Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Ephesians 2:22

ἐν ᾧ καὶ ὑμεῖς συνοικοδομεῖσθε εἰς κατοικητήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν πνεύματι : in whom ye also are being built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit. The relative refers again, as in Ephesians 2:21, to Christ, the Κυρίῳ just named, not to the ναόν. The καί (= also, not even) points to the dignity of the present position “the exalted nature of the association in which the Ephesians shared” (Ell.). The συνοικοδομεῖσθε is not imper. (Calv.), but indic., the burden of the whole section being what was done for the readers and what was made of them. The συν - in the comp. verb might convey the idea of being built together with others; but, in view of the force of the συναρμολογουμένη it is rather to be understood as denoting the compact connection of one part with another, the orderly conjunction and co-ordination of all the various parts of the οἰκοδομή (Mey., Ell.); cf. the συνέκλεισεν in Galatians 3:2. κατοικητήριον is best translated “habitation”. Some draw a distinction between the ναόν as the whole Church and the κατοικητήριον as the individual Christians (Harl.). But the latter phrase simply expresses in another form the same idea as the former. The κατοικητήριον being that of God (τοῦ Θεοῦ), belonging to Him, inhabited by Him, is the same as the ναός. The ἐν πνεύματι is not to be taken as = “in a spiritual manner,” as if in contrast with ἐν σαρκί; nor as making with the noun the idea of “a spiritual house”; but as = in the Holy Spirit, the anarthrous πνεῦμα having often that sense and the similar ἐν Κυρίῳ suggesting it. Nor should the ἐν be rendered “through” (AV) or “by” (Mey.). It is true that the instrumental use of ἐν gives a thoroughly good sense, viz., that we are built together in Christ by the agency of the Holy Spirit in respect of His dwelling and operating in us. But the idea is rather that of in the Spirit as the element of the life or the condition of the process. The phrase may be connected immediately with the κατοικητήριον as if = “a habitation of God realised in the Spirit,” or it may be construed as a tertiary predication (Ell.) = “and it is in the Spirit”. But it is best taken to qualify the whole statement of the συνοικοδομεῖσθε, = “in Christ as the ground and principle of all ye too are being built together into a habitation of God, and it is by your being in the Spirit that this is taking effect”. Union with Christ, life in the Spirit this explained what they were; this meant that they, as well as other Christian bodies, were being built up so as to be a habitation of God.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Ephesians 2:22

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