[235] [This passage does not refer to His bodily advent upon earth, as Chrysostom interprets, but following the account of his crucifixion more naturally refers to a spiritual advent, namely in the Holy Spirit, (in so far as it is Christ's spirit) Christ Himself came. He is our peace; yes, and He came and by His spirit and the mouths of the Apostles He preached it.--Meyer and Ellicott.--G.A.]
[236] [Field's text has not the words, "the Jews;" but as there is excellent authority for them and they suit the context better, we have left them, with the Oxford translator, in our text.--G.A.]
[237] ["It is wrong to take this genitive as the genitive of apposition, as Chrysostom, for the Apostles and Prophets are not the foundation but have laid it. (1 Cor. iii. 10.) Nor are the Prophets here mentioned O.T. prophets but N.T. prophets. (cf. iii. 5; iv. 11.).--Meyer."--G.A.]
[238] Col. i. 15. i.e. "Begotten before every creature;" "begotten of His Father before all worlds." It is explained of our Lord's divine nature by Origen, Periarch. i. 2. Tertullian in Prax. 7. in Marcion, v. 19. S. Hilar. de Trin. viii. 50. S. Ambros. de Fid. i. 14. S. Basil in Eunom. iv. in Col. i. 15. Others understand the expression to denote the Only-Begotten considered as becoming the origin of the new creation,--as beginning in His flesh, as being the Only-Begotten, the regenerate world. Thus S. Athanasius Orat. iii. 62, 63. S. Greg. Nyss. de Perfect. p. 722. contra. Eunom. i. p. 24. iii. pp. 113, 114. S. Cyril. de Trin. iv. p. 518. S. August. in Rom. 56. Theodoret interprets the word in both ways, in loc. and in Ps. 88, 28. S. Chrysostom too, Hom. Son. Col. i. 15. may be understood according to either interpretation. Indeed they are quite consistent with each other.
[239] ["Chrysostom is wrong in holding that by pasa oikodome is signified every part' of the building (wall, roof, etc.,) since oikodome rather denotes the aggregate' of the single parts of the building. Pasa oikodome means every building' and is here to be interpreted, every Christian community, each congregation.'"--Meyer.--G.A.]
[240] [The Syriac Version followed by commentators from Chrysostom to Meyer makes hodesmios predicate, supplying "am." "I Paul am the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles." This is open to grave objections. O desmos is rather in apposition and the broken construction is resumed at ver. 14.--Riddle, Ellicott, Alford, Braune. R.V. Comp. 4: 1.--G.A.]
[241] ["Gentle appeal, expressed in a hypothetical form and conveying the hope that his words had not been forgotten."--Ellicott.--G.A.]
[242] ["This parenthetical remark of the Apostle refers not to a lost letter but to the section last treated of concerning the Gentiles attaining salvation."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[243] [Prophets here refers, as before, to New Testament prophets, and not, as Chrysostom understands it, to O.T. prophets.--G.A.]
[244] ["Fellow-heirs (sunkleronoma) denotes the joint possession with the believing Jews of the eternal Messianic bliss."--Meyer. "The following words (sussoma kai summetocha), which seem to have been coined by the apostle, are well rendered by R.V., fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers,' and bring out more fully the relation of the fellow-heirs to each other."--Riddle.--G.A.]
[245] This alludes to the Monks who lived in the mountains about Antioch, where these Homilies seem to have been written. Compare Homily xiii. p. 2. vid. Adv. Oppugn. i. 7, 8. Elsewhere he blames persons who retired, as hiding their talents, vid. I Cor. Hom. vi. 8.
[246] The same sin is noticed among other places by S. Basil Ep. 53. S. Ambrose in Luc. lib. ix. 17-19. S. Jerome in Mat. xxi. 12, 13.
[247] S. Chrysostom complains that his rich hearers, when the choice lay between theatre or race and Church, preferred the former; alleging the heat and crowd of the latter, vid. t. 3. Hom. iii. xii. and xv. (Ed. Ben.) I Cor. Hom. v. fin. We see his care to consult for the tastes and capacities of his hearers in his preaching, in Ps. 41. init. and t. 3. Hom. vii. n. 3. (Ed. Ben.)
Homily VII.
Chapter III. Verses 8-11
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery, which from all ages hath been hid in God, who created all things: [248] 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, according to the eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
They who go to the physician's have not merely to go there and nothing further; they have to learn how to treat themselves, and to apply remedies. And so with us then who come here, we must not do this and nothing else, we must learn our lesson, the surpassing lowliness of Paul. What? when he was about to speak of the vastness of the grace of God, hear what he saith, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given." Lowliness indeed it was even to bewail his former sins, although blotted out, and to make mention of them, and to hold himself within his true measure as where he calls himself "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious;" (1 Tim. i. 13.) yet nothing was equal to this: for "formerly," saith he, such was I; and again he calls himself, "one born out of due time." (1 Cor. xv. 8.) But that after so many great and good deeds and at that time he should thus humble himself, and call himself "less than the least of all," this is indeed great and surpassing moderation. "To one who am less than the least of all saints;" he saith not, "than the Apostles." So that that expression is less strong than this before us. There his words are, "I am not meet to be called an Apostle." (1 Cor. xv. 9.) Here he says that he is even "less than the least of all saints;" "to me," saith he, "who am less than the least of all saints was this grace given." What grace? "To preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery, which from all ages hath been hid in God, who created all things, 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." True, to man it was not revealed; and art thou enlightening Angels and Archangels and Principalities and Powers? I am, saith he. For it was "hid in God," even "in God who created all things." And dost thou venture to utter this? I do, saith he. But whence hath this been made manifest to the Angels? By the Church. Again he saith, not merely the manifold (poikilos) but the much-manifold (polupoikilos) wisdom, that is, "the multiplied and varied." What then is this? Did not Angels know it? No, nothing of it; for if Principalities knew it not, much less could Angels ever have known it. What then? Did not even Archangels know it? No, nor even they. But whence were they going to know it? Who was to reveal it? When we were taught it, then were they also by us. [249] For hear what the Angel saith to Joseph; "Thou shalt call His Name Jesus, for it is He that shall save His people from their sins." (Matt. i. 21.)
Paul himself was sent to the Gentiles, the other Apostles to the Circumcision. So that the more marvellous and astonishing commission was given, saith he, "to me, who am less than the least." And this too was of grace, that he that was least should have the greatest things entrusted to him; that he should be made the herald of these tidings. For he that is made a herald of the greater tidings, is in this way great.
"To preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches [250] of Christ."
If His "riches are unsearchable," and that too after his appearing, much more is His essence. If it is still a mystery, much more was it before it was made known; for a mystery he calls it on this account, because neither did the Angels know it, nor was it manifest to any one else.
"And to make all men see," saith he, "what is the dispensation of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God, who created all things."
Angels knew only this, that "The Lord's portion was His people." (Deut. xxxii. 8, 9.) And again it is said, "The Prince of Persia withstood me." (Dan. x. 13.) So that it is nothing to be wondered at that they were ignorant of this; for if they were ignorant of the circumstances of the return from the Captivity, much more would they be of these things. For this is the gospel. "It is He that shall save," it saith, "His people." (Matt. i. 21.) Not a word about the Gentiles. But what concerns the Gentiles the Spirit revealeth. That they were called indeed, the Angels knew, but that it was to the same privileges as Israel, yea, even to sit upon the throne of God, this, who would ever have expected? who would ever have believed?
"Which hath been hid," saith he, "in God."
This "dispensation," however, he more clearly unfolds in the Epistle to the Romans. "In God," he continues, "who created all things by Jesus Christ." [251] And he does well to say "by Jesus Christ;" forasmuch as He who created all things by Him, revealeth also this by Him; for He hath made nothing without Him; for "without Him," it is said, "was not any thing made." (John i. 30.)
In speaking of "principalities" and "powers," he speaks both of those above and those beneath.
"According to the eternal purpose." It hath been now, he means, brought to pass, but not now decreed, it had been planned beforehand from the very first. "According to the eternal purpose which He purposed [252] in Christ Jesus our Lord." That is, according to the eternal foreknowledge; foreknowing the things to come, i.e., he means the ages to come; for He knew what was to be, and thus decreed it. According to the purpose of the ages, of those, perhaps, which He hath made by Christ Jesus, because it was by Christ that every thing was made.
Ver. 12. "In whom we have," saith he, "boldness, and access in confidence through our faith in him."
"Have access," not as prisoners, he says, nor yet, as persons candidates for pardon, nor as sinners; for, saith he, we have even "boldness with confidence," that is, accompanied with cheerful trust; arising from what source? "through our faith in Him."
Ver. 13. "Wherefore [253] I ask that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which are your glory."
How is it "for them?" How is it "their glory?" It is because God so loved them, as to give even the Son for them, and to afflict His servants for them: for it was in order that they might attain so many blessings, that Paul was in prison. Surely this was from God's exceeding love towards them: it is what God also saith concerning the Prophets, "I have slain them by the words of my mouth." (Hos. vi. 5.) But how was it that they fainted, when another was afflicted? He means, they were troubled, were distressed. This also he says when writing to the Thessalonians, "that no man be moved by these afflictions." (1 Thes. iii. 3.) For not only ought we not to grieve, but we ought even to rejoice. If ye find consolation in the forewarning, we tell you beforehand that here we have tribulation. And why pray? Because thus hath the Lord ordered.
Ver. 14, 15. "For this cause [254] I bow my knees unto the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named."
He here shows the spirit of his prayer for them. He does not say simply, "I pray," but manifests the supplication to be heartfelt, by the "bowing of the knees."
"From whom every family."
That is, no longer, he means, reckoned, according to the number of Angels, but according to Him who hath created the tribes both in heaven above and in earth beneath, not as the Jewish.
Ver. 16, 17. "That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."
Mark with what insatiable earnestness he invokes these blessings upon them, that they may not be tossed about. But how shall this be effected? By the "Holy Spirit in your inward man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." How again shall this be?
Ver. 18, 19. "To the end that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, [255] and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge."