Ephesians 1:20

which he wrought The verb is aorist. Another reading, but without equal support, gives the perfect: "He hathwrought." The time-reference is to the actual past crisis of the Lord's exaltation.

in Christ In the supreme instance of Christ. Cp. "in me" 1 Timothy 1:16. Olshausen (quoted by Bp Ellicott) remarks that this passage, with Philippians 2:6-11 and Colossians 1:14-19, gives us "the entire Christology of St Paul." In them we find His essential and glorious Deity; His eternal Sonship; His immediate action in Creation; His Headship over the created Universe; His Divine free-will in Incarnation and Humiliation; His atoning Death, "making peace by the blood of His Cross;" His Resurrection, and Exaltation as the Incarnate, by the Father's power; His Headship over the Church, and animation of it with His Spirit. See further, Appendix J.

when he raised him I.e., in the act of raising Him. Thiswas the act of almighty power, embodying the wonders at once of a triumph over the physical mystery of death, of the manifestation of an "eternal redemption" from condemnation and sin, and of the ministration of the Life of the Risen One to His people.

From another point of view the Resurrection was the act of the Son's own will; "I have power to take it again," John 10:18. But where it is viewed as the Father's acceptance of the work of the Son, or as the Father's testimony to Him, it is always attributed to the Father as His act. Cp. Acts 2:24; Acts 3:15; Acts 5:30; Acts 10:40; Acts 13:30-37; Acts 17:31; Romans 1:4; Romans 4:24, &c.; 1 Corinthians 6:14; Galatians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Heb 13:20; 1 Peter 1:3.

and sethim at his own right hand The Ascension is directly recordedonly thrice (Mark 16; Luke 24; Acts 1), but it is constantly taken for granted and dealt with, in the Acts and Epistles, as a fact as objective and literal as the Resurrection. Cp. Acts 2:33; Acts 3:19-20; Acts 5:31; Acts 7:55; Romans 8:34; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Philippians 2:9; Philippians 3:20; Colossians 3:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1Th 4:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Hebrews 1:3 and passim;1 Peter 3:22; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 5:6, &c.

" His own right hand:" the glorious metaphor betokens a share inthe throne (Revelation 3:21), not merely session nearit. From eternity the Divine Son had been "withGod" (John 1:1); "besidethe Father" (John 17:5; A.V. "withthee"); now also as the Incarnate after Death and Resurrection He appears in the sameexaltation; "the Son of Manat the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55). In thisCapacity, as well as in that of Filial Godhead, He now "reigns;" wields "all power in heaven and earth." And this Session, like Resurrection, is the act of the Father's accepting and glorifying will. Observe that in Scripture imagery the ascended Lord is always onthe throne; "a Priest uponhis throne" (Zechariah 6:13); not pleading before, but exalted upon, "the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16). Cp. Psalms 110:1; Psalms 110:4.

in the heavenlyplaces] See note above on Ephesians 1:3. A Region is spoken of, in which the glorified Lord locally is. Local conceptions, indeed, soon fail us in thoughts of the eternal world. But the fact of the Lord's veritable ascended Bodybinds us to them, in a real degree; for where body is in question there also is locality.

far above The same word as in Ephesians 4:10, and in Hebrews 9:5 (A. V., "over"). The Gr. does not necessarily denote distance;see Hebrews 9:5. But the compound form admitsthe idea, and in St Paul's style, especially in a passage like this, we are right to see it. The Saviour's eminence is measured by the height of the Creator's throne above Creation.

all principality, &c. More strictly, all government, and authority, and power, and lordship. For similar phrases cp. Romans 8:38; Colossians 1:16 (a close parallel), Ephesians 2:15; below, Ephesians 3:10, Eph 6:12; 1 Peter 3:22 (a close parallel). Two thoughts are conveyed; first, subordinately, the existence of orders and authorities [32] in the angelic (as well as human) world; then, primarily, the imperial and absolute Headship of the Son over them all. The additional thought is given us by Colossians 1:16 that He was also, in His preexistent glory, their Creator; but this is not in definite view here, where He appears altogether as the exalted Son of Man after Death. In Romans 8; Colossians 2, and Ephesians 6, (quoted above,) we have cognate phrases where evilpowers are meant; (and see note below on Ephesians 6:12, on the remarkable wording, "in the heavenlyplaces"). But the context here is distinctly favourable to a goodreference. That the Redeemer should be "exalted above" powers of evilis a thought scarcely adequate in a connexion so full of the imagery of glory as this. That He should be "exalted above" the holy Angels is fully in point. 1 Peter 3:22 is our best parallel; and cp. Revelation 5:11-12. See also Matthew 13:41: "The Son of Man shall send forth Hisangels."

[32] "The mighty kingdoms angelical," as S. T. Coleridge (Omniana) has it in a sentence of extraordinary depth and beauty.

We gather from the Ep. to the Colossians that the Churches of Asia Proper were at this time in danger from a quasi-Jewish doctrine of Angel-worship, akin to the heresies afterwards known as Gnosticism. Such a fact gives special point to the phrases here. On the other hand it does not warrant the inference that St Paul repudiates all the ideas of such an Angelology. The idea of order and authority in the angelic world he surely endorses, though quite in passing.

Theories of Angelic Orders, more or less elaborate, are found in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, cent. 1 2; Origen, cent. 3; St Ephrem Syrus, cent. 4. By far the most famous ancient treatise on the subject is the book On the Celestial Hierarchy, under the name (certainly assumed) of Dionysius the Areopagite; a book first mentioned cent. 6, from which time onwards it had a commanding influence in Christendom. (See article Dionysiusin Smith's Dict. Christ. Biography.) "Dionysius" ranked the Orders (in descending scale) in three Trines;Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominations, Virtues, Powers (Authorities); Principalities, Archangels, Angels. The titles are thus a combination of the terms Seraphim, Cherubim, Archangels, Angels, with those used by St Paul here and in Colossians 1.

Readers of Paradise Lost, familiar with the majestic line,

"Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Pow'rs,"

are not always aware of its learned accuracy of allusion. The Dionysian system powerfully attracted the sublime mind of Dante. In the Paradiso, Canto xxxviii., is a grand and characteristic passage, in which Beatrice expounds the theory to Dante, as he stands, in the ninth heaven, in actual view of the Hierarchies encircling the Divine Essence:

"All, as they circle in their orders, look

Aloft; and, downward, with such sway prevail

That all with mutual impulse tend to God.

These once a mortal view beheld. Desire

In Dionysius so intensely wrought

That he, as I have done, ranged them, and named

Their orders, marshal'd in his thought."

Cary's Dante.

and every name that is named Cp. Philippians 2:9, "the Name that is above every name." To the words suggestive of celestial ranks in detail, St Paul adds this more absolutely inclusive phrase, like the "any other creature" of Romans 8:39. "Name," in such a phrase, is, practically, state and place of dignity. Whatever such there are, and however justly recognized ("named"), the exalted Christ sits infinitely above them.

not only in this world, but&c. Lit. this age, aiôn. The word is used in the following passages more or less kindred, Matthew 12:32; Luke 16:8; 1 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 2:8; 1 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Galatians 1:4; 1 Timothy 6:17; 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus 2:12. See also on Ephesians 2:2 below. The root-idea of the word is duration, a period; then, by transition, the contents or condition of the period, an order of things. Here "this age" is the period of mortality, probation, preparation for "the age to come," the spiritual and eternal régime, the final development of "the Kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 15:50). All superhuman authorities recognized now, all that may be set up and recognized then, alike are absolutely inferior to Christ. We have here a suggestion of the truth (to which 1 Corinthians 15:28 is no real contradiction) that "of His Kingdom there shall be no end." The eternal throne will be that "of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 22:1; Revelation 22:3).