Ephesians 2:12

ὅτι ἧτε ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ χωρὶς Χριστοῦ : that ye were at that time apart from Christ. The sentence interrupted by the description of those addressed as τὰ ἔθνη κ. τ. λ. is now resumed Remember, I say, that ye were. The τῷ καιρῷ, corresponding to the previous ποτέ, refers to their pre-Christian days. In such phrases it is usual to insert ἐν (Donald., Greek Gram., p. 487), and it is inserted by the TR (following [149] [150] [151] [152], etc.). But time when is also often enough expressed by the simple dat. (Win.-Moult., pp. 273, 274), and the balance of evidence is largely against the presence of the prep. here. The χωρὶς Χριστοῦ is the predicate to ἦτε, and is not a defining clause = “being at that time without Christ” (De Wette, Bleek). It describes their former condition as one in which they had no connection with Christ; in which respect they were in a position sadly inferior to that of the Jews whose attitude was one of hoping and waiting for Christ, the Messiah. Their apartness from Christ, their lack of all relation to Him this is the first stroke in the dark picture of their former heathen life, and the four to which the eye is directed in the subsequent clauses all follow from that. ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι τῆς πολιτείας τοῦ Ἰσραήλ : alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. The alienation is expressed by ἀπαλλοτριοῦσθαι, a strong verb, common enough in classical Greek (at least from Plato's time), corresponding to the OT זוּר (cf. Psalms 58:4), and used again in Ephesians 4:18; Colossians 1:21. It does not necessarily imply a lapse from a former condition of attachment or fellowship, but expresses generally the idea of being a stranger as contrasted with one who is at home with a person or an object. The term πολιτεία has two main senses a state or commonwealth (e.g., 2Ma 4:11; 2Ma 8:17), and citizenship or the rights of a citizen (Acts 22:28). The first of these is most in harmony with the theocratic term τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, and so it is understood by most. These Ephesians, therefore, had no part in the theocracy, the OT constitution under which God made Himself known to the Jew and entered into relation with him. καὶ ξένοι τῶν διαθηκῶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας : and strangers from the covenants of the Promise. The τῶν διαθηκῶν is probably the gen. of separation or removal. That idea is usually expressed by a prep., but with verbs like ὑποχωρεῖν, διαφέρειν, ἀποστερεῖσθαι, and with some adjectives, it is also expressed by the simple gen. (Win.-Moult., pp. 243, 244). The word ξένος, which has the particular meaning of one who is not a member of a state or city, is used here in the general sense of foreign to a thing, having no share in it. The διαθῆκαι are the covenants with Abraham and the patriarchs (cf. Wis 18:22; 2Ma 8:15). It is obviously the covenants of Messianic significance that are in view. That the Mosaic Law or the Sinaitic Covenant is not in view seems to follow from the mention of the ἐπαγγελία; for that Covenant was not distinctively of the Promise, but is described by Paul as coming in after it and provisionally (Galatians 3:17-19). The ἐπαγγελία is the Promise, the one distinctively so called, the great Messianic Promise given to the fathers of the Hebrew people (Genesis 13:15; Genesis 15:18; Genesis 17:8, etc.). The defining τῆς ἐπαγγελίας is attached by some (Rosenmüller, etc.) to the following ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες. But the covenants and the promise are kindred ideas, and make one thought here. ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες : having no hope. With participles the subjective negative is much more frequently used than οὐ. In cases like the present, where the participle does not belong to the class of those expressing command, purpose, condition or the like, the use of μή is due to the aspect in which the matter in question presents itself to the writer to the fact, e.g., that he has a genus, not the individual, in view; cf. Ell. on 1 Thessalonians 2:15, and Win.-Moult., p. 606. The statement here is absolute ἐλπίδα, not τὴν ἐλπίδα. It is not only that they had not the hope, the Messianic hope which was one of the distinctions of the Israelite, but that they were utterly without hope. Ignorant of the Divine salvation and of Christ in whom it was found, they had nothing to hope for beyond this world. καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ : and without God in the world. The last element in the darkness and misery of their former life. The adj. ἄθεος, which is never found in the LXX or in the Apocrypha, and only this once in the NT, in classical Greek means impious in the sense of denying or neglecting the gods of the State; but it is also used occasionally in the sense of knowing or worshipping no God (Æl., V. h., 2, 31), or in that of abandoned by God (Soph., Œd. R., 633). Three renderings are possible here ignorant of God, denying God, forsaken of God. The third is preferred by many (Mey., Ell., etc.), who think that the darkest colour is given to the picture of their old heathen condition by this mention of the fact that they were without the help and protection of God. The first of the three senses, however, seems even more in harmony with the preceding negations. As they were without Christ, and without hope, so were they without God without the knowledge of the one true and living and thus destitute of any God. So in Galatians 4:8 Paul speaks of Gentiles like these as knowing not God and doing service unto them which by nature are no gods. The clause ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ is connected by some with the whole preceding description (Koppe, etc.); by others with the two last sentences in the description the ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες and the ἄθεοι (Abb.). But it rather makes one idea with the immediately preceding term ἄθεοι. It is difficult to say in what particular sense the κόσμος is used here whether in the simple, non-ethical sense, or in the deeper sense which it has in John and also at times in some degree in Paul (1 Corinthians 1:21; 1 Corinthians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 11:32; 2 Corinthians 7:10). Whichever is preferred whether “without God in the world of men,” or “without God in this evil world” an appropriate idea results. But the implied contrast with the previous πολιτεία τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ leads most to decide for the latter. The domain of their life was this present evil world, and in it, alienated as it was from God, they had no God.

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

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

[151] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[152] 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.