Ephesians 2:20

ἐποικοδομηθέντες. The use of οἰκοδομή and οἰκοδομεῖν in a purely metaphorical sense to describe moral ‘edification’ is common enough in St Paul, but the application of the figure of a building as a direct illustration of the constitution of the Church and of the relation of the members in it to one another is rare. Apart from its use in Ephesians 4:12; Ephesians 4:16 with its parallel in Colossians 2:7, it is not found in St Paul except in 1 Corinthians 3:9-17, where the building in Ephesians 2:9 and Ephesians 2:17 is the community, though in Ephesians 2:12-15 the building material would seem to be the doctrines of the Teacher-Builders. There is a similar ambiguity in Matthew 7:17.

In the rest of the N.T. the figure holds a prominent place in three important Words of the Lord. First in the Word recorded by St John in answer to the request for a sign after the cleansing of the Temple: ‘Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days,’ which became in popular report, ‘I will build another made without hands’ (Mark 14:58; cf. Mark 15:29). Then in the words that greeted Simon Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi: ‘On this rock I will build my ecclesia’ (Matthew 16:18). Lastly the quotation from Psalms 118:22 with regard to the Stone which the builders refused, and which yet became the head of the corner (Mark 12:10 and plls.; cf. Acts 4:11). This last passage is probably in St Paul’s mind as well as Isaiah 28:16 when he speaks of the ἀκρογωνιαῖον. It seems not improbable that the first suggested the idea of the Christian Church as the true Temple, which we find in Ephesians 2:21. The thought in this form (ναός) is peculiar to St Paul (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16 f., Ephesians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16). It is the conclusion towards which St Stephen’s defence before the Sanhedrin was leading all through. It is found also in close connexion with a reference to the chief cornerstone in 1 Peter 2:5 (οἶκος). St James also in the Conference at Jerusalem (Acts 15:16) quotes a kindred passage from Amos 9:11 with reference to the re-building of ‘the tabernacle of David.’ In Revelation 21:16 the New Jerusalem reproduces the proportions of the Holy of Holies; but ‘the Lord God Almighty was the Temple of it, and the Lamb.’ This remarkable combination is best explained by common dependence on a Word of the Lord, and we know the sense in which St John at least after the Resurrection came to understand this Word (John 2:21). The second Word has, I believe, also left its trace on St Paul’s thought here. The reference to the ‘Apostles and Prophets’ as foundation stones (which again has an interesting pll. in Revelation 21:14) is not easy to account for in the writing of one who claimed himself (Ephesians 1:1) to be an Apostle. It is distinctly easier from this point of view and would tend to give greater weight to the whole argument if St Paul is consciously appealing to an aspect of the Apostolic office which had been authoritatively defined by the Lord Himself.

θεμελίῳ. Elsewhere (1 Corinthians 3:10; Romans 15:20; Hebrews 6:1) the ‘foundation’ is a foundation of doctrine. Here however Jesus Christ Himself and not faith in Him or any doctrine about Him is the ‘chief Corner Stone’ and the Temple is built of human hearts (cf. 1 Peter 2:4 f.). So the Apostles and Prophets must be themselves the foundation. By their witness in life and word and deed to Jesus and the Resurrection men were led to believe in Jesus as Christ and Lord and to take their place in the Temple of His Body, so that in a real sense each fresh ‘living stone’ added to the structure rested upon them.

τῶν�. The recurrence of the phrase in Ephesians 3:5 of men to whom a revelation had recently been granted seems to preclude any reference to the Prophets of the O.T. The titles of course are not mutually exclusive. St Paul claims, as we have seen (Ephesians 1:1), to be an Apostle. He is also called a Prophet (Acts 13:1). But St Paul’s object is to help the Gentiles to realize their connexion with and their indebtedness to those who had been in Christ before them and by whose labours they had been brought in. There is point therefore in an express reference to the ‘Prophets’ by whose agency, far more apparently than by any direct Apostolic preaching, Asia Minor had received the Gospel. If they included Gentiles as well as Jews, so much the better for St Paul’s argument. On the evangelization of this district cf. 1 Peter 1:12; Colossians 1:7.

ἀκρογωνιαίου, 1 Peter 2:6 (see Hort’s note) from Isaiah 28:16; cf. κεφαλὴ γωνίας Psalms 118:22. The corner-stone of the foundation, not as we might imagine from the phrase ‘head of the corner,’ the cornerstone of the topmost course. Still it has an office not unlike that of the keystone in an arch. In 1 Corinthians 3:11 ‘Jesus Christ,’ i.e. faith in the Messiahship of Jesus, is the whole foundation of the Apostolic teaching. Here, if the figure is to be pressed, Jesus Christ Himself is regarded in the light of that which He had in common with His believing followers; just as in 1 Peter 2:4 He is represented as a ‘Living Stone’ knit into one with other ‘Living Stones.’ In His Humanity first by virtue of His perfect faith and obedience the Spirit found a permanent home among men (John 1:33).