Ephesians 2:12

at that time Strictly, at that occasion. The Gr. word habitually marks limitedperiods; though this must not always be pressed. Here possibly there is a suggestion of the transientperiod of exclusion, opposed to the long eternity of acceptance.

without Christ Apart from Christ; out of connexion with the Messiah. Here no Pharisaic prejudice is in view, but the mysterious fact that onlythrough the great prophesied Redeemer is there life and acceptance for man, and that in order to contact with Him there needs "preaching," "hearing," "believing" (Romans 10:13; Romans 10:15). Scripture does not present this fact without any relief; but all relief leaves it a phenomenon of Revelation as mysterious as it is solid.

being aliens Lit., having been alienated (the same word as Ephesians 4:18; Colossians 1:21); as if they had once been otherwise. So, in idea, they had been. Every human soul is (occasionally) viewed in Scripture as having been originally unfallen, and, if unfallen, then in a covenant of peace with God of which the covenant of Israel was but a type. Such a view is wholly ideal, referring not to the actual history of the individual soul, but to the Nature of which the individual is a specimen. Such popular phrases as, "we are fallencreatures," have this truth below them. Historically, we begin prostrate;ideally, we began upright, and have fallen.

the commonwealth of Israel Perhaps, "the citizenship." The Gr. word occurs elsewhere, in N. T., Acts 22:28 only (A. V., "this freedom;" the Roman citizenship). But the A. V. here (and so R. V.) is favoured by the word "alienated." It is rather more natural to say "made aliens from a state," than "made aliens from state-rights." The two interpretations, however, perfectly coincide practically. "Israel," (the Covenant-People with its special name of sacred dignity; see Trench, N. T.Synonyms, § 39;) is viewed as an ordered commonwealth or empire under its Divine King; and to be free of its rights is the one way to have connexion with Him. By "Israel" the Apostle here doubtless means the inner Israel, of which the outer was as it were the husk; see Romans 9:6. But he does not emphasize a distinction. Under the Old Covenant, it was generally necessary to belong, in some sense, to the outer Israel in order to be one of the inner.

strangers The Gr. is a word familiar in civicconnexions; non-members of a state or city.

the covenants of promise Lit., and better, of the Promise, the great Promise of Messiah, according to which those who "are of the Messiah, are Abraham's seed, and heirs by promise" (Galatians 3:29). In the light of Galatians 3:18, we may say that the Promise is more specially of Justification, Acceptance, (as in Abraham's case,) through faith, securing vital connexion with the Messiah.

" Covenants:" for the plural cp. Romans 9:4. The reference is to the manyCompacts, as with Abraham, Moses, Levi, David, Joshua; and perhapsto the New Covenant itself, as of course "connected with" the Promise. The Promise indicated, from the first, blessings for the world, "all the families of the earth"; but these blessings were to be found only "in Abraham and his seed" (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 22:18); and thus to those not yet connected with Abraham and the Messiah there was no actual portion yet in the "covenants."

having no hope The Gr. just indicates (by its special negative particle) that this was not only so, but felt by the Gentiles to be so; "having, as you knew, no hope." (So, precisely, 1 Thessalonians 4:13.) The deep truth of this is fully attested by classical and other heathen literature, old or modern. Aspiration and conjecture there often was, but no hope, in the Scripture sense; no expectation on a firm basis. A profound uncertainty about the unseen and eternal underlies many of the strongest expressions of the classical poets and philosophers. And in the special reference of "hope" here, hope of a Redeemer and a redeemed inheritance, there was (and is) a total blank, apart from revelation. "In Hellas, at the epoch of Alexander the Great, it was a current saying, and one profoundly felt by all the best men, that the best thing of all was not to be born, and the next best to die." (Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, Eng. transl. Vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 586). See the thought still earlier, Sophocles, Œd. Col. 1224 (Dindorf).

without God Lit., Godless; without true knowledge of the true God. "Gods many" were indeed, in some sense, popularly believed in; and large schools of thought recognized a One Supreme, though often with the very faintest views of personality. But this recognition, at its best and highest, lacked some essentialsin the Idea of the True God, above all, the union in Him of supreme Love and awful Purity. And for the average mind of ancient heathenism He "was not, in all the thoughts," as truly as the impersonal Brahm "is not" in the average Hindoo mind. See further, Appendix D.

in the world Words which complete the dark picture. "In the world" of fallen humanity, with its dreadful realities of evil, they did not "know the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom He had sent" (John 17:3), and so lacked the one possible preservative and spiritual life-power.

D. "WITHOUT GOD." (Ch. Ephesians 2:12.)

"The vulgar believed in many Gods, the philosopher believed in a Universal Cause; but neither believed in God. The philosopher only regarded the Universal Cause as the spring of the Universal machine, which was necessary to the working of all the parts, but was not thereby raised to a separate order of being from them. Theism was discussed as a philosophical not as a religious question, … as no more affecting practice than any great scientific hypothesis does now … Nothing would have astonished [the philosopher] more than, when he had proved in his lecture hall the existence of a God, to have been told to worship Him. -Worship whom?" he would have exclaimed, -worship what? worship how?" "

Mozley, Lectures on Miracles, Lect. iv.