Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, he teaches that the Gentiles, dead in sins, have been brought to life through Christ, not by the merit of works, but freely through faith in God, who in Christ has in some way created us anew for the performing of good works.
Secondly, at verse 11, he shows how Christ has joined the Gentiles, who were formerly alien from God and from God's promises, with the Jews in one Church to Himself and to God.
Then thirdly, at verse 19, he concludes that we are no longer guests and strangers, but are fellow-citizens of the Saints and members of God's household, and that we have been built up in the Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.
Vulgate Text: Ephesians 2:1-22
1. And you, when you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2. in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3. in which we also all once conversed, in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the others: 4. But God, who is rich in mercy, on account of His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, 5. even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together in Christ (by whose grace you are saved), 6. and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7. that He might show in the ages to come the abundant riches of His grace, in His bounty toward us in Christ Jesus. 8. For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: for it is the gift of God; 9. not of works, lest any man should glory. 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God has prepared that we should walk in them. 11. For which cause be mindful that you, being heretofore Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh, made by hands; 12. that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the conversation of Israel, and strangers to the testaments, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world. 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you, who some time were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14. For He is our peace, who has made both one, and breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in His flesh: 15. making void the law of commandments contained in decrees; that He might make the two in Himself into one new man, making peace, 16. and might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, killing the enmities in Himself. 17. And coming, He preached peace to you that were afar off, and peace to them that were nigh. 18. For by Him we have access both in one Spirit to the Father. 19. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners; but you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God, 20. built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone: 21. in whom all the building, being framed together, grows up into a holy temple in the Lord, 22. in whom you also are built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Note: This whole passage hangs on the preceding chapter; for since there at verse 19 he had said that the power which God showed in the Ephesians' conversion from paganism to Christianity is like that power by which He raised Christ from the dead and set Him at His own right hand: hence in this place he declares the same thing, saying that they themselves through this conversion have risen with Christ, and have been placed with Him at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
Verse 1: And You, When You Were Dead in Your Trespasses and Sins
1. And you, when you were dead in your trespasses and sins. — Supply, "He quickened together with Christ, raised up together, and made to sit together in the heavenly places," as he says in verses 5 and 6; for there, after a long parenthesis (in which, according to his custom, Paul digresses and is carried away by the force of the Spirit and abundance of matter, as I said in Chapter 38) he returns and completes the sentence begun in verse 1, with the second person changed however into the first; for instead of "you" he says "us."
When you were dead (deprived of the life of grace) in your trespasses and sins, — through your trespasses and sins. Thus Jerome.
You will ask, how trespasses and sins are distinguished.
St. Jerome answers that trespasses are sins begun in thought; sins are sins consummated in deed. But the Apostle, well-versed in the Law, was looking entirely at it; for in the Law of Leviticus 7:7 and 37 trespass is distinguished from sin, and a threefold sacrifice for trespass from the sacrifice for sin. Where the Jewish Rabbis explain that the Hebrew חטאת chattat, which the Septuagint renders ἁμαρτίαν and Our Latin "sin," is that which is committed against the affirmative precepts of the law, which they number at as many as there are bones in the human body, namely 248; but אשם ascam, which the Septuagint renders πλημμέλειαν, that is, an error, and Our Latin renders "trespass," is that which is committed against the negative precepts, which they number at as many as there are days in the year, namely three hundred and sixty-five.
Secondly, on the contrary, St. Augustine, Question 20 on Leviticus, Lyranus, Abulensis and others understand by "sin" the fault of commission; by "trespass," that of omission.
But it seems truer that "sin," when it is distinguished from trespass (for they are often confounded, as is plain in Leviticus 5:5-6), is that which is committed knowingly against the law; "trespass" is that which is committed in ignorance or through forgetfulness, particularly of the law and precept. Thus Ribera, from Procopius and St. Jerome, in book IV "On the Temple," chapter 5. And it is proved by the fact that for "trespass" the Septuagint translates πλημμέλειαν, that is, an error, and ἀγνόημα, that is, ignorance. Secondly, because Our Latin so renders Leviticus chapter 5, last verse: "Because he sinned by error against the Lord," where in Hebrew it is ascam, that is, trespass. Thirdly, this is plain from Psalm 18:13: "Who can understand sins? from my secret ones cleanse me." Behold, he says trespasses are not understood, not known, and are hidden, as having been committed through ignorance or forgetfulness. And Psalm 68:6: "O God, You know my foolishness, and my trespasses are not hidden from You." Therefore trespasses are those which, committed through foolishness — that is, imprudence and inadvertence — are hidden from us, but not from God. And this is suggested by the Greek παράπτωμα which the Apostle here uses, which Our Latin renders "trespass": for the Greek παρά signifies "beside," when, namely, someone beside intention, in passing, inadvertently strikes against, slips and offends. Against this, St. James, chapter 4, verse 17, calls "sin" that which is committed knowingly: "To him who knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is a sin."
Verse 2: In Which You Once Walked According to the Course of This World
2. In which you once walked, — i.e., conversed, as he explains in the following verse; for "walking" signifies the repetition and habit of sin. Whence he adds:
According to the course of this world, — that is, according to the custom of worldly people, who live in a worldly and mundane way in this world.
According to the prince of the power of this air. — As if to say, According to the will and impulse of the prince who exercises his power in this air: or rather, who is the prince of the power, that is, of the demons, who are called "power" because they exercise power in this air; for "Power," as it is the name of an order of angels who exercise power on earth, so it is also of demons, who retain the same power they had when they were angels, but now made demons direct it to evil, so as to harm men. This is plain from chapter 1, verse 21; chapter 6, verse 12; Colossians 1:16.
Note: This prince is Lucifer, or another demon who under him is set over the powers, that is, the demons who rule in this air.
Secondly, he is called "power of the air" because in the air he stirs winds, thunder, lightnings and storms by which he harms crops, beasts and men; or rather because in the air — that is, in this world (so that it is a synecdoche) — he exercises his power among men, tempting them, vexing them, and harming them in every way. Thus St. Thomas. Hence the Fathers teach that this air is full of demons until the day of judgment, who exercise men, so that the good may be tested and perfected, the evil hardened, and on the day of judgment thrust down to common damnation in hell with the demons. Excellently St. Augustine in the Sentences, no. 130: "When man, when he lives according to himself and not according to God, he is like the devil: for it was not according to an angel that he must live in accordance with the angel, but according to God, that he might stand in truth, and speak truth from God's truth and not lies from his own. Whence not without reason is it said that every sin is a lie: because one does not sin except by that will which is contrary to the truth, that is, to God."
Of the spirit. — In Greek it is πνεύματος, that is, "spirit" in the genitive, which some explain by apposition, so that "air" coheres with "spirit," thus: "According to the prince of the power of the air," which air, namely, is a spirit. But what follows opposes this: "Who works in the sons of disobedience"; for the air does not work in them.
Secondly, Erasmus orders it thus: "According to the prince whose power is both of the air and of the spirit," that is, both in the air and also in the spirit, "who works in the sons of disobedience."
Thirdly, Adam refers it to "of the air," as if to say: According to the prince of this air, in which spirits — that is, demons — dwell: for this prince in the air dwells, as it were, as a spirit among spirits, says Theophylact.
Fourthly, Vatablus refers it to "prince," as if to say: According to the prince of the spirit, that is, of the spirits, namely, of the demons. But all these must supply the conjunction "and," or something similar.
Fifthly, therefore, plainly and simply, by apposition and explanation, "spirit" refers to "power": for it explains what the power of the air is, namely it says it is a spirit, "who works in the sons of disobedience," that is, that it is spirits (it is an enallage of number; for the singular is put for the plural), namely demons, "who," as evil spirits, by their impulse and inspiration "work," that is, exercise their force, energy (for in Greek it is ἐνεργοῦντος) and malignity (by inciting, namely, and impelling to gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, pride, vengeance, heresy, and all crimes) "in the sons of disobedience," in Greek ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας, which you would more clearly translate "in the sons of unbelief, unpersuadability and disobedience" — that is, unbelievers, untractable, rebels. Thus the Syriac; for ἀπείθεια is unpersuadability, when one is intractable, stubborn, does not wish to be governed by discipline, but is borne wherever he pleases according to his own will. Whence St. Basil, or rather his interpreter in the "Brief Rules," Rule 268, translates "sons of stubbornness," which is, he says, one who exercises works of stubbornness, or who does the will and works of the devil: for he is the prince and father of stubbornness, so that he can rightly be called stubbornness itself. Moreover, "son of stubbornness" and "son of wrath" are the same. For Christ says: "He who is stubborn against the Son shall not see eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon him" — thus far St. Basil. Our Latin translates "of disobedience," because such do not trust God — that is, do not believe Him, practically speaking; that is, they do not obey: for one who believes a speaker easily obeys him, trusts him and lets himself be ruled by him. Hence to "believe" in Scripture by metalepsis often signifies to obey, as in Psalm 118:66, and consequently not to believe signifies not to obey. Secondly, "disobedience" can be taken in its proper sense, because such, on account of their disobedience and vices, distrust God and salvation and despair of it.
Note: The word "son," when joined to the genitive of a vice or virtue, signifies one indebted to the vice or virtue: thus one is called "son of disobedience," that is, addicted, given to disobedience, as if begotten by it, and seeming to imitate it as offspring imitates its mother — that is, plainly disobedient and rebellious. But when "son" is joined to the genitive of a penalty or reward, it is the same as "worthy": as "son of death," "son of Gehenna," "son of resurrection" — that is, worthy of death, of Gehenna, of resurrection.
Verse 3: In Which We Also All Once Conversed; and We Were by Nature Children of Wrath
3. In which (among whom) also we all once conversed.
Doing the will of the flesh. — In Greek θελήματα, that is "wills," as if to say: Fulfilling the appetites and desires of concupiscence, or those things which were pleasing to the flesh — that is, to carnal concupiscence, to the thought and the imagination — and which concupiscence willed, that is, sought.
Note: "Will" here signifies appetite, not only rational, but also sensual, animal, carnal and brutish; for the flesh, that is concupiscence, resides as much in the rational as in the animal appetite, as I said on Galatians 5:17.
Note secondly: For "of thoughts" in Greek it is διανοιῶν, which Ambrose translates "of counsels"; St. Jerome, "of minds": because, he says, some sins are of the flesh, like gluttony, lust; others of the mind, like heresies, sects, envies, etc. But more simply we shall take "flesh" for any concupiscence, whether carnal or mental; "thoughts" for the imagination itself, which imagines, conceives and fashions various species and modes of concupiscence: for those who lust, just like those who love, fashion dreams for themselves.
And we were by nature children of wrath. — Because, says Illyricus, original sin, which makes us children of wrath, is not an accident, but our form, substance and nature. But this is as stupid, and against Aristotle and all Philosophers, as it is impious: for if Adam's sin is a substance, then since every substance has been created by God, it will follow that sin has been created by God and by Him alone, and implanted in Adam and his posterity.
I say therefore: "we were children of wrath by nature," not in ourselves and our substance, as it was founded by God, but in our natural quality and condition, as it has been corrupted through Adam and original sin: for then vice grew up in place of nature, says St. Augustine.
Secondly, "by nature," that is, from birth and from the origin of nature: thus Chrysostom, St. Thomas. Thirdly, "by nature," that is, by natural temper, disposition, inclination, by which from boyhood we are as it were naturally inclined to evil. Thus Jerome. For the Greek φύσις signifies first, nature; secondly, nascence, origin, generation; thirdly, natural disposition and propensity. Hence fourthly, adverbially, τῷ φύσει, that is "by nature," is the same as "plainly," "altogether," by metalepsis; for what is such by nature, that is plainly and altogether such. Hence conversely, what is altogether such is said to be such by nature: and so a man wholly addicted to drunkenness is said by his nature — that is, altogether — to be drunken. Therefore Paul says: "We were by nature," that is, from the corruption and propensity of our nature, so were we given over to the flesh and to concupiscences that "by nature," that is, altogether, we were sinners and children of wrath. Thus Jerome, the Syriac and others. This is the full sense of the Apostle: for he is regarding not only the corruption of nature in Adam, but even and much more what followed from it — namely, that individuals born of Adam serve the flesh and sins entirely as if naturally, and so are children of wrath until they are freed and reformed by Christ's grace: for he is treating of actual sins, as is plain from what precedes.
Children of wrath, — that is, worthy of and subject to the wrath and vengeance of God. See what was said at the end of verse 2; for thus one is called "son of death," that is, worthy of death.
Where note the Hebrew prosopopoeia: for death, as it were a mother, is feigned to have begotten such a sinner, who is worthy of death, unto death, that she may communicate herself to him and bring death upon him, so that the sinner's death is born, as from a mother, from death; and death seems to embrace him as her son whom she begets and leads to death.
Otherwise Chrysostom and Theophylact: "We were children of wrath," that is, we were the very wrath of God and nothing else; for thus the "son of man" is none other than man. Others thirdly, in Jerome, take "children of wrath" as "of the devil," who is called death and wrath because of the ferocity which he exercises against men. But the first sense is the simplest, and best corresponds to the Hebrew idiom.
Beautifully St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Purification of Blessed Mary: "We too, were children of wrath; children of what wrath? Namely, children of ignorance, of cowardice, of captivity. The ignorance of the woman who was seduced had blinded us; the softness of the man drawn aside and enticed by his own concupiscence had enervated us; the malice of the devil had justly captured us, exposed to him by God. Thus therefore we are all born, first wholly ignorant of the way to the city of our dwelling; then weak and cowardly, so that, even if the way of life were known to us, we would yet be impeded and held back by our own inertia; finally captives under the worst and most cruel tyrant, so that, although we were prudent and strong, we would still be sought out by the very condition of wretched servitude."
Verse 4: On Account of His Exceeding Charity Wherewith He Loved Us
On account of His exceeding charity. — The Greek διὰ τὴν πολλὴν, "on account of His great charity": and so read Jerome and Ambrose, "great," that is, "much," by enallage, in which a discrete quantity is put for a continuous one, i.e., multitude for magnitude: "great," I say, by emphasis, that is, "immense and exceeding." It is called "exceeding" with respect to men so wretched and unworthy, not with respect to God: for to God, who is uncreated goodness itself, this immense self-communication and exceeding charity toward men is fitting. Thus King Agesilaus, when he gave a huge gift to some commoner, and the man out of modesty refused, saying this was too great for him: "But," said the king, "it is not too great for Agesilaus."
Verse 5: And He Quickened Us Together in Christ
5. And He quickened us together in Christ. — The conjunction "and" joins what follows; for he says: "And He quickened together, and raised up together, and made to sit together": for by anadiplosis he reduplicates for emphasis. Secondly, "He quickened us together," that is, He granted us a spiritual life common with Christ in His likeness. Thirdly, "in Christ," that is, with Christ, or after the manner of Christ. Whence many Greek and Latin manuscripts have only "Christo" (in Christ).
Verse 6: And Made Us Sit Together in the Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus
6. And made us sit together in heavenly places, — because Christ has carried us — that is, our flesh — into heaven in His body. Thus Chrysostom. But because the Apostle is speaking of our resuscitation and our sitting — we who were dead through sins — hence secondly, it is more apt to say that Christ has carried us into heaven and has placed us there and made us sit through hope, affection, and tending toward the heavenly life, by which He will in fact after death carry us into heaven and cause us to sit together with Him: for this past tense "made to sit together" signifies partly past, partly future: "He has done," namely, "and He shall do." Similarly the Prophets speak of future things in the past tense on account of their certitude, as if they had already been done: for although they are future in fact, yet in God's foreknowledge they are already done. Therefore God in an inchoate way has made us sit together with Christ in the heavens, because He has already prepared a place and seat for us there, and by His grace directs us to it, that with sure hope we may take possession of that place, claim it as ours, as if we already occupied it and were sitting there; perfectly and properly He shall make us sit when He shall transfer us from this life into heaven. Thus Jerome. Why then do we here, like moles, gape after the earth and earthly things, when a house and seat is prepared for us in heaven, where we already as it were sit beside Christ?
St. Gregory notes, in book VI of the "Morals," chapter 8, that Paul, when he was bound in prison with chains, on account of the certitude and courage of hope said that he and we sit with Christ in the heavens. "Holy men, therefore, are despised outwardly and bear all things as if unworthy; but trusting that they themselves are worthy of the seats above, with certitude they await eternity's glory; and when they labor outwardly under the adversity of persecution, they retreat to the fortified citadel of the mind within, and from there they look down on all things passing beneath them, among which they see themselves also passing bodily: they do not fear threats, because by suffering they despise even torments. Hence it is said through Solomon: 'The just is bold as a lion;' and: 'Whatever shall befall the just, it shall not make him sad.'"
In Christ, — i.e., with Christ. For the Hebrew ב, that is "in," sometimes is equivalent to עם im, that is "with."
Verse 7: That He Might Show the Abundant Riches of His Grace
7. That He might show in the ages to come (in the following times) the abundant riches (that is, excellent exuberance) of His grace, in His bounty (in Greek ἐν χρηστότητι, that is, through benignity — supply, which He has shown) upon us (that is, toward us), in Christ Jesus, — that is, through Christ Jesus.
Verse 8: For by Grace You Are Saved Through Faith, and That Not of Yourselves
8. By grace you are saved (that is, you have been freely justified) through faith (for justice is salvation begun, just as full and perfect salvation is consummated justice: as I said on Romans 11:5), and this not of yourselves. — The pronoun "this" points not to "you are saved" but to "through faith," as if to say: "That you are saved through faith — this is not of yourselves, because faith is not of yourselves, but is the gift of God." Hence Vatablus interrupts this with a parenthesis thus: "(and this is not of yourselves; for it is the gift of God);" for then the following antithesis, "not of works," coheres beautifully, so that it is not redundant, but opposes works to faith, as if to say: You are justified through faith, not through works, "lest anyone glory" that he has obtained justice and salvation by his works and merited them.
Hence it is plain that the Apostle does not here exclude the works of faith and those that flow from faith, such as the acts of hope, penance, charity, etc., but those which are without faith and are opposed to faith, just as nature is opposed to grace; that is, he excludes works done by one's own natural powers, in which the Philosophers and Gentiles gloried, as if done and performed by their own efforts. See Chapters 2 and 3.
Verse 10: For We Are His Workmanship, Created in Christ Jesus in Good Works
10. For we are His workmanship. — In Greek ποίημα, that is, as Ambrose has it, "figment"; Vatablus, "creature"; Erasmus, "work." He speaks not of the first creation of man, by which we have all been created in Adam; but of the second, which he explains by adding: "Created in Christ Jesus." Although Nazianzen, in Theophylact, expounds this as "through Christ, who is the Word," that is, through Christ not as man, but as God, we were created in Adam in grace: nevertheless others more rightly throughout understand it of Christ as man; for here He is called Jesus, as if to say: Through Christ the Redeemer we have again been as it were created, because in Baptism we have been regenerated and as it were created by the Spirit of Christ, and have been made brothers of Christ, a new creature, sons of God and citizens of the Saints.
Note: The justification of the wicked is called creation, not physical (for it is not made from nothing), but moral, because no merit or work of the wicked person obtains it. Secondly, because the whole is attributed to the merits of Christ, just as creation in its entirety is attributed to the omnipotence of God. Thus Chrysostom. The just person, therefore, by the newness of life and the sublimity of grace, is as it were a new mountain, says Jerome — nay rather, as it were a new world of virtues, created and founded by Christ.
Beza argues here: the pronoun "His," when the Apostle says, "We are His workmanship," namely God's, excludes all others: therefore those are deceived who imagine that nature and free will are aided by grace; for hence we learn, he says, that good works are owed wholly to God and to God's grace.
But it is astonishing that Beza does not notice that the Apostle is speaking of justification: for by this we are made a new workmanship and creature of God; not however of the works which follow justification. Whence, just as according to nature we are the workmanship and work of God alone, who created us, and yet, having received nature from God, we freely do many natural and moral works, both good and bad: so entirely in justification, we receive justice — through which we are recreated and become as it were a new creature — as infused by God alone; nevertheless, having received it, through that same justice we freely do works of faith, hope, charity and Christian justice. Add that we are created in one way, and recreated or renewed in another, through justification. "He who created you without you," says St. Augustine, "will not save you," and consequently will not justify you, "without you": because, namely, He requires of you your cooperation and free disposition, by which you may dispose yourself to justice through acts of faith, hope and penance.
Created in Christ Jesus in good works (in, i.e., for doing good works: whence follows) which God has prepared, that we should walk in them. — If for God prepares good works, that we may walk in them: therefore God does not create them in us, but only destines and directs us to them, that we may freely exercise ourselves in them; for this is what the word "walk" signifies. Thus Chrysostom, the Syriac, Œcumenius, indeed even Beza, Vatablus and Erasmus, since the Hebrews often take be, i.e. "in," for hamed, i.e. "to": as in 1 Corinthians 7:15, "In peace," i.e. "to peace, God has called us." Similar are James 4:1; Colossians 3:23, and 1 Corinthians 7:15. And the Greek ἐπί ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς can be translated either "for good works" or "in good works": for ἐπί with the dative often means "to," according to Budaeus: thus Isocrates says, ἐπί θάνατον ἁρπάζειν, i.e. "to snatch unto death"; and Homer, ἐπίπτονται ἐπ᾽ ἄνθεσιν, i.e. "they fly forth to the flowers."
Chrysostom notes that the Apostle adds this so that no one, from the fact that he has excluded works from salvation and justice (adding: "Not of works"), should think he likewise wished to exclude them from the Christian life, as if for the Christian faith alone suffices. He therefore says we have been created for good works, as if to say: We have been made Christians not that we may henceforth lead an idle and Epicurean life in leisure or in carnal pleasures of gluttony and lust; but that we may persevere in good works: for this is what the word "walk" suggests, namely, that it is not enough to begin and start good works, but that we must be assiduous and continuous in them, that we may walk in them not for two or three years, but throughout the whole way and course of our life. For this is the meaning of the Greek περιπατήσωμεν, that is, "let us walk about," says Theophylact and Chrysostom. Who adds in the moral homily 5: "He commands that we work not just one, but all. For as we have five senses, all of which we must use according to the need of the matter, so we must use all the virtues."
Which God has prepared. — Note: God prepares good works for us when He prepares and gives us grace — both habitual and actual — for example, when He instills pious instincts and impulses in the will, and pious illuminations in the intellect: for by these the intellect and will are prepared, bent, and incited to undertake good works; thus effects are prepared when their cause is prepared and put in place: thus the harvest is prepared when the seed is cast into the earth; war is prepared when soldiers prepare the arms with which the war is to be waged.
Hence secondly, by hypallage, God prepares good works for us — that is, He prepares us ourselves, namely intellect and will — for good works in the modes already mentioned.
Thirdly, He prepares good works for us when He sets before us good companions, preceptors, confessors, preachers, holy examples, and other incitements and occasions for doing well — for example, when He sets a beggar, poor and infirm, before a merciful rich man: He prepares for him the matter and object inviting him to the act of almsgiving. Whence the Greek οἷς προητοίμασεν can properly be translated "for which," namely good works, "God has prepared" — supplying "matter, occasion, cause, or path," as if to say: God has prepared the way for good works, so that we may walk and conduct ourselves in this way of good works, and consequently in the good works themselves. Our translator more aptly renders it as which He prepared: for just as a way is said to be prepared for the king, so that he may walk in it, so God is said to prepare good works for us, that we may walk in them; therefore the works themselves are the way to heaven, and the way is not made by works, unless you say that a way is made to a way, or toward a way; for just as a way is made to a garden so that the king may walk in it, so God makes for us a way and entry to good works, so that we may walk in them. Finally, all these things already mentioned, God does not so much prepare when in time He actually gives and supplies them, but He also prepared them in His mind from eternity, when He preordained and predestined them to be given and shown to each person in his own time. How wise and happy is he who carefully observes, attends to, embraces, and carries out these occasions, ways, modes, graces, and impulses to good works which God daily prepares and supplies for him!
Verse 11: Wherefore Be Mindful That You Were Once Gentiles in the Flesh
11. Wherefore be mindful, — as if to say: Because God has made and shown you so great a redemption and grace through Christ, hence I exhort you, O Ephesians, that you be mindful of it your whole life long, especially because He has called you out of paganism, idolatry, and every wickedness to this grace of Christianity, so that you may render to Him such thanks and praises as you can.
You were Gentiles in the flesh. — He opposes "Gentiles in the flesh" to "circumcision in the flesh," that is, to the Jews: since therefore it is established that the Jews are called the circumcision in the flesh, because they had the flesh, that is the foreskin of the flesh, circumcised, it follows that the Gentiles are called "Gentiles in the flesh," because, as Vatablus says, they had the gentile and uncircumcised foreskin, and consequently as uncircumcised Gentiles and pagans they lived in gentile fashion according to the flesh in idolatry, gluttony, lust, etc. Hence follows: "Who are called the foreskin," that is, the foreskinned, "by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hand," that is, by the Jews, who are called circumcision because of the foreskin of the flesh that has been circumcised.
Note: Just as by metonymy we call wickedness wicked, so for greater contempt and detestation the Jews called the Gentiles, who were uncircumcised, "foreskin"; while extolling themselves as circumcised, they called themselves "circumcision." Secondly, the force of "made by hand" does not refer to "in the flesh," but to "circumcision"; for this was made by hand. This is clear from the Greek. He adds "made by hand" to distinguish it from spiritual circumcision, which is made through the Spirit and grace of Christ. Concerning which see Romans 2, last verse. So Jerome.
Note: Circumcision among the Jews was the greatest honor and glory, just as the foreskin was the greatest dishonor and shame. Whence also among the Egyptians, who are neighbors to the Jews, circumcision was granted only to priests, wise men, and nobles. "Among the Egyptians, no one investigated the secrets of geometry, astrology, and genesis (than which they think nothing more divine), unless he had received circumcision. A priest among them, a soothsayer, or any minister of the sacred rites, or, as they call him, a Prophet, is all circumcised. Likewise no one learned the priestly letters, which they call hieroglyphic, unless he was circumcised. No hierophant, no seer, no initiate or knower of the heavens (as they think) and of the underworld is believed to be such among them, unless he be circumcised."
Verse 12: That You Were at That Time Without Christ, Alienated From the Conversation of Israel
12. Because you were (so it should be read with Ambrose, Jerome, and the Greeks, not "who" or "that you were": for he gives the cause why the Ephesians and other Gentiles both were, and were called, foreskin, and Gentiles in the flesh: namely "because you were") without Christ (that is, without knowledge of Christ, law, grace, religion, life — that is, without Christianity), alienated from the conversation of Israel. — In Greek τῆς πολιτείας, that is, first, from the citizenship, or from the commonwealth of Israel, says Erasmus. Secondly, the Syriac: from the government of Israel; for "politia" signifies the very administration and government of the commonwealth, by which here God governed Israel as His people through holy laws, ceremonies, and prophecies. Thirdly and better, Our translator: from the conversation, that is, from the manner and norm of living of the Israelites, the fathers and patriarchs, especially Jacob, who was called Israel, from whom the Israelites descend, who reverently worshipped the one God, and lived holily according to His law, while you worshipped idols, and were without law and followed the lead and impulse of concupiscence: for the Greek πολιτεύεσθαι signifies to converse. So Budaeus and others.
Strangers to the testaments, — that is, foreigners, or outsiders and aliens to the testaments, that is, to the covenants, which God entered into with the Jews: for "testament" signifies any covenant, as I said in 1 Corinthians 11:25. He alludes to the commonwealth and conversation of Israel just mentioned. Hence he calls "strangers" those alien from the right of citizens, of the city, and of the commonwealth.
Not having the hope of the promise. — Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius refer the word "promise" to the preceding "testaments," as if to say: You were strangers and aliens from the testaments and covenants of promise, that is, of promises, which promise good things to Israel. But far more fully and more aptly the Roman Bibles and other more correct ones divide this with a comma, so that "of the promise" is connected with what follows, "not having hope." He understands the promise of the resurrection and of the blessed and eternal life, as Paul explains himself before King Agrippa, Acts 26:6: "And now, I stand subjected to judgment for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; to which our twelve tribes, serving night and day, hope to attain, concerning which hope I am accused by the Jews, O king. Why is it judged incredible by you, if God raises the dead?" Hence he calls this hope "the hope of Israel," Acts 28:20: "For the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain," as if Paul were saying here: You, O Gentiles, of the beatitude promised to the Jews had no hope at all in paganism.
Without God — that is, the true God. For you worshipped idols and false gods; many among you were also atheists, who removed divinity from the world.
Verse 13: But Now in Christ Jesus, You Who Were Once Far Off Are Made Near by the Blood of Christ
13. But now in Christ Jesus (through Christ Jesus) you who once were far off (from God, from the hope of the promised beatitude, from the testaments and covenants, from the commonwealth and conversation of Israel, in short from Christ and salvation), have been made near (that is, near to Christ, to the Israelites, to beatitude, and to God) in the blood (that is, through the blood, namely through the merits of the passion and death) of Christ.
Verse 14: For He Himself Is Our Peace, Who Has Made Both One, Breaking Down the Middle Wall of Partition
For He Himself is our peace. — "Peace," that is, making peace, as he explains in the following verse and at Colossians 1:20: "Making peace, through the blood of His cross, whether the things on earth or those in heaven." Therefore by metonymy the effect is put for the cause. Hence you may see in what sense and by what figure the Apostle says that Christ is our justice, wisdom, redemption — by a similar figure, namely, by which here he says Christ is our peace, not formal, as is plain, but causal. Hence in explanation he adds:
Verse 14. Who made both one, — that is, He reconciled and united both peoples, Jewish and Gentile, in His Church. So Jerome.
Note: He does not say utrumque in the masculine, but utraque in the neuter, because, as is clear from what follows, this verse and verse 20 refer to the metaphor of a house, or of a city and commonwealth and polity, as I said at verse 12, and to its twin members, parts and walls: ἀμφότερα therefore, that is, "both," tacitly refers to τείχη (which in Greek is of the neuter gender), that is, walls and partitions, as if to say: There are two symbolic walls, namely the Jews and the Gentiles, once separated by a wall, which Christ, having broken down the wall that was in the middle, joined together into one house, namely the Church. Hence follows:
And the middle wall of partition, — In Greek μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ, that is, as Vatablus says, an interspace of partition, that is, of an enclosure, hedge, or wall, namely a hedge or wall which was in the middle and divided one wall from the other. Properly, however, "maceria" is an enclosure, or interspace made from a heap of stones or wood, which in Hebrew is called גדר geder. So in the Comic Poet, Mitio orders the partition wall to be torn down, that one house may be made.
Loosing, — that is, Christ loosed and tore down: for the Hebrews lack an indicative, and use the participle in its place. See Canon 29.
You will ask: what is this wall and middle partition, or the interspace of the wall separating the Jews from the Gentiles, which Christ loosed and tore down?
First, St. Jerome and Chrysostom answer that it is sins and the enmity between God and men, whether Jews or Gentiles. But because there follows: "That He may make the two," namely peoples, "in Himself," hence others more correctly understand throughout the discord which existed between Jews and Gentiles.
Hence secondly, Ambrose and Jerome answer that this interspace was the differing faith, law, and worship of Jews and Gentiles: namely idolatry on the part of the Gentiles; and on the part of the Jews, confidence in the law and their ceremonies.
Thirdly, Theodoret and Anselm hold that this interspace was the Mosaic law, which the Jews embraced and the Gentiles avoided.
Fourthly and best, Vatablus, Adam, Erasmus and others answer that the Apostle explains this middle wall when he immediately by apposition and epexegesis adds "enmities," as if to say: The middle wall dividing the Jews from the Gentiles was the mutual enmities, mutual contempt, and the hatred by which the Jews despised and avoided all the Gentiles as idolaters and uncircumcised; the Gentiles likewise hated the Jews as abhorring the common law, rite and life of the Gentiles, just as the other birds hate and persecute the owl. These hatreds, these enmities Christ dissolved and abolished "in His flesh," dying for both, and breathing into both the common law and spirit of charity, taking away the occasion of enmities, namely the law of commandments.
For first, the law commanded circumcision, which the Gentiles ridiculed, and on account of it called the Jews "verpi, recutiti, apellae." Hence that line: "Verpus, swear to me by Anchialus"; and: "Let the Jew apella believe, not I." On the contrary, the Jews despised the Gentiles as profane, because uncircumcised.
Again, the Gentiles, relying on the law of nature and reason, ridiculed the Jews as trusting in the written law and stone tablets, saying that they had the law not in stone but in mind. So Ambrose. On the contrary, the Jews despised the Gentiles as living without law, indeed as ones who in many things ignored and violated the Decalogue.
Finally, the Gentiles ridiculed so many rites, baptisms, abstinences, ceremonies, and sacred things of the Jews. The Jews execrated the Gentiles because they ate pork and other foods unclean by the law of Moses, and contaminated themselves with many other uncleannesses forbidden by the same law.
Verse 15: Emptying the Law of Commandments by Decrees, That He Might Create the Two Into One New Man
15. Emptying the law of commandments by decrees. — Note: The law of Moses is called "of commandments," because it contains nothing but commandments, and these very many, nor did it confer help and grace for fulfilling them. "Law" therefore τῶν ἐντολῶν, that is "of commandments," is the same as imperious, commanding law, not conferring grace: for so the Hebrews express by two substantives what we express by a substantive and an adjective, or epithet; thus they call the holy temple "temple of holiness," merciful men "men of mercy," warlike arms "vessels of war." This law Christ "emptying," that is, He emptied and abolished, "by decrees," that is, by other decrees: because He exchanged it for Evangelical decrees and dogmas (for this is the Greek δόγμασι), say Jerome, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius.
Note secondly: In Greek it is ἐν δόγμασι. Hence Vatablus and Erasmus translate, abrogating the law of commandments situated in decrees; but our translator better, with Chrysostom, Theophylact and the Greeks, expounds it "in decrees," that is, through decrees, namely of the Gospel.
Note thirdly: The Greek δόγμασι is the same as the Latin "dogmatibus." Hence Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Oecumenius understand faith and the doctrine of faith, as if the Apostle were saying: Christ abolished the law of Moses through faith, because He attached justice to faith, not to law. Secondly, as Jerome says: "The law of commandments has been overturned in dogmas, after circumcision and the sabbath observance, which was left to the people of God, and Pascha, and Pentecost, and not to appear empty in the sight of God, have been understood otherwise than they sound, and withdrawing from the killing letter we have begun to follow the life-giving Spirit," as if to say: God emptied the carnal commandments of the law through their spiritual understanding, or through the dogmas of the Gospel.
But note that for the Greeks dogmas signify not only teachings and doctrine, but also precepts and decrees; and so the Apostle takes it at Colossians 2:14 and 20, which passage is similar to this one: for the law is light and dogma. "A lamp, says the Psalmist, to my feet is Your word, and a light to my paths." He therefore calls the precepts of the Gospel not commands, but dogmas, because they enlighten Christians, and teach how they ought to know God by faith, to worship and invoke Him by hope, charity, and religion, and to serve Him and live.
That He might create the two in Himself into one new man, — that is, that He might insert and incorporate the two peoples, namely the Jewish and the Gentile, as two men, into Himself and His body, that is, into His Church, of which He is the head, and might make each of them, that is, each people, as a kind of new man walking in newness of life. Hence for "condat" (make) the Greek is κτίσῃ, that is "He may create."
Note: Here he explains the preceding metaphor of walls, partition, and house, through another metaphor, namely of a man and the human body: for the Jews and the Gentiles are as it were two men, who, incorporated into Christ, have grown together into one mystical man, that is, into one Christian people. Hence from the neuter gender, which he used in the preceding verse, here he passes to the masculine, because the thing figured, namely man and people, is of the masculine gender.
Verse 16: And That He Might Reconcile Both to God in One Body Through the Cross
Verse 16. And that He might reconcile both (namely men, that is peoples, of the Jews and Gentiles) in one body (mystical, that is the Church, united), as if to say: That He may "reconcile" both these peoples, having now become one mystical body, that is, one commonwealth and Church, to God through the cross, slaying (that is, completely destroying) the enmities (which were between Jews and Gentiles; and again all those which were between both and God) in Himself, — that is, through Himself, namely through His cross and passion. It is the same as what he said in the preceding verse: "In His flesh." Our translator reads in Greek ἐν αὐτῇ with rough breathing; but St. Jerome, Erasmus, Vatablus read with smooth breathing, and translate "in it," namely the cross; for the cross is in Greek of the masculine gender: hence it aptly answers to the masculine pronoun αὐτῷ. Hence the Syriac translates, "and by His cross He killed hatred." But the sense returns to the same, whether you refer it to Christ or to the cross: for Christ did these things through the cross.
From this passage St. Leo morally teaches, in Sermon 6 On the Nativity, that Christians everywhere ought to cultivate peace, and to offer it as a most pleasing victim to God. "Therefore those who are born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, let them offer to the Father of peaceful ones the concord of sons, and let all the members of adoption come together to the firstborn of the new creation, etc.: since the grace of the Father has adopted as heirs not the discordant nor the unlike, but those of one mind and one love. The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one," etc.
Verse 17: And Coming, He Preached Peace to You Who Were Far Off, and Peace to Those Who Were Near
17. And coming He preached peace to you (Gentiles) who were far off (from God, Christ and salvation), and peace to those who were near, — that is, to the Jews; for by this periphrasis taken from Isaiah 57:19, he describes the Jews and the Gentiles. See what was said on verses 12 and 13. He alludes to the voice of the angel to the shepherds at Christ's nativity: "Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, etc.: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will," Luke 2.
Verse 18: For Through Him We Both Have Access in One Spirit to the Father
18. For through Him (namely Christ) we have access (προσαγωγήν, that is, as Vatablus and Erasmus say, an entrance, introduction) to God the Father, both (namely both Jews and Gentiles) in one Spirit — that is, through the same Spirit as guide and impeller. Secondly, in one and unanimous spirit, that is, in one will and zeal of faith, religion, and Christian charity, that there may be in us one heart and one soul. So Anselm. He alludes to kings, to whom there is no access except through the princes who are at the king's bedchambers, and bear the golden key of the royal chamber, and who provide for those entering their own guide and instructor, that they may know with what gesture, reverence, form, and manner they ought to address and accost the king. So here the king is God the Father, the prince providing entrance is Christ, the guide is the Holy Spirit.
Verse 19: Now You Are No Longer Strangers and Foreigners, but Fellow-Citizens of the Saints and of the Household of God
Verse 19. Now you are no longer (as you were in paganism) strangers and foreigners, — ξένοι καὶ πάροικοι, sojourners and inhabitants, or foreigners, namely those who, coming from elsewhere, migrated into a foreign city and province, whom the Romans called Coloni: for from one city, e.g. Roman, they used to lead colonies into other regions: as Agrippina, mother of Nero, ordered a colony of veterans to be led to the Rhine among the Ubii, where she was born, which is therefore still called Colonia Agrippina, a city renowned for its wealth and religion. Such among the Jews were the Proselytes, or newcomers, who, as it were foreigners, since they were of Gentile origin, were converted to Judaism, and were gathered to the Jews and the Church of God. As if to say: You are now no longer proselytes, but residents of the Church, as follows:
But you are fellow-citizens (συμπολῖται, fellow-citizens) of the Saints (both of the angels, and rather of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or Israel, and his descendants the holy Israelites, such as David, Samuel, Isaiah and the other Prophets, from whom in paganism you were strangers and alienated, as he said in verse 12) and of the household of God. — As if to say: You are of the house and family of God, namely of the Church of God, from which before Christ you were exiles; you are of the family of King Messiah, who is both God and man, and of the Christian commonwealth, in which you have civic right to the Sacraments of the Church, and to all the good things of Christ and Christians, and you are enrolled as citizens and heirs of that same heavenly city, namely Jerusalem. So Chrysostom, Anselm, Theophylact. And the Apostle beautifully explains this in Hebrews 12:22: "You have come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels, and to the Church of the firstborn, who are written in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the New Testament, and to the sprinkling of blood that speaks better than Abel."
Hear also St. Augustine in his Sentences, no. 156: "The citizens of the earthly city are begotten by nature corrupted by sin, who are vessels of wrath: but the citizens of the heavenly fatherland are begotten by grace freeing nature from sin, who are vessels of mercy."
Verse 20: Built Upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself Being the Chief Cornerstone
20. Built upon (he returns to the metaphor of building and house, on which see verse 14: for this house sacred to God, or temple, is the Church, which has been built) upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, — that is, upon the Apostles and Prophets, who are the foundation of the Church: for the Church rests upon the faith, doctrine, preaching, and institution of the Apostles and Prophets, as upon a foundation, as if to say: The Apostles have been placed as the foundation of the Church; you Ephesians, and the rest of Christians, are built upon them, and complete the rest of the structure of His house and temple. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, and beautifully Augustine on Psalm 86, "Its foundations are in the holy mountains."
Otherwise Anselm: "Upon the foundation," he says, that is, upon Christ, who is the foundation of the Apostles, of the Prophets, and of the whole Church — which Beza eagerly seizes upon and follows. He says it is an antichristian saying to lay another foundation: for "no one can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus." But St. Augustine answers above, that Christ is the foundation of foundations, or the primary one, on which the Apostles themselves and the whole Church rest; but the Apostles after Christ are a secondary foundation: just as in the foundations of a house, there is its own breadth, so that one foundation is at the bottom under the earth, another higher on the very surface of the earth, and this second does not impede or contradict the first.
For that the Apostles are here called the foundations, but not Christ, is clear, because Christ is called the cornerstone of the foundation, on which the foundation rests. This is clearer in the Greek: Ἐπί τῷ θεμελίῳ τῶν Ἀποστόλων ὄντος ἀκρογωνιαίου αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ: that Χριστοῦ (which is genitive) cannot be referred to θεμελίῳ (which is dative), but to ἀκρογωνιαίου, the genitive, that is, to "cornerstone," not to "foundation," as if to say: The foundation are the Apostles, but the cornerstone of the foundation is Christ. So also in Apocalypse 21, St. John, seeing "the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending from heaven," that is, the Church of Christ, adds in verse 14: "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb." You see that the twelve foundations of the Church are the twelve Apostles; for the name of each is inscribed under the foundation, or upon the foundational stone, as John saw, so that he might know these twelve foundations signify the twelve Apostles. So at Matthew 16:18, Christ says to Peter: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church." If Peter is this rock, therefore he is the foundation of the Church: for the rock upon which the Church is built can be no other than the foundational rock of the Church.
He Himself being the topmost cornerstone, Christ Jesus. — As if to say: Christ as a most strong cornerstone holds together the foundation and the whole structure of the Church, and binds and unites in Himself, as in a middle angle, in the kiss of peace, both walls of it, namely Jews and Gentiles. So Jerome, Augustine, Bede.
You will say: The foundation is laid at the bottom; how then does he say here that the cornerstone is at the top? Villalpando, on Ezekiel, in the building of the temple, page 477, admits that the top stone is here understood as that which on the eastern face covers, adorns, and contains the whole building at its peak, which we call the frontispiece. Hence in Psalm 117, to which the Apostle here alludes, it is called the head of the corner; if head, therefore it is at the top, not at the bottom.
But against this stands the fact that the Apostle here says that the Ephesians and the Church are built upon this stone, and that the building constructed grows into a holy temple in the Lord: he does not therefore understand the top stone, which closes the building, but the lowest, which sustains the foundation and the whole structure, and from which, as from a most firm one, the whole structure of the Church begins. Hence by the Psalmist it is called ראש פנה rosch pinna, that is, head of the corner, by metaphor; because just as from the head depend the rest of the members and the whole body, so from the cornerstone depends the whole building, but in a different position: for the head in the body holds the highest place, but the cornerstone in the house holds the lowest; but at the bottom it furnishes to the building what the head at the top furnishes to the body, and therefore is called "head." Hence ראשית reshit to the Hebrews, and "head" to the Latins, signifies that which in each thing is first and chief.
Secondly, therefore, St. Augustine answers in Psalm 86, and from him Anselm, that this cornerstone is at the top, because this building and house of the Church is not corporeal, but spiritual and heavenly: for it is, as St. John says, Apoc. 21, the new Jerusalem descending from heaven; therefore its foundation and cornerstone is at the top, namely in heaven. "If we were built up toward the earth, our foundation would be laid at the bottom; but now, because our building is heavenly, hence our foundation has gone before us to the heavens," because, namely, the origin and beginning of the Church is from heaven. But this is symbolic and mystical.
I say therefore: For "summo angulari" (topmost cornerstone) the Greek is ἀκρογωνιαίῳ, that is, extreme cornerstone, which is the lowest, or bottommost: for the extreme in a building and foundation is the lowest, or the bottommost of the foundation; for ἄκρον in Greek means extreme, whether it be highest or lowest. That here it should be taken as the lowest is clear from the foundation which this cornerstone supports. So in Latin "mare altum" (deep sea) or "summum" means deep or low. Paul alludes to those huge and very hard stones, which from red rock or other stone are placed like a mass at the bottom of the foundation, and are laid directly upon the solid earth, on which then the workmen throw other stones, rubble, bricks, mix them and cement them with lime, to a height of four, six, or even ten feet, according as the size and height of the house requires a greater or smaller foundation: for those first huge stones are here called the "top stone," that is, the bottom of the foundation, and that the cornerstone, so as to support and bind both walls, and therefore must be stronger than the others, and is in the building primary and capital.
Note: St. Jerome, on that passage of Isaiah 19, "They have deceived Egypt, the corner of the peoples": "It is an idiom of the Holy Scriptures, that they put corner for kingdom and prince, because it contains the peoples, and because it is the strongest in the whole house." Since therefore corners are made from larger and more solid stones, hence the princes or leaders of peoples are called "corners," just as we call the leaders and republics of the Helvetians by the common word Cantons (as if "corners"). So Zechariah 10:4 says: "From him the corner," that is, from Judah will come Christ the cornerstone, and prince of Jews and Gentiles. And Jeremiah 51:26 says of Babylon soon to be overthrown: "They will not take from you a stone for a corner," that is, as the Chaldean translates, they will not take from you a king for a kingdom, and a prince for a principality. So Psalm 117 (to which Paul here alludes) says of Christ: "The stone which the builders rejected has been made the head of the corner." Where Lyranus and Abulensis think allusion is made to a real stone, which at first was rejected by the Jews as useless from the building of the temple, but afterwards was received, fitted, and placed in the most honorable place, namely as the head of the corner. But this is a fiction of the Jews, says Burgensis. It is therefore a metaphor, drawn from the corners of buildings, about which I have already spoken: for what the corner is, especially the foundational one, in a building, this is the king in a kingdom, namely Christ in the Church. With a similar phrase and sense Christ said to Peter, Matthew 16:18: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church."
Verse 21: In Whom All the Building Grows Into a Holy Temple in the Lord
21. In whom (through whom, namely Christ, who has gone before) all (the whole) building (edifice, structure) constructed (συναρμολογουμένη, that is, as Jerome says, joined together; as Ambrose, compacted; as Vatablus and Erasmus, cemented together) grows into a holy temple (into the Church, which is the holy house and temple of God) in the Lord, — through the Lord; or rather "in the Lord," that is "of the Lord," that you may be the holy temple of the Lord: for the Hebrew beth, that is "in," often signifies the regimen of the genitive. See Canon 25.
Verse 22: In Whom You Also Are Built Together Into a Dwelling of God in the Spirit
22. In whom (through whom, namely the Christ just mentioned, or "in whom," namely the temple) you too are being built together into a dwelling of God (into the temple of the Church just mentioned, in which God dwells as in His own house) in the Holy Spirit, — through the Holy Spirit.
Note: The "sancto" (holy) is not in the Greek, nor in the Roman editions, but in the Plantin editions, and is understood in the Greek. For Spirit here is the grace which the Holy Spirit breathes upon the Saints, as if to say: The Church is the house and temple of God, of which the foundation are the Apostles, the cornerstone is Christ, the walls are the Jews and Gentiles, which daily rise up as more from the Jews and Gentiles are grafted and built into Christ and the Church. You therefore, O Ephesians, together with other Christians be built up into this structure, that you may be stones, parts and members of this temple, that it may daily rise higher and grow, and become a vast temple and dwelling of God, and that through the Holy Spirit, because by His grace and charity as by glue and lime He cements together and joins all the faithful, that they may make one wall, one house, one Church.
St. Ignatius, however, in his epistle to the Ephesians, bringing forward the same metaphor of the building, compares the Holy Spirit to a plumb-line: "Jesus Christ, He founded you upon the rock, as chosen stones, fit for the divine building of the Father, raised on high through Christ, who was crucified for us, using as plumb-line the Holy Spirit, drawn up by faith, and lifted by charity from earth to heaven."
Tropologically, St. Jerome: "When we shall be living stones, hewn on every side, smooth, polished, having no roughness (of vices), we shall be built into a temple, and shall become a dwelling for God, and there shall be founded in us the ark of the testament, the keeper of the Lord's law, and the multitude of Cherubim of knowledge, so that the interior of our heart may pass into a new name, and we shall be called debir, that is, oracle, or response-place and speaking-place of God."
Blessed Dorotheus also, in volume 3 of the Library of the Holy Fathers, doctrine 14, instructs his disciples for the building or restoration of the spiritual house thus: "First, foundations must be laid; this is faith, without which it is impossible to please God. Then place upon the foundation a most excellent building. Has obedience fallen away? add the stone of obedience. Are you angry with a brother from whom you received an injury? let virtue add another stone of patience; then each added virtue will be a single stone. Charity will join wall to wall. The bitumen is humility, which makes the other virtues to be such. The roof is the love of God. The crown, which the law commands to be applied above the roof, lest little ones fall, is prudence. In erecting this building let our industry sweat, that we may be able to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within." He will preserve the house, unless we ourselves are slothful, lest with the winds of the world blowing from the four corners it suddenly fall to the ground.
Again St. Augustine on Psalm 86. We have approached the Church as a heavenly building, so that we ought to be squared, that we may be able to be built into it, and consequently every Christian ought to be like a squared stone. "In every temptation a Christian does not fall, even if he is pushed, and if in any way he is turned, he does not fall. For a squared stone, however you turn it, stands. The Martyrs seemed to fall when they were struck: but what did the voice of Psalm 36 say? When he shall fall he shall not be hurt, because the Lord puts His hand under him. So therefore be squared, prepared for all temptations, so that whatever pushes you, may not overthrow you. Let every fall find you standing."