Ephesians 1:3

εὐλογητός : Blessed. The LXX equivalent for the Hebrew בָּרוּךְ, Vulg. Benedictus. In the NT the idea of being blessed is expressed both by εὐλογητός (Luke 1:68; Romans 1:25; Romans 9:5; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 11:31; 1 Peter 1:3), and by εὐλογημένος (Matthew 21:9; Matthew 23:39; Mark 11:9; Luke 13:35; Luke 19:38; John 12:13, etc.). On the analogy of similar verbs εὐλογητός means “to be praised,” “worthy of praise,” and it is sometimes said to differ from εὐλογημένος in that the latter denotes one on whom blessing is pronounced. But that distinction is a fine one and uncertain. Philo puts the difference thus: εὐλογητός, οὐ μόνον εὐλογημένος … τὸ μὲν γὰρ τῷ πεφυκέναι, τὸ δὲ τῷ νομίζεσθαι λέγεται μόνον … τῷ πεφυκέναι εὐλογίας ἄξιον … ὅπερ εὐλογητὸν ἐν τοῖς χρησμοῖς ᾄδεται (De Mígr. Abr., § 19, i., 453, Mang.; cf. Thayer-Grimm, sub voc.). The distinction is shortly expressed thus by Light., “while εὐλογημένος points to an isolated act or acts, εὐλογητός describes the intrinsic character” (Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul, p. 310). In the NT εὐλογητός is used only of God; in one case, indeed, absolutely, “The Blessed” (Mark 14:61). In the LXX it is used both of God (Genesis 9:26; Genesis 14:20; 1 Samuel 25:32; Psalms 72:17-19, etc.), and (less frequently) of man (Genesis 12:2; Genesis 24:31; Genesis 26:29; Deuteronomy 7:14; Judges 17:2; 1 Samuel 15:13; 1 Samuel 25:33; Ruth 2:20). In the LXX εὐλογημένος is occasionally used of God. In the NT it is used only of man (Matthew 25:34; Luke 1:28; Luke 1:42), of the Messiah (Matthew 21:9; Matthew 23:39; Mark 11:9; Luke 13:35; Luke 19:38; John 12:13), or of the Messianic Kingdom (Mark 11:10). In doxologies we are usually left to supply the verb, which may be ἔστιν (Abbott); ἔστω on the analogy of ἔστω … ηὐλογημένος in 2 Chronicles 9:8; or εἴη on the analogy of Job 1:21; Psalms 113:2, in which passages, however, the form is εὐλογημένος. Here, as generally where εὐλογητός is the word used and not εὐλογημένος, the sentence is best taken as an affirmation, ἐστίν being supplied; cf. Psalms 119:12 in contrast with Psalms 112:2; Job 1:21; 2 Chronicles 9:8. In most cases the εὐλογητός stands first in its sentence. There are exceptions, where the verb or participle has a position within the sentence or at its close. These are explained by some (W. Schmidt, etc.) as due to the fact that the emphasis is meant to be on the Subject of the doxology, not on the idea of the praise itself; by others (Haupt, etc.) more simply as regards most occurrences, if not all, as due to the fact that the copula (εἶναι, γιγνέσθαι) is expressed. The cases most in point are 1 Kings 10:9; 2 Chronicles 9:8; Job 1:21; Psalms 68:19; Psalms 113:2. In all these instances except the last the form is εὐλογημένος and the γένοιτο or εἴη is expressed. In Psalms 68:19 alone we have Κύριος ὁ θεὸς εὐλογητός, and that followed immediately by εὐλογητὸς Κύριος ἡμέραν καθʼ ἡμέραν. ὁ Θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ : the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The same designation of God occurs also in Romans 15:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 2:31; 1 Peter 1:3. In Colossians 1:3, the καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ of the TR is too slenderly supported to be retained. Many good commentators (Mey., Ell., Haupt, Schmied., etc.) take the Θεός and the πατήρ apart here, placing the genitive in relation only to the latter and making the sense “Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” or “Blessed be God who is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Others (including Theod., Jer., Theophyl., Stier, Blk., V. Hofm., V. Soden, Oltr., Klöp., Beck., Alf., Light., W. Schmidt, Abbott) understand God to be praised here as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as His Father. Grammar leaves the question open; for the inclusion of Θεός and πατήρ under one initial article does not establish the second view, nor does the use of καί instead of τε καί disprove it (cf. Ephesians 4:6; 1 Peter 2:25). The first rendering is advocated on account of the extreme rarity of the designation “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ell.); on the ground that Θεὸς καὶ πατήρ being a “stated Christian designation of God,” only the πατήρ requires any further definition by a genitive (Mey.); or for the reason that the passages in which the phrase θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ ἡμῶν occurs show it to have been Paul's habit to use θεός absolutely, the appositional πατὴρ κ. τ. λ. serving to define more particularly the Christian idea of God (Haupt). The second rendering is to be preferred, however, as the more natural, and is supported by the analogous Pauline construction ὁ Θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ ἡμῶν (Galatians 1:4; 1Th 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:13). Nor is there anything strange or unPauline in God being called “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ”. As true Man Christ had God for His God as we have Him for our God. He Himself spoke of God as “My God” in the cry of desolation from the Cross and again in His word to Mary after His Resurrection (John 20:17). In this same Epistle, too, we have the express designation ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Ephesians 1:17).

This form of doxology (as well as the prayer in the greeting for grace and peace) occurs again in 2 Corinthians 1:3 (as also in 1 Peter 1:3), but with a different reference there with regard to Paul's own experiences, here with regard to the Christian enlargement of others. ὁ εὐλογήσας ἡμᾶς : who blessed us. To suppose that the ἡμᾶς refers to Paul himself is inconsistent with the whole tenor of the paragraph and with the κἀγώ in Ephesians 1:15. If Paul speaks of God as εὐλογητός it is because of the great and generous things He had actually done for himself and for these Ephesians. These things he proceeds to set forth in respect both of their nature and their measure. He says first that “God blessed us” (not “hath blessed us”). The question is how far he is looking back here. Is it to the time when God first made him and those addressed His own by grace? Or is it to the eternal counsel of that grace? There is much to be said in favour of the second of these two references. It appears to be more naturally suggested by the text than the other. We may, perhaps, plead on its behalf the analogy of the aorists in Romans 8:29-30. It gives unity to the whole statement, and makes the interpretation of the following clauses, each introduced by ἐν, easier. Yet on the whole the first is to be preferred, especially in view of the further definition introduced by the καθώς of Ephesians 1:4. The idea, therefore, is that in calling us to Christian faith God blessed us, and that the great deed of blessing which thus took effect in time had its foundation in an eternal election. All that Christians are is thus referred back to God's free, decisive act of εὐλογεῖν; “blessing” in His case meaning not words of good but deeds of grace. So, too, the εὐλογητός which comes from our lips answers to, and is the return for, the εὐλογήσας of God. In word and thought we bless God because in deed and positive effect He blessed us; cf. Isaiah 65:16. ἐν πάσῃ εὐλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ : with every spiritual blessing. This defines the nature of the “blessing” with which God so signally blessed us. The ἐν might be understood in the local sense, as denoting the sphere within which the εὐλογεῖν proceeded. But in view of the following ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις, it is simplest to take it as the instrumental ἐν, “by means of”; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18; James 3:9; and the analogous ἐν μέτρῳ μετρεῖν, ἐν ἅλατι ἁλίζειν (Matthew 7:2; Matthew 5:13; Mark 4:24; Mark 9:49), etc. See Winer-Moult., Grammar, p. 485; Buttmann-Thayer, Grammar, p. 329. The πνευματικῇ is taken by some to mean inward as opposed to outward blessing, or blessing relating to the spirit of man, not to the body (Erasmus, etc.) a sense too restricted to fit the usage of the term in the NT. Others understand it to mean “of the Holy Spirit,” i.e., blessing proceeding from the Holy Spirit. So Mey., Alf. (who makes it “blessing of the Spirit”), etc.; so, too, Ell., who would refer the term directly to the Holy Spirit, on the basis of Joel 3:1 ff.; Acts 2:16. But this would be more naturally expressed by ἀπὸ or ἐκ τοῦ Πνεύματος, and it is the kind of blessing rather than its source that is in view here. It is best, therefore, to take πνευματικῇ to define the blessings in question as spiritual in the sense that they are the blessings of grace, blessings of a Divine order, belonging to the sphere of immediate relations between God and man (cf. Romans 1:11; Romans 14:1; Romans 15:27; 1 Corinthians 9:11). It is true that these come from God through the Spirit. But the point in view is what they are, not how they reach us. There is little to suggest either that a contrast is drawn between the blessings of the Gospel and the more temporal blessings of the OT economy, as Chrys., Grotius, etc., suppose. There is still less to suggest that the statement is to be limited to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, healing, tongues, etc., dealt with in 1 Corinthians 12, etc. This latter supposition is refuted by the inclusive πάσῃ. The expression is a large one, covering all the good that comes to us by grace whether the assurance of immortality, the promise of the resurrection, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, the privilege of adoption, etc., as Theodoret puts it; or all that belongs to the fruit of the Spirit, the graces of love, joy, etc. (Galatians 5:22-23), as Abbott explains it; or the peculiar blessings of peace of conscience, assurance of God's love, joy in God, the hope of glory, etc., as it is understood by others. The blessing with which God blessed us is the highest order of blessing, not of material kind or changeful nature, but of heavenly quality and enduring satisfaction, and such blessing He bestowed upon us in its every form and manifestation. ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις : in the heavenly places. Further definition of the blessing in respect of its sphere “in the heavenlies”. In the NT the adjective ἐπουράνιος occurs both in the literal sense and in the metaphorical, and in a variety of applications existing in heaven (ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ ἐπ., Matthew 18:35; Matthew 5:1. οὐράνιος); of heavenly order or descent (the Second Adam, ὁ ἐπουράνιος, 1 Corinthians 15:48); originating in heaven, belonging to heaven, heavenly in contrast with earthly (κλῆσις ἐπ., Hebrews 3:1; δωρέα ἐπ., Hebrews 6:4; πατρίς ἐπ., Hebrews 11:16; Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἐπ., Hebrews 12:22; βασιλεία ἐπ., 2 Timothy 4:18). It is not easy to determine the precise shade of meaning in each case. The plural τὰ ἐπουράνια is used of the eternal decrees or purposes of grace as contrasted with the operations of grace accomplished and experienced on earth (John 3:12); of the celestial bodies, sun, moon and stars (1 Corinthians 15:40); of things or beings in heaven as contrasted with those on earth or under earth (Philippians 2:10); of the heavenly types and realities of religious services of which earthly ordinances and ministries are the shadow (Hebrews 8:5). The particular phrase ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις, however, has this peculiarity, that it occurs five times in this Epistle and nowhere else in the NT. It is a singular fact that even in the writings bearing Paul's name it is confined to this one letter, and is not found even in the companion Epistle to the Colossians which belongs to the same time, has so much in common, and in point of fact presents more than one opportunity, as Meyer observes, for the introduction of such a phrase (Ephesians 1:5; Ephesians 1:16; Ephesians 1:20). In three out of the five occurrences the term has the local sense (Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 3:10), and in a fourth (Ephesians 6:12) that sense is also possible, though not certain. The expression in all probability has the same application in the present instance. To take it, with Chrys., Thdt., Beng., and more recently Beck, as a further description of the blessing in respect of its nature as spiritual or heavenly has not only usage against it, but also the consideration that the second of the two descriptive clauses would then add little or nothing to what is expressed by the first. Deciding for the local sense, however, we have still to ask how the phrase is to be connected and what is its particular point. Some connect it (e.g., Beza) immediately with ὁ Θεός, making the sense “God who is in heaven blessed us”. But this puts the qualifying clause at an awkward distance from its subject. The clause may be connected with the εὐλογήσας as describing the deed of blessing in respect of its sphere; which would be most suitable to the case if the εὐλογήσας were understood of the Divine decree of grace. Some, adopting the same connection, make it refer ideally or proleptically to the blessings laid up for our future enjoyment in the heavenly life (e.g., Th. Aquin.); but the context has in view blessings which are ours in reality now. Others take it to refer to the Church as the Kingdom of God on earth, the present depository of the Divine blessings (Stier); but the Church is not identified in this way with the Kingdom of God in the Pauline writings. It is best, therefore, to connect ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις immediately with the previous ἐν πάσῃ εὐλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ, and to understand it as describing the region in which this “spiritual blessing” is found. Not a few interpreters, indeed, pointing to the analogy of Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 3:20 (where, however, it is our citizenship that is said to be in heaven, not we ourselves), etc., introduce a mystical sense here, and take “the heavenlies” to be, not “literal locality but … the heavenly region in which our citizenship is” (Abbott), the heaven that is created within us here and now by grace. “The heaven of which the Apostle here speaks,” says Lightfoot, “is not some remote locality, some future abode; it is the heaven which lies within and about the true Christian.” So substantially also Alf., Ell. (the latter connecting it, however, with εὐλογήσας), Cand., etc. But what the writer has specially in view here is the eternal counsel of God and the effect given to it on earth, and there is nothing to suggest that at this point he is thinking of believers as being themselves in a certain sense in heaven even now. It is best, therefore, to retain the simple local meaning (as the Syriac and Ethiopic Versions render it, “in heaven,” “in the heavens”), and take it to describe the blessings which are stated to be in their nature spiritual further as being found in heaven. To that they belong, and from thence it is that they come to us to be our present possession on earth. (So Subst., Mey., Haupt, etc.) The choice of the unusual form here may be due to the largeness of the idea. It is not merely that the blessings with which God blessed us are blessings having their origin in heaven (which might have been expressed by ἀπʼ οὐρανοῦ or some similar phrase), but that they are blessings which have their seat where God Himself is and where Christ reigns. ἐν Χριστῷ : in Christ. Not merely “ through Christ”. The phrase expresses the supreme idea that pervades the Epistle. Here it qualifies the whole statement of the blessing, in its bestowal, its nature, and its seat. The Divine εὐλογεῖν has its ground and reason in Christ, so that apart from Him it could have no relation to us. It is ours by reason of our being in Him as our Representative and Head; “by virtue of our incorporation in, our union with, Christ” (Light.). “In Him lay the cause that God blessed us with every spiritual blessing, since His act of redemption is the causa meritoria of this Divine bestowal of blessing” (Mey.).