[152] ["If any one wishes to find matter for boasting, let it be truly searched for in his own actions and not derived from a contrast of his own fancied virtues with the faults of others."--Ellicott.--G.A.]
[153] [Ellicott says, "The qualitative and humbling distinction of Chrysostom does not appear natural or probable, nor does it refer to that which will take place in every man after the examination (Meyer); but is apparently used ethically in reference to what according to the nature of things must be the case."--G.A.]
[154] [Those philosophers among the Greeks who received pay from their pupils were looked down upon, and called Sophists, vid. Xen. Mem. 1. 6. §. 13.
[155] [Different views are held as to the connection of this with the preceding. Lightfoot says the connection is this: "I spoke of bearing one another's burdens. There is one special application I would make of this rule; provide for the wants of your teachers. De arrests a former topic before it passes out of sight." (Compare 4: 20.) But Ellicott takes a different view and says: "The duty of sharing their temporal blessings with their teacher is placed in contrast with the foregoing declaration of individual responsibility in spiritual matter." So also Meyer who, however, refers it to moral good.--G.A.]
[156] [Dislocated by Chrysostom. This is a part of verse 9, and is an encouragement not to become weary in below sowing to the Spirit.-- Meyer.--G.A.]
[157] [Meyer, understanding "all good things" to mean every thing that is morally good, says, that this is a warning to the readers, in respect to this necessary moral fellowship not to allow themselves to be led astray (by the teachers of error or otherwise). Lightfoot and Schaff refer this warning to the consequences of failure to share their temporal blessings with their teachers. Ellicott says, "Verse 7 is a continuation of the subject in a more general and extended way but not without reference to the special command which immediately precedes."--G.A.]
[158] [Ellicott hesitatingly adopts this view also. So Alford and Riddle (in Lange). But Meyer, Schaff, Schmoller (in Lange) and Lightfoot say that egrapsa(Philem. 19.) is the epistolary aorist and marks the point at which Paul takes the pen from the amanuensis; and that only this concluding paragraph was written with his own hand. So the American Committee also in the Rev. Ver.--G.A.]
[159] ["The word used, pelikois, denotes size not irregularity. Nor is it probable that Paul who was educated at Jerusalem and Tarsus, the great centre of Jewish and Greek learning, was ignorant and unskillful in writing Greek. The boldness of the handwriting answers to the force of the Apostle's convictions."--Lightfoot.--G.A.]
[160] ["Certain men have an object' in displaying their zeal for carnal ordinances. They hope thereby to save themselves from persecution for professing the cross of Christ."--Lightfoot.--G.A.]
[161] ["They advocate circumcision and yet they themselves neglect the ordinances of the Law. They could not face the obloquy to which their abandonment of the Mosaic Law would expose them. So they tried to keep on good terms with their unconverted fellow-Jews by imposing circumcision on the Gentile converts also thus getting the credit of zeal for the law."--Lightfoot.--G.A.]
[162] ["For myself, on the other hand, far be it from me, etc.: By way of contrast to the boasting of the pseudo-apostles, Paul now presents his own ground of boasting, namely, the crucifixion of Christ, by whose crucifixion is produced the result that no fellowship of life longer exists between him and the world: it is dead for him and he is dead for it."--Meyer.--Alter pro mortuo habet alterum. (Schott.)--G.A.]
[163] ["It is a matter of indifference whether one is circumcised or uncircumcised; and the only matter of importance is that one should be created anew, transferred into a new spiritual condition of life."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[164] [Lightfoot similarly, but more clearly; "Paul closes the epistle as he began it, with an uncompromising assertion of his authority: Henceforth let no man question my authority; let no man thwart or annoy me. Jesus is my Master and his brand is stamped on my body. I bear this badge of an honorable servitude."--G.A.]
[165] [So also Lightfoot, who says, "with your spirit" is probably in reference to the carnal religion of the Galatians, but this cannot be pressed because the same form of benediction occurs in Philem. 25; 2 Tim. iv. 22. Meyer denies there is any such allusion at all. G.A.]
[166] [Dr. Schaff strikingly says: "The last sentence of this polemic Epistle is a benediction and the last word is a word of affection, brethren.' (The word adelphoi stands last in the true text, as the Rev. Version has it.) It takes the sting out of the severity. Thus concludes this Epistle so full of polemic fire and zeal, yet more full of grace--free sovereign grace, justifying sanctifying grace, and full of forgiving love even to ungrateful pupils; an Epistle for the time and an Epistle for all times."--Popular Commentary, in loco.--G.A.]
Homilies of St. John Chrysostom,
archbishop of constantinople,
on the
epistle of St. paul the apostle
to the
ephesians.
------------------------
The Argument.
Ephesus is the metropolis of Asia. It was dedicated to Diana, whom especially they worshipped there as their great goddess. Indeed so great was the superstition of her worshippers, that when her temple was burnt, they would not so much as divulge the name of the man who burnt it.
The blessed John the Evangelist spent the chief part of his time there: he was there when he was banished, [167] and there he died. It was there too that Paul left Timothy, as he says in writing to him, "As I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus." (1 Tim. i. 3.)
Most of the philosophers also, those more particularly who flourished in Asia, were there; and even Pythagoras himself is said to have come from thence; perhaps because Samos, whence he really came, is an island of Ionia. [168] It was the resort also of the disciples of Parmenides, and Zeno, and Democritus, and you may see a number of philosophers there even to the present day.
These facts I mention, not merely as such, but with a view of showing that Paul would needs take great pains and trouble in writing to these Ephesians. He is said indeed to have entrusted them, as being persons already well-instructed, with his profoundest conceptions; and the Epistle itself is full of sublime thoughts and doctrines. [169]
He wrote the Epistle from Rome, and, as he himself informs us, in bonds. "Pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, in opening my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains." (Eph. vi. 19.) It abounds with sentiments of overwhelming loftiness and grandeur. Thoughts which he scarcely so much as utters any where else, he here plainly declares; as when he says, "To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God." (Eph. iii. 10.) And again; "He raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in heavenly places." (Eph. ii. 6.) And again; "Which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ." (Eph. iii. 5.)
[167] [The Apocalypse already implies that he stood at the head of the churches of Asia Minor. Rev. 1: 4, 9, 11, 20. Chs. 2 and 3. This is confirmed by the unanimous testimony of antiquity. The most probable view is that he was exiled to Patmos under Nero, wrote the Apocalypse soon after Nero's death, 68 or 69 a.d., returned to Ephesus and died there after 98 a.d.--Schaff, Ch. Hist. I. p. 424, 429.--G.A.]
[168] [Of which Ephesus was one of the cities. G.A.]
[169] [Coleridge calls it the "divinest composition of man." Alford: "The greatest and most heavenly work of one whose very imagination is peopled with things in the heavens." Grotius: "Equaling the sublimity of its thoughts with words more sublime than any human language ever possessed."--Quoted in Schaff, Ch. Hist. I. p. 781.--G.A.]