a matter of mere intellect but of conscious, personal experience) is connected with the former petition for spiritual comprehension by τε, and this is presented in the character, not of a climax, but of an adjunct, an additional statement in supplement of the former. The simple re (as distinguished from τε . . « καί) occurs rarely in the Gospels, with greater comparative frequency in Romans and Hebrews, but oftenest by far in Acts. It is used to connect single ideas in Greek poetry (seldom in Greek
rose), and is occasionally so used in the NT (cf. Acts ii. 37, 40, xxvii. 4; and see Bernh., Synt., xx., 17). In this case it seems to indicate a ‘closer connection and affinity” than καί (cf. Blass, Gr. of N. T. Greek, p. 263).—tva — els πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ: that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God (or, into the whole fulness of God). The great Vatican Codex (followed by 17, 73, 116) has an interesting variety of reading here, vis., πληρωθῇ for πληρωθῆτε, the eis being also dropped. This reading gets a place in the margin of WH. On the difficult term πλήρωμα see under i. 1ο and especially i, 23 above. The interpretation of this clause is much dis- μα, The εἰς cannot mean with or in,
as it is taken by some, but must=“‘into” or “unto,” expressing the measure up to which the being filled is to take effect, the limit of the filling, or the goal it has before it. The AV and the other Old English Versions erroneously give “ with"; except Wicl., who makes it “in,” Cov., who renders “into,” and Rhem., “unto”. The Θεοῦ may be the = of originating cause, = the fulness estowed by God; or, better, the = en., = the fulness possessed . he main difficulty is the sense of the πλήρωμα itself. Some explanations may be set aside as paraphrases rather than interpretations; ¢.g., that πλήρωμα = the Church (Koppe, etc.); the gracious presence of God, the Divine δόξα, filling the people (Harl.); the perfection of God, in the sense of the highest moral ideal that can be presented to him “in whose heart Christ dwells” (Oltr.), etc. Nor can any good sense be legitimately got by taking it as = πλή “that ye may be filled with the gifts with which God is wont to furnish men” (Grot.)— an interpretation that cannot be adjusted to the els. The choice lies between two views, viz., (1) that πλή has its primary, pass. sense—the fulness that is in God, or with which God Himself is filled ; or (2) that it has the sense derived from this, viz., fulness, copia, πλοῦτος, πλῆθος. The latter is preferred by Meyer, who appeals to such passages as Song of Songs, v., 12; Rom. xv. 29; Eph. iv. 13, etc., in support of it, and understands it to convey the special idea of charismatic fulness as bestowed by God. So he renders it, “tin order that ye may be filled with Divine gifts of grace to such extent that the whole fulness of them (way has the emphasis) shall have over upon you”. So also substantially De Wette, Abbott, and others, who refer to 2 Pet. i. 4. But there are weighty reasons for preferring the former view with Alf., Ell., Haupt, etc. It gives πλή- pwpa the largest and profoundest sense, not restricting it to gifts of grace bestowed, but taking it to express the sum of the Divine perfections (so substantially Chrys.,