931
the ultimate end; as if = “" Christ, with a view to the full, final perfecting of the saints, gave Apostles, prophets, etc. for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”. But this gives a somewhat awkward and involved construction, and reduces the force of the third clause, which would naturally be expected to bring us to the larger, ultimate purpose of Christ’s giving. Olshausen modifies this interpretation to the effect of taking the second and third clauses as subdivisions of the first, = ‘Christ gave Apostles, etc., for the per- fecting of the saints, on the one hand for the fulfilment of the teacher’s office, and on the other hand, as regards the hearers, for edification”, But no such distinction is in view here between teachers and hearers, the subjects being the ἅγιοι generally. None of these ad- justments of the clauses quite meets the case. The proper construction, recog- nised so far by Erasm., Luther, De Wette, Riickert, Weiss, and more recently ac- cepted by Haupt, is the simplest. It takes the sentence to be dependent as a whole on the ἔδωκε, and understands the three clauses as successive, the first looking to the second, the second to the third, the third forming the climax and
_expressing the ultimate object of the
giving on the part of the ascended Christ. Thus the sense becomes—‘ Christ gave some men as Apostles, some as prophets, etc., with a view to the full equipment of the saints for the work of ministration or service they have each to do in order to the building up of the body of Christ ”’. The building up of the Church—that is the great aim and final object ; to that every believer has his contribution to make ; and to qualify all for this is the purpose of Christ in giving ‘‘ Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers”. In this way each clause fits in naturally with the next, and the ultimate object is ex- pressed last. This, too, is the only con- struction which does justice to the ἑνὶ δὲ ἑκάστῳ at the beginning of the statement (ver. 7) and the ἑνὸς ἑκάστου at its close. These are the terms which convey the ruling idea, viz., that each member gets the gift of grace, and each has his part to do towards that upbuilding of the Church which is the great object of Christ’s be- stowments ; and these Apostles, prophets, etc., are the means provided by Christ whereby all the members shall be made capable of performing their several parts in order that at last the whole Church may be built up in its completeness as the body of Christ.
332
w Ver.3 only.