Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He blesses God because, through Christ, He has predestined us and heaped every grace upon us, and so has restored all things that are in heaven and on earth.
Secondly, in verse 11, he stirs up the Ephesians to praise God, inasmuch as He has by lot called them, before others, to this grace.
Thirdly, in verse 15, he gives thanks to God for the faith and charity of the Ephesians, praying that they may attain perfect wisdom in Christ — namely, that they may penetrate the greatness of their calling and the power of God by which He converted them to Christ, by which He raised Christ from death and exalted Him above all angels, and established Him as Head over the whole Church.
Vulgate Text: Ephesians 1:1-23
1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to all the saints who are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. 2. Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, 4. as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity. 5. Who predestined us unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the purpose of His will, 6. unto the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He has graced us in His beloved Son. 7. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins, according to the riches of His grace, 8. which has abounded in us in all wisdom and prudence: 9. that He might make known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him, 10. in the dispensation of the fullness of times, to restore all things in Christ that are in heaven and on earth in Him; 11. in whom we also are called by lot, predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. 12. That we may be unto the praise of His glory, we who before hoped in Christ: 13. in whom you also, when you had heard the word of truth (the Gospel of your salvation), in whom also believing you were signed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14. who is the pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of acquisition, unto the praise of His glory. 15. Wherefore I also, hearing of your faith that is in the Lord Jesus, and of your love toward all the saints, 16. cease not to give thanks for you, making remembrance of you in my prayers: 17. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: 18. the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19. and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of the might of His power, 20. which He wrought in Christ, raising Him from the dead, and setting Him at His right hand in heavenly places, 21. above all principality and power and virtue and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come. 22. And He has put all things under His feet, and has made Him head over all the Church, 23. which is His body, and the fullness of Him who is filled all in all.
Verse 1: To All the Saints Who Are at Ephesus, and to the Faithful in Christ Jesus
1. To all the saints, — that is, to all Christians, who are saints by calling, by baptism, and by debt and obligation: for being sanctified in baptism they have been called to live in holiness, and ought in their whole life and conversation to be holy, as I have said on Romans 1:7. Whence in explanation he adds:
And to the faithful in Christ Jesus, — that is, to those who believe in Christ. It is a Hebraism: for the Hebrew נאמן neeman is both a noun signifying "faithful" and a participle signifying "believing." Again, to believe in Christ and to believe Christ are the same, as I have said. Note here: the conjunction "and" is here explicative and means "that is," as also at Galatians 6:16 and Colossians 6:8.
Verse 3: Blessed Be God and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who Has Blessed Us With Every Spiritual Blessing
3. Blessed be God. — This passage, says Jerome, can be read in two ways: "Blessed be God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — so that it may be 'Blessed be God who is the maker of all things,' and there a distinction; then it is added, 'who is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Or thus, that 'God' and 'Father' are referred in common to our Lord: Blessed be the God of Him who was assumed, the man; and the Father of Him who in the beginning was with God, the Word. Not as though one man was assumed and another were the Word who assumed Him; but because one and the same is, according to the variety of causes, now preached as exalted, now as lowly." In a similar sense Christ says to Magdalene: "I ascend to My Father and your Father; My God and your God," John 20:17. And this second sense is plainer and flows more naturally. Hence the most correct copies place no mark of disjunction or comma between "God" and "Father."
Who has blessed us, — that is, who has done us good, copiously heaped upon us His goods and benefits. For God's speech is not courtly (for courtiers often promise golden things but in fact perform little), but simple, sincere, and efficacious: for God does and bestows more than He promises. Faithful and prudent men imitate the same.
With every blessing (that is, with every good, benefit, and gift, not earthly — such as honors, wealth, beauty, strength, pleasures: for Christ did not come to confer these upon us — but) spiritual, — namely faith, grace, the remission of sins, justice, friendship with God, the virtues, good works, by these destining us, and, if we persevere in them, electing us to eternal glory, that it may be said to us: "Come, you blessed, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," says Chrysostom; for this is the highest and final blessing. Whence he adds:
In heavenly things, — namely gifts, that is, in heavenly grace, heavenly life and conduct now, and afterwards heavenly glory. Secondly, St. Jerome takes "in heavenly things" to mean places and seats (for so it is taken in verse 20) which God has prepared for us and to which He destines us; "in" means "through" Christ, through the blood and merits of Christ — not through Simon Magus, who boasted himself to be the mediator and to be the power of God (Acts 8:10).
Hence it is clear that every grace, every disposition to justification, and the very beginning of faith are not only of God's grace but also (what some have wrongly denied of faith and the beginning of faith) come from the merits of Christ. For the Apostle says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ; therefore every spiritual good comes to us through Christ; but faith, and the grace which arouses us to believe, is a spiritual good, indeed the source and beginning of every good: therefore faith and the first grace and the beginning of faith itself come to us through the merits of Christ. So Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter 19.
Note that "blessing" signifies not only beneficence, good, and gift, but bounty, plenty, and abundance of goods and gifts, as I have said on 2 Cor. 9:6.
Again, for "in heavenly places," the Greek has ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις, in the super-heavenlies, which some refer to God, as if to say: God existing in the super-heavenly places, that is, in the heaven which is above all heavens, indeed existing above the empyrean heaven in those empty spaces which are beyond the heaven and the world, has blessed us. Secondly and better, as I said, it is referred to us, as if to say: God has blessed us in heavenly gifts or places, namely that through the heavenly goods of grace we may attain the heavenly places of glory.
Note thirdly: For "in Christ," Erasmus and Vatablus read in the Greek Χριστῷ, "Christ," as Vatablus says: God has blessed us with every supernatural gift, that we may at length have a place in heaven with Christ. But this reading, harsh and obscure as it is, is also false. Hence Chrysostom, Theophylact, Ambrose, Jerome, and very many others read ἐν Χριστῷ, "in Christ." Whence again you may see that the Greek copies of the New Testament are more doubtful, varied, and corrupted than the Latin.
Verse 4: As He Chose Us in Him Before the Foundation of the World
4. As He chose us in Him. — As if to say: God actually blessed, that is, did good to, us by giving us His graces and gifts, just as from eternity He predestined us to them and chose us in Him, that is, through Him, namely Christ and Christ's foreseen merits.
From this passage notable and weighty theologians contend that individual elect to glory have been chosen to it from the mere good pleasure of God: so that from eternity God, before any foreseen merits whether their own or even Christ's own, efficaciously elected to glory and salvation each one of those who shall be saved. Then He decreed to present them to Christ when He should be born, so that Christ might offer for them His passion and merits. Thirdly, with Christ now incarnate, God set before Him those individuals chosen by Himself from eternity, that Christ should offer His merits for them, by which He should obtain for them grace and all the means of salvation; and they say that Christ presently offered His merits to the Father for them. Hence, fourthly, each one received from Christ's merits the grace asked of and obtained from Christ, with which the elect themselves, by cooperating through their own merits, in fact attained glory: for they consider this to be the best order of providence, and it is most strongly proved from verse 11, where he thus says: "In whom we also have been called by lot, predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will."
Behold, they say, "in whom," namely Christ, "we have been called," because the call and actual grace are from the merits of Christ; but "we have been predestined according to the purpose and counsel of the will of God." Behold: he sets only the purpose of God as the cause of our predestination, therefore it has not been brought about from the merits of Christ.
But, omitting the question of one's own merits — which not a few other weighty theologians hold to have been foreseen and to be the cause of the election of individuals to glory, a matter to be treated elsewhere — as for the present passage and the question concerning Christ's merits, that view seems truer which other illustrious theologians teach: namely, that the predestination, election, and incarnation of Christ alone were effected without any merit, even of Christ Himself, from God's good pleasure alone, as St. Augustine teaches, On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter 15; but the predestination of other men — both insofar as it is predestination or predilection common to all, and insofar as it is the election of one over others, or with others passed over — is from the merits of Christ, on account of which it pleased God to predestine and elect them both to glory and to grace. For this is required by the merits, honor, and dignity of Christ, namely that He be the first of all the elect and predestined, through whom all the rest are elected and predestined.
This view is proved first because in verse 3 the Apostle said: "He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ," that is, through Christ; but a great, indeed the greatest, spiritual blessing is this predestination and efficacious election to glory: for what greater blessing could I desire from God than that I be elected to beatitude, and consequently most certainly to be endowed with this beatitude? Therefore this predestination and election was effected through Christ and Christ's merits and has fallen to our lot.
Secondly, if the election of each to glory is not from Christ's merits, then neither will the predestination of grace and of the means to attain it be from Christ's merits; but this is false, therefore so is the antecedent from which it follows. The conclusion of the major is proved: an efficacious intention of an end necessarily commands and draws forth the election of means necessary to that end; but here the end is glory, and the necessary means to it are grace, adoption, and merits: therefore if God, before any foreseen merits of Christ, efficaciously intends to glorify us, He also efficaciously intends to adopt us as sons, to give us grace and merits, by which we should attain the glory predestined for us. Just as one who intends to go to Rome thereby tacitly and confusedly intends to cross the Alps, because the crossing of the Alps is the way and necessary means by which he reaches the end, namely Rome: in the same way grace, justification, and merits are the necessary and connatural means to the end, that is, the attaining of glory; but the incarnation and merits of Christ are not, with respect to this end (our glory), a necessary and connatural means, but an arbitrary one from God's free will, who chose and instituted this means though He could have chosen and instituted many others. Therefore by the very fact that God intends to glorify us, He also intends to give us grace and justice as a per-se necessary means to glorification; but He does not by this very fact intend to give us grace and justice through Christ's merits, since He has not yet instituted and chosen them: therefore if before Christ's merits He predestined us to glory, He also before Christ's merits predestined us to grace, justice, and adoption. The minor is proved here at verse 5: "He predestined us, he says, unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ": therefore not only our adoption but also the predestination of our adoption was made through Christ; for when God elected us to glory, by this very fact He predestined and decreed to adopt us as sons unto Himself. Again, here he says: "He chose us in Him," namely Christ: therefore not only the execution of election, but our very election was made through Christ.
You will say: He chose us in Christ, not insofar as Christ is man, but insofar as He is God and Word and Wisdom of the Father.
On the contrary: In almost every verse they call Him "Jesus Christ"; but Jesus is a name not of the Word as He is God, but as incarnate, says St. Augustine; for it is the name imposed on this man, namely Christ, at His circumcision; therefore he speaks of Christ as man, not as God. Secondly, in verse 7 he says: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins": therefore it is clear that he is speaking of Christ as man, who shed His own blood for us. Thirdly, in verse 10 he teaches that God purposed to restore all things in Christ, namely by restoring fallen man (for through man He restored angels and all things); but this was done through Christ as man; for as man He was the mediator and redeemer of all. All of which further confirm the view we are here trying to prove: for if God purposed to restore us in Christ, then He also predestined and chose us in Christ; for predestination and election by God just is God's purpose of restoring us.
You will say secondly: "He chose us in Him," that is, to have faith in Him, or that He might incorporate us into Himself, that is, into Christ and Christ's Church.
On the contrary: The Apostle says nothing of faith or of incorporation: whence then do you here fetch and supply those things, when the Apostle's words taken in themselves and bare are plain? Secondly, that "in Christ" is the same as "through Christ and Christ's merits" is taught by Ambrose, Chrysostom, Photius, and many others; indeed, the Apostle thus explains himself in verses 5, 7, 10.
It is proved thirdly from chapter 3, verse 11, where the Apostle says that the "foreordination of the ages (that is, the predestination by which He predestined and pre-defined to save those whom He willed in any age whatever)" was made through Christ, that is, through Christ's foreseen merits. As to the argument sought from verse 11, I reply that the phrase "in whom," namely Christ, refers not only to "we were called" but also to "predestined," which follows. As if to say: Through Christ we have been called in time, just as from eternity through Christ we were predestined to this calling out of the counsel and good pleasure of God; for he clearly established this in vv. 3, 4, and following. Since the Apostle had so often repeated the name of Christ here, he did not wish to repeat what he had stated once at v. 11. Add to this that the Apostle is not speaking here of election and predestination immediately to glory (which is sufficiently established to come from the merits of Christ), but to grace. Hence he says: "Just as He chose us that we should be holy," that is, He chose us unto grace, justice, and holiness. This will be more evident at v. 5. See Canon 13.
Before the foundation of the world. — Πρὸ καταβολῆς τοῦ κόσμου, that is, as Jerome translates, before the foundations of the world were laid. He adds this against the Platonists, who say that God created all things not from nothing, but from matter coeternal with Himself and uncreated.
That we should be holy. — As if to say: He chose us, not that we should serve the belly and Venus, as the Epicureans do, but "that we should be holy," that is, pure, chaste, and unstained.
He here strikes first at the Platonists, whom Origen followed in teaching that souls existed before bodies and lived in heaven among the angels, and that those souls who had lived holy lives there were chosen by God to be sent down to earth into holy bodies, and there to become teachers of the sinful souls cast down from heaven into bodies similar to their own — as St. Jerome reports here. On the contrary, the Apostle says we were chosen, not because we were holy, but "that we might be holy."
Secondly, he strikes at the error of the Semipelagians, who taught that God chose for faith and grace those whom He foresaw would desire it, accept it, and use it well, and thus would be sanctified. Against them the Apostle teaches that God chose us not from foreseen holiness and use of grace, but "that we should be holy," so that we might use grace well and be sanctified. Hence in v. 11 he says we were predestined according to the good pleasure not of ourselves, but of God, and that we were called by God not from foreknowledge of future goodness, but by lot.
Again, thirdly, Chrysostom and Theophylact expound it thus: as if to say, God chose us on account of our virtue, that we might remain holy. For, they say, one is not chosen over another except him who is better. But I reply: this is true among men — for they choose those who are better for offices and dignities (and would that they always did so) — but it is not so with God. For God's election depends on grace and on His mere good pleasure, and God chooses a man not because he is better, but that he may become good and better. Secondly, the Apostle does not say "that we might remain," but "that we should be holy": he is therefore speaking of the first grace, and teaches that this is given purely and freely by God.
And unstained. — In Greek ἀμώμους, that is, blameless, beyond reproach; for μῶμος in Greek signifies reproach. Hence Momus is a god, says Hesiod, born of Night the mother and Sleep the father, who produces no work himself, but curiously examines the works of the other gods, and if he sees in them anything omitted or wrongly done, he carps at it with the greatest liberty. Hence a perfect work is said to be one in which Momus has nothing to censure, and which is irreproachable even with Momus as judge. So here it is said: "That we should be holy and unstained in His sight," as if to say: that we should be wholly holy and pure, so that not a man or Momus, but God Himself — whose judgment is most sincere and most exacting, and who penetrates all things said, done, and even thought, and the very depths of the heart — may discern in us no grave stain, blemish, or fault that He could censure.
From this it appears first, that in a just and holy man sins are not merely covered by Christ's imputed righteousness, but utterly removed, so that God cannot see them or find fault with them. Secondly, that concupiscence in a just man is not a sin that God can censure. Thirdly, that we ought to do all our works so holily, fully, and perfectly, mindful that we do them in the sight of God, that God, the inspector of them, may find nothing in them to judge and condemn.
In charity. — Adam refers this to "He chose," as if: He chose us in charity, that is, through charity, namely because He loved us. Secondly, Chrysostom and Theophylact refer it to what follows, "in charity, having predestined us" — προορίσας ἡμᾶς — in charity, that is, through the charity by which He loved us, He predestined us. Hence the Syriac translates: "Through charity He marked us beforehand for Himself." Thirdly, more plainly and easily, it refers to what immediately precedes, as if to say: God chose us that in holiness without stain or fault we might serve Him, not from fear of punishment but from charity and free love, "so that the love of God," as Ambrose says, "may make our manner of life holy." So also Anselm.
Verse 5: Who Predestined Us Unto the Adoption of Sons Through Jesus Christ
5. Who predestined us unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ in Him. — Note: It is the same thing, "He chose us that we should be holy," and "He predestined us unto the adoption of sons," for the Saints are God's adopted sons. Yet the Apostle repeats and impresses the same idea, both because he was full of the most sweet remembrance of God's so great love and election, and because this election and predestination of God, although one, involves many things: for through it God chose and predestined us to holiness, to His friendship, to His sonship, to His inheritance — for formally it is one thing to be holy, another to be God's friend, another to be a son of God. God could have chosen us to holiness and yet not willed to adopt us to Himself as sons, indeed not willed to elevate us to His friendship. For what man is there, however holy, who would think it owed to himself that God should enter into friendship with him, or cherish him, and deal and converse with him as friend with friend? It was therefore of God's clemency, grace, and liberality that through grace and charity at once and inseparably He willed to make us holy, and friends, and sons; and that He inseparably joined these three things to charity, namely justice (or holiness), friendship, and divine sonship.
Who predestined. — Note from St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, ch. 10: "Predestination is the preparation of grace by God," by which a rational creature is instructed, directed, and ordered so as to attain eternal life and inheritance. For this predestination is the free decree of God by which from eternity God decreed to call to Himself both angels and men fallen through Adam's lapse, and without any merits of their own to sanctify them and adopt them as His sons and heirs — that is, He decreed to call them and bring them to faith, grace, holiness, and every perfection, and at last to glory and eternal inheritance.
And this predestination is twofold. One is complete, of the Saints and Blessed: namely that whole series of God's providence in graces and all means, by which it was effected and brought about that those predestined by God should be called, the called justified, the justified should freely persevere in justice, and the persevering should finish their lives, and so be made blessed and glorified. Of this St. Augustine often speaks.
The other predestination is not complete but only begun, namely on God's part, by which God predestines all Christians to the grace of Christianity. If they are willing to persevere in it, to use Christ's grace, and to cooperate with it to the end, they will complete their predestination and attain the blessedness for which they were created and predestined.
Of this second predestination the Apostle speaks here. This is gathered first from the fact that he addresses this whole epistle to the Ephesians not as to those elect to glory and certainly to be beatified, but as to "the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus," as he himself says in v. 1. He therefore calls all the Christian Ephesians "predestined." Who would assert that not one of them was a reprobate or afterwards damned? Who would assert that the Apostle wished to make all the faithful Ephesians certain of their perseverance, salvation, and glory, and to reveal and publish that to all of them?
Secondly, from what he says of them in v. 5: "Who predestined us unto the adoption of sons, etc., in which He has favored us in His beloved Son"; and in v. 4: "As He chose us in Him that we should be holy and unstained in His sight in charity." Here you clearly see him speaking [of those] elected not to glory, but to grace and holiness, through which we are adopted as God's sons.
Thirdly, from the fact that in ch. iv, vv. 3 and following, he wills that the predestined not be secure or certain, but vigilant and solicitous, since their salvation is uncertain and doubtful, and since virtue and vice, perseverance and falling, salvation and damnation lie within their will — as St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches here in homily 2 on the moral [section]. See Canon 13.
Note that all the causes of predestination are noted here: first, the efficient, when he says, who, namely God, predestined; secondly, the meritorious, through Christ; thirdly, the material, us; fourthly, the exemplar, into Him, namely Christ, that we may be conformed to Christ as to head and exemplar — here by knowledge, love, and grace of God; in the future, by glory. So Anselm, Ambrose, St. Thomas, and learnedly Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, ch. 15. Secondly, it could be taken thus: "in Him," that is, into the glory of Christ — as if to say: Christ's glory is the end of our predestination. Thirdly, Erasmus and Adam read "in Him," that is, in Himself, as if to say: that God might lead us into Himself and make us one with Himself. But this is somewhat harsh, for sons are not one with the father, but joined to the father — not by identity of nature or person, but by sonship or adoption, as has been said.
Fifthly, he notes the formal cause, when he says: "According to the purpose of His will" — for this predestination is nothing other than the purpose, or free decree, of God's will. Sixthly, the final cause, when he says, "Unto the praise of the glory of His grace," that is, that the glory, splendor, and (as Ambrose reads) brightness of God's grace, or the glorious grace of God, may be praised — by which God appeared more wonderful in redeeming man than in creating him. Seventhly, the effects are: redemption, the remission of sins, and that "He glorified us," that is, made us pleasing and dear to Himself by giving us His grace, friendship, and charity.
According to the purpose (St. Jerome translates: "according to the good pleasure") of His will; — for in Greek it is εὐδοκία, by which name the Septuagint translates and explains the Hebrew רצון ratson, coining new words for new things, as Jerome says. He adds: "εὐδοκία is composed from εὖ and δοκεῖν, that is, from 'well' and 'to be pleasing,' which we may render 'good-pleasure'; for not everything that has pleased can also please rightly: εὐδοκία — 'good pleasure' — is said only where what has pleased is approved as rightly pleasing." So Jerome.
Note here: What the Apostle properly in v. 11 calls πρόθεσις ("purpose"), in v. 9 he calls εὐδοκία, that is "good pleasure," and in v. 11 again he calls βουλή, that is, "counsel" of the divine will. So "purpose," "good pleasure," and "counsel" of God are the same thing — namely, God's free decree by which He predestined (that is, determined and proposed) to call us to faith and the holiness of Christianity through Christ — which belongs not only to the elect but to all Christians.
Verse 6: In Which He Has Favored Us in His Beloved Son
6. In which (grace) He has favored us in His beloved Son. — The Greek ἐχαρίτωσεν Calvin renders "He held us pleasing," or "acceptable." From this he tries to establish his imputative justification, as if the Apostle were saying: We in ourselves are in fact sinners and therefore hateful to God, but in Christ — that is, covered with the righteousness of Christ imputed to us — we become pleasing and lovable in the eyes of God.
But I reply: ἐχαρίτωσεν does not mean "He held [us] pleasing," as Calvin would have it, but "He made [us] pleasing," and, as our [Vulgate] translator renders it, "hath made gracious to us," that is, by communicating and infusing His grace into us. So Chrysostom: "He has made us pleasing," he says, "that is, He has not only freed us from sins but has also made us beloved. For just as if someone, finding a man scabby, ravaged at once by pestilence, disease, old age, poverty, and famine, were soon to render him a handsome youth, surpassing all in beauty, casting forth a vehement splendor from his cheeks, and obscuring the very lightning-flashes of the eyes by the rebound of his own — and were then to set him in the very flower of his age, and clothe and adorn him besides with purple and every kind of finery: not otherwise does God render our soul wrought, beautiful, desirable, and beloved."
In His beloved Son. — As if to say: We have obtained this grace not by our own merits, but through the merits of the beloved Son of God, or through the love by which the Father loves the Son — to whom He willed us to be brothers, and to whom, asking and praying for us and for our grace and adoption into this His brotherhood, the Father granted and indulged all things.
Note: In Greek it is not "in His Son," but only τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ — "in the Beloved" — namely absolutely in all things, and above all, without whom no one else is loved, and who is the cause why all others are loved. So Jerome. Thus Christ, in Psalm 28:6 (to which perhaps the Apostle here alludes), is called "the beloved as the son of the unicorns," because as the foals or young of unicorns are very lovable and gracious, so also is Christ. Secondly, because Christ, as a most powerful monoceros, was caught only in the lap of the Blessed Virgin, as I said at Numbers 23:22, where it is said of Him: "Whose strength is like that of the rhinoceros, or monoceros" — for the Hebrew ראם reem signifies both rhinoceros and monoceros, that is, unicorn. Thirdly, because the unicorn has a forked horn in the likeness of a cross, says Justin Martyr, and it is small and strong: such is also the cross of Christ. Fourthly, the unicorn by the touch of its horn purifies waters from the venom of serpents: so Christ, by the touch of the Jordan, made the waters of baptism purifiers and expiators of sin. Fifthly, because Christ, like a unicorn, has His horn — that is, all His strength — in His head, that is, in His divinity, and in communion and union with God. Sixthly, just as when cedars are cast down by thunder, the foals of the unicorns appear and leap forth (which the Psalmist literally indicates in the cited Ps. 28:6), so allegorically Christ appeared to the world after the cedars — that is, pride, impiety, idolatry — were cast down by the force of the thunder of the Gospel; and then His beauty, comeliness, and grace shone forth. He therefore is the Father's Beloved, our beloved, our love, our desire, joy, exultation, rest, satiety, the salvation of our soul, so that with the bride in the Canticles we may say: "My beloved is like a roe and a young hart. My beloved is mine, and I am His, who feedeth among the lilies, till the day break, and the shadows decline."
Verse 7: In Whom We Have Redemption Through His Blood, the Remission of Sins
7. In whom we have redemption — not so much active redemption (for this we do not have, but Christ has), as passive, by which we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, as by a price, from the slavery of sin, death, and hell. Whence, explaining by epexegesis, he adds:
The remission of sins. — This redemption, then, is the remission of sins and our justification.
Verse 8: Which Has Superabounded in Us in All Wisdom and Prudence
8. Which (namely grace) has superabounded in us (has been abundantly poured out upon us by God) in (that is, together with) all wisdom and prudence, — as if to say: We have obtained true wisdom and prudence not through the schools of philosophers, but through the grace of Christianity.
Note: He understands by Christian and true prudence that which teaches us to live rightly, piously, and in a Christian manner, and which conforms our morals to Christ, to Christ's law and spirit, so that we may attain the blessed life — which Wisdom calls "the knowledge of the saints," and the angel to Zacharias calls "the prudence of the just" (Luke 1:17). In like manner he understands by "wisdom" the Christian wisdom, which is supreme — namely faith in God Triune and One and in the other divine mysteries by which we must be justified and saved; but most of all he understands the faith of Christ the Redeemer. Hence, explaining, he adds: "That He might make known to us the mystery which He purposed, to restore all things in Christ." This the Greek here also signifies more clearly and more connectedly; for it reads: ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει γνωρίσας ἡμῖν, etc. — "which (namely grace) He poured out abundantly upon us with all wisdom and prudence," or, as Vatablus translates, "of which He has copiously poured forth upon us all wisdom and prudence," making known to us, etc. For ἐπερίσσευσεν is not taken passively here, to mean "abounded," but actively, to mean "poured out abundantly," as Chrysostom and Theophylact note. And it is plain, because otherwise γνωρίσας which follows would have no subject, unless one understands the same subject as is understood in the verb ἐπερίσσευσεν taken actively, i.e. "caused to abound," namely God, making known to us the mystery, etc.
Note: He signifies the abundance of grace by "riches" and by "hath superabounded."
Verse 9: That He Might Make Known to Us the Mystery of His Will
That He might make known. — Our [Vulgate] reads γνωρίσαι; now they read γνωρίσας, that is, as Jerome, "making known"; or rather, "when He had made known," for it is the aorist of the participle.
The mystery of His will, — His sacred and hidden will. For "sacrament" here means the same as "secret" or "mystery," namely the deep and secret counsel and decree of God concerning the calling of the Gentiles equally with the Jews to salvation through Christ. For this had been hitherto unknown to the world, and the Jews thought that this salvation and the blessing of Abraham pertained to themselves alone; but now God has made it known that it extends also to the gentiles.
Which (namely sacrament) He purposed (determined, decreed to carry out, and to fulfill) in Him, — namely in His beloved Son, as he said in v. 6; for to Him all these things are referred, as is clear from the beginning of v. 7. As if to say: Not through Simon Magus (as he himself boasts), not through Plato, not through Pythagoras and the other philosophers who profess and falsely boast that they teach the true wisdom and the way to the blessed life; but through His beloved Son, our true mediator and only Redeemer, did God decree to fulfill His will concerning the redemption of Jews and Gentiles.
Note: τὸ αὐτῷ with the smooth breathing means "in him"; but with the rough breathing, as they now read, αὑτῷ, it means "in himself" — as if to say: In Himself God had purposed and decreed this sacrament. So Vatablus. Or, as the Syriac, God had purposed to carry out this hidden thing in Himself, that is, through Himself. But the former sense of our Interpreter is more in the mind and spirit of Paul, who here especially breathes nothing but Christ, and is more connected with vv. 6 and 7. So Theophylact, and many others.
St. Jerome here distinguishes "predestination" from "purpose": predestination is of a thing which long before its happening we determine in our mind to do; but purpose is of a thing close at hand, so that the effect almost follows the knowledge and the purpose. This is true among men, whose life is brief, and consequently whose purposes are short and narrow. Hence we commonly attribute predestination to God and purpose to men, so that God predestines and man purposes: but in God, purpose and predestination are the same; for every decree of God and every purpose is eternal and from eternity. This purpose, then, God brought forth from eternity, says Chrysostom, and consequently the most clement and best Father has brought forth us and our adoption from all eternity.
Verse 10: In the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times, to Restore All Things in Christ
10. In the dispensation of the fullness of times. — As if to say: When the times dispensed (that is, established, distributed, and ordained by Him) had been unrolled and fulfilled. Or it may be a hypallage: "in the dispensation of the fullness," i.e. in the fullness of the dispensation (or distribution) of times. So Anselm and St. Thomas. Secondly and better, as if to say: When the fullness of the times had been dispensed — that is, paid out, spent, and unrolled — namely the full and entire time which by God's ordination was to precede Christ. So he said Christ was sent "in the fullness of time," that is, with the time fulfilled which the Father from eternity had appointed for His incarnation, Gal. iv, 4.
To restore all things in Christ. — In Greek ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι, that is, "to recapitulate," as St. Jerome reads. As if to say: God purposed to unite all men and angels, who were greatly separated from one another — indeed enemies — and to recall and join them to one Head, Christ. For He gave Christ as Head over the whole Church, as he says in v. 22. And hence in ch. ii, v. 19, he infers: "Therefore you are no longer guests and strangers, but you are fellow-citizens of the saints and members of the household of God" — as if to say: Christ has called us back to the fellowship of the angels, that we may be their brothers and heavenly citizens in the same house of God, that is, the Church, under the same leader and head, who is Christ Himself. This is the genuine sense. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm, and indeed also St. Augustine, Enchiridion 62, who reads and explains our "to restore": "In Christ," he says, "those things in heaven are restored, when what fell from there in the angels is made up from men. Those things in earth are restored, when the men themselves who are predestined to eternal life are renewed from the old corruption." Christ therefore restores those things in heaven, when by men He restores and fills up the seats of glory left vacant by the demons' fall and the number of angels diminished by the same fall — when, as St. Gregory says (Moralia bk. 31, ch. 35), "here the humble men return whence the apostate angels by pride fell." And so He recalls men and angels to one house, namely the Church, and to one head. For this house of the Church had been disjoined and divided through Adam's sin, and (as Chrysostom says) with one wall — namely the society of the angels — whole and perfect, the other wall, namely we men, had collapsed from the Church and the society of the angels into the society and yoke of the demon. Christ then restored this wall of the house — that is, us men — to the Church, and so restored the whole house, namely the Church of angels and of men, that already from both there is one whole house (as it was before Adam's fall) and perfect, bound, fastened, and united to Himself as to head and corner-stone. For this is what the Greek ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι means, that is, to recapitulate.
"So when God has deigned us with so great a gift, so great an honor, so great a kindness," says Chrysostom, "let us not disgrace our benefactor, let us not render so great a grace empty: an angelic life, plainly an angelic life, virtue and conduct — I beg and beseech — let us display."
Secondly, ἀνακεφαλαίωσις, that is "recapitulation," Jerome says, is what orators call it, when in the epilogue those things that have been said scattered and at length throughout the whole speech are summarily repeated, and at the same time recalled to the memory of the judge. The Hebrews too call the sum of a thing the "head" of the thing, as is clear from Num. i, 2; and so it is said of Christ, Heb. x, 7: "In the head (that is, in the sum) of the book (of Holy Scripture) it is written of me." Thus then Christ was the head and recapitulation of all the works of God, visible and invisible: for all things foreshadowed Christ's coming, or were and are directed to Him, and Christ alone embraces in Himself all their gifts, graces, and perfections — so that, if you look upon Christ, there is no need for you to search and recall any of the ancient Fathers, or any deed, or any work of God; for Christ shows them all to you. As if to say: Whatever was done of old in heaven and on earth, whatever are in them or were (for in the Greek there is no "are," but only "the things in heaven and the things in earth," supply "are or were"), whatever in Moses, Joshua, Abraham, David, and all the ancient histories, kings, Prophets, Patriarchs is excellent and worthy of praise; whatever of grace, whatever of virtue, whatever was nobly said, whatever heroically done; if anything in the Law is memorable, if anything in Solomon's temple is splendid, if anything in the sacrifices is pleasing to God; nay, if anything among the heavenly spirits is holy, glorious, illustrious: we have it in Christ in far more excellent and shorter compendium. So Jerome, Chrysostom, and Theophylact: "For Christ," says Theophylact, "is the word that consummates and abbreviates in justice." This sense is sublime and well answers both the Greek ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι, and the spirit, sense, and love of St. Paul toward Christ.
Thirdly, Irenaeus (bk. III, ch. viii) teaches that in Christ all things are recapitulated, because in human nature all things and all species and grades of things are contained as in a sum. Hence man is called a microcosm, and consequently when the divine Word assumed human nature, then He as it were joined all things, reduced to a sum, to Himself, and recalled them back to Himself as to author and first origin — namely, to the Word by which they were created. So Christ by His incarnation brought great dignity to all things and as it were deified them all. This sense is symbolic. The first sense is most properly literal: for Paul is treating of the restoration of fallen man and the Church. Hence he adds: "In whom also we have been called by lot."
In Him — is redundant, in Hebrew fashion; whence Ambrose, Jerome, and Chrysostom do not read it here. For the Hebrews repeat the pronoun with its antecedent. So here "in Him" is the same as "in Christ," as he said a little before. To such an extent could Paul not be sated with the name of Christ that he named Him, so to speak, superfluously, and often in single verses. Hence in these small and few fourteen epistles of his he repeats the name "Jesus" two hundred and nineteen times, and the name "Christ" four hundred and one times.
Verse 11: In Whom We Also Are Called by Lot, Predestined According to the Purpose of Him Who Works All Things
11. In whom, — ἐν ᾧ may be referred to ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι, so that "in whom" means "to which," namely "to recapitulate," we have been called — that is, that we may be recapitulated and restored, and recalled to Christ as our head. Secondly, and more plainly, you may refer it to what immediately precedes, "in Him" — namely Christ — "in whom," that is, through whom, we have been called, supplying: to the restoration, recapitulation, and union with Christ in Christianity already mentioned.
We have been called by lot. — Chrysostom and Theophylact explain it thus, as though God by His prudent counsel had called us to this lot, because before He called us He had already foreseen us as worthy of that lot. But this is not to be called by lot but by merit; and to say this of the calling to the first grace is Pelagian. Yet Chrysostom is to be excused, since he speaks not of the calling to the first grace and faith, but to justice: for the Apostle treated of this in vv. 4, 5, 7. And of this it is true to say that God calls no one to justice and His friendship except him whom He has foreseen to prepare himself for it by acts of faith, hope, penitence, etc., and to make himself worthy — that is, fit. But this is not to the mind of the Apostle: for the Apostle is speaking of the first calling to faith and Christianity. To this we were called by lot — and as the Greek has it, ἐκληρώθημεν, that is, "we have obtained by lot," i.e. we have been called without merit. For it is a metaphor from gamblers who by the throw of dice obtain a profit or some other thing by lot. So God is here introduced as though He had said: Let all men cast lot, and let it be decided by lot and the throw of dice who are to be called to faith and salvation and who are not to be called but neglected; and the die having been cast over all, this lot and die fell upon us Ephesians, that we might be called — so that on our part it was lot and chance to be called to faith, grace, baptism, and Christianity. For we did nothing to be called, nor even thought of the calling; nay, some of us fled it and resisted. Yet on God's part it was not lot but election and a determined purpose to call us, as follows. So Anselm, St. Thomas, and the Latins generally with St. Augustine on Psalm 34, where he says: "By lot, that is, by grace: for where there is lot, there is not election but the will of God; for where it is said, This man did this, that man did not, merits are considered; and where merits are considered there is election, not lot. But when God finds no merits, by the lot of His will He has saved us, because He willed, not because we were worthy: this is the lot."
Hence it appears that the whole of predestination, and its first effect, namely the calling, depend not on the good use of free will, but on the mere will of God; yet, having received this first effect, the rest that follow from it we can merit, namely justification by congruity, glorification by condignity.
Secondly, ἐκληρώθημεν — "we have been allotted" — may be taken with Ambrose and Jerome thus, as if to say: We have been admitted into the lot of the sons, and to the share of God's inheritance. For from this an inheritance is called a hereditary lot, because it was once divided among heirs by lot, as the Holy Land was divided by lot among the twelve tribes of Israel (Joshua 15); and perhaps Paul here alludes to that lot of Israel. Thus in Col. i, 12, he says we have been called "into the share of the lot of the saints," that is, to a hereditary share, or to the inheritance of the saints.
According to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. — From this it is clear, that the lot already mentioned, that is, the calling to faith and grace, though it is to us a fortuitous and unmerited lot, nevertheless in God proceeds from a purpose and decree which is not chance but prudent — and so from a divine counsel which was held about this matter in the consistory of the Most Holy Trinity. For God had most just reasons, though often unknown to us, for calling these and not those. For example: why He first called the Jews before other Gentiles — the reason was that Christ had been promised properly and first to them; why He next in the second place called the Samaritans, Palestinians, Syrians — the reason was that these were nearest neighbors to the Jews and on the Jews' side were brothers; why thirdly, the Apostles' preaching gradually creeping forward, Paul in Greece preached to the Ephesians, Corinthians, Philippians, and called them to the faith of Christ rather than the Megarians, Thebans, Lacedaemonians — the reason seems to be that Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi were chief cities, and at that age the most flourishing both in wealth and in number of men. So Paul went there because he hoped for a greater harvest and fruit of his preaching among them. Hence in 1 Cor. xvi, 8, Paul himself gives this reason: "I will remain at Ephesus," he says, "until Pentecost, for a door great and evident has been opened to me."
Likewise, why the Romans were called first before the other Westerners — the reason was that Rome was the head of the world. So St. Peter went there at once, and afterwards Paul converted them, that with Rome as it were the head being converted, the faith might most easily be propagated throughout the whole world; and, as St. Leo says (Sermon 1 On the Nativity of the Apostles Peter and Paul), "that the light of truth, which was being revealed for the salvation of all nations, might more efficaciously pour itself from the head itself through the whole world" — as we most clearly see it done when Constantine and the Roman Emperors were converted. For at Rome there were men of all nations, so that whatever Rome heard and learned, all the nations heard and learned. In like manner, why the Italians were called before the Germans, English, and French — the reason is that they were nearer to Rome, from which the Pontiff residing there sent the heralds of the Gospel first to the nearest cities and peoples, so that they might gradually creep further into others and others, and at last to us, and finally to the most remote in Norway, Iceland, and Muscovy, and propagate the faith. For so the human head first conveys sense and motion into the neck nearest to it, then into the chest, thirdly into the thighs, and then into the feet; for this is the natural and most convenient order.
These reasons are known to us and probable; but in these and in other more particular callings — both of nations and cities and of individual men, for example why He called Magdalene in so illustrious a manner over other harlots, why Paul over other Jewish persecutors — God has many other and more sublime reasons, intentions, and ends unknown to us, according to the counsel of His will, as the Apostle says. And in these we must say that of Rom. xi: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
Verse 12: That We May Be Unto the Praise of His Glory, We Who Before Hoped in Christ
12. That we may be unto the praise of His glory, — that through us the glory of God and His glorious mercy may be praised and celebrated; that we may be for the praise and glory of God, that we may praise and glorify God, marveling at His glorious clemency toward us and proclaiming it everywhere.
We who have hoped before in Christ. — Firstly, St. Jerome refers this to divine foreknowledge, in which before the foundation of the world God foreknew that we would believe and hope in Christ. Secondly, Theophylact explains it thus: We hope in Christ for the good things that will fall to us in the world to come; we hope, I say, now, before we attain that world and those things. Thirdly, and genuinely: "We," namely the Apostles and the Jews, who believed before the other Gentiles and by believing hoped for the goods promised by Christ (for by metalepsis he understands faith under "hope," that is, by "we hoped" he means "we believed") — as if to say: We Jews, to whom Christ was previously promised by the Prophets and has now been shown forth and evangelized before the other Gentiles, and among whom the Church began, and through whom it is propagated, are the first through whom the glory of God, the glory of Christ's Gospel, is praised and celebrated. So Ambrose, Anselm, and Tertullian (bk. v, Against Marcion). This sense is clear from the antithesis of the following verse.
Verse 13: In Whom You Also, When You Had Heard the Word of Truth, Were Sealed With the Holy Spirit of Promise
13. In whom (supply: in Christ, you have hoped) also you, — O Gentile Ephesians, just as we Jews before you hoped in Him. Secondly, and rather, refer it to v. 11: "In whom," that is, through whom, you, O Ephesians, [supply] have been called by lot, that you may be unto the praise of His glory; just as we Jews, who believed and hoped in Christ before you, were through Him called by lot to this faith and hope.
After you had heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation. — The Greek τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας, τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον τῆς σωτηρίας — that is, as the Syriac, "the word of truth, which is the Gospel of salvation" — as if to say: Those who teach Simon Magus, who teach Plato, who teach the ancient poets and philosophers, falsely promise truth; for only the Gospel teaches the truth and the true way to salvation; only the Gospel is the true message, the true doctrine of salvation and of truth.
In whom also believing you were sealed. — In Greek πιστεύσαντες, that is, "after you believed"; this seal of the Spirit, therefore, is not faith itself, but follows upon faith.
You were sealed, — ἐσφραγίσθητε, that is, you have been sealed, you have been marked by a seal: for just as by the impression of a seal the letters of a king and public records are sealed, that the authentic may be distinguished from the doubtful, and the genuine from the false, and that it may be certain that these are the letters and records of the king — so you Christian Ephesians, as it were "the epistle of Christ, written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on the fleshly tablets of the heart," are signed, that is, sealed, with the Holy Spirit as with a seal, that it may be evident that you are not a feigned but an authentic letter of Christ; that you are truly the faithful enrolled by God, truly the people and Church of the true and most high God. You will say: Therefore from this seal the faithful are absolutely certain that they are in true faith and grace. I reply: I deny the consequence, because just as this seal is not for them physically and absolutely certain and evident (for who knows with certainty, who would dare swear that he has been sealed with the Holy Spirit as with a seal?), but only probable, and consequently morally as it were certain from signs and conjectures: so likewise it is not for them certain and clear that they are in true faith and the grace of God. See what was said on Rom. 8:16.
By the Spirit of promise, — as if to say: You have been sealed not with a bodily sign, such as circumcision, as if you were cattle (says Chrysostom), as the Jews were sealed; but as Christians and rational sons you have been sealed "with the spirit of promise," that is, with the promised Spirit, which God promised through the Prophets, as through Ezekiel 36:26: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit;" through Joel chapter 2, verse 28, and others. This Spirit promised by God is charity, justice, peace and joy of conscience, which you received in baptism after you believed; and which you now experience and show forth in the conversion of your behavior and in the holiness and innocence of Christian life. Some understand it thus: "you have been sealed with the Spirit," that is, with the gifts of the Holy Spirit — tongues, prophecy and similar visible gifts which were once given at baptism. But these were not given to all, just as now they are given to none; indeed it is uncertain whether the Ephesians at that time received them, for these visible gifts were given only briefly and only in the first beginnings of the Church.
Holy. — Hence Didymus, in his book On the Holy Spirit, proves that the Holy Spirit is good and holy not by participation in another, but by His own nature, and consequently is God; because, no doubt, in the seal by which the character of goodness and holiness is impressed, the Spirit is the archetype of goodness and holiness, so that whoever is sealed with the Holy Spirit takes on the form and likeness of His holiness. Note here: just as an image impressed in wax reproduces and is plainly conformed to its seal which imprints that image, so the holiness expressed in our soul by the Holy Spirit is conformed to Him as to the impressing seal and as to the archetype of holiness, and plainly expresses and represents the holiness of the Holy Spirit. How great therefore is the dignity of our soul! How greatly must holiness here be guarded and preserved!
Verse 14: Who Is the Pledge of Our Inheritance, Unto the Redemption of the Acquisition
14. Who is the pledge of our inheritance. — As if to say: You have been sealed with the Holy Spirit as with a seal, not only that the tablets of your faith may stand as true, inscribed on your heart by the true God, but also that He may seal the tablets of your hope, so that from this seal, as it were, you may have certain hope and right to the future inheritance: hence this Spirit is both seal and also pledge of the heavenly inheritance.
Note: For "pledge" the Greek is ἀρραβών, that is, earnest-money (arrha); for, as St. Jerome and Chrysostom teach, and Bede following Augustine, the Spirit here is better called earnest than pledge: because a pledge is given in a loan and, the debt being paid, is reclaimed and taken back; but earnest-money is given in a contract of seller and buyer, that the contract may be firm; it is given, I say, as an anticipated portion of the future full payment. So this Spirit is given as a portion and foretaste of our future inheritance and happiness. Others add that the Holy Spirit is a pledge as regards faith and hope, for these gifts will fail and in heaven will pass into the vision and possession of God; but He is called earnest as regards charity, which never falls away but will remain and be perfected in beatitude. If so great and so sweet is the earnest which God here bestows upon His own, how great will be the inheritance itself which He will at His time bestow!
Unto the redemption of the acquisition, — that is, that the acquisition itself may be perfectly redeemed and vindicated into perfect liberty; namely, that when we shall behold and enter upon the inheritance just mentioned, we may be freed from every evil, temptation, disease, death and hardship — we, who are the acquisition, that is, the acquired possession of God and of Christ.
Note first: "Redemption" here can be taken both actively, by which the Holy Spirit and Christ redeem us, and passively, by which we are redeemed: for the latter is the term of the former.
Note secondly: Our redemption is twofold. The first, inchoate, by which we are here redeemed from the servitude of sin and asserted into the liberty of the grace of the sons of God. The second, complete in heaven, by which, freed from all concupiscence, punishment and misery, we shall be asserted into the liberty of the glory of the Blessed. The Apostle here means this second redemption: for this is what the preposition "in" signifies, as if to say: The Holy Spirit is the pledge of inheritance "in," that is, unto, the obtaining of perfect redemption.
Note thirdly: For "of the acquisition" the Greek is περιποιήσεως, which some translate as "of vindication, of assertion;" better, our Vulgate, Theophylact, Photius, and indeed Vatablus, Budaeus and Erasmus, render it "of acquisition." For περιποιεῖσθαι signifies not merely to assert but to procure and to acquire, as all the Greeks confess. Now "acquisition" here is called the acquired possession, substance, peculiar property — namely, the Christian people whom Christ acquired for Himself and for God by so many labors, sorrows, tears, indeed by His blood and death.
Verse 15: I, Hearing of Your Faith and of Your Love Toward All the Saints
15. I, hearing of your love (which, namely, you show) toward all the saints, — that is, the Christians. I cease not giving thanks. — A Greek idiom; for "I cease not to give thanks," as Jerome reads it.
Verse 17: That the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, May Give You the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation
17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, — that is, God the Father, who is God both of all men and of Christ according to His human nature; so that we all may glory that we have the same God as Father in common with Christ as man.
Father of glory. — Adam and others think there is a hyperbaton, so that the genitive "of glory" belongs not to "Father," but to "God," and so they read, intercepting with a parenthesis along with the Plantin Bibles: "that the God (the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ) of glory," as if to say: That the God of glory, that is, the glorious God, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may give you, etc. But this reading is too tangled and obscure and is repugnant both to the Greek and to the Roman texts: for the Greek has thus, ἵνα ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὁ Πατὴρ τῆς δόξης, that is, as the Roman text distinguishes, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory;" and so St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm and others read and punctuate.
You will ask: How is God called "Father of glory?" Anselm answers that He is the "Father of glory," that is, of Christ, who is the glory of the Father. So also Nazianzen, in Theophylact, takes "glory" to mean the divinity of the Son, so that the eternal Father is called God with respect to the humanity of Christ, but Father with respect to His divinity. But this seems more obscure and far-fetched.
I therefore say: Father, that is, the author of all glory and of our glorious redemption through Christ; for among the Hebrews "father" signifies an author and efficient cause, and is attributed to God with respect to inanimate creatures. So it is said in Job 38:28: "Who is the father of the rain?" i.e. its producer. So the Apostle calls God the "father," i.e. author, "of mercies." Thus Theophylact: "He is called Father of glory," he says, "because He has given us great, renowned and illustrious goods."
Here note: it is one thing to be "God of glory," as Stephen calls God in Acts 7:2, or "Lord of glory," as the Apostle calls Him in 1 Cor. ch. 2, v. 8, or "King of glory," as David calls Him in Ps. 23:7; but it is another thing to be "Father of glory." God is called "Lord" or "King of glory," that is, most glorious, full of glory and majesty, as if to say: Royal, lordly, divine is the glory; for just as we call a king "royal majesty" or "majesty," so God is called divine glory and majesty, that is, glorious and august divinity; therefore "glorious glory" is the same as "glorious majesty"; for the very majesty and divinity is the origin and foundation of glory: but glory emanates from and results from majesty and divinity as a ray from the sun. For this glory is the brightness and renown of God and of the divine name, by which God is worthy to be praised, celebrated and glorified by angels, men and all creatures, on account of His immense wisdom, power, holiness and majesty; for just as a general of war by his fortitude and illustrious victories acquires for himself the name and glory of an outstanding leader, so God, on account of His natural perfection and excellence, has in Himself an immense glory, on account of which He is worthy and must be glorified by all. Hence in the Old Testament God showed Himself to be beheld by Moses and the Jews through a mighty light, and Moses and the Hebrews are said to have seen the glory of the Lord, that is, a body marvelously bright, which by its light represented the glory of the Lord, that is, the glorious God; and by the Psalmist God is called "clothed with light as with a garment:" for light and rays are a symbol of brightness and glory; whence we depict the Saints as if blessed and glorious with rays.
But God is called "Father of glory" because the immense glory which He has in Himself as Lord, King, fount and origin of glory, He has communicated and continues to communicate to creatures: namely, when He brought forth the heavens, the sun, the elements, men, angels and other excellent and glorious creatures; when (which here properly concerns the Apostle) He gloriously redeemed us through Christ and triumphed over the devil, death and sin from hell; when He conferred, instituted and accomplished the glorious grace, Sacraments and miracles, partly through Christ, partly through the Apostles (whence in 2 Cor. 3:8 he teaches that the Apostolate of the New Testament is a ministry of glory), by which we are directed to eternal beatitude and to the glory of the heavenly kingdom: for this is properly the meaning of the present passage. The Apostle therefore calls God "Father of glory" on account of the glorious faith, wisdom, knowledge, hope and grace of the New Testament shown forth through Christ to the Ephesians and to other Christians. Hence in explanation he adds:
17. That the Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart enlightened. — As if to say: I pray that God, the Father and Author of glorious wisdom, faith, hope and heavenly glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, which, namely, may inspire you and reveal to you this His hidden glory and wisdom; "in the knowledge of Him," that is, that you may acknowledge Him to be the Father of the aforesaid glory; "enlightened," I say, says Ambrose, "the eyes of your heart" He gives you, that being illumined by His light you may acknowledge Him to be such, as I said.
He censures Simon Magus, who introduced a certain unknown God and Father, as Epiphanius testifies in heresy 27, as if to say: So far is our God and Father from being unknown — He does not conceal Himself, does not hide Himself, but is the Father of glory and brightness, as being uncreated glory and brightness itself, which everywhere diffuses knowledge and brightness of Himself; I therefore pray Him to enlighten you, O Ephesians, with a clear knowledge of Himself, that you may clearly acknowledge Him.
In the knowledge. — St. Jerome must be read here cautiously, who distinguishes ἐπίγνωσις, that is "recognition," by which we acknowledge what was once known but which we now have ceased to know — or by which we recall things once known — from γνῶσις, that is "knowledge," by which we begin to know what was previously unknown: For, he says, certain persons so understand it, that souls once knew the Father in heaven, but, thrust down into bodies, again through the revelation of the Spirit have begun to recall Him and finally to acknowledge Him.
But this is the error of Origen, and Jerome says this from Origen's opinion, not from his own. Note here: Jerome in his Commentaries is wont to transcribe much from others, whence he is accustomed in his preface to name and put forward in advance those whom he is going to follow: as in the preface of this letter he names Origen and his commentary on this epistle. So he himself excuses himself in his Apology Against Rufinus. I therefore say: Here "recognition" is the same as first knowledge, or certainly "recognition" is that by which the Gentiles and Philosophers, who previously in heathenism knew God the Father obscurely, confusedly and in a tangled way, have now through the Gospel begun to acknowledge Him fully, clearly, distinctly and explicitly as the author of grace and glory.
Verse 18: That You May Know What Is the Hope of His Calling and the Riches of the Glory of His Inheritance
18. That you may know what is the hope of His calling, — that is, what and how great are the goods you ought to hope for from the calling by which He called you to Christianity, that is, from Christianity itself to which you have been called by God.
What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, — that is, how rich, copious and abundant is the "glory of the inheritance," that is, the "inheritance of glory" (for it is a hypallage) which God has promised and confers on the saints, that is, on Christians who live in a Christian and holy manner according to Christ's doctrine and law.
Verse 19: And What Is the Supereminent Greatness of His Power Toward Us Who Believe
19. And what is the supereminent greatness of His power toward us who believe, — τὸ ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος, that is, as Jerome renders it, "sublime greatness;" Ambrose, "lofty greatness" of "power," Greek δυνάμεως, that is, of might, "of His toward us," as if to say: That you may know how great a power God has shown in our conversion from heathenism to Christianity, by which He has made us from idolaters worshippers of the true God; from drunkards, sober; from lustful, chaste; from proud, humble; from wolves, sheep; from wrathful, meek; from barbarous, courteous and humane; so that He has taken away from us the barbarous, carnal, fierce heart, and in its place has given us a Christian, spiritual, humane, indeed angelic and divine heart and mind. The Indians and Japanese still marvel at this power and powerful transformation of themselves when they are converted from idols to Christ, and from it they acknowledge the truth of the faith and the power of the grace of Christ.
According to the working of the might of His power, — κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ, that is, according to the energy, that is, the efficacy and force, of the might of His strength.
Verse 20: Which He Wrought in Christ, Raising Him From the Dead and Setting Him at His Right Hand
20. Which He has wrought (Greek ἐνήργησεν, that is, by energy powerfully and efficaciously wrought, or, as Tertullian translates it, "inwrought") in Christ, raising Him from the dead. — As if to say: That power, might and energy of God by which He has raised us up from idolatry, sins, death and hell is like that which God showed in Christ when He raised Him from death and exalted Him to His right hand; for, as St. Thomas teaches from St. Augustine and Chrysostom, I-II, Question 113, art. 9, it is more difficult, and a matter of greater power, to justify a sinner than to create heaven and earth: because sin and grace are more contrary than something and nothing, and sin and the sinner are far more distant from and contrary to God than is nothing; for they are two extremes most highly and immeasurably distant and contrary, namely God and sin. Lastly, grace and justice are of the supernatural and divine order, so that the highest power is required that the sinner, depressed by sin and cast down beneath all creatures, may be raised above all and rise up to justice, and become a friend of God, a son, and a sharer of the divine nature.
And setting Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. — Greek ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ αὐτοῦ, that is, He made Him sit at the right, that is, at His right hand. So Jerome. Of this sitting I shall speak on Col. 3:1.
Verse 21: Above All Principality and Power and Virtue and Dominion, and Every Name That Is Named
21. Above all principality and power and virtue and dominion. — Adam thinks that the Apostle here does not enumerate orders of angels, but only teaches against the Gnostics that Christ has been raised above all however much they are princes, powerful, dominant, and above all things however powerful and eminent. But St. Dionysius, the disciple of St. Paul, Jerome, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and the Fathers and Scholastics throughout, from this passage and from Col. 1:16, take and distinguish four choirs of angels: indeed, hence the Church places among the nine choirs of angels Principalities, Powers, Virtues and Dominions: for they cannot be gathered from elsewhere.
Note: in Col. 1:16 the Apostle enumerates these angelic orders in a different order; for descending he speaks thus: "Whether Thrones, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers." Whence St. Gregory, St. Thomas and other Latins think that the Virtues are inferior to the Powers, and that the Virtues are the first in the third hierarchy. Again they place the Principalities in the middle in the second, so that it consists of Dominations, Principalities and Powers; while the third consists of Virtues, Archangels and Angels. Against this, St. Dionysius places the Virtues immediately under the Dominations and puts them in the middle in the second hierarchy, so that it consists of Dominations, Virtues, Powers. In the third he places first the Principalities, second the Archangels, third the Angels. The present passage favors this opinion, and so does St. Dionysius, who in Celestial Hierarchy chapter 6 says he received these things from his master, namely Hierotheus, or surely from Paul, who, caught up into the third heaven, heard these things there — indeed beheld them.
Note secondly: For "virtue" the Greek is not ἀρετή but δύναμις, that is, power, strength, fortitude. Again, for "dominion" the Greek is κυριότης, that is, lordship, or authority, and the right of a master over a servant or over his own property.
Note thirdly, that these abstract terms are taken for the concrete: "Principalities," that is princes; "Powers," that is those endowed with power; "Virtues," that is the strong, the mighty; "Dominions," that is those who rule: for they are names of angels. See Canon 21.
And every name, — that is, everything that is named and celebrated: for so the Hebrews call אנשי השם ansche hasschem, "men of name," that is, the renowned. He glances at the names of the gods which the Gnostics and the Poets — Hesiod, Orpheus and other theologians of the Gentiles — invented, who told marvelous fables about heavenly things. He also glances at the thirty Aeons of Valentinus, which were merely portents of names and insane crimes rather than divinities, whom D. Pamelius describes in Tertullian, at the beginning of the book Against the Valentinians; Valentinus seems to have taken these thirty from Plato, who in the Timaeus said that the world was made from the cube of three, which is twenty-seven: for three times three make nine, and three times nine make twenty-seven; because in this number all harmony and consonance consists. For Valentinus invented about as many Aeons, namely thirty. To all these the Apostle opposes and prefers the name of Christ.
Which is named not only in this world, but also in that to come. — From this we learn, says Theophylact, that certain names, grades and distinctions of angels and heavenly spirits are unknown to us here, which will be revealed in heaven.
Verse 22: And He Has Put All Things Under His Feet, and Has Made Him Head Over All the Church
22. He has subjected all things under His feet. — Hence it is plain that the angels are subjected to Christ as man, and that Christ, as He is man, is King and Lord of heaven and earth, of men and of angels. So Chrysostom and Theophylact.
And Him He gave as head over all the Church. — The Greek ὑπὲρ πάντα τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, "above all things to the Church," that is, He gave Christ as head of the Church, who is presiding and ruling above all things visible and invisible. So Jerome, Chrysostom and Theophylact, whence the Syriac translates: "He who is head of the angels" only in this respect, that He stands out above them and is their superior.
They prove first, because Scripture and the Fathers teach that Christ was born and suffered for the sake of men, not for the sake of angels. But it could be answered that Christ came primarily to repair fallen men by His cross and death, and so He would not have died, indeed would not have been born, if Adam had not sinned, whom He was to redeem by His death: yet, granted that Christ was to come for man, God willed that His merits should extend also to the angels: for this takes nothing away from God's mercy to fallen men, and it most befitted Christ, hypostatically united to God, who was king and head both of angels and of men. And so it could be answered to the passage of the Apostle in Hebr. 2:11: "He who sanctifies," namely Christ, "and they who are sanctified," namely from sin, that is fallen men (for of these he is treating: for the word "for" gives the reason why, as he said in the preceding verse, on account of these Christ had to be consummated, that is, to die on the cross), "of one," namely Adam, "all" were begotten. Hence it does not follow: The angels were not begotten from Adam: therefore they have not been sanctified, that is, did not receive their first grace from Christ.
Tropologically, see Chrysostom, homily 3 in his moral exposition, how through Christ men have been exalted above all the angels, and how shameful it is, when they are members of Christ, to subject themselves to the belly, to anger, to the demon; and how worthily they ought to prepare themselves for holy communion, so as to be united to the body of Christ thus exalted.
The Apostle here enumerates four orders of angels.
It is proved that Christ is head of the angels, because Christ as man is head of the angels, since as man He presides over and rules the angels. Secondly, because, as many hold, Christ as man merited grace and glory for the angels: for St. Thomas, Albertus, Ruardus, Arboreus and others whom Suarez cites and follows, III part, disp. 42, sect. 1, Gregory of Valentia and others teach probably that Christ is the cause of grace not only for men but also for angels, and that threefold, namely final, exemplary and meritorious; and consequently the angels, through faith in Christ, that is in Christ as Mediator, were sanctified and obtained glory: while those who proudly envied Christ as man this dignity of mediator and wished to arrogate it to themselves, became demons, and that this was the sin of Lucifer, namely that he aspired after the office of Christ the Mediator: for Lucifer could not desire divinity for himself; for this he knew could not happen, indeed involves a contradiction, namely that the creature should be transformed into the Creator, that Lucifer should be transformed into God.
They prove this opinion from this passage: "He gave Him," he says, "as head over all the Church;" for the head flows into its members; whence he adds: "Which," namely the Church, "is His body, and the fullness of Him who fills all in all (in His members, therefore also in the angels)," and fills [them]. And in verse 10 he said that in Christ "all things that are in heaven and that are on earth" have been restored, namely because just as Christ restored Adam and fallen men, so also at the falling away of the demons He restored and completed their fall through the grace and perseverance of the [other] angels.
Secondly, because this dignity seems to have befitted Christ, who is the only-begotten Son of God, and by the same work by which He merited for men, He could also merit for the angels.
Other weighty Theologians, however, teach the contrary, namely that Christ merited grace and glory for men alone, not for the angels, and that He is called head of the angels only in this respect, that He stands out above them and is their superior.
Hence again Chrysostom exclaims: "Bah! to what height again has He raised that very saint, who is as it were a single gnat and flea, as Chrysostom says elsewhere? As though by some machine drawing him up into that great sublimity He has lifted him, and made him to sit on His own heavenly throne: for where the head is, there too is the body, above all things visible and invisible," etc. But the Latin Bibles everywhere, even the Roman, read: "and Him He gave as head over all the Church," namely of angels and of men, militant and triumphant. So St. Augustine and others.
Some think that Christ as man is head of men; as God, is head of the angels: but from this passage Doctors rightly conclude that Christ also as He is man is head of the angels as well as of men, because out of angels and men one Church, and as it were one republic, is constituted. For of Christ not as God, but as man and Redeemer the Apostle is here treating.
They prove secondly, because the angel was created and received grace before man was created or sinned: but Christ would not have come unless man had sinned; therefore God decreed to give grace to the angel before He decreed Christ's incarnation.
It could again be answered by denying the consequence; for although in execution God gave grace to the angel before He gave it to Adam or to Christ, yet in God's preordination and decree all these things were done by one act of the divine will, by which He simultaneously and at one time chose and instituted this whole order of things which actually came to pass, with mutual interdependence through conditioned foreknowledge; so that, e.g., He decreed in this order of things not to create angels, nor Adam, nor to permit him to fall, except at the same time foreseeing and preordaining Christ, who would repair his fall and who consequently would extend His merits and glory to the angels: because He decreed to institute this whole order of things on account of Christ, and intended Him first, and ordered the rest to Him, because in Christ He had determined chiefly to show forth His power and glory: but this question is to be discussed more exactly elsewhere.
Verse 23: Which Is His Body, and the Fullness of Him Who Is Filled All in All
23. His fullness, — πλήρωμα, that is, complement, as if to say: The Church, as a body, is the complement of Christ as her head: for the head is completed and perfected by the body; for when the head has all the members of the body so that none is lacking, then it is plainly complete and so called. So St. Chrysostom, Ambrose, Œcumenius, St. Thomas, Anselm.
Note here the union and love of Christ toward the Church: for although in Himself He is most full and most perfect, yet He considers Himself maimed and as a head mutilated of its members unless He has the Church joined to Himself as a body. Hence Christ is sometimes called the whole Church, as I said on 1 Cor. 12:12. Hence so often it is said that we are, we grow, we act, we suffer in Christ. Hence the Apostle says that Christ lives in him, and that he lives in Christ. Hence that voice of Christ: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" See Col. 1:24. Hence all our hope and consolation.
Who is filled in all in all. — It is a Greek idiom: "all," that is, "in respect of all," for κατά is understood. The sense is, first, that Christ in the present life is completed by all His members: for each of the faithful contributes to the complement of Christ: He is completed, I say, with respect to all things, that is, with respect to all graces and virtues; not that each one has them all, but that each has individual ones, so that gathered together they have them all: for in this one charity excels, in that one patience, in this one chastity, and so the individuals will confer the excellence and fullness of the individual virtues upon the Church which is the body of Christ, and consequently upon Christ Himself. So Jerome, Chrysostom, Anselm. "As," says Jerome, "an Emperor is fulfilled if his army is daily increased and new provinces are made, so also Christ;" and Theophylact: "Christ," he says, "as to His hand, is filled in the merciful man; as to His foot, in him who travels for love of Christ or visits the sick; as to His tongue, in the teacher;" and so Christ advances in all in wisdom, in grace and in every virtue, says Jerome.
Secondly, in the future life Christ will be filled with all glory and with all His elect members. So Jerome and Theodoret.
It can be translated thirdly with Vatablus and Erasmus, "who fills all in all:" for the Greek πληρούμενον is of the middle voice, whence it can be translated both actively and passively. Christ therefore fills all in all, because He makes all and each one to advance in and be filled with all virtues. So Jerome.
Secondly, because, as Chrysostom in his moral exposition says, Christ fills all by the Eucharist and by Himself, in whom are all graces: for He Himself is the fount of graces.
But the prior sense is the genuine one, as if to say: Christ does not need this supplement of the body of the Church, as one who fills all in all; but it is from love that He so closely unites the Church to Himself.
Note: Christ did not Himself accomplish all things, but He left many things to be accomplished by the Apostles and other heralds of the word of God — namely, the procuring of the salvation of all men, that Christ may be completed with all His elect as with members. Therefore those who labor for the salvation of souls, as many souls as they win for Christ, so many members of Christ's body, and Christ Himself, do they perfect and complete. This indeed is a great dignity, a great spur, that each one should expend himself wholly on the conversion of souls, and graft them into Christ, and complete the body of Christ, which in that part is still maimed. So in Col. 1:24 he says: "I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church." Therefore by suffering and laboring for the salvation of our neighbors, we fill up the sufferings and labors of Christ, and the very body of Christ, and Christ Himself.