“évérynta τῆς πίστεως καὶ τῆς " ἐπιγνώσεως τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ,"
x Ch. i. 17 εἰς 7 ἄνδρα " τέλειον, εἰς " μέτρον "ἡλικίας τοῦ " πληρώματος τοῦ ren,
y James iii.2; see Col. i, 28, iv. 12. b Ch. i. a1.
z Ver. 7 reff,
a=Luke ii. 52, xix. 3 only; John ix. a1,
1+, νιον om. FG, Clem.,, Lucif,
Ver. 13. μέχρι καταντήσωμεν οἱ πάν- τες εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα: until we all attain unto the unity. The AV wrongly makes it ‘come in"; Tynd., “ grow εν unto”; Cran., better, “come to”, ut best, “ arrive at,’’ or (with RV) “attain unto”. The statement of the great object of Christ's gifts and the provision made by Him for its fulfilment is now followed by a statement of the time this provision and the consequent service are to last, or the point at which the great end in view is to be realised. It is when the members of the Church have all come to their proper unity and maturity in their Head. The tendency of late Greek to use the subj. ‘without ἄν, especially after temporal par- ticles, renders it doubtful whether much may be made of the unconditioned μέχρι here. The absence of av, however, and the use of the subj., seem to point to the event as expected, and not as a mere hypothetical possibility; cf. Mark xiii. 30; and see Hartung, Partikl., ii., p. 291; Hermann, Part., ἄν, p. 66; Win.- Moult., pp. 378, 387. καταντάω, followed in NT by εἰς, elsewhere also by ἐπί, con- veys the idea of arriving at a goal (cf. Acts xxvi. 7; Phil. iii. τα), the aor. subj. also having the force of “shall have attained”. οἱ πάντες evidently refers not to men generally, but to Christians and to these in their totality. The article goes appropriately with the ἑνότητα, the unity in view being the definite unity denoted by the words that follow. --τῆς πίστεως καὶ τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως τοῦ viot τοῦ Θεοῦ: of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. τοῦ νἱοῦ is the gen. obj., and it is best taken as dependent on both nouns. Some (e.g., Haupt), however, are of opinion that the repetition of the article before ἐπιγνώσεως implies that the τοῦ vlod τοῦ Θεοῦ is dependent only on the latter. The καί shows that the ἐπιγνώσεως is not an ep- exegesis of the πίστεως ; and the πίστις (here in its usual Pauline sense of trusting, saving faith) and the ἐπίγνωσις express distinct, though related, ideas (cf. Phil. iil. 9, 10; 1 John iv. 16). The unity in view, therefore, is oneness in faith in Christ and oneness also in the full ex-
perimental knowledge of Him. The point of the clause is not any unity between faith and knowledge themselves, to the effect, ε.ρ., of rising from the former to the latter as a higher Christian endow- ment (Olsh.), but a unity which shall make all the members of Christ's body at one in believing in Him and knowing Him, The title υἱὸς rod Θεοῦ as applied to Christ occurs frequently in the Pauline as well as in the Johannine writings, but never in 2 Thess., Phil., Philem., or the Pastoral Epistles. In passages like the present, if they stood by themselves, it might be difficult to say whether the meta-
hysical, the theocratic, or the ethical idea is in view. But the analogy of such statements as those in Rom. i. 4, viii. 3, 32; Gal. iv. 4, and the general Pauline con- ception of Christ as a transcendent Per- sonality, different from men as such, and to be named together with God, point to a relation to God in respect of nature as the force of the designation here.— εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον: unto a perfect man. τέλειος, as in 1 Cor. ii. 6, xiv. 20; Heb. ν. 14, and as is suggested by the subse- quent νήπιοι, means perfect in the sense of full grown. The state in which unity is lacking is the stage of immaturity ; the state in which oneness in faith and know- ledge is reached is the state of mature manhood in Christ (cf. 1 Cor. xiii. rt). The singular ἄνδρα instead of ἄνδ is appropriately used (as we have εἰν had 6 καινὸς ἄνθρωπος) when the idea of unity is in view. The goal to be reached is that of a new Humanity, regenerated and spiritually mature in all its members. —aels μέτρον ἡλικίας : unto the measure of the stature. A clause in apposition to the former, further defining the τέλειον, and giving a fuller and yet more precise description of the goal which is to be reached. Is ἡλικίας, however, to be ren- dered age or stature ? The noun appears to have both senses. In Luke xix. 3 it is certainly = stature, and probably so also in Luke ii. 52; while in John ix. 21, 23 it is clearly = age, and most probably so also in Matt. vi. 27 and Luke xii. 25, altho’ the latter two are held by seme to be referable to the other meaning ; cf, Field,