10---20.
317
20. τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ ὑπὲρ] πάντα ποιῆσαι " ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ 3 ὧν o=Philem, εἴ Bibs ai. “αἰτούμεθα ἢ "νοοῦμεν κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν τὴν "ἐνεργουμένην ἐν ἡμῖν, ὃ px Thess.
13; Matt. ν. 37. q Ver. 13 reff.
r Ver. 4 reff.
11. IO, v. s= Matt. xiv. 4; Rom. vii. 5; 1 Cor
xii. 6; 2 Cor. 1. 6, iv. 12: Gal. ii. 8, iii. 5, Paul esp
λυπερ om. DEFG, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Ambrst., etc.
Άκαι νπερεκ. Syr., Schr. et P., Ambrst. ρ yt
Rick., etc.), the whole ἀρετή or excellence that is in God; cf. Chrysostom’s ὥστε πληροῦσθαι πάσης ἀρετῆς ἧς πλήρης ἐστὶν ὁ Θεός. It brings the whole para- graph to a conclusion worthy of itself, lifting us to a conception which sur- passes all that has preceded it, and carrying us from the great idea of the fulness in Christ to the still greater idea of the fulness in God. Nor is it any valid objection to it that what is thus put before us is what can never be attained in this life. It is an ideal, essentially the same as that contained in the injunction to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matt. v. 48). This interpretation also is most inharmony with the great idea of the indwelling of Christ in our hearts, expressing indeed what is implied in that. In Christ the πλήρωμα of God dwells ; so far as Christ dwells in us the πλήρωμα of God isinus. In that indwelling lies the possibility of our growing in moral excellence on to the very limit of all that is in God Himself. That they might be strengthened in the inner man so as to have Christ’s living and abiding presence in them, and be lifted thereby to the com- prehension of His love and the personal knowledge of that which yet surpasses all knowledge, and at last be filled with all spiritual excellence even up to the measure of the complete perfection that is in God Himself—this is the sweep of what Paul in his prayer desires for these Ephesians so late sunk in heathen hopelessness and godlessness.
Vy. 20-21. A fervent ascription of praise to God evoked by the thought of the great things which His grace has already wrought in these Gentiles, and the greater things of the future which the same grace destines for them and would have them attain to.
Ver. 20. τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ ὑπὲρ πάντα ποιῆσαι ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ ὧν αἰτούμεθα ἢ νοοῦμεν: Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. So both AV and RV; as also the old English Versions, excep- ting Wicl. (‘more plenteously than we axen”’), Cov. and Rhem. (‘more abun-
Σεν υμιν A 39, 63.
dantly than we desire”). More exactly it = “able to do beyond all things, super- abundantly beyond what we ask or think’ (Ell.). The τῷ refers naturally to God, the main subject of the whole paragraph. The δέ has something of its proper ad- versative force, the contrast between the subjects of the Divine grace and the Divine Giver of the grace being to some extent in view. The doxology brings the whole preceding paragraph and the first main division of the Epistle to a fitting close. Its best parallel is in Rom. xvi. 25-27. The ὑπὲρ cannot be taken as an adverb (Beng.), but governs the πάντα. The πάντα again is not to be connected with the ὧν as if= ‘all that we ask”; the gen. ὧν is due to the comparative in the ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ, as in the previous case of the ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως. Further, the ὑπὲρ πάντα does not belong to the δυναμένῳ, but makes one idea with the ποιῆσαι. Thus we have two distinct descriptions of God here, the second of which explains and develops the thought of the first. He is described first gener- ally in respect of the absoluteness of His power, as “able to do beyond all things,” ‘Cable to do more than all,” 7.e., One to whose efficiency there is no limit; and then with more particular reference to the case of Paul and his fellow-believers, as able to do above measure beyond anything with which our asking or even our thinking is conversant; superabun- dantly beyond the utmost requests we can make in prayer, nay beyond all that can suggest itself to our minds in their highest ventures. The verb νοεῖν, here used of thinking of as distinguished from asking for, has two main lines of meaning, viz., to understand and to pon- der or consider, The latter is in view here. The strong, cumulative ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ occurs again in 1 Thess. iii. το, v. 13, Such compounds with ὑπέρ (ὑπερλίαν, ὑπερπερισσεύω, ὑπερινικάω, ὑπερυψόω, ὑπεραυξάνω, ὑπερπλεονάζω) are charac- teristic of Paul. They are not entirely limited to him (¢.g., ὑπερπερισσῶς, Mark Vii. 37; ὑπερεκχυννόμενον, Luke vi. 38). But they are much more used by him