Ephesians 5:14

Wherefore With regard to the fact that whatever is really brought to light, in the sense of true spiritual conviction, becomes light.

he saith Or possibly it (the Scripture) saith. See note on Ephesians 4:8.

Awake, &c. These words occur nowhere in the O.T. verbatim. St Jerome, on the verse, makes many suggestions; as that St Paul may have used an "apocryphal" passage, exactly as he used words from pagan writers (e.g.Titus 1:12); or that he utters an immediate inspiration granted to himself, in prophetic form. Thomas Aquinas (quoted by Vallarsius on St Jerome) suggests that we have here the essenceof Isaiah 60:1; where the Lat. reads "Rise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come &c." Surely this is the true solution, if we add to it the probability that other prophecies contributedto the phraseology here. Dr Kay (in the Speaker's Commentary) on Isaiah 60:1 writes, "In Ephesians 5:14 this verse is combined, in a paraphrase form, with Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 52:1-2. The Ephesians had been walking in darkness, as dead men … but the Redeemer had come and the Spirit been given. Therefore they were to awake(ch. Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 52:1) out of sleep, and arisefrom the dead, that Christ the Lord might shine uponthem, and they again shed His light on the Gentiles round."

To the believer in the Divine plan and coherence of Scripture it will be abundantly credible that "the Lord" (Jehovah) of Isaiah should be the "Christ" of St Paul (cp. Isaiah 6:5 with John 12:41), and that the "Jerusalem" of Isaiah should have an inner reference to the True Israel (Galatians 3:29; Galatians 6:16), in its actual or potential members.

Dr Edersheim (Temple and its Services, p. 262), suggests that the Apostle may have had present to his mind language used in synagogue worship at the Feast of Trumpets. Rabbinic writers explain the trumpet blasts as, inter alia, a call to repentance; and one of them words the call, "Rouse ye from your slumber, awake from your sleep, &c." Some such formula may have been in public use. Bengel makes a similar suggestion here. But this would not exclude, only supplement, the reference to Isaiah.

Another suggestion is that the words are a primitive Christian "psalm" (1 Corinthians 14:26); perhaps "the morning hymn used each day by the Christians in Rome in St Paul's lodging," or "a baptismal hymn." Here again we have an interesting possibility, for such a "psalm" may have given or influenced the phrase here. But the introductory word "He, or it, saith," seems to us to weigh decidedly for the view that the words are, in essence, a Scripture quotation.

sleepest… the dead The sleep is more than sleep; the sleep of death. But death itself is but as sleep that can be broken (Matthew 9:24) to the Lord of Life. On spiritual death see above, on Ephesians 2:1.

shall give thee light Better, as R.V., shall shine upon thee. The idea, by context, is not so much of the light of conviction, as of that of spiritual transfiguration (2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6). The thought of "being light in the Lord" runs through the passage. It is a light consequent uponawaking and arising. Another, but certainly mistaken, reading gives, "thou shalt touch Christ" The "Old Latin" followed it. It is due, in part at least, to the close similarity in form of two widely different Gr. verbs.