Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Ephesians 1:20

Ephesians 1:20. Which he wrought, or, ‘hath wrought.' Good authorities support the latter reading, which presents the matter as an accomplished fact with permanent results. ‘Which' necessarily refers to ‘working' (Ephesians 1:19).

In Christ; both as the first-fruits and as the Head of the Church.

In raising him from the dead. We retain the participial form of the original, since ‘when He raised' fails to give the exact force. It is a shallow exposition which regards ‘Christ's resurrection as merely a pledge of our bodily resurrection, or as a mere figure representing our spiritual resurrection not as involving the resurrection of the church in both senses' (Alford).

And making him sit. The participle is sustained by the best authorities, and ‘Him should also be inserted (not in italics, as E. V.). The usual reading has a finite verb here, thus disconnecting this clause from the preceding. The better reading binds them together as directing the same manifestation of power.

At his right hand in the heavenly places. These local designations are not to be spiritualized or made indefinite. Christ's present bodily existence is a reality; to explain this away is to adopt the most capricious method of interpretation. In some proper sense He is enthroned with the Father, and that throne is ‘in the heavenly places.' ‘His right hand' is the place of honor, of power, and of happiness, possessed and communicated (Eadie).

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Ephesians 1:20

Old Testament

New Testament