Ephesians 1:10

εἰς οἰκονομίαν : unto a dispensation. This expresses the end which God had in view in that which He purposed. Some (Erasm., Calv., etc.) give εἰς the temporal sense of usque ad. But the idea is rather the more definite one of design. God had His reason for the long delay in the revelation of the “mystery”. That reason lay in the fact that the world was not ripe for the dispensation of grace which formed the contents of the mystery. In classical Greek the word οἰκονομία had the two meanings of (a) administration, the management of a house or of property, and (b) the office of administrator or steward. It was used of such things as the arrangement of the parts of a building (Vitruv., i., 2), the disposition of the parts of a speech (Quint., Inst., iii., 3), and more particularly of the financial administration of a city (Arist., Pol., Ephesians 3:14; cf. Light., Notes, sub voc.). It has the same twofold sense in the NT an arrangement or administration of things (in the passages in the present Epistle and in 1 Timothy 1:4), and the office of administrator in particular the stewardship with which Paul was entrusted by God (1 Corinthians 9:17; Colossians 1:25). The idea at the basis of the statement here, therefore, as also in the somewhat analogous passage in Galatians 4:1-11, is that of a great household of which God is the Master and which has a certain system of management wisely ordered by Him. Cf. the figure of the Church as the household of God (1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:2-6; 1 Peter 4:17), and the parables which run in terms of God as οἰκοδεσπότης (Matthew 13:27; Matthew 20:1; Matthew 20:11; Matthew 21:33; Luke 13:25; Luke 14:21). τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν : of the fulness of the times. That is, a dispensation belonging to the fulness of the times. The gen. cannot be the gen. objecti (Storr, etc.), nor the epexegetic gen. (Harl.), but must be that of characteristic quality, “a dispensation proper to the fulness of the times” (Mey.), or it may express the relation of time, as in ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς (Romans 2:5), κρίσις μεγάλης ἡμέρας (Jude 1:6). In Galatians 4:4 the phrase takes the more general form τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου; here it has the more specific form τὸ πλήρωμα τῶν καιρῶν, the fulness of the seasons, or series of appointed, determinate times. The idea of the fitness of the times, it is probable, is also expressed by the καιρῶν as distinguished from χρόνων, the former being a qualitative term, the latter a quantitative (see Light., Notes, p. 70). Cf. Hebrews 1:1, and especially the πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρός of Mark 1:15. In classical Greek πλήρωμα appears to have both the passive sense, “that which is filled,” and the active, “that which fills”. The former is rare, the latter is sufficiently common. See Lidd. and Scott, Lex., and Rost u. Palm., Worth., sub voce. In the NT likewise it seems to have both senses (though this is questioned); the passive being found in the great doctrinal passages in the Pauline Epistles (Ephesians 3:19; Ephesians 4:13, etc.), the active occurring more frequently and in a variety of applications (Matthew 9:16; Mark 2:21; Mark 6:43; Mark 8:20; Romans 11:12; 1 Corinthians 10:26). With reference to time it means “complement” the particular time that completes a long prior period or a previous series of seasons. The purport of the statement, therefore, appears to be this: God has His household, the kingdom of heaven, with its special disposition of affairs, its οἰκονόμος or steward (who is Christ), its own proper method of administration, and its gifts and privileges intended for its members. But these gifts and privileges could not be dispensed in their fulness while those for whom they were meant were under age (Galatians 4:1-3) and unprepared for them. A period of waiting had to elapse, and when the process of training was finished and the time of maturity was reached the gifts could be bestowed in their completeness. God, the Master of the House, had this fit time in view as the hidden purpose of His grace. When that time came He disclosed His secret in the incarnation of Christ and introduced the new disposition of things which explained His former dealings with men and the long delay in the revelation of the complete purpose of His grace. So the Fathers came to speak of the incarnation as the οἰκονομία (Just., Dial., 45, 120; Iren., i., 10; Orig., C. Cels., ii., 9, etc.). This “œconomy of the fulness of the seasons,” therefore, is that stewardship of the Divine grace which was to be the trust of Christ, in other words, the dispensation of the Gospel, and that dispensation as fulfilling itself in the whole period from the first advent of Christ to the second. In this last respect the present passage differs from that in Galatians 4:4. In the latter “the fulness of the time” appears to refer definitely to the mission of Christ into the world and His work there. Here the context (especially the idea expressed by the next clause) extends the reference to the final completion of the work and the close of the dispensation at the Second Coming. ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι : to sum up. Or, having regard to the Middle Voice, “to sum up for Himself”. The sentence thus introduced is one of the select class of passages which refer to the cosmical relations of Christ's Person or Work. It is one of great doctrinal importance. Its exact import, however, is very differently understood by different interpreters. Every word in it requires attention. There is first the question of its precise relation to the paragraph of which it forms part. The inf. is taken by most (Mey., Ell., etc.) to be the epexegetic inf., conveying something complementary to, or explanatory of, the preceding statement, and so = “namely (or to wit), to sum up”. It is that inf., however, in the particular aspect of consequence or contemplated result = “so as to sum up” (so Light.; cf. Win.-Moult., pp. 399, 400). But with what part of the paragraph is this complementary sentence immediately connected? The doctrinal significance of the sentence depends to a considerable extent on the answer to the question, and the answer takes different forms. Some understand the thing which is explained or complemented to be the whole idea contained in the statement from γνωρίσας onwards, “at once the content of the μυστήριον, the object of the εὐδοκία, and the object reserved for the οἰκ.” (Abb.). Others limit it to the μυστήριον (Bez., Harl., Kl [55]), or to the προέθετο (Flatt, Hofm.). Others understand it to refer to the εὐδοκίαν in particular, the ἣν … καιρῶν clause being regarded as a parenthesis (Alf., Haupt); and others regard it as unfolding the meaning of the immediately preceding clause the οἰκονομίαν τ. π. τ. κ. (Mey., etc.). The last seems to be the simplest view, the others involving more or less remoteness of the explanatory sentence from the sentence to be explained. So the point would be that the œconomy, the new order of things which God in the purpose of His grace had in view for the fulness of the seasons, was one which had for its end or object a certain summing up of all things. But in what sense is this summing up to be understood? The precise meaning of this rare word ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι has to be looked at. In the classics it is used of repeating summarily the points of a speech, gathering its argument together in a summary form. So Quintilian explains the noun ἀνακεφαλαίωσις as rerum repetitio et congregatio (vi., 1), and Aristotle speaks of the ἔργον ῥητορικῆς as being ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι πρὸς ἀνάμνησιν (Frag., 123). In late Greek the verb means also to present in compendious form or to reproduce (Protev. fac., 13). The simple verb κεφαλαιοῦν in the classics denotes in like manner to state summarily, or bring under heads (Thuc. iii., 67, vi., 91, etc.), and the noun κεφάλαιον is used in the sense of the chief point (Plato, Laws, 643 D), the sum of the matter (Pind., P., 4, 206), a head or topic in argument (Dionys. Hal., De Rhet., x., 5), a recapitulation of an argument (Plato, Tim., 26, etc.). In the NT the verb ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι occurs only twice, namely here and in Romans 13:9; in which latter passage it is used of the summing up of the various commandments in the one requirement of love to one's neighbour. The simple verb κεφαλαιοῦν occurs only once, viz., in Mark 12:4, where it has the sense of wounding in the head; but the text is uncertain there, TTrWH reading ἐκεφαλίωσαν with [56] [57] [58], etc. The noun κεφάλαιον is found twice, viz., in Acts 22:28, where it has the sense of a sum of money (as in Leviticus 6:5; Numbers 5:7; Numbers 31:26), and in Hebrews 8:1, where it means the chief point in the things that the writer has been saying. The prevailing idea conveyed by these terms, therefore, appears to be that of a logical, rhetorical, or arithmetical summing up. The subsequent specification of the objects of the ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι, however, makes it plain that what is in view here is not a logical or rhetorical, but a real or objective summing up. Further, as the verb comes not from κεφαλή but from κεφάλαιον, it does not refer to the summing up of things under a head, and the point of view, therefore, is not that of the Headship of Christ which comes to distinct expression at the close of the chapter. On the other hand it does not seem necessary to limit the sense of the word (with Haupt) to the idea of a résumé or compendious presentation of things in a single person. The question remains as to the force of the prep. in the compound verb. The ἀνα is taken by many to add the idea of again, and to make the result or end in view the bringing things back to a unity which had once existed but had been lost. So it is understood by the Pesh., the Vulg., Tertull. (e.g., in his Adv. Marc., v., 17, “affirmat omnia ad initium recolligi in Christo”; in the De Monog., 5, “adeo in Christo omnia revocantur ad initium,” etc.), Mey., Alf., Abb., etc. On the other hand, Chrys. makes the compound verb equivalent to συνάψαι; and the idea of a return to a former condition is negatived by many, the ἀνα being taken to have simply the sense which it has in ἀναγινώσκειν, ἀνακρίνειν, ἀνακυκᾶν, ἀναλογίζεσθαι, ἀναμάνθανειν, etc., and to express the idea of “ going over the separate elements for the purpose of uniting them” (Light., Notes, p. 322). Usage on the whole is on the side of the latter view, and accordingly the conclusion is drawn by some that this “summing up” is not the recovery of a broken pristine unity, but the gathering together of objects now apart and unrelated into a final, perfect unity. Nevertheless it may be said that the verb, if it does not itself definitely express the idea of the restoration of a lost unity, gets that idea from the context. For the whole statement, of which the ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι clause forms part, runs in terms of a redemption, and the cognate passage in Colossians 1:20 speaks of a final reconciliation of all things. τὰ πάντα : all things. An all-inclusive phrase, equivalent to the totality of creation; not things only, nor yet men or intelligent beings only (although the phrase might bear that sense, cf. Galatians 3:22), but, as the context shows, all created objects, men and things. Cf. the universal expression in Colossians 1:20. ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ : in Christ, or rather “in the Christ,” the introduction of the article indicating that the term has its official sense here. The same is clearly the case in Ephesians 1:12, and, as Alford notices, the article does not seem to be attached to the term Χριστός after a prep. unless some special point is in view. The point of union in this gathering together of all things is the Christ of God. In Him they are to be unified. τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς : the things in the heavens. and the things upon the earth. Or, according to the better reading and as in RV marg., the things upon the heavens, and the things upon the earth. The reading of the TR, though supported by [59] [60] [61], most cursives, Chrys., etc., must give place to τὰ ἐπὶ τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, which is adopted by LTTrWH on the basis of [62] [63] [64] [65], etc. It is an unusual form for the compound phrase, the term ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς being ordinarily coupled with ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (cf. Ephesians 3:15; also the parallel in Colossians 1:20, where the ἐπί is poorly attested). The ἐπί in ἐπὶ τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, however, may have the force of at, which it has in such phrases as ἐπὶ πύλῃσιν (Il., iii., 149), ἐπὶ πύργῳ (Il., vi., 431), ἐπὶ τῇ προβατικῇ (Acts 3:10-11), the heavens being regarded, as Meyer thinks, as “the stations at which the things concerned are to be found”. The phrase in its two contrasted parts defines the preceding τὰ πάντα, making the all-inclusive nature of its universality clear by naming its great divisions. It is not to be understood as referring in its first section to any particular class, spirits in heaven, departed saints of Old Testament times, angels (as even Chrys. and Calv. thought), Jews, and in its second section specifically to men or to Gentiles. It explains the universality expressed by τὰ πάντα as the widest possible and most comprehensive universality, including the sum total of created objects, wherever found, whether men or things. ἐν αὐτῷ : in him. Emphatic resumption of the ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and transition to the following statement, solemnly re-affirming also, as Ell. suggests, where the true point of unity designed by God, or the sphere of its manifestation, is to be found.

[55] Klöpper.

[56] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[57] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[58] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[59] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[60] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

[61] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[62] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[63] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[64] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[65] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

The passage has been supposed (Orig., Crell., etc.) to teach the doctrine of a Universal Restoration. But interpreted as above it has nothing to do with any such doctrine, whether in the sense of a final salvation of all unrighteous and unbelieving men or in that of a final recovery of all evil beings, devils and men alike. Nor, again, does it refer particularly to the case of the individual. It speaks, as Meyer notices, of the “aggregate of heavenly and earthly things,” and of that as destined to make a true unity at last. Another view of the general import of the statement, which has been elaborated with much ability by Haupt, requires some notice. Pressing to its utmost the sense of a résumé or summary, which he regards as the idea essentially contained in the terms in question, he contends that the meaning of the statement is that in Christ, who belongs at once to humanity and to the heavenly world, should be seen the compendious presentation of all beings and things that in His person should be summarised the totality of created objects, both earthly and heavenly, so that outside Him nothing should exist. He looks for the proper parallel to this not in Colossians 1:20, but in Colossians 1:16-17, where it is said of Christ that “in Him were all things created” and that “in Him all things consist”. And he appeals in support of his view to the use of the kindred verb συγκεφαλαιοῦσθαι in Xen. (Cyr., viii., 1, 15, viii., 6, 14), where it expresses the organisation of a multitude of slaves under one representative, in whom they and their acts were so embodied that Cyrus could transact with all when dealing with the one. But the idea of Christ's agency in the first creation and the continuous maintenance of things is not expressed in the passage in Ephesians, and while it is the pre-existent Christ that is in view in Colossians 1:16, here it is the risen Christ. It remains, therefore, that the present passage belongs to the same class as Romans 8:20-22; Colossians 1:20, etc., and expresses the truth that Christ is to be the point of union and reconciliation for all things, so that the whole creation shall be finally restored by Him to its normal condition of harmony and unity.