Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Ephesians 1:8

ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν, attr. for ἣν ἐπ. περισσεύω is transitive as in 2 Corinthians 4:15; 2 Corinthians 9:8; 1 Thessalonians 3:12 This construction is peculiar to St Paul in the Greek Bible.

ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει, ‘in all wisdom and prudence.’ In Colossians 1:9 the corresponding phrase is ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ συνέσει πνευματικῇ, where see Lightfoot σοφία on the one side describes an attribute of God’s working as approving itself absolutely in its aim and method to man’s judgement. So Romans 11:33; Ephesians 3:10; cf. Luke 7:35 On the other side, as here and in Colossians 1:9, &c., it appears as a power imparted to man whereby he attains an insight into God’s purpose and plan. St Paul deals with it most fully in 1 Cor. and Col. Elsewhere it is most prominent in St James. It recurs in a prominent place in St Paul’s prayer for his correspondents in Ephesians 1:17 It is a word of considerable importance in the history of the relation between Greek and Jewish thought. See Hort, Judaistic Christianity, p. 129. To the Jew the thoughts connected with it were primarily religious and practical, to the Greek they were metaphysical and speculative. The two currents met in cent. 1 A.D. when the main interest in Greek Philosophy was ethical. φρόνησις, ‘prudence’ (spiritual commonsense shown in adapting means to the revealed end, cf. Luke 16:8), is concerned with the application of the principles apprehended by σοφία to particular problems in daily life. φρόνησις occurs most frequently in the Greek Bible in the ‘Wisdom’ literature, esp. Proverbs, Ecclus, Wisdom, and in the account of Solomon’s wisdom in 3 Kings. σοφία and φρόνησις are combined in 3 Kings Ephesians 4:25; Proverbs 1:2; Proverbs 8:1; Proverbs 10:23.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Ephesians 1:8

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