Ephesians 4:24

καὶ ἐνδύσασθαι τὸν καινον ἄνθρωπον : and put on the new man. For ἐνδύσασθαι the imper. ἐνδύσασθε is read by some authorities of consequence ([448] [449] [450] 1 [451] 2, etc.). The aor. is appropriately used again, as before in Ephesians 4:22; “putting off” and “putting on” being acts, while renewal (ἀνανεοῦσθαι) is a process. For καινὸς ἄνθρωπος see on Ephesians 2:15 above. τὸν κατὰ Θεὸν κτισθέντα : which after God was created. The aor. κτισθέντα suggests that the “new man” is regarded here not as a nature created anew for the individual, but as “the holy form of human life which results from redemption,” created once for all in and by Christ, and participated in by the individual convert. (See Ell., in loc., and Müller, Christ. Doctr. of Sin, ii., p. 392). The phrase κατὰ Θεόν has sometimes the simple sense of “godly,” “in a godly manner” (2 Corinthians 7:9-11). Hence it is held by some to mean nothing more here than created “divinely” (Hofm.) or “according to the will of God” (Abb.). But κατά is also used to express likeness (1 Kings 11:10; Hebrews 8:8; Galatians 4:28; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Peter 4:6). Here, therefore, it may mean “like God” or “after the image of God”. That this is the sense is confirmed by the use of κτισθέντα (which recalls Genesis 1:27), and by the fuller parallel statement in Colossians 3:10 : τὸν νεὸν, τὸν ἀνακαινούμενον εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν κατʼ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν. The clause, therefore, affirms a new creation of man, and describes that creation as being according to the image or likeness of God. It neither states nor suggests, however, that the image of God in which man was first created was lost and has been restored in Christ. What it does state is simply that this second creation, like the first, was in conformity with the Divine likeness or after the example of what God is. ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ὁσιότητι τῆς ἀληθείας : in righteousness and holiness of the truth. For τῆς ἀληθείας some few authorities give καὶ ἀληθείᾳ ([452] 1 [453], Cypr., Hil., etc.). This clause specifies the things in which the new man was created and in which the likeness between him and God consisted. ἐν, therefore denotes the quality or ethical condition in which the creation realised itself. δικαιοσύνη and ὀσιότης are coupled again in Luke 1:75 (cf. also Wis 9:3; Clem. Rom., First Corinthians, xlviii., 4). Plato distinguishes in two ways between the idea of δίκαιος and that of ὅσιος. He defines δίκαιος as the generic term and ὅσιος as the specific (Euthyp., p. 12 E); and he describes the former as having regard to our relations to men, the latter to our relations to God (Gorg., p. 507 B). The latter distinction is also given by other Greek writers (Polyb., xxiii., 10, 8, etc.). It is not easy, indeed, to say how far this distinction holds good in the NT. But both in profane and in biblical Greek the two words, adjective, adverb or noun, are often combined in one statement (e.g., Plato, Protag., 329 C; Theaet., 176 B; Rep., x., 615 B; Laws, ii., 663 B; Joseph., Antiq., viii., 9, 1; Luke 1:75; 1 Thessalonians 2:10; Titus 1:8). In many of these cases the distinction between integrity and piety is certain, and it is suitable to all. The NT also clearly distinguishes between δίκαιος and εὐλαβής (Luke 2:25). It may be said, therefore, that δικαιοσύνη and ὁσιότης are not used vaguely or interchangeably, but that, while both are of grace and both consequently have a new meaning Godward, the former expresses the right conduct of the Christian man more distinctively in its bearings on his fellow-men, and the latter the same conduct distinctively in its relation to God. τῆς ἀληθείας is not to be reduced to “true holiness” as in AV, but is to be taken as the gen. of origin and as qualifying both nouns. Further, ἀλήθεια with the article, contrasting with τῆς ἀπάτης of Ephesians 4:22, seems to be more than Truth in the abstract or a quasi-personification of Truth. It may mean “ the truth” par excellence, the evangelical message, the objective truth given in the Gospel (ἡ ἀλήθεια τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, Galatians 2:5; Galatians 2:14; or simply, as here, ἡ ἀλήθεια, John 8:32; John 8:40; John 17:19; Galatians 5:7; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 13:8, etc.). The creation of the new man in the Divine likeness realises itself, therefore, in something better than the ceremonial rectitude of the Jew or the self-contained virtue of the heathen in a righteousnes and a holiness born of the new truth contained in the Evangel.

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

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

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

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

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

[453] 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.