Ephesians 3:21

αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ : unto Him be the glory in the Church in Christ Jesus (better, “and in Christ Jesus”). In the αὐτῷ the great Subject of the ascription is named the second time with rhetorical emphasis, and as it stands first in the sentence εἴη (not ἐστί) is to be supplied. The article with δόξα defines it as the glory that is due to Him, or that befits Him. And that “glory” is to be given Him ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, the Church being the domain in which the praise that belongs to Him is to be rendered Him. The reading of the TR, ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐν Χριστῷ, Ιησοῦ, follows such authorities as [351] 2 [352] [353] [354], Syr., Eth., Arm., Goth. It is rendered by some “in the Church which is in Christ Jesus”. But there is no evident reason for defining the Church here specifically as in Christ; for it is the Christian Church that is obviously meant, and there is no need to distinguish it from the Church of Israel. Such a construction, too, distinguishing one Church from another, would have been clearer if τῇ had appeared before ἐν Χριστῷ, although the absence of the article is not fatal to it (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:1, etc.). Hence those who follow the TR take the words as two distinct clauses, ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, understanding them to mean that the praise which is given in the Church is praise given in Christ in virtue of her union with Him as her Head, or taking them to point first to the Church as “the outward domain in which God is to be praised” and then to Christ as the “spiritual sphere in which this ascription of praise is to take place” (Mey.), it being only in Christ that believer or Church can really praise God. There is, however, a small, but important addition made to the text by some of the oldest and best authorities, by the insertion of καί before the ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. The evidence is so strong ([355] [356] [357] [358], 17, Vulg., Boh., etc.) that the καί can scarcely be refused, and it is accepted by LTTrWHRV. So the sentence becomes “in the Church and in Christ Jesus,” and the idea is that praise is to be given to God and His glorious perfections shown forth both in the Church which is the body, and in Christ who is the Head in the Church as chosen by Him, and in the Christ as given, raised, and exalted by Him. So Haupt, with a somewhat similar idea, understands the sense to be that the glorifying of God takes place in outward-wise in the circle of the Church and at the same time in such inward-wise that it is in Christ. εἰς πάσας τὰς γενεὰς τοῦ αἰῶνος τῶν αἰώνων. ἀμήν : unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen. More exactly “unto all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen.” Another of these reduplicated, cumulative expressions by which the mind of man working with the ideas of time labours to convey the idea of the eternal. The formula may be, as was suggested by Grotius, a combination of two distinct phrases of similar meaning, one in which continuance, endless continuance, is expressed in terms of γενεά, γενεαί (cf. e.g., Luke 1:50; εἰς γενεὰς γενεῶν, or εἰς γενεὰς καὶ γενεὰς with LTTrWHRV); and another in which the same idea is expressed in terms of αἰών, αἰῶνες (cf. εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων, Revelation 14:11; εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, Galatians 1:5, etc.). The peculiarity here is the conjunction of the two formulæ and the use of the sing. αἰών in the latter; cf. εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος, 3 Esdr. 4:38; ἕως αἰῶνος τῶν αἰώνων, Daniel 7:18; εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα [τοῦ αἰῶνος], Hebrews 1:8; εἰς ἡμέραν αἰῶνος, 2 Peter 3:18. The precise idea underlying the phrase is not quite clear. It may be that the everlasting future is thought of as one long “age” embracing in it an unnumbered succession of “generations” and making the sum and crown of all possible “ages”. Or the “age of the ages” may have the force of a superlative, “the age par excellence,” the “age beside which there is none other to be named,” and that regarded as containing in itself all conceivable “generations”. More precisely, the idea of the Parousia may be behind all, the age (ὁ αἰών) being the Messianic age which opens with the Parousia, brings all other “ages” with the “generations” belonging to them to an end, and is itself to endure for ever. Thus, as Meyer puts it, the idea is that the glory to be given to God in the Church and in Christ its Head is to “endure not only up to the Parousia, but then also ever onward from generation to generation in the Messianic æon consequently to last not merely εἰς τὸ παρόν, but also εἰς τὸ ἀΐδιον ”. The ἀμήν, which occurs so frequently in our Lord's discourses at the beginning of an affirmation, is used here, as so often in the OT, at the close of the sentence in the sense of so be it (LXX, γένοιτο; cf. Numbers 5:22, etc.). It was the people's assent in OT times to declarations made at solemn assemblies (Deuteronomy 27:15; Nehemiah 5:13; Nehemiah 8:6, etc.). It was also their response to the prayers offered in the synagogue, and from 1 Corinthians 14:16 we gather that this use of the word was continued in the Christian Church.

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

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

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

[354] Codex Porphyrianus (sæc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Ephesians 2:13-16.

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

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

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

[358] Codex Ephraemi (sæc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.