Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 1:10
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; [even] in him:
10. in the dispensation, &c.] Lit., in view of the stewardship of the fulness of the seasons. The word rendered “dispensation” is lit. “stewardship, house-management.” Its special meaning here seems to be that the eternal Son is the True Steward in the great House of the Father’s spiritual Church; and that into His hands is to be put the actual government of it as it stands complete in the “fulness, or, fulfilment, of the seasons” (cp. for the phrase Gal 4:4); i.e. in the great Age of the Gospel, in which the universality of the Church, long indicated and prepared for by successive “seasons,” or stages, of providence and revelation, is at length a patent fact. In other words, the Father “purposed” that His Son should be, in a supreme sense, the manifested Governor and Dispenser of the developed period of grace, of which “glory” is but the outburst and flower.
gather together in one all things in Christ ] This clause explains the clause previous; the “stewardship” was to be, in fact, the actual and manifested Headship of Christ. The Gr. may be literally represented by “that He might head up all things in Christ.” The verb is only used elsewhere (in N. T.) Rom 13:9, where A. V. reads “it is briefly comprehended,” summed up. The element “head” in the compound verb need not appear in translation; as it does not in either A. V. or R. V. (which reads “sum up”). But the Lord is so markedly seen in this Epistle (Eph 1:22, Eph 4:15, Eph 5:23; and see 1Co 11:3; Col 1:18; Col 2:10; Col 2:19) as the Head of the Church that a special reference to the thought and word seems to us almost certain here. We render, accordingly, to sum up all things in Christ as Head. “ In Christ ” will here import a vital and organic connexion; as so often.
both which are in heaven, &c.] Here, and in the close parallel, Col 1:20, the context favours the reference of “all things ” to the subjects of spiritual redemption who are in view through the whole passage; not explicitly to the Universe, in the largest sense of that word. More precisely, regenerate men are specially intended by “the things on earth,” as distinguished from “the things in heaven,” the angelic race, which also is “made subject” to the glorified Christ (1Pe 3:22, and see Col 2:10). The meaning here will thus be that under the supreme Headship of the Son were to be gathered, with the “elect angels” (1Ti 5:21), all “the children of God scattered abroad” (Joh 11:52); the true members of the universal Church. So, nearly, St Chrysostom interprets the passage; making the meaning to be that “both to angels and to men the Father has appointed one Head, according to the flesh, that is Christ.” (He has previously explained the verb (see last note) to mean “sum up,” “gather together;” but here recognizes an additional reference to the Headship of Christ.) See further Appendix A.
A. HEADSHIP OF CHRIST WITH RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE
In the Commentary, on ch. Eph 1:10, we have advocated the restriction of the reference of the Headship to the Lord’s connexion with the Church. This is by no means to ignore His connexion with the whole created Universe; a truth expressly taught in the Holy Scriptures (see esp. Joh 1:3, and Col 1:16, though the latter passage makes its main reference to personal existences, not to merely material things). The connexion of the Eternal and Incarnate Son with the created World is indicated to us, directly and indirectly, as a profound and manifold connexion. But on a careful view of the whole teaching of the Ephesian Epistle we think it will be seen that the Epistle does not, so to speak, look this way with its revelations and doctrines, but is occupied supremely with the Lord’s relations with His Church, and with other intelligent existences through it. And we doubt whether the imagery of the Head is anywhere (if not here) to be found used with reference to the Universe at large, material and immaterial alike.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
That in the dispensation – The word rendered here as dispensation, oikonomia, means properly the management of household affairs. Then it means stewardship or administration; a dispensation or arrangement of things: a scheme or plan. The meaning here is, that this plan was formed in order ( eis) or unto this end, that in the full arrangement of times, or in the arrangements completing the filling up of the times, God might gather together in one all things. Tyndale renders it: to have it declared when the time was full come, etc.
The fulness of times – When the times were fully completed; when all the periods should have passed by which he had prescribed, or judged necessary to the completion of the object. The period referred to here is that when all things shall be gathered together in the Redeemer at the winding up of human affairs, or the consummation of all things. The arrangement was made with reference to that, and embraced all things which conduced to that. The plan stretched from before the foundation of the world to the period when all times should be completed; and of course all the events occurring in that intermediate period were embraced in the plan.
He might gather together in one – The word used here – anakephalaioo – means literally, to sum up, to recapitulate, as an orator does at the close of his discourse. It is from kephale, the head; or kephalaion, the sum, the chief thing, the main point. In the New Testament, the word means to collect under one head, or to comprehend several things under one; Rom 13:9. It is briefly comprehended, i. e., summed up under this one precept, sc., love. In the passage before us, it means that God would sum up, or comprehend all things in heaven and earth through the Christian dispensation; he would make one empire, under one head, with common feelings, and under the same laws. The reference is to the unity which will hereafter exist in the kingdom of God, when all his friends on earth and in heaven shall be united, and all shall have a common head. Now there is alienation. The earth has been separated from other worlds by rebellion. It has gone off into apostasy and sin. It refuses to acknowledge the Great Head to which other worlds are subject, and the object is to restore it to its proper place, so that there shall be one great and united kingdom.
All things – ta panta. It is remarkable that Paul has used here a word which is in the neuter gender. It is not all persons, all angels, or all human beings, or all the elect, but all things. Bloomfield and others suppose that persons are meant, and that the phrase is used for tous pantas. But it seems to me that Paul did not use this word without design. All things are placed under Christ, Eph 1:22; Mat 28:18, and the design of God is to restore harmony in the universe. Sin has produced disorder not not only in mind, but in matter. The world is disarranged. The effects of transgression are seen everywhere; and the object of the plan of redemption is to put things on their pristine footing, and restore them as they were at first. Everything is, therefore, put under the Lord Jesus, and all things are to be brought under his control, so as to constitute one vast harmonious empire. The amount of the declaration here is, that there is hereafter to be one kingdom, in which there shall be no jar or alienation; that the now separated kingdoms of heaven and earth shall be united under one head, and that henceforward all shall be harmony and love. The things which are to be united in Christ, are those which are in heaven and which are on earth. Nothing is said of hell. Of course this passage cannot teach the doctrine of universal salvation, since there is one world which is not to have a part in this ultimate union.
In Christ – By means of Christ, or under him, as the great head and king. He is to be the great agent in effecting this, and he is to preside over this united kingdom. In accordance with this view the heavenly inhabitants, the angels as well as the redeemed, are uniformly represented as uniting in the same worship, and as acknowledging the Redeemer as their common head and king; Rev 5:9-12.
Both which are in heaven – Margin, as in Greek, in the heavens. Many different opinions have been formed of the meaning of this expression. Some suppose it to mean the saints in heaven, who died before the coming of the Saviour; and some that it refers to the Jews, designated as the heavenly people, in contradistinction from the Gentiles, as having nothing divine and heavenly in them, and as being of the earth. The more simple and obvious interpretation is, however, without doubt, the correct one, and this is to suppose that it refers to the holy inhabitants of other worlds. The object of the plan of salvation is to produce a harmony between them and the redeemed on earth, or to produce out of all, one great and united kingdom. In doing this, it is not necessary to suppose that any change is to be produced in the inhabitants of heaven. All the change is to occur among those on earth, and the object is to make out of all, one harmonious and glorious empire.
And which are on earth – The redeemed on earth. The object is to bring them into harmony with the inhabitants of heaven. This is the great object proposed by the plan of salvation. It is to found one glorious and eternal kingdom, that shall comprehend all holy beings on earth and all in heaven. There is now discord and disunion. Man is separated from God, and from all holy beings. Between him and every holy being there is by nature discord and alienation. Unrenewed man has no sympathy with the feelings and work of the angels; no love for their employment; no desire to be associated with them. Nothing can be more unlike than the customs, feelings, laws, and habits which prevail on earth, from those which prevail in heaven. But the object of the plan of salvation is to restore harmony to those alienated communities, and produce eternal concord and love. Hence, learn:
(1) The greatness and glory of the plan of salvation. It is no trifling undertaking to reconcile worlds, and of such discordant materials to found one great and glorious and eternal empire.
(2) The reason of the interest which angels feel in the plan of redemption; 1Pe 1:12. They are deeply concerned in the redemption of those who, with them, are to constitute that great kingdom which is to be eternal. Without envy at the happiness of others; without any feeling that the accession of others will diminish their felicity or glory, they wait to hail the coming of others, and rejoice to receive even one who comes to be united to their number.
(3) This plan was worthy of the efforts of the Son of God. To restore harmony in heaven and earth; to prevent the evils of alienation and discord; to rear one immense and glorious kingdom, was an object worthy the incarnation of the Son of God.
(4) The glory of the Redeemer. He is to be exalted as the Head of this united and ever-glorious kingdom, and all the redeemed on earth and the angelic hosts shall acknowledge him as their common Sovereign and Head.
(5) This is the greatest and most important enterprise on earth. It should engage every heart, and enlist the powers of every soul. It should be the earnest desire of all to swell the numbers of those who shall constitute this united and ever-glorious kingdom, and to bring as many as possible of the human race into union with the holy inhabitants of he other world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eph 1:10
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ.
Heaven and earth united in Christ
Heaven and earth are to be restored to each other as well as to Him. The knowledge of God and the sanctity which have come to us in this world of conflict and sin are to flow into the great stream of pure angelic life; and the joy, the strength, the wisdom, and the security, alike of angels and of men, will be indefinitely augmented. As yet, we and they are like countries so remote or so estranged from each other that there has been no exchange of material or intellectual treasures. What the poverty of England would be if we had been always isolated from the rest of the human race we can hardly tell. It is by the free intercourse of trade, and the still freer intercourse of literature, that nations become rich and wise. Sunnier skies and more luxuriant soils give us more than half our material wealth, and we send in exchange the products of our mines and the works of our industry and skill. From sages who speculated on the universe and human life in the very morning of civilization, from poets whose genius was developed in the ancient commonwealths of Greece, our intellectual energy has received its most vigorous inspiration; and our religious faith is refreshed by streams which had their springs in the life of ancient Jewish saints and prophets, and of Christian apostles who lived eighteen centuries ago. What we hope for in the endless future is a still more complete participation in whatever knowledge and love of God, whatever righteousness, whatever joy, may exist in any province of the created universe. Race is no longer to be isolated from race, or world from world. A power, a wisdom, a holiness, a rapture, of which a solitary, soul, a solitary world, would be incapable, are to be ours through the gathering together of all things in Christ. We, for our part, shall contribute to the fulness of the universal life. To the principalities of heaven we shall be able to speak of Gods infinite mercy to a race which had revolted against His throne; of the kinship between the eternal Son of God and ourselves; of the mystery of His death and the power of His resurrection; of the consolation which came to us in sorrows which the happy angels never knew; of the tenderness of the Divine pity which was shown to us in pain and weariness and disappointment; of the strength of the Divine support which made inconstancy resolute in well doing, and changed weakness and fear into victorious heroism. And they will tell us of the ancient days when no sin had cast its shadow on the universe, and of all that they have learnt in the millenniums of blessedness and purity during which they have seen the face of God. The sanctity which is the fruit of penitence will have its own pathetic loveliness for righteous races that have never sinned; and we shall be thrilled with a new rapture by the vision of a perfect glory which has never suffered even temporary eclipse. Their joy in their own security will be heightened by their generous delight in our rescue from sin and eternal death, and our gratitude for our deliverance will deepen in intensity as we discover that our honour and blessedness are not inferior to theirs who have never broken the eternal law of righteousness. Our final glory will consist, not in the restoration of the solitary soul to solitary communion with God, but in the fellowship of all the blessed with the blessedness of the universe as well as with the blessedness of God. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
Timely gathering of all in Christ
I. God has set seasons in which He will accomplish all His will (Ecc 3:1; Ecc 3:17). As He brings things natural, spring, summer, autumn, winter, everything in season, so all the works He will do about His children, whether it be the punishing of wickedness for their sake, the delivering of His children from evil, the giving them benefits, He will bring them all forth in the fit appointed seasons.
1. To design times is His prerogative: as a master of a fatally has the right to fix the particular time at which this or that shall be done.
2. He only knows the fittest seasons for the accomplishment of His plans.
(1) Let this reprove our weakness in thinking God sometimes delays too long.
(2) Let us learn to wait on God. We would not in winter have midsummer weather, for it would not be seasonable; so in the winter of any trial with which we are visited we should not wish the sunshine of this or that blessing before God sees it may be seasonably bestowed, remembering that the man who believes does not make undue haste.
II. God, by opening the Gospel, brings us His Christ.
1. By nature we are severed
(1) from God: prodigal sons;
(2) from Christ, like sheep in the valleys of death, running after the wolf, and leaving the Shepherd of our souls;
(3) from one another, a man being by nature a wolf to his brother-man, his feet swift to shed blood.
2. The order in which we are gathered.
(1) The opening of the gospel gathers us into one faith.
(2) By faith, as a spiritual sinew or nerve, it unites us to Christ, making us one person with Him, as in law man and wife are one.
(3) It unites us with God, inasmuch as we are one with His Son.
(4) By being gathered to Christ, we are gathered to the whole Body of Christ, to all who exist under Him. What a wonderful power of union is there in the gospel!
III. All who shall be gathered to Christ are brought to Him by the Gospel. Only one gospel, and that gospel is for all.
II. Observe–who it is in whom we are gathered. In Christ, who–
1. Has abolished the enmity between God and us, and so removed that which divided us; and–
2. He calls us, and effectually draws us home in His time.
(1) Let us then, to preserve our union, walk with Christ, and keep by Him. Even as it is in drawing a circle with compass and lines from the circumference to the centre, so it is with us: the nearer they come to the centre, the more they unite, till they come to the same point; the further they go from the centre in which they are united, the more they run out one from the other. So when we keep to Christ, the nearer we come to Him, the more we unite; but when we run forth into our own lusts and private faction, then we are disjoined from the other.
(2) Since in Christ, our Head, we are joined as members of one and the same body, we mug act as members. The members of one and the same body have no mutual jealousies; they communicate with each other; the mouth takes meat, the stomach digests, the liver makes blood, the eye sees, the hand handles; they wilt not revenge themselves one against another, but mutually bear each others burdens, so that their affection each to other is not diminished. God, who is love itself, teaches us these things. (Paul Bayne.)
All things in Christ
Jesus Christ is the fulness of
(1) knowledge;
(2) time;
(3) law;
(4) nature;
(5) grace;
(6) man;
(7) God. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The plan of redemption
This is a disclosure of the magnificent and sublime design contemplated by God through means of the gospel. It is the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. Our own individual salvation constitutes but a fragment of a vast and glorious scheme, which in due course shall be fully achieved. The influence of that atonement to which we owe our redemption is here seen extending itself far and wide in the universe of God, and forming the grand harmonizing and uniting bond among all the objects, however various, of His goodness, mercy, and love. Nay, we are perhaps here taught that its power is to be exerted and displayed in the final subjugation of all things without exception, including the reduction of sin and evil to their own place, as well as the ingathering of all that is good–under the universal sovereignty of God.
I. There is a general plan or scheme, promoted by the Gospel, and here called the dispensation or economy of the fulness of times. It is, with reference to a plan, or dispensation, or economy, which God has in view, that He has made known to us the mystery of redemption. Every intelligent householder has some plan, according to which he directs all his energies and Jays out all his arrangements. His house, his farm, his estate, are managed and controlled for some definite object, and all his operations are conformed to some view or idea which he has formed for his own guidance. Different seasons of the year and various times come round upon him, but he keeps intelligently and firmly to his ruling purpose, and is not satisfied until the result of his plan has been fully realized. So God Himself, in the government of His whole household–the universal Father and the Lord of all–is represented as having a certain plan or economy, in accordance with which He is pleased to work through successive times, until the result He contemplates be finally attained.
II. What, then, is this grand result contemplated by the dispensation of the fulness of times? It is to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in Him. But what are we to understand by this? What is the import of to gather together in one? And what maybe the full scope of all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth? The word rendered to gather together in one occurs once again in Rom 13:9, where it is rendered briefly comprehended. If there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There its import is plain; for all the commandments are summed up, briefly comprehended, reduced to a head, gathered together in one in those two great commandments, love to God and love to man, of the last of which the apostle was giving instances. These two commandments are heads on which all the rest depend, from which they hang, in which they are summed up. This idea of summation, representation, headship, seems to belong essentially to the import of the word, and must not be lost sight of in the passage before us, where we read of the gathering up in one of all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. But as it is plain that all things do not naturally belong to Christ, but on account of sin the things on earth at least are in a state of alienation, separation, revulsion, we must here necessarily suppose that the word implies the idea of bringing back from that state and gathering up into the opposite state of union, harmony, love.
1. The angels may be included in this gathering together in one. Although the unfallen angels do not stand in need of redemption from sin or misery, yet they need to be preserved from the risk of falling, and may well be supposed to owe their security and infallibility in some way to Christ.
2. There is no question concerning the including, or gathering up in one, all the redeemed of mankind. Separated though they may have been in life–according to the times in which they have existed, the countries they have dwelt in, the names and outward distinctions they have borne–their union to Christ, and to each other, has been real. It will, at length, become visible.
3. But it seems intended in this passage, as it is in keeping with the representations of Scripture elsewhere, that the material creation is to share in the glorious ingathering of all things in Christ.
III. This gathering up of all things is is Christ, even in Him.
1. Consider the wondrous person of Christ as the God-man, joining mysteriously the Creator and the creation–the Maker and His work in one–by an indissoluble and eternal union.
2. But consider, secondly, that Christ, thus completely fitted to represent the creation of God, by the assumption of the human nature, has been actually constituted head of all things, with all-sufficient power to accomplish the whole plan of God. (W. Alves, M. A.)
All things to be gathered together in Christ
He will yet gather together again, in one, all things in Christ, filling them from His own fulness laid up in Him; gladdening them with His own joy; quickening them with His own life; beautifying them with His own glory; and sustaining them with His own power and resources. Great indeed must be our Lord, in whom and through whom such purposes are to be fulfilled! And divinely inspired must be the record in which they are revealed! Towards the fulfilment and manifestation in us of that purpose, all Gods past dispensations of grace have tended. Note their order.
1. By the Holy Ghost given us and through the gospel, He gathers His people into one faith and one baptism.
2. By faith, as by a spiritual nerve or sinew, He unites us with Christ, making us to become one flesh with Him, as it is written (Eph 5:29, No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth it and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church).
3. He doth so unite us with Christ as to make us sons-in-law and daughters-in-law; nay, He makes us so much nearer to Himself, by how much God and Christ are more nearly united, than any natural father and son can be. As it is written: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one.
4. By our being thus gathered together in Christ, we are gathered into the whole body of Christ, and to all that exists under Him, and His angels become our ministering spirits; nay, more, we are gathered to all, who in Gods predestination belong to Christ, and all things are ours.
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and goodness of our God! There is a climax in our text.
1. His grace in creating us, as Adam in innocency and angels before they fell.
2. His upholding grace, in preventing the fall of elect angels; and His long-suffering grace towards fallen sinners.
3. But beyond all, was that manifestation of the exceeding riches and glory of His redeeming grace, in the gift of His Son, and His revealed purpose to regather us again to Himself in Him, the purchase of His blood, and the partakers of His Divine nature. Creating grace has been surpassed by preventing grace; and preventing grace again by restoring and adopting grace; and thus God has made known unto us the mystery of His will, and His thoughts which are to usward. (M. Rainsford, B. A.)
Relation of the Atonement to the universe
The mediation of Christ is represented in Scripture as bringing the whole creation into union with the Church or people of God. In the dispensation of the fulness of times it is said that God would gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him. Again, it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and (having made peace through the blood of His cross) by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether things in earth, or things in heaven. The language here used supposes that the introduction of sin has effected a disunion between men and the other parts of Gods creation. It is natural to suppose it should be so. If a province of a great empire rise up in rebellion against the lawful government, all communication between the inhabitants of such a province and the faithful adherents to order and obedience must be at an end. A line of separation would be immediately drawn by the sovereign, and all intercourse between the one and the other prohibited. Nor would it less accord with the inclination than with the duty of all the friends of righteousness, to withdraw their connection from those who were in rebellion against the supreme authority and the general good. It must have been thus with regard to the holy angels, on mans apostasy. Those who at the creation of our world had sung together, and even shouted for joy, would now retire in disgust and holy indignation. But, through the mediation of Christ, a reunion is effected. By the blood of the cross we have peace with God; and being reconciled to Him, are united to all who love Him throughout the whole extent of creation. If Paul could address the Corinthians, concerning one of their excluded members, who had been brought to repentance, To whom ye forgive anything, I also; much more would the friends of righteousness say, in their addresses to the Great Supreme, concerning an excluded member from the moral system, To whom thou forgivest anything, we also! Hence angels acknowledge Christians as brethren, and become ministering spirits to them while inhabitants of the present world. (A. Fuller.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. In the dispensation of the fulness of times] . The word , which is the same as our word economy, signifies, as Dr. Macknight has well observed, “the plan which the master of a family, or his steward, has established for the management of the family;” it signifies, also, a plan for the management of any sort of business: and here it means the dispensation of the Gospel, that plan by which God has provided salvation for a lost world; and according to which he intends to gather all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, into one Church under Jesus Christ, their head and governor. See Clarke on Mt 24:45, where the word and the office are particularly explained.
The fulness of times-By this phrase we are to understand either the Gospel dispensation, which is the consummation of all preceding dispensations, and the last that shall be afforded to man; or that advanced state of the world which God saw to be the most proper for the full manifestation of those benevolent purposes which he had formed in himself relative to the salvation of the world by Jesus Christ.
That he might gather together in one] , from , again, and , to reduce to one sum; to add up; to bring different sums together, and fractions of sums, so as to reduce them under one denomination; to recapitulate the principal matters contained in a discourse. Here it means the gathering together both Jews and Gentiles, who have believed in Christ, into one Church and flock. See the preceding note.
All things-which are in heaven, and which are on earth] This clause is variously understood: some think, by things in heaven the Jewish state is meant and by things on earth the Christian. The Jews had been long considered a Divine or heavenly people; their doctrine, their government, their constitution, both civil and ecclesiastical, were all Divine or heavenly: as the powers of the heavens, Mt 24:29, Lu 21:26, mean the Jewish rulers in Church and state, it is very possible that the things which are in heaven mean this same state; and as the Gentiles were considered to have nothing Divine or heavenly among them, they may be here intended by the earth, out of the corruption of which they are to be gathered by the preaching of the Gospel. But there are others who imagine that the things in heaven mean the angelical hosts; and the things on earth believers of all nations, who shall all be joined together at last in one assembly to worship God throughout eternity. And some think that the things in heaven mean the saints who died before Christ’s advent, and who are not to be made perfect till the resurrection, when the full power and efficacy of Christ shall be seen in raising the bodies of believers and uniting them with their holy souls, to reign in his presence for ever. And some think that, as the Hebrew phrase shamayim vehaarets, the heavens and the earth, signifies all creatures, the words in the text are to be understood as signifying all mankind, without discrimination of peoples, kindreds, or tongues; Jews, Greeks, or barbarians. All that are saved of all nations, (being saved in the same way, viz. by faith in Christ Jesus, without any distinction of nation or previous condition,) and all gathered into one Church or assembly.
I believe that the forming one Church out of both Jews and Gentiles is that to which the apostle refers. This agrees with what is said, Eph 2:14-17.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Some copies join the last clause of the former verse with this, leaving out the relative which, and concluding the sentence at good pleasure, and then read: He purposed in himself, that in the dispensation, & c.; but most read it as our translators have rendered it, only some understand an explicative particle, to wit, in the beginning of this verse, to wit, that in the dispensation, &c.; but either way the scope of the words is the same, viz. to give the sum of that mystery of Gods will, mentioned before.
In the dispensation; in that administration or distribution of the good things of Gods house; which he had determined should be in the fulness of time. It is a metaphor taken from a steward, who distributes and dispenseth according to his masters order to those that are in the house, Luk 12:42. The church is the house of God, God himself the Master of the family, Christ the Steward that governs the house; those spiritual blessings, mentioned Eph 1:3, are the good things he gives out. These treasures of Gods grace had been opened but to a few, and dispensed sparingly under the Old Testament, the more full communication of them being reserved till the fulness of times, when they were to be dispensed by Christ.
The fulness of times; the time appointed of the Father for the appearance of Christ in the flesh, (according to former promises), the promulgation of the gospel, and thereby the gathering together in one all things in Christ. It is spoken in opposition to the times and ages before Christs coming, which God would have run out till the set time came which he had pitched upon, and believers expected: see Gal 4:2,4.
Gather together in one; to recapitulate; either to sum up as men do several lesser numbers in one total sum, which is the foot of the account, but called by the Greeks the head of it, and set at the top; or as orators do the several parts of their speeches in fewer words; thus all former prophecies, promises, types, and shadows centred, and were fulfilled, and as it were summed up, in Christ: or rather, to unite unto, and gather together again under, one head things before divided and scattered.
All things; all intellectual beings, or all persons, as Gal 3:22.
In Christ; as their Head, under which they might be united to God, and to each other.
Which are in heaven; either saints departed, who have already obtained salvation by Christ, or rather the holy angels, that still keep their first station.
Which are on earth; the elect of God among men here upon earth in their several generations. The meaning of the whole seems to be, that whereas the order and harmony of Gods principal workmanship, intellectual creatures, angels and men, had been disturbed and broken by the entering of sin into the world; all mankind, and many of the angels, having apostatized from him, and the remnant of them being in their own nature labile and mutable; God would, in his appointed time, give Christ (the Heir of all things) the honour of being the repairer of this breach, by gathering together again the disjointed members of his creation in and under Christ as their Head and Governor, confirming the good angels in their good estate, and recovering his elect among men from their apostate condition. Though it be true, that not only believers under the Old Testament were saved, but the elect angels confirmed before Christs coming, yet both the one and the other was with a respect to Christ as their Head, and the foundation of their union with God; and out of whom, as the one, being lost, could not have been restored, so the fall of the other could not have been prevented, nor their happiness secured.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. Translate, “Untothe dispensation of the fulness of the times,” that is, “whichHe purposed in Himself” (Eph1:9) with a view to the economy of (the graciousadministration belonging to) the fulness of the times (Greek,“fit times,” “seasons”). More comprehensive than”the fulness of the time” (Ga4:4). The whole of the Gospel times (plural) is meant,with the benefits to the Church dispensed in them severallyand successively. Compare “the ages to come” (Eph2:7). “The ends of the ages” (Greek, 1Co10:11); “the times (same Greek as here, ‘theseasons,’ or ‘fitly appointed times’) of the Gentiles” (Lu21:24); “the seasons which the Father hath put in His ownpower” (Ac 1:7); “thetimes of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by theprophets since the world began” (Act 3:20;Act 3:21). The coming of Jesus atthe first advent, “in the fulness of time,” was oneof these “times.” The descent of the Holy Ghost, “whenPentecost was fully come” (Ac2:1), was another. The testimony given by the apostles to Him “indue time” (“in its own seasons,” Greek) (1Ti2:6) was another. The conversion of the Jews “when the timesof the Gentiles are fulfilled,” the second coming of Christ, the”restitution of all things,” the millennial kingdom, thenew heaven and earth, shall be severally instances of “thedispensation of the fulness of the times,” that is, “thedispensation of” the Gospel events and benefits belonging totheir respective “times,” when severally filled up orcompleted. God the Father, according to His own good pleasure andpurpose, is the Dispenser both of the Gospel benefits and of theirseveral fitting times (Ac 1:7).
gather together in oneGreek,“sum up under one head”; “recapitulate.” The”good pleasure which He purposed,” was “to sum up allthings (Greek, ‘THEwhole range of things’) in Christ (Greek, ‘the Christ,’ thatis, His Christ)” [ALFORD].God’s purpose is to sum up the whole creation in Christ, the Head ofangels, with whom He is linked by His invisible nature, and of menwith whom He is linked by His humanity; of Jews and Gentiles; of theliving and the dead (Eph 3:15);of animate and inanimate creation. Sin has disarranged the creature’srelation of subordination to God. God means to gather up all togetherin Christ; or as Col 1:20 says,”By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether things inearth or things in heaven.” ALFORDwell says, “The Church of which the apostle here mainly treats,is subordinated to Him in the highest degree of conscious and joyfulunion; those who are not His spiritually, in mere subjugation, yetconsciously; the inferior tribes of creation unconsciously; butobjectively, all are summed up in Him.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times,…. Or “according to the dispensation”, c. as the Alexandrian copy reads the fulness of time appointed by God, and fixed in the prophets; after many times and seasons were elapsed, from the creation of the world; at the most suitable and convenient time, when a new economy or dispensation began, within which all this was to be effected, hereafter mentioned:
he might gather together in one all things in Christ; this supposes, that all things were once united together in one; angels and men were united to God by the ties of creation, and were under the same law of nature, and there were peace and friendship between them; and this union was in Christ, as the beginning of the creation of God, in whom all things consist: and it supposes a disunion and scattering of them; as of men from God, and from good angels, which was done by sin; and of Jews and Gentiles from one another; and of one man from another, everyone turning to his own way; and then a gathering of them together again: the word here used signifies to restore, renew, and reduce to a former state; and so the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions render it; and according to this sense, it may seem to have respect to the times of the restitution of all things, the restoration and renovation of the universe; when there will be new heavens and a new earth, and new inhabitants in them: the word is also used to recapitulate, or sum up the heads of a discourse; and according to this sense, it may intend the meeting together, and summing up of all things in Christ, that had been before; as of all the promises and blessings of the covenant; of all the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament; of all the types and shadows, and sacrifices of the former dispensation; yea, all the sins of Old Testament saints, and all the curses of the law, met on him: the word is likewise used for the collection of numbers into one sum total; and Christ is the sum total of elect angels and men; or the whole number of them is in him; God has chosen a certain number of persons unto salvation; these he has put into the hands of Christ, who has a particular and personal knowledge of them; and the exact number of them will be gathered and given by him: once more, it signifies to reduce, or bring under one head; and Christ is an head of eminence and of influence, both to angels and men: and there is a collection of these together in one, in Christ; by virtue of redemption by Christ, and grace from him, there is an entire friendship between elect angels and elect men; they are social worshippers now, and shall share in the same happiness of the vision of God and of Christ hereafter: hence it follows,
both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even
in him; by things in heaven are not meant the souls of saints in heaven; though it is true that the souls of departed saints are in heaven; and that the saints in heaven and on earth were gathered together in Christ, and represented by him, when he hung upon the cross; and that they all make up one body, of which Christ is the head; and that they will be all collected together one day; and that their souls which are in heaven, and their bodies which are in the earth, will come together and be reunited, and dwell with Christ for ever; but rather the angels are meant, whose origin is heaven; where they have their residence, and from whence they never fell; and whose employment is in heaven, and of an heavenly nature: and by things on earth, are not intended every creature on earth, animate and inanimate; nor all men, but all elect men, whether Jews or Gentiles, and some of all sorts, ranks, and degrees; whose origin is of the earth, and who are the inhabitants of it: all these angels in heaven, and elect men on earth, are brought together under one head, even in him, in Christ Jesus, and by him; and none but he was able to do it, and none so fit, who is the Creator of all, and is above all; and was typified by Jacob’s ladder, which reached heaven and earth, and joined them together, and on which the angels of God ascended and descended.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times ( ). See Col 1:25 for . In Ga 4:4 “the fulness of the time” ( ) the time before Christ is treated as a unit, here as a series of epochs (). Cf. Mark 1:15; Heb 1:1. On see also Rom 11:26; Eph 3:19; Eph 4:13.
To sum up (). Purpose clause (amounting to result) with first aorist middle infinitive of , late compound verb and (from , Heb 8:1, and that from , head), to head up all things in Christ, a literary word. In N.T. only here and Ro 13:9. For the headship of Christ in nature and grace see Col 1:15-20.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
That in the dispensation, etc. [ ] . The A. V. is faulty and clumsy. EiJv does not mean in, but unto, with a view to. Dispensation has no article. The clause is directly connected with the preceding : the mystery which He purposed in Himself unto a dispensation. For oijkonomia dispensation see on Col 1:25. Here and ch. 3 2, of the divine regulation, disposition, economy of things.
Of the fullness of times [ ] . For fullness, see on Rom 11:12; Joh 1:16; Col 1:19. For times, compare Gal 4:4, ” fullness of the time [ ] , where the time before Christ is conceived as a unit. Here the conception is of a series of epochs. The fullness of the times is the moment when the successive ages of the gospel dispensation are completed. The meaning of the whole phrase, then, is : a dispensation characterized : by the fullness of the times : set forth when the times are full.
To sum up all things in Christ [] . Explanatory of the preceding phrase; showing in what the dispensation consists. For the word, see on Rom 13:9. It means to bring back to and gather round the main point [] , not the head [] ; so that, in itself, it does not indicate Christ (the Read) as the central point of regathering, though He is so in fact. That is expressed by the following in Christ. The compounded preposition ajna signifies again, pointing back to a previous condition where no separation existed. All things. All created beings and things; not limited to intelligent beings. Compare Rom 8:21; 1Co 14:28.
The connection of the whole is as follows : God made known the mystery of His will, the plan of redemption, according to His own good pleasure, in order to bring to pass an economy peculiar to that point of time when the ages of the christian dispensation should be fulfilled – an economy which should be characterized by the regathering of all things round one point, Christ.
God contemplates a regathering, a restoration to that former condition when all things were in perfect unity, and normally combined to serve God ‘s ends. This unity was broken by the introduction of sin. Man’s fall involved the unintelligent creation (Rom 8:20). The mystery of God ‘s will includes the restoration of this unity in and through Christ; one kingdom on earth and in heaven – a new heaven and a new earth in which shall dwell righteousness, and “the creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “That in the dispensation of the fulness; of times” (eis oikonomian tou pleromatos ton kairon) “With relationship or regards to stewardship of the fulness; of dispensations or specific seasons or periods of time.” Seven dispensations or historic periods of time seem to be identified as stewardship (house law) eras of earthly government. They are 1) pre- Adamic, 2) Adamic, 3) Noahic, 4) Abrahamic, 5) Mosaic, 6) Gentile or church, and 7) the Millennial or Kingdom of Christ era of rulership over all the earth, 2Sa 7:12-16; Luk 1:32-33; Act 15:14-18.
2) “He might gather together in one all things in Christ” (anakephalaiosasthai ta panta en to christo ta epi) “He might head up all things in Christ, the things in or upon Him.”
This refers to the eventual and ultimate restitution of the entire universe and subjection of all powers and orders of rulership under Jesus Christ as Lord and King, after which these shall be delivered up to the Father, 1Co 15:24-28; Rev 11:15.
3) “Both which are in heaven” (tois ouranois) “To (head up) things in heaven,” in Him. The redeemed in heaven He will bring with Him at His coming in the air. Then His church, over which the Father has given Him to head, He will bring with Him when He comes to the earth in power and great glory, to be glorified in His saints, 1Th 4:14-17; 2Th 1:7; 2Th 1:10.
4) “And which are on earth, even in Him” (kai ta tes ges en autou) “And the things on earth in Him,” He shall “head up” in the final dispensation or era of seasonal times, through the Millennial Age. This certifies that God the Father purposed and provided for the redemption and restitution of the created universe to His own glory (through Christ) from which it was alienated by Satan and by sin, Rom 8:20-21; Joh 3:16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
10. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times. That no man may inquire, why one time rather than another was selected, the apostle anticipates such curiosity, by calling the appointed period the fullness of times, the fit and proper season, as he also did in a former epistle. (Gal 4:4) Let human presumption restrain itself, and, in judging of the succession of events, let it bow to the providence of God. The same lesson is taught by the word dispensation, for by the judgment of God the lawful administration of all events is regulated.
That he might gather together in one. In the old translation it is rendered ( instaurare ) restore; to which Erasmus has added ( summatim ) comprehensively. I have chosen to abide closely by the meaning of the Greek word, ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι, (114) because it is more agreeable to the context. The meaning appears to me to be, that out of Christ all things were disordered, and that through him they have been restored to order. And truly, out of Christ, what can we perceive in the world but mere ruins? We are alienated from God by sin, and how can we but present a broken and shattered aspect? The proper condition of creatures is to keep close to God. Such a gathering together ( ἀνακεφαλαίωσις) as might bring us back to regular order, the apostle tells us, has been made in Christ. Formed into one body, we are united to God, and closely connected with each other. Without Christ, on the other hand, the whole world is a shapeless chaos and frightful confusion. We are brought into actual unity by Christ alone.
But why are heavenly beings included in the number? The angels were never separated from God, and cannot be said to have been scattered. Some explain it in this manner. Angels are said to be gathered together, because men have become members of the same society, are admitted equally with them to fellowship with God, and enjoy happiness in common with them by means of this blessed unity. The mode of expression is supposed to resemble one frequently used, when we speak of a whole building as repaired, many parts of which were ruinous or decayed, though some parts remained entire.
This is no doubt true; but what hinders us from saying that the angels also have been gathered together? Not that they were ever scattered, but their attachment to the service of God is now perfect, and their state is eternal. What comparison is there between a creature and the Creator, without the interposition of a Mediator? So far as they are creatures, had it not been for the benefit which they derived from Christ, they would have been liable to change and to sin, and consequently their happiness would not have been eternal. Who then will deny that both angels and men have been brought back to a fixed order by the grace of Christ? Men had been lost, and angels were not beyond the reach of danger. By gathering both into his own body, Christ hath united them to God the Father, and established actual harmony between heaven and earth.
(114) ‘ ᾿Ανακεφαλαιώσασθαι “I have compared this word with συγκεφαλαιοῦσθαι in the writings of Xenophon, so as to bring out this sense, that ‘to Christ, as the Head, all things are subject.’ I am confirmed in this opinion by Chrysostom, who explains it in this manner: μίαν κεφαλὴν ἅπασιν ἐπέθηκε τὸ κατὰ σάρκα Χριστόν, ‘he hath given to all one head, Christ according to the flesh.’ Polybius. also uses συγκεφαλαιοῦσθαι, instead of ἀνακεφαλαιοῦσθαι. So that it is evident that those two words are employed indiscriminately.” — Raphelius.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) That in the dispensation of the fulness of times.The connection marked in our version seems certainly erroneous. The words should be connected with the previous verse, and translated thus: which He purposed in Himself for administration (or disposal) of the fulness of the (appointed) seasons, to gather, &c. We note (1) that the word dispensation is usually applied to the action of the servants of God, as dispensers of His mysteries. (See Eph. 3:2; 1Co. 9:17; Col. 1:25.) Here, however, and in Eph. 3:10, it is applied to the disposal of all by God Himself, according to the law which He has set Himself to do all things by. Next (2) that the word fulness, or completeness, frequently used by St. Paul, is only found in connection with time in this passage, and in Gal. 4:4 (when the fulness of time was come). There, however, the reference is to a point of time, marking the completion of the preparation for our Lords coming; here, apparently, to a series of seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power (Act. 1:7) for the completion of the acts of the Mediatorial kingdom described in the words following. (Comp Mat. 16:3; Luk. 21:24; 1Th. 5:1; 1Ti. 2:6; 1Ti. 4:1; 1Ti. 6:15; Tit. 1:3.)
That he might gather together in one all things in Christ.In these words St. Paul strikes the great keynote of the whole Epistle, the UNITY OF ALL IN CHRIST. The expression to gather together in one is the same which is used in Rom. 13:9 (where all commandments are said to be briefly comprehended, or summed up, in the one saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself). Here, however, there is the additional idea that this gathering up is for Himself. The full meaning of this expression is to gather again under one head things which had been originally one, but had since been separated. The best comment upon the truth here briefly summed up is found in the full exposition of the Epistle to the Colossians (Col. 1:16-20), In Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth . . . all things were created by Him and for Him . . . and in Him all things consist. It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell, and . . . by Him to reconcile all things to Himself . . . whether things on earth or things in heaven. In Christ, as the Word of God in the beginning, all created things are considered as gathered up, through Him actually made, and in Him continuing to exist. This unity, broken by sin, under the effect of which all creation groans (Rom. 8:22), is restored in the Incarnation and Atonement of the Son of God. By this, therefore, all things are again summed up in Him, and again made one in Him with the Father. In both passages St. Paul uses expressions which extend beyond humanity itselfthings in heaven and things in earth, things visible and things invisible, thrones and principalities and powers. In both he immediately proceeds from the grand outline of this wider unity, to draw out in detail the nearer, and to us more comprehensible, unity of all mankind in Christ. (Comp. Col. 1:18; Col. 1:21.) So also writes St. John (Joh. 1:3-4; Joh. 1:12), passing from the thought that all things were made by Him, first to the declaration, In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and next to the power given to those who believed on Him to become sons of God. The lesser part of this truth, setting forth the unity of all mankind in the Second Adam, forms the basis of the argument of 1 Corinthians 15, that in Christ all shall be made alive, in the course of which the existence of the Mediatorial kingdom of Christ is described, and its continuance till the final triumph, when it shall be delivered up to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all (1Co. 15:24; 1Co. 15:28). In virtue of it, those who are His are partakers of His death and resurrection, His ascension, even His judgment (Eph. 2:6; Mat. 19:28; Rom. 6:3-10; 1Co. 6:2-3; Col. 3:1-3).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(10, 11) Even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.We have here (in the repetition, even in Him) an emphatic transition to the truth most closely concerning the Apostle and his readers. The word we is not here emphatic, and the statement might be a general statement applicable to all Christians; but the succeeding verse seems to limit it to the original Jewish believersthe true Israel, who (like the whole of Israel in ancient days) have become a people of inheritance (Deu. 4:20; Deu. 9:29; Deu. 32:9), so succeeding to the privileges (Rom. 11:7) which their brethren in blindness rejected. Possibly this suggests the peculiar word here (and here only) used, meaning either we were made partakers of a lot in Gods kingdom (to which Col. 1:12, who has made us meet for a part of the lot of the saints, closely corresponds), or we were made His lot or inheritance; which perhaps suits the Greek better, certainly accords better with the Old Testament idea, and gives a more emphatic sense. A third possible sense is were chosen by lot. This is adopted by the Vulgate, supported by the only use of the word in the Septuagint (1Sa. 14:41), and explained by Chrysostom and Augustine as signifying the freedom of election without human merit, while by the succeeding words it is shown not to be really by chance, but by Gods secret will. But this seems quite foreign to the genius of the passage.
Being predestinated . . . that we should be to the praise of his glory.This is an application of the general truth before declared (Eph. 1:5-6) that the source of election is Gods predestination, and the object of it the manifestation of His glory.
After the counsel of his own will.The expression evidently denotes not only the deliberate exercise of Gods will by determinate counsel and foreknowledge (Act. 2:23), but also the guidance of that will by wisdom to the fulfilment of the Law Eternal of Gods righteous dispensation. Hooker, in a well-known passage (Eccl. Pol. i. 2), quotes it as excluding the notion of an arbitrary will of God, They err, who think that of Gods will there is no reason except His will.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. , a very difficult clause, being in the English translation in the dispensation of the fulness of times. There is no Greek for the that.
We can best attain an explanation by taking the last word first, and going backwards. , times, signifies the ages, aeons, or time-periods, in each of which a system of events is completed, and from which transition is then made to the next. is the filling full, or rounding out, the events of one given time-system: hence of the time-periods the fulfilling with events. Ellicott perplexes matters by rendering “that moment that completes, fills up,” the time-period; whereas it may be (see Rob. Greek Lex. N.T.) a verbal noun, (equivalent to ,) and signify the process of fulfilling. , dispensation, is the management, administration, or control of the fulfilling of the time-periods, extending over the whole series. Most dubious of all is the , into, a preposition signifying motion to, or into, a place or thing, and impossible to be rendered simply in. The rendering of Erasmus, Calvin, and others, even to, Alford condemns justly as unintelligible. His own in order to, is, perhaps, just as unintelligible. So seems his entire rendering: “According to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself, in order to the economy of the fulfilment of the seasons to sum up all things in the Christ.” Ellicott’s rendering of the preposition, with a view to, for, is better, making it signify mental motion toward a thing.
We apprehend, however, that commentators have not noticed in this connexion the force of the preposition in the phrases , unto, or into, ages; where signifies not only into, but throughout, or in the course of; the preposition running through the whole line of the ages, and so making forever. And so here the force of the preposition is, we think, fully expressed by in the course of. Our own rendering, then, would be: the beneficence which he purposed in himself (namely) in the course of the management of the filling up of the time-periods, to sum up together all things in the Messiah. So, as the final summing up of all is one in the series of the time-periods, the purpose runs through the whole series.
Gather together The Greek a very full compound, re-gather-for-himself. Same as to reconcile in Col 1:20, where see notes. The two passages, written at the same time in epistles sent by the same messengers to the same region of country, must be held as strictly parallel, the clearer defining the less clear. This summing up, or gathering together, is unto the redemption of Eph 1:7, just as the reconcile of Col 1:20 is unto the redemption of Eph 1:14 of that chapter. The nature of the reconciliation in Colossians is made clear by the result of the peace made being by the cross; and so also the fact that you hath he reconciled, in Col 1:21, shows, by specimen, that it is reconciliation by conversion and pardon. This disproves the construction given by Meyer, Alford, and other commentators, that the gather together is compositely a reconciliation of the penitent, together with a subjection of the impenitent to a discordant unity under Christ, as in 1Co 15:28, where see note. Beyond all question, we think, a reconciliation by redemption to peace, through the blood of his cross, of all things in heaven and on earth, is what the apostle means.
Is, then, the doctrine of the actual final restoration of all men to holiness true?
Of all our commentators, Olshausen and Turner express, we think, the truth. Such a restoration is the full divine IDEA of God’s beneficence in the cross. Such is the complete fulness which it pleased the Father there should be in Christ. God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. And hence the apostle beseeches, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled. Christ is officially the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world: the Saviour of all men; the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Thus the divine idea in Christ is a universal salvation through a universal reconciliation; a gathering together of all things in him.
Why is this ideal not realized? A large body of Scriptures lays the fault upon men. On the divine side the idea is sincere, the provisions are ample; on the human side the powers, natural and gracious, are ample; but the fulness of Christ is rejected. The ideal of God’s mercy is universal; but the eternal ideal of his holy choice, election, or predestination, is circumscribed by human perversity; since it can embrace only those who fully accord with it by consenting to be holy. “This is the condemnation, that men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And this is the reason why, in the foreknowledge of God, foreseeing men’s persistent evil, they cannot, in time, be elected to himself by a holy God; yet he, accepting the future facts as they appear to his prescience, nevertheless triumphantly so works all things after the counsel of his own will, as, perhaps, to bring out of this world even a higher result than could have accrued from a sinless world. This last fact may, perhaps, be the divine justification in the non-prevention of the responsible sin his wisdom foresees.
All things in heaven on earth But not in hell. God and man, Christ and man, angels and man, but not God and devils, are brought to peace through the blood of his cross. The only obstacle was man’s enmity and sin, and the consequent holy opposition of all righteous beings to man. When man accepts the cross, the reconciliation becomes complete, and man comes into the happy number of the elect of elect men with elect angels. The making heaven and earth signify Jews and Gentiles, adopted by some commentators, (Dr. Clarke included,) produces a meaning far below the grandeur of St. Paul’s language. Nothing but the fullest meaning of the terms is here admissible.
In him Repeated in joyful emphasis; for Christ is the predominant topic ever since his naming as the Beloved in Eph 1:6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘In him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will, to the end that we should be to the praise of His glory who had beforehand hoped in Christ.’
The glorious sweep of what has been said is now applied directly to us. It is we who have been made His special heritage, chosen and appointed to enjoy all that He has provided for us and all the blessings that He will give us. Through His grace we are what it is all about.
‘In Him, I say, in Whom also we were made a heritage –.’ ‘In Him’. This refers back to the Christ in Whom all things are to be summed up. In carrying out all these purposes it is in Him that we have been made God’s special heritage. Compare Eph 1:18 where he speaks of ‘the richness of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.’ So we are God’s glorious heritage, having been made glorious by Him, and presented to Christ as His inheritance, an inheritance made rich in glory. We are His treasured possession (Eph 1:14). And this was done ‘according to the purpose of Him Who works all things after the counsel of His will’. All was first done within the mind of God, and is worked out by the hand of God. And its aim is that we should be to the praise of His glory who ‘beforehand hoped in Christ’, that is who before the final fulfilment enjoyed a certain, assured ‘hope’, the hope of His coming to sum up all things because we trust in Him. After which His purposes, as far as this universe is concerned, will draw to an end.
The whole passage has redounded with the fact of God working out His own eternal will and purpose. In the great panorama of time and eternity man is the object of God’s gracious working as God works out His will in accordance with His own counsel, and His own wisdom and prudence. But having seen the sweep of salvation history from God’s viewpoint man now comes into the foreground for the first time.
Some see the continual ‘we’ and ‘us’ as referring firstly to believing Jews prior to the time when Paul spoke, including the believing Jews through the ages, so that ‘we who had beforehand hoped’ is referred primarily to Old Testament believers, and this as then being applied to believing Gentiles in Eph 1:13 (note the change there to ‘you’). But this is too narrow an interpretation. It is far more likely that by ‘we’ Paul means all believers in Christ and the change to ‘you’ is simply a change to refer to his specific readers, for his readers would not naturally apply his former words only to Jews, unless it had been spelt out by him, and Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, was hardly likely to be so restrictive without indicating it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eph 1:10. He might gather together The original, ‘, rendered gathered together, properly signifies, to recapitulate, recollect, or put together the heads of a discourse, and to unite again under one head. Both angels and men were at first in harmonious subjection to the Son of God, their common creator; but man having broken himselfoff from this society, the Son of God and Son of Man, by his humiliation and suffering in the humanity, recovers and re-unites all who faithfully adhere to him, and, in his human nature, presides over the kingdom to which, in the world of glory, they and his angels belong. No view can be nobler than that which this interpretation presents. See ch. Eph 3:10. Col 1:16-20. Philippians 2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eph 1:10 . . .] Unto the dispensation of the fulfilling of the times , belongs not to (Bengel), but to the immediately preceding , which is inserted solely with a view to attach to it . . . .; and does not stand for (Vulgate and several Fathers, also Beza, Piscator, and others), but denotes what God in forming that purpose had in view , and is thus telic: with a design to . With the temporal rendering, usque ad (Erasmus, Calvin, Bucer, Estius, Er. Schmid, Michael., and others), we should have to take in a pregnant sense, and to supply mentally: “ consilio secretum et abditum esse voluit ” (Erasmus, Paraphr .), which, however, with the former explanation is superfluous, and hence is arbitrary here, although it would in itself be admissible (Winer, p. 577 [E. T. 776]).
] house-management (Luk 16:2 ), used also in the ethico-theocratic sense (1Ti 1:4 ), and specially of the functions of the apostolic office (1Co 9:17 ; Col 1:25 ), here signifies regulation, disposition, arrangement in general, in which case the conception of an has receded into the background. Comp. Eph 3:2 ; Xen. Cyr. v. 3. 25; Plut. Pomp . 50; frequently in Polyb. (see Schweighaeuser, Lex. Polyb . p. 402); comp. also Mal 3:14Mal 3:14 ; Mal 3:2Mal 3:2 ; Act. Thom. 57.
The , id quo impleta sumt (comp. on Eph 3:19 ) tempora , is not in substance different from , Gal 4:4 ; nevertheless, in our passage the pre-Messianic period running on from the beginning is conceived of not as unity, as at Gal. l.c. , but according to its different sections of time marked off by different epochs, the last of which closes with the setting in of the Messianic work of redemption, and which thus with this setting in become full (like a measure), so that nothing more is lacking to make up the time as a whole, of which they are the parts. This is consequently not, in general, tempus justum (Morus: at its time), but the fulness of the times, i.e. that point of time, by the setting in of which the pre-Messianic ages are made full, [99] that is, are closed as complete. Comp. Herod. iii. 22: (implementum vitae longissimum, i.e. longissimum tempus, quo impletur vita ), and see on Gal 4:4 ; Wetstein on Mar 1:15 . Fritzsche (in Thesauri quo sacrae N.T. glossae illustr. specim. , Rostock 1839, p. 25, and ad Rom. II. p. 473) conceives it otherwise, holding that is plenitas , the abstract of , hence . . . plenum tempus , . But while doubtless signifies impletio , like , in Eze 5:2 ; Dan 10:3 ; Soph. Track. 1203; Eurip. Tro . 824, it never denotes the being full.
Now, in what way is the genitive-relation
] epexegetical infinitive , which gives information as to the actual contents of that : ( namely) again to gather up together , etc. Therein the arrangement designated by . . . . was to consist. This connection is that which naturally suggests itself, and is more in keeping with the simple mode followed in the context of annexing the new portions of the discourse to what immediately precedes, than the connection with (Zachariae, Flatt, and others), or with . . (Beza: Paul is explaining quid mysterii nomine significare voluerit ; also Harless, comp. Olshausen, Schmid, bibl. Theol . II. p. 347, and others). We may add that Beza, Piscator, and others have taken . . . . . along with . as one idea; but in that case the preceding must appear quite superfluous and aimless, and . . . . , by being prefixed to . , irrelevantly receives the main emphasis, which is not to be removed from .
] in the verb means, as it does also in classical usage, chief thing, main point (see Wetstein, ad Rom 13:9 ); hence : summatim, colligere , as in Thuc. iii. 67. 5, vi. 91. 6, viii. 53. 1; Quinctil. i. 6. Comp. , Xen. Cyr. viii. 1. 15; Polyb. iii. 3. 1, 7, iv. 1. 9. Consequently : summatim recolligere , which is said in Rom 13:9 of that which has been previously expressed singulatim , in separate parts, but now is again gathered up in one main point, so that at Rom. l.c. denotes that main point, in which the gathering, up is contained. And here this main point of gathering up again, unifying all the parts, lies in Christ ; hence the gathering up is not verbal , as in Rom. l.c. , but real , as is distinctly apparent from the objects gathered up together, . . . It is to be observed withal, (1) that . does not designate Christ as although He really is so (Eph 1:22 ) so that it would be tantamount to (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Erasmus, Luther, Piscator, Calovius, Bengel, Michaelis, Zachariae, Koppe, Matthies, Meier, de Wette, and others), but as , which is evident from the etymology; (2) that we are not to bring in, with Grotius and Hammond, the conception of scattered warriors, or, with Camerarius, that of an arithmetical sum ( , see Wetstein, l.c. ), which must have been suggested by the context; (3) that the force of the middle is the less to be overlooked, inasmuch as an act of government on God’s part is denoted: sibi summatim recolligere ; (4) that we may not give up the meaning of , iterum (Winer, de verbor. cum praep. conj. in N.T. usu , III. p. 3 f.), which points back to a state in which no separation as yet existed (in opposition to Chrysostom, Castalio, and many others). This has had its just force already recognised by the Peshito and Vulgate ( instaurare ), as well as by Tertull. de Monog . 5 ( ad initium reciprocare ), [100] although is overlooked by the former, and wrongly apprehended by the latter. See the more detailed discussion below.
] is referred by many (see below) merely to intelligent beings, or to men , which, according to a well-known use of the neuter, would be in itself admissible (Gal 3:22 ), but would need to be suggested by the context. It is quite general: all created things and beings . Comp. Eph 1:22-23 .
] that which is on the heavens and that which is on the earth . . (see the critical remarks) is so conceived of that the heavens are the stations at which the things concerned are to be found. Comp. the well-known (Hom. Il. iii. 195, al. ); ( Il. iii. 149); ( Il. vi. 431). Even in the classical writers, we may add, prepositions occurring in close succession often vary their construction without any special design in it. See Khner, ad Xen. Mem . i. 1. 20. Comp. as to the local with genitive and dative, e.g. Hom. Il. i. 486. As regards the real sense , . is not to be arbitrarily limited either to the spirits in heaven generally (Rckert, Meier), or to the angels (Chrysostom, Calvin, Cameron, Balduin, Grotius, Estius, Calovius, Bengel, Michaelis, Zachariae, Bosenmiiller, Baumgarten-Crusius, and others), or to the blessed spirits of the pious men of the O. T. (Beza, Piscator, Boyd, Wolf, Moldenhauer, Flatt, and others), nor must we understand by it the Jews , and by the Gentiles (Locke, Schoettgen, Baumgarten, Teller, Ernesti), as, indeed, Koppe was able to bring out of it all mankind by declaring heaven and earth to be a periphrasis for ; but, entirely without restriction, all things and beings existent in the heavens and upon earth are meant, so that the preceding is specialized in its two main divisions. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer . iii. 18, quite arbitrarily thought of all events which should have come to pass on earth or in heaven, and which God gathers up, i.e. brings to their complete fulfilment, in Christ as in their goal. Comp. Chrys.: , .
But how far has God gathered together again all things, things heavenly and things earthly, in Christ? Before the entrance of sin all created beings and things were undividedly united under God’s government; all things in the world were normally combined into organic unity for God’s ends and in His service. But through sin this original union and harmony was broken, first of all in heaven, where a part of the angels sinned and fell away from God; [101] these formed, under Satan, the kingdom antagonistic to God, and upon earth brought about the fall of man (2Co 11:3 ), extended their sway farther and farther, and were even worshipped in the heathen idols (1Co 10:20 f.). With the fall of man there came to an end also the normal state of the non-intelligent (Rom 8:19 ff.); heaven and earth, which had become the scene of sin and of the demoniac kingdom (Eph 2:2 , Eph 6:12 ), were destined by God to destruction, in order that one day a new heaven and a new earth in which not sin any more, but moral righteousness shall dwell, and God shall be the all-determining power in all (1Co 15:28 ) shall come imperishable (Rom 8:21 ) in its place (2Pe 3:13 ). The redeeming work of Jesus Christ (comp. Col 1:20 ) was designed to annul again this divided state in the universe, which had arisen through sin in heaven and upon earth, and to reestablish the unity of the kingdom of God in heaven and on earth; so that this gathering together again should rest on , and have its foundations in, Christ as the central point of union and support, without which it could not emerge. Before the Parousia, it is true, this is still but in course of development; for the devil is still with his demons (Eph 6:12 ), is still fighting against the kingdom of God and holding sway over many; many men reject Christ, and the longs after the renewal. But with the Parousia there sets in the full realization, which is the (Mat 19:28 ; Act 3:21 ; 2Pe 3:10 ff.); when all antichristian natures and powers shall be discarded out of heaven and earth, so that thereafter nothing in heaven or upon earth shall be excluded from this gathering together again. Comp. Photius in Oecumenius. Finally, the middle voice ( sibi recolligere) has its warrant in the fact that God is the Sovereign (the head of Christ, 1Co 11:4 ; 1Co 3:23 ), who fulfils His will and aim by the gathering up again, etc.; so that, when the is completed by the victory over all antichristian powers, He resumes even the dominion committed to the Son, and then God is the sole ruling principle (1Co 15:24 ; 1Co 15:28 ). Our passage is accordingly so framed as to receive its historically adequate elucidation from the N.T., and especially from Paul himself; and there is no reason for seeking to explain it from a later system of ideas, as Baur does (p. 424), who traces it to the underlying Gnostic idea, that all spiritual life which has issued from the supreme God must return to its original unity, and in that view the “affected” expression . . . . . is held to convey a covert allusion to the Gnostic pleroma of aeons and its economy. See, on the other hand, Rbiger, Christol. Paulina , p. 55. The “genuinely Catholic consciousness” (Baur, Christenth. d. drei erst. Jahrh . p. 109) of the Epistle is just the genuinely apostolic one, necessarily rooted in Christ’s own word and work. The person of Christ is not presented “under the point of view of the metaphysical necessity of the process of the self-realizing idea” (Baur, neutest. Theol . p. 264), but under that of its actual history, as this was accomplished, in accordance with the counsel of the Father, by the free obedience of the Lord.
[99] The apostolic idea of the excludes the conception of a series of worlds without beginning or end (Rothe). See Gess, v. d. Pers. Chr. p. 170 ff.
[100] Comp. Goth.: “ aftra usfulljan ” ( again to fill up ).
[101] For this falling away is the necessary presupposition for the Satanic seduction of our first parents, 1Jn 3:8-10 ; Joh 8:44 , where an originally evil nature of the devil (Frommann, Hilgenfeld) is not to be thought of; see Hahn, Theol. d. N.T. I. p. 319 ff. On Jud 1:6 and 1Ti 3:6 , in which passages a reference has been wrongly found to the first fall in the angelic world, see Huther.
REMARK 1.
The illustration which Chrysostom has given for . , from the conception of a house repaired ( ), has been again employed by Harless, whose view of the passage (approved by Schenkel) is that the apostle speaks thus, “ because the Lord and Creator of the whole body, of which heaven and earth are members, has in the restoration of the one member restored the whole body; and in this consists the greatest significance of the reconciliation, that it is not merely a restoration of the life of earth, but a bringing back of the harmony of the universe .” But in this way the words of the apostle are made withal to suggest merely the doing away of the contrast between heaven and earth (or, according to Schenkel’s tortuous metaphor, “between the heavenly glorified centre of creation and the earthly, sin-troubled circumference of creation”), and there is conceded to the merely an indirect participation in the , and the direct de facto operation of the Messianic on the heavenly world is set aside which appears the less admissible, inasmuch as . . has the precedence . According to Paul, the heavenly world and the earthly world were to be affected, the former as immediately and properly as the latter, by the ; for the Satanic kingdom, for the destruction of which Christ came, and whose destruction was the condition of the , has its seat in the regions of heaven (Eph 6:12 ; comp. Hahn, Theol. d. N.T. I. p. 343 ff.), and works in the (Eph 2:2 ) upon earth, so that in heaven and upon earth there exists no unity under God.
REMARK 2.
The doctrine of Restoration , according to which those who have continued unbelieving and the demons shall still ultimately attain to salvation, altogether opposed as it is to the N.T., finds no support in our passage, where (in opposition to Origen, Samuel Crell, and others), on the contrary, in the . . . . there is obviously implied, from the general point of view occupied by Christian faith, the separation of unbelievers and of the demoniac powers, and their banishment into Gehenna; so that the is not meant of every single individual , but of the whole aggregate of heavenly and earthly things, which, after the antichristian individuals have been separated and consigned to hell, shall again in the renewed world be combined into unity under God, as once, before the entrance of sin, all things in heaven and on earth were combined into such unity. Hence Olshausen is wrongly of opinion that our passage (as well as Col 1:20 ) is to be brought into harmony with the general type of Scripture doctrine by laying stress in the infinitive . upon the design of God “which, in the instituting of a redemption endowed with infinite efficacy, aims at the restoration of universal harmony , at the bringing back of all that is lost .” Apart from the fact that . is only an epexegetical infinitive (see above), it is altogether opposed to Scripture to assume that the aim in redemption is the restoration of all that is lost, even of the devils . For those passages as to the universality of redemption, and sayings like 1Pe 4:6 , Phi 2:10 f., leave the constant teaching of the N.T. concerning everlasting perdition entirely untouched (comp. on Rom 5:18 ; Rom 11:32 ; Phi 2:10 ); and as regards the devils , the design of God in the economy of redemption was to vanquish them (1Jn 3:8 , and elsewhere; 1Co 15:24 f.), and to deliver them up to the penalties already prepared for them of everlasting pain in hell (Mat 25:41 ; Jud 1:6 ; 2Pe 2:4 ; Rev 20:1 f.; comp. Bertholdt, Christol . p. 223). The restoration of the devils, as an impossibility in the case of spirits radically opposed to God, is not in the whole N.T. so much as thought of. The prince of this world is only judged .
REMARK 3.
Those who understand . specially of the angels (see above) have been driven inasmuch as these pure spirits have no need of redemption in the proper sense to unbiblical shifts, such as the view of Calvin (comp. Boyd): that the angels before the redemption were not extra periculum , but had through Christ attained “ primum ut perfecte et solide adhaereant Deo, deinde ut perpetuum statum retineant ” (of all which the N.T. teaches nothing!); or that of Grotius: “ antea inter angelos factiones erant et studia pro populis (Dan 10:13 !) ea sustulit Christus, rex factus etiam angelorum, unum ex tot populis sibi populum colligens ;” or that of Augustine and Zeger, that the number of the angels, which had been diminished by the fall of some, was completed again by the elect from among men. Baur (comp. Zanchius), out of keeping with the notion of the , thought of the knowledge (Eph 3:10 ) and bliss (Luk 15:10 ) of the angels as heightened by redemption. Others again (Chrysostom on Col 1:20 ; Theophylact, Anselm, Cornelius a Lapide, Hunnius, Calovius, Bengel, et al. ) have found the in the fact that the separation which sin had occasioned between the angels and sinful men was done away. [102] So also in substance Rckert: “Originally and according to the will of God the whole world of spirits was to be one, through like love and obedience towards the one God. Sin did away with this relation, mankind became separated from God; hence also of necessity the bond was broken, which linked them to the higher world of spirits. Christ is to unite mankind to Himself by a sacred bond, and thereby to bring them back to God, and by that very act also to do away with the breach; all is again to become one.” Comp. Meier, as also Bhr on Col 1:20 . But the apostle is in fact speaking of the reuniting not of the heavenly with the earthly, but of the heavenly and the earthly (comp. Remark 1); moreover, according to this explanation, the of the heavenly spirits with men would be the consequence of the expiation made for men by Christ, and thus Paul must logically have written: . .
[102] In connection with this view it was quite arbitrarily, and with a distinction at variance with Scripture, assumed that Christ was, as to His divine nature, the head of the angels, and as to His human nature, the head of men.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
(10) That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
I beg to consider this verse alone. There is not perhaps the fellow to it, in relation to the vast subject it treats of in all the Bible. It opens to us the very heart of God, as it respects his whole designs of grace, toward the Church. It shows us, how, from all eternity, the mind of Jehovah hath been occupied on this grand concern. And, what I beg yet more particularly for the Reader to remark with me upon the occasion, is, that it most plainly, and decidedly shows, that the whole designs of Jehovah, are to glorify the Lord Jesus. All is said to be decreed for him. All things are to centre in him. The dispensation of events, and the fullness of times, are all directing their several pursuits to this one termination; and, like the numberless rays of light, converging to one centre, all are to meet in him. I admire the repetition, even in him. There is a blessed emphasis in it, and so designed to be, in order to intimate the importance of the thing: even in him, We have another beautiful example of the same kind, Col 1:20 . By him I say, saith Paul. As if (and which is in reality the case,) the glory of Christ, (which is the only visible manifestation of Jehovah,) became the one ; and only object, for which the Lord went forth in acts of creation. 2Co 4:1 ; Joh 1:18 .
I cannot attempt to enter into the vast subject of this one verse. I would ponder over it with the most profound reverence, and attention. And, I would pray the Reader, to do the same. But it, must be God the Spirit’s province, to unfold, and explain. The very outlines of it are volumes.
First. What a view is here given, of the original, and ultimate design of Jehovah, in all his dispensations; namely, to gather all things in Christ. Think, Reader! What a wonderful Person must this God-man be in himself, independent of every other consideration, in whom all things are finally to be gathered ?
Secondly. What a new, and living way, is here opened to our contemplation, for communion, and happiness, with Jehovah, in his threefold Personalities, in, and through, this wonderful Person; to whom all things are to be gathered, and in whom, and by whom alone, all access, entrance, and acceptation, can be found ?
Thirdly. What grace, and love, and affection, doth the very plan of Jehovah’s wisdom by this way manifest, towards the Church; since, without this bond of fusion, formed by that portion of human nature taken into the Godhead by Christ, there could have been no gathering to God, neither communion with God. For so infinite is the distance, between what is created, and the Creator; between what is visible, and invisible; finite, and infinite; comprehensible, and incomprehensible; that, but for the Son of God assuming union with our nature, to act as a medium, and bond of union; there could have been no meeting-place between God and his creatures, neither open revelation to all eternity. The Apostle, therefore, appears to have been so sensible of this, that, when speaking of this gathering of all things to Christ, he lays the whole emphasis on Him, to whom the gathering is to be. Christ is the great Him: the only Him, by whom, and in whom, it can be accomplished. By virtue of his being the Head of his body the Church, he becomes both the centre of union, and of communication; and is the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
Reader ! pause over the vast subject ! Think of Christ’s Person! How dear to God! How dear ought He to be to us! What an awful state must they be in, who deny his Godhead? Oh! the folly, the vast folly, of such unbelief! How can He be less than God, unto whom all things are to be finally gathered ? Think, what an awful gathering that will be, of the infidel, who, when the Lord shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, will appoint him, his portion with the unbelievers. Luk 12:46 . And think, what a glorious gathering of his redeemed, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all that believe. 2Th 1:10 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Ver. 10. That in the dispensation ] God is the best economic; his house is exactly ordered for matter of good husbandry, . “Dispensation of the fulness of time” is (by a metonmy a of the adjunct) put for “fulness of times,” wisely dispensed. (Bain.)
Gather together in one ] Gr. , recapitulate, reduce all to a head, recollect, to restore all things, and bring them to their primitive perfection.
Both which are in heaven ] The crowned saints, and perhaps the glorious angels, who (according to some divines) being in themselves changeable creatures (and therefore called Shinan, that is, mutable, Psa 68:17 ), receive confirmation by Christ, so that they cannot leave their first station, as did the apostate angels. Others think that the angels stand not by means of Christ’s mediation, but of God’s eternal election, and are therefore called the elect angels.
a A figure of speech which consists in substituting for the name of a thing the name of an attribute of it or of something closely related. D
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eph 1:10 . : unto a dispensation . This expresses the end which God had in view in that which He purposed. Some (Erasm., Calv., etc.) give the temporal sense of usque ad. But the idea is rather the more definite one of design . God had His reason for the long delay in the revelation of the “mystery”. That reason lay in the fact that the world was not ripe for the dispensation of grace which formed the contents of the mystery. In classical Greek the word had the two meanings of ( a ) administration , the management of a house or of property, and ( b ) the office of administrator or steward. It was used of such things as the arrangement of the parts of a building (Vitruv., i., 2), the disposition of the parts of a speech (Quint., Inst. , iii., 3), and more particularly of the financial administration of a city (Arist., Pol. , Eph 3:14 ; cf. Light., Notes, sub voc. ). It has the same twofold sense in the NT an arrangement or administration of things (in the passages in the present Epistle and in 1Ti 1:4 ), and the office of administrator in particular the stewardship with which Paul was entrusted by God (1Co 9:17 ; Col 1:25 ). The idea at the basis of the statement here, therefore, as also in the somewhat analogous passage in Gal 4:1-11 , is that of a great household of which God is the Master and which has a certain system of management wisely ordered by Him. Cf. the figure of the Church as the household of God (1Ti 3:15 ; Heb 3:2-6 ; 1Pe 4:17 ), and the parables which run in terms of God as (Mat 13:27 ; Mat 20:1 ; Mat 20:11 ; Mat 21:33 ; Luk 13:25 ; Luk 14:21 ). : of the fulness of the times . That is, a dispensation belonging to the fulness of the times. The gen. cannot be the gen. objecti (Storr, etc.), nor the epexegetic gen. (Harl.), but must be that of characteristic quality, “a dispensation proper to the fulness of the times” (Mey.), or it may express the relation of time , as in (Rom 2:5 ), (Jud 1:6 ). In Gal 4:4 the phrase takes the more general form ; here it has the more specific form , the fulness of the seasons , or series of appointed, determinate times. The idea of the fitness of the times, it is probable, is also expressed by the as distinguished from , the former being a qualitative term, the latter a quantitative (see Light., Notes , p. 70). Cf. Heb 1:1 , and especially the of Mar 1:15 . In classical Greek appears to have both the passive sense, “that which is filled,” and the active, “that which fills”. The former is rare, the latter is sufficiently common. See Lidd. and Scott, Lex. , and Rost u. Palm., Worth., sub voce . In the NT likewise it seems to have both senses (though this is questioned); the passive being found in the great doctrinal passages in the Pauline Epistles (Eph 3:19 ; Eph 4:13 , etc.), the active occurring more frequently and in a variety of applications (Mat 9:16 ; Mar 2:21 ; Mar 6:43 ; Mar 8:20 ; Rom 11:12 ; 1Co 10:26 ). With reference to time it means “complement” the particular time that completes a long prior period or a previous series of seasons. The purport of the statement, therefore, appears to be this: God has His household, the kingdom of heaven, with its special disposition of affairs, its or steward (who is Christ), its own proper method of administration, and its gifts and privileges intended for its members. But these gifts and privileges could not be dispensed in their fulness while those for whom they were meant were under age (Gal 4:1-3 ) and unprepared for them. A period of waiting had to elapse, and when the process of training was finished and the time of maturity was reached the gifts could be bestowed in their completeness. God, the Master of the House, had this fit time in view as the hidden purpose of His grace. When that time came He disclosed His secret in the incarnation of Christ and introduced the new disposition of things which explained His former dealings with men and the long delay in the revelation of the complete purpose of His grace. So the Fathers came to speak of the incarnation as the (Just., Dial. , 45, 120; Iren., i., 10; Orig., C. Cels. , ii., 9, etc.). This “conomy of the fulness of the seasons,” therefore, is that stewardship of the Divine grace which was to be the trust of Christ, in other words, the dispensation of the Gospel, and that dispensation as fulfilling itself in the whole period from the first advent of Christ to the second. In this last respect the present passage differs from that in Gal 4:4 . In the latter “the fulness of the time” appears to refer definitely to the mission of Christ into the world and His work there. Here the context (especially the idea expressed by the next clause) extends the reference to the final completion of the work and the close of the dispensation at the Second Coming. : to sum up . Or, having regard to the Middle Voice, “to sum up for Himself”. The sentence thus introduced is one of the select class of passages which refer to the cosmical relations of Christ’s Person or Work. It is one of great doctrinal importance. Its exact import, however, is very differently understood by different interpreters. Every word in it requires attention. There is first the question of its precise relation to the paragraph of which it forms part. The inf. is taken by most (Mey., Ell., etc.) to be the epexegetic inf., conveying something complementary to, or explanatory of, the preceding statement, and so = “namely (or to wit), to sum up”. It is that inf., however, in the particular aspect of consequence or contemplated result = “so as to sum up” (so Light.; cf. Win.-Moult., pp. 399, 400). But with what part of the paragraph is this complementary sentence immediately connected? The doctrinal significance of the sentence depends to a considerable extent on the answer to the question, and the answer takes different forms. Some understand the thing which is explained or complemented to be the whole idea contained in the statement from onwards, “at once the content of the , the object of the , and the object reserved for the .” (Abb.). Others limit it to the (Bez., Harl., Kl [55] ), or to the (Flatt, Hofm.). Others understand it to refer to the in particular, the clause being regarded as a parenthesis (Alf., Haupt); and others regard it as unfolding the meaning of the immediately preceding clause the . . . . (Mey., etc.). The last seems to be the simplest view, the others involving more or less remoteness of the explanatory sentence from the sentence to be explained. So the point would be that the conomy , the new order of things which God in the purpose of His grace had in view for the fulness of the seasons, was one which had for its end or object a certain summing up of all things. But in what sense is this summing up to be understood? The precise meaning of this rare word has to be looked at. In the classics it is used of repeating summarily the points of a speech, gathering its argument together in a summary form. So Quintilian explains the noun as rerum repetitio et congregatio (vi., 1), and Aristotle speaks of the as being ( Frag. , 123). In late Greek the verb means also to present in compendious form or to reproduce ( Protev. fac. , 13). The simple verb in the classics denotes in like manner to state summarily , or bring under heads (Thuc. iii., 67, vi., 91, etc.), and the noun is used in the sense of the chief point (Plato, Laws , 643 D), the sum of the matter (Pind., P. , 4, 206), a head or topic in argument (Dionys. Hal., De Rhet. , x., 5), a recapitulation of an argument (Plato, Tim. , 26, etc.). In the NT the verb occurs only twice, namely here and in Rom 13:9 ; in which latter passage it is used of the summing up of the various commandments in the one requirement of love to one’s neighbour. The simple verb occurs only once, viz. , in Mar 12:4 , where it has the sense of wounding in the head ; but the text is uncertain there, TTrWH reading with [56] [57] [58] , etc. The noun is found twice, viz. , in Act 22:28 , where it has the sense of a sum of money (as in Lev 6:5 ; Num 5:7 ; Num 31:26 ), and in Heb 8:1 , where it means the chief point in the things that the writer has been saying. The prevailing idea conveyed by these terms, therefore, appears to be that of a logical, rhetorical, or arithmetical summing up. The subsequent specification of the objects of the , however, makes it plain that what is in view here is not a logical or rhetorical, but a real or objective summing up. Further, as the verb comes not from but from , it does not refer to the summing up of things under a head , and the point of view, therefore, is not that of the Headship of Christ which comes to distinct expression at the close of the chapter. On the other hand it does not seem necessary to limit the sense of the word (with Haupt) to the idea of a rsum or compendious presentation of things in a single person. The question remains as to the force of the prep. in the compound verb. The is taken by many to add the idea of again , and to make the result or end in view the bringing things back to a unity which had once existed but had been lost. So it is understood by the Pesh., the Vulg., Tertull. ( e.g. , in his Adv. Marc. , v., 17, “affirmat omnia ad initium recolligi in Christo”; in the De Monog. , 5, “adeo in Christo omnia revocantur ad initium,” etc.), Mey., Alf., Abb., etc. On the other hand, Chrys. makes the compound verb equivalent to ; and the idea of a return to a former condition is negatived by many, the being taken to have simply the sense which it has in , , , , , etc., and to express the idea of “ going over the separate elements for the purpose of uniting them” (Light., Notes , p. 322). Usage on the whole is on the side of the latter view, and accordingly the conclusion is drawn by some that this “summing up” is not the recovery of a broken pristine unity, but the gathering together of objects now apart and unrelated into a final, perfect unity. Nevertheless it may be said that the verb, if it does not itself definitely express the idea of the restoration of a lost unity, gets that idea from the context. For the whole statement, of which the clause forms part, runs in terms of a redemption , and the cognate passage in Col 1:20 speaks of a final reconciliation of all things. : all things . An all-inclusive phrase, equivalent to the totality of creation; not things only, nor yet men or intelligent beings only (although the phrase might bear that sense, cf. Gal 3:22 ), but, as the context shows, all created objects, men and things. Cf. the universal expression in Col 1:20 . : in Christ , or rather “in the Christ,” the introduction of the article indicating that the term has its official sense here. The same is clearly the case in Eph 1:12 , and, as Alford notices, the article does not seem to be attached to the term after a prep. unless some special point is in view. The point of union in this gathering together of all things is the Christ of God. In Him they are to be unified. : the things in the heavens. and the things upon the earth . Or, according to the better reading and as in RV marg., the things upon the heavens, and the things upon the earth . The reading of the TR, though supported by [59] [60] [61] , most cursives, Chrys., etc., must give place to , which is adopted by LTTrWH on the basis of [62] [63] [64] [65] , etc. It is an unusual form for the compound phrase, the term being ordinarily coupled with ( cf. Eph 3:15 ; also the parallel in Col 1:20 , where the is poorly attested). The in , however, may have the force of at , which it has in such phrases as ( Il. , iii., 149), ( Il. , vi., 431), (Act 3:10-11 ), the heavens being regarded, as Meyer thinks, as “the stations at which the things concerned are to be found”. The phrase in its two contrasted parts defines the preceding , making the all-inclusive nature of its universality clear by naming its great divisions. It is not to be understood as referring in its first section to any particular class, spirits in heaven, departed saints of Old Testament times, angels (as even Chrys. and Calv. thought), Jews , and in its second section specifically to men or to Gentiles . It explains the universality expressed by as the widest possible and most comprehensive universality, including the sum total of created objects, wherever found, whether men or things. : in him . Emphatic resumption of the and transition to the following statement, solemnly re-affirming also, as Ell. suggests, where the true point of unity designed by God, or the sphere of its manifestation, is to be found.
[55] Klpper.
[56] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[57] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[58] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.
[59] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).
[60] Codex Boernerianus (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.
[61] Codex Mosquensis (sc. ix.), edited by Matthi in 1782.
[62] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[63] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[64] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.
[65] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.
The passage has been supposed (Orig., Crell., etc.) to teach the doctrine of a Universal Restoration. But interpreted as above it has nothing to do with any such doctrine, whether in the sense of a final salvation of all unrighteous and unbelieving men or in that of a final recovery of all evil beings, devils and men alike. Nor, again, does it refer particularly to the case of the individual . It speaks, as Meyer notices, of the “aggregate of heavenly and earthly things,” and of that as destined to make a true unity at last. Another view of the general import of the statement, which has been elaborated with much ability by Haupt, requires some notice. Pressing to its utmost the sense of a rsum or summary , which he regards as the idea essentially contained in the terms in question, he contends that the meaning of the statement is that in Christ, who belongs at once to humanity and to the heavenly world, should be seen the compendious presentation of all beings and things that in His person should be summarised the totality of created objects, both earthly and heavenly, so that outside Him nothing should exist. He looks for the proper parallel to this not in Col 1:20 , but in Col 1:16-17 , where it is said of Christ that “in Him were all things created” and that “in Him all things consist”. And he appeals in support of his view to the use of the kindred verb in Xen. ( Cyr. , viii., 1, 15, viii., 6, 14), where it expresses the organisation of a multitude of slaves under one representative, in whom they and their acts were so embodied that Cyrus could transact with all when dealing with the one. But the idea of Christ’s agency in the first creation and the continuous maintenance of things is not expressed in the passage in Ephesians, and while it is the pre-existent Christ that is in view in Col 1:16 , here it is the risen Christ. It remains, therefore, that the present passage belongs to the same class as Rom 8:20-22 ; Col 1:20 , etc., and expresses the truth that Christ is to be the point of union and reconciliation for all things, so that the whole creation shall be finally restored by Him to its normal condition of harmony and unity.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
That in. Greek. eis. App-104.
dispensation. Greek. oikonomia. See 1Co 9:17.
fulness. Greek. pleroma. First occurance: Mat 9:16.
He might gather together in one = to sum up (literally: “head up”). Greek. anakephalaioomai. See Rom 13:9. The verb in this place being in Mid. voice is reflexive, implying “for Himself” (compare verses: Eph 1:5, Eph 1:9).
both. Omit.
in. The texts read epi, as below.
heaven = the heavens (plural) See Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.
on. Greek. epi. App-104.
earth. App-129.
even. Omit.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eph 1:10. , in) Construe with , having made known.- , the dispensation of the fulness of the times) Fulness , of the times,[10] is in some degree distinguished from the fulness , of the time, Gal 4:4, for it involves the fulness of the benefits themselves, and of men reaping these benefits, Mar 1:15. Still each fulness is in Christ, and there is a certain peculiar economy and dispensation of this fulness, Col 1:25. Paul very often uses the words and in writing to the Ephesians and Colossians.-) that all might be brought under one head. All things had been under Christ; but they had been torn and rent from Him by sin: again they have been brought under His sway. Christ is the head of angels and of men: the former agree with Him in His invisible, the latter in His visible nature.- , all things [the whole range of things]) not only Jews and Gentiles, but also those things which are in heaven and upon the earth:-angels and men, and the latter including those who are alive as well as those long ago dead, Eph 3:15.- , in the heavens) in the plural.
[10] Seasons rather.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Eph 1:10
Eph 1:10
to a dispensation-That at the time when he would consider it most favorable he would gather together all things in Christ. [This marks the period during which the summing of all things is to be accomplished-the period of the dispensation of grace. The term suggests the idea or system not consisting of mere fragmentary parts, but a thoroughly compact and organized system, in which the individual parts have their due places in the working out of a destined result. Just as in creation there is unity of plan with certain typical ideas and regulative members lying at its base, so there is in Gods dispensation a certain succession of times and seasons working out the purpose of his will. The God who made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation. (Act 17:26). The coming of Christ into the world marks the new era in history, dividing it into two parts. The appearance of Christ marking the turning point between them.]
of the fulness of the times,-[The epoch in question is the best time in the divine calendar. For it is Gods time, and he is the Lord of all time. The age that saw the advent of the Savior was ripe for the event It was the day appointed of the father. (Gal 4:2). The Roman Government had opened the highways for the gospel in every land by its mighty conquests and its large toleration, while Greece gave the world the richest of languages to become the New Testament inspiration. Meanwhile man-made religion had outlived itself, and skepticism mocked at the decaying superstition of the people. In the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God. (1Co 1:21). All Gentile experiments in living had been tried, but with the unvarying results of disappointment. Meanwhile there was at the heart of heathenism a mysterious longing for some change in the worlds destinies, and the eyes of men turned instinctively to the East. It was Gods will that the Gentiles should, with a conscious need of redemption, feel after him for themselves, if haply they might . . . find him. (Act 17:27). Among the Jews, likewise, there was a significant looking for the consolation of Israel. (Luk 2:25). Idolatry among them had entirely disappeared and many hearts were prepared to welcome the desire of all nations. (Hag 2:7). The full age had come, when the heir would enter on his inheritance. Thus the advent was in every sense the fulness of time. It was the due time when Christ died for the ungodly. The world had long waited for it. The purpose of God had only to receive its fulfilment by the coming of Christ.]
to sum up all things in Christ,-These words strike the keynote of the whole epistle-the unity of all in Christ. To sum up all things is the same expression used where all commandments are said to be summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (Rom 13:9). The full meaning of the expression in the passage before us is to gather again under one head the things that had been originally one, but had since been separated. The best comment upon the truth here briefly summed up is found in the following: In him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether throne or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens. (Col 1:16-20).
the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth;-All things in heaven as well as in earth are reconciled in him. The apostle says: Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth. (Php 2:9-10). That is, everything in heaven and on earth shall be united under the rule of Christ. The government of Christ on earth is the kingdom or rule of heaven extended to earth. In the beginning the earth was an outer court of heaven, in which God dwelt, and over which he ruled supreme, but his rule has been subverted and destroyed by the rebellion of man.
in him, I say,-[He is not speaking of Christ in the abstract, considered in his person or as he dwells in heaven, but in his relation to men and to time. The Christ manifest in Jesus (Eph 4:20-21), the Christ of prophets and apostles, the Messiah of the ages, the husband of the church (Eph 5:23), the author and finisher of this grand restoration.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
dispensation of the fullness of times
The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. This, the seventh and last of the ordered ages which condition human life on the earth, is identical with the kingdom covenanted to David. 2Sa 7:8-17; Zec 12:8
Summary;
Luk 1:31-33; 1Co 15:24, and gathers into itself under Christ all past “times”:
(1) The time of oppression and misrule ends by Christ taking His kingdom. Isa 11:3; Isa 11:4.
(2) The time of testimony and divine forbearance ends in judgment. Mat 25:31-46; Act 17:30; Act 17:31; Rev 20:7-15.
(3) The time of toil ends in rest and reward. 2Th 1:6; 2Th 1:7.
(4) The time of suffering ends in glory. Rom 8:17; Rom 8:18.
(5) The time of Israel’s blindness and chastisement ends in restoration and conversion. Rom 11:25-27; Eze 39:25-29.
(6) The times of the Gentiles end in the smiting of the image and the setting up of the kingdom of the heavens. Dan 2:34; Dan 2:35; Rev 19:15-21.
(7) The time of creation’s thraldom ends in deliverance at the manifestation of the sons of God. Gen 3:17; Isa 11:6-8; Rom 8:19-21.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
in the: Isa 2:2-4, Dan 2:44, Dan 9:24-27, Amo 9:11, Mic 4:1, Mic 4:2, Mal 3:1, 1Co 10:11, Gal 4:4, Heb 1:2, Heb 9:10, Heb 11:40, 1Pe 1:20
he: Eph 1:22, Eph 2:15, Eph 3:15, Gen 49:10, Mat 25:32, 1Co 3:22, 1Co 3:23, 1Co 11:3, Phi 2:9, Phi 2:10, Col 1:20, Col 3:11, Heb 12:22-24, Rev 5:9, Rev 7:4-12, Rev 19:4-6
heaven: Gr. the heavens
Reciprocal: Lev 3:6 – a sacrifice Pro 8:23 – General Isa 54:7 – with Isa 56:8 – Yet Mat 24:31 – gather Mar 1:15 – The time Joh 11:52 – gather Act 1:7 – It Act 10:11 – and a Rom 8:28 – the called Rom 11:15 – the reconciling 1Co 1:30 – in Eph 1:3 – in Christ Eph 3:9 – fellowship Eph 3:18 – with Col 1:16 – in heaven Col 1:18 – he is 2Th 2:1 – and by 1Ti 2:6 – in Tit 1:3 – in Heb 9:26 – in
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
(Eph 1:10.) -In reference to the dispensation of the fulness of the times. Winer, 49, a, c (). The article is absent before , as the term is so well defined by the following genitives. Winer, 19, 2, b. does not signify until, as Bullinger, Erasmus, Calvin, Estius, Bucer, Zanchius, and Grotius have supposed; as if the sense were-that the mystery had been kept concealed until this dispensation was introduced. This gives an emphasis and intensity of meaning to , which the word cannot well bear. Nor can be rightly taken for , as is done by Jerome, Pelagius, Anselm, Beza, Piscator, and the Vulgate, for the meaning would be vague and diluted. is in reference to. signifies house-arrangement, or dispensation, and is rendered by Theophylact, , . The word in the New Testament occurs in Luk 16:2-4, in the general sense of stewardship, either the administration itself or the office, and the corresponding noun, , is found in the same chapter, and in Rom 16:23. Schweigh. Lex. Polyb. p. 403. is also used with special reference to the gospel, and sometimes describes it as an arrangement or dispensation under charge of the apostles as its stewards. 1Co 4:1-2; 1Co 9:17; Eph 3:2; Col 1:25; Tit 1:7; 1Pe 4:10. Luther, led away by this idea, and by the dispensatio of the Vulgate, refers the term to preaching, and to the disclosure of the mystery-dass es geprediget wrde. The noun does not signify specifically and of itself, the dispensation of grace, though the context leaves us in no doubt that such is the allusion here; but it characterizes it as an arrangement organized and secured in all its parts. Eph 3:2; Eph 3:9; 1Ti 1:4. It is not made up of a series of disconnected truths and events, but it is a compact and symmetrical system of perfect harmony in all its reciprocal bearings and adaptations. The adjustment is exact, so that each truth shines and is shone upon; each fact is a cause and a consequent, is like a link in a chain, which holds and is held. It is a plan of infinite wisdom, where nothing is out of place, or happens either within or beyond its time.
And the scheme is characterized as being -the genitive having its characterizing sense. Scheuerlein, 16, 3. Into the sense of we shall inquire at some length under the last verse of this chapter. The phrase marks the period of the dispensation. It cannot be the genitive of object-administratio eorum quae restant temporum, as Storr supposes, taking in an active sense; nor can we say with Koppe, that there is any reference to extrema tempora-the last day; nor with Baumgarten-Crusius, that the time specified is the remaining duration of the world. Harless gives, perhaps too narrowly, an exegetical sense to the words, as if they explained what was meant by the economy, to wit, a period when the mystery might be safely revealed-making the genitive that of identity. Nor can we suppose, with Stier, that these times are parallel to the economy, and of equal duration, that they comprehend die ganze Zeitdauer dieser Anstalt-for it developes and completes itself through adjusted times and periods. This view is adopted and eulogized by Alford. It seems to us, however, to be putting more into the words than of themselves they will bear. The genitive presents a temporal idea, and may be that of characterization. Winer, 30, 2; or as in Jude, . It is an economy characterized by the fulness of the times-that is, introduced at the fulness of the times. The passages adduced by Alford are not at all analogous, for they have different contextual relations, and all of them want the element of thought contained in . True, there are under the gospel , Luk 16:24; , Act 3:19; , 1Ti 2:6 -each of these phrases having a special and absolute reference. But is relative, and implies a period which gradually, and in course of ages, has become filled up; and as the coming of Christ was preceded both by expectancy and preparation-so we have (1Co 10:11), (Heb 1:1), in the New Testament; and again and again in the Old Testament, the latter days-days to come: therefore the phrase here may define the economy by its marked temporal characteristic, as being full-timed and right-timed. Our view may be thus expressed: The time prior to the dispensation is at length filled up, for we take in its passive sense. The is regarded as a vast receptacle into which centuries and millenniums had been falling, but it was now filled. Thus, Herodotus 3.22, -the longest fulness of life-the sense of the clause being, The longest period for a person to live is eighty years. Schott, in Ep. ad Galatas, chap. Eph 4:4, p. 488; Winer, ibid.; Mar 1:15; Luk 21:24; Joh 7:8; Gal 4:4; also in Septuagint, Gen 25:24; Gen 29:21; Dan 10:3. It is not , as in Gal 4:4 -in which past time is regarded as a unity-but , time being imaged under successive periods. Theodoret has somewhat vaguely- . This is one aspect, and that of Calovius-dispensatio propria plenitudini temporis-is another aspect, both of which seem to be comprehended in the phrase. The economy commenced at a period which implies that the times destined to precede it were filled up. Two ideas seem to be contained. 1. It marks God’s time-the time prearranged and set apart by Him; a time which can neither be anticipated nor delayed. 2. It specifies the best time in the world’s history for the occurrence to take place. Being God’s time, it must be the best time. The epoch is marked by God in His own calendar, and years roll on till their complement is numbered, while the opportuneness of the period in the world’s annals proves and ratifies divine wisdom and foresight. That fulness of the time in which the economy was founded, is the precise period, for the Lord has appointed it; and the best period, for the age was ripe for the event. We cannot, however, with Usteri, place the entire emphasis of the phrase on this latter idea. Paulin. Lehrbegriff, p. 81. The Grecian arms extended the Hellenic tongue, and prepared the nations for receiving the oracles of the New Testament in a language so rich and so exact, so powerful in description and delicate in shades of expression. Roman ambition had also welded the various states of the civilised world into one mighty kingdom, so that the heralds of the cross might not be impeded in their progress by the jealousy of rival states, but might move freely on their mission under the protection of one general sovereignty. Awakened longing had been created over the East, and in the West the old superstitions had lost their hold on thinking minds. The apostle utters this thought virtually in 1Co 1:21. The world was allowed full time to discover by prolonged experiment the insufficiency of its own wisdom to instruct and save it. It was sighing deeply for deliverance, and in the maturity of this crisis there suddenly appeared in Judaea the Desire of all nations. The Hebrew seer who looked forward to it, regarded it as the latter day or last time; the nations who were forewarned of it were in fevered anticipation of its advent, for it was to them, as Cappell says, complementum prophetarum, and, as Beza paraphrases, tempus tam diu expectatum. But we, on whom the ends of the world have come, look back upon it, and feel it to be a period which took its rise after the former cycles had fulfilled their course, and all preparations for it had been duly completed. We do not deny to Alford that what characterized the introduction of the economy characterizes all its epochs, and that this may be implied in the remarkable phrase. But in the third chapter the apostle unfolds a portion of the mystery, and as if in reference to this phrase, he says of it-Which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men; to wit, it was first revealed in the fulness of the times. The mystery of this full-timed dispensation is now described-
-to gather together all things in Christ. The infinitive does not need the article, being explanatory in its nature. Winer, 44, 2; Madvig, 144. The signification of the verb has been variously understood. 1. Some give it the sense of renew, as Suidas in his Lexicon. Theodoret explains it by , and refers to this change- . Tertullian renders it-ad initium reciprocare-(De Monogam. 5), and the Syriac and Vulgate correspond. And this was a general opinion in the ancient church. Augustine, Enchiridion, 62; Op. vol. vi. p. 377, ed. 1837. The Gothic has aftra usfulljan, again to fill up. It would, however, be difficult to vindicate such an exposition on philological grounds. 2. It has been supposed to signify to collect again under one head-, or . Such is the general critical opinion of Chrysostom, OEcumenius, Theophylact, Erasmus, H. Stephens, Piscator, Calovius, Bengel, Matthies, Meier, de Wette, Olshausen, and Stier. What, asks Chrysostom, is the meaning of the word .? It is, to knit together, . It has another signification-To set over one and all the same Head, Christ, according to the flesh- . Beza insists against this meaning, that the word comes from , not from . Besides, the Headship of Christ is not formally introduced till the 22nd verse. The meaning of in composition must not be overlooked. Though it have only a faint signification, as compound words abound in the later age of a language, it does not quite lose that significance. It signifies here, apparently, again-as if there now existe d, under the God-man as Redeemer, that state of things which had, prior to the introduction of evil, originally existed under the Logos, the Creator and Governor. 3. The word is supposed to signify, as in our version, to gather together in one; so Beza, Meyer, Baumgarten-Crusius, Harless, and others. Rom 13:9. The summing up of the data, rerum repetitio et congregatio, was called, as Quintilian avers, . De Instit. Orator. 6.1. The simple verb is found with such a meaning in Thucydides, 6:91, 8:53; and compounded with it occurs in Polybius 3.3, 1. Xen. Cyr. 8.1, 15. Such a summation appears to Grotius and Hammond under the figure of the reunion of a dispersed army, but Jerome and Cameron view it as the addition of arithmetical sums. This third meaning is the most natural-there is a re-collection of all things in Christ as Centre, and the immediate relation of this re-gathering to God Himself is expressed by the middle voice. The objects of this re-union are-
-the things in heaven and the things on earth. This is a mode of expression designed to be general, as the employment of the neuter indicates. Some few MSS. supply the particle after the of the first clause, and B, D, E, L, read for in the same clause, a reading which cannot be sustained. Critical opinions on the meaning of the phrase are very varied. According to Morus, it denotes God and man; according to Schoettgen, Baumgarten-Crusius, Ernesti, Macknight, Schleusner, and Koppe-Jews and Gentiles; according to Beza, Piscator, Bodius, Rollock, Moldenhauer, Flatt, and Peile-the spirits of good men, especially under the Old Testament and the present church; and according to the great majority, the phrase signifies the union of spirits in heaven, angels or otherwise, with men on earth. So the Schohum preserved by Matthiae- – , . With these interpretations we agree, so far as they contain truth. But they have the truth in fragments, like broken pieces of a mirror. We take the here to be co-equal in extent of meaning with the phrase, Col 1:16, By Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him. These are said in Eph 1:20 to be reconciled to Him. See under Col 1:20. The phrase things in heaven denotes the higher and more distant spheres of creation, and these, along with things on earth, may comprehend the universe- including, according to Meyer, all things and beings, while Harless gives the words the general sens e of the universe. So do von Gerlach, Olshausen, and Stier. The neuter has a generalizing meaning. Winer, 27, 5; Poppo, Thucydides, 1.104. It cannot be supposed to be used for the masculine, as no masculine is implied in the verse. Hodge limits to the church in heaven and earth-because, he says, the union effected is by the redemption of Christ. This union, as he names it, is indeed a result of redemption; but the gathering together described here is a consequence above and beyond human salvation-a consequence connected with it, but held out apart from it as a mystery disclosed according to His good pleasure. The sense is weakened altogether by the notion of Turner, that the infinitive may express a divine intention which may yet be thwarted. The idea seems then to be that heaven and earth are now united under one government. Christ as Creator was rightfully the Governor of all things, and till the introduction of sin, that government was one and undivided. But rebellion produced disorder, the unity of the kingdom was broken. Earth was morally severed from heaven, and from the worlds which retained their pristine integrity. But Jesus has effected a blessed change, for an amnesty has been proclaimed to earth. Man is reconciled to God, and all who bear God’s image are reconciled to man. Angels are ministering spirits to him, and all holy intelligences delight in him. Not only has harmony been restored to the universe, and the rupture occasioned by sin repaired, but beings still in rebellion are placed under Christ’s control, as well as the unconscious elements and spheres of nature. This summation is seen in the form of government; Jesus is universal Regent. Not only do angels and the unfallen universe worship the same Governor with the redeemed, but all things and beings are under the same administration. The anthem to God and the Lamb begins with saints, is taken up by angels, and re-echoed by the wide c reation. Rev 5:9; Rev 5:14.
The death of Jesus is described in this paragraph both in its primary and ultimate results. First, by it we have redemption-the forgiveness of sins. And, secondly, by the same event, the universe is gathered together in Christ. The language, by its very terms, denotes far more than the union of the church in Him. Now the revelation of this great truth, as to the ultimate effect of Christ’s mediation, is called a mystery. Man could not have discovered it-the knowledge of it was not essential to his salvation. But it has been disclosed with peculiar wisdom and delicacy. It was not revealed in former times, when it could not have been appreciated; nay, it was not published till the means of it were visibly realized, till Jesus died and rose again, and on the right hand of God assumed this harmonizing presidency.
Since the days of Origen, the advocates of the doctrine of universal restoration have sought a proof-text in this passage. But restoration is not predicated-it is simply re-summation. Unredeemed humanity, though doomed to everlasting punishment, and fallen spirits for whom everlasting fire is prepared, may be comprised in this summation-subjugated even against their will. But the punishment of the impenitent affects not the unity of Christ’s government. Evil has lost its power of creating disorder, for it is punished, confined, and held as a very feeble thing in the grasp of the Almighty Avenger. In fine, it is going beyond the record to deduce from this passage a proof of the doctrine of the confirmation of angels by the death of Christ-ut perpetuum statum retineant. Such are the words of Calvin. Were such a doctrine contained or clearly revealed in Scripture, we might imagine that the new relation of angels to Christ the Mediator might exercise such an influence over them as to preclude the possibility of their apostasy; or that their pure and susceptible spirits were so deeply struck with the malignity of sin as exhibited in the blood of the Son of God, that the sensation and recoil produced by the awful spectacle for ever operate as an infallible preservative.
And this re-capitulation of all things is declared a second time to be in Christ- -a solemn and emphatic reassertion, Khner, 632. His mediative work has secured it, and His mediatorial person is the one centre of the universe. As the stone dropped into the lake creates those widening and concentric circles, which ultimately reach the farthest shore, so the deed done on Calvary has sent its undulations through the distant spheres and realms of God’s great empire. But is the connecting link also with the following verse. Khner, 632. See also Col 1:19-20.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Eph 1:10. Dispensation of the fulness of times means when the time has fully come for the final dispensation of religion. Gather together in one all things in Christ. God has always had people on earth that were His from a religious standpoint, some of them under the Partriarchal Dispensation and some under the Jewish Dispensation. It was the divine plan to discontinue both of these systems and form a new one in Christ. Which are in heaven. Angels are not required to obey the commands of the Gospel as men are, but they are called upon to recognize Christ as the King and spiritual Ruler through the centuries of the final Dispensation; in this way they are a part of the body of Christ and in that sense are in Christ. (See Mat 28:18; Php 2:9; Col 1:20; Rev 5:13.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eph 1:10. Unto; not until, nor, in, but with a view to, setting forth the end or aim of the purpose (Eph 1:9).
The dispensation. The article is wanting in the original, but the idea is made definite by what follows. The word itself is that from which our word economy is taken, first meaning stewardship (as in Luk 16:2), then applied in this sense to spiritual things, especially to the apostolic office (1Co 9:17; Col 1:25). But here, and in chap. Eph 3:2; Eph 3:9, the reference is to Gods disposition, ordering of affairs, the notion of stewardship falling into the background.
Of the fulness of the times, or, seasons. Comp. Gal 4:4, where a similar expression occurs. There, however, the time is regarded as one period; here, as a succession of seasons, which fill up a measure or receptacle. Fulness may mean (1.) that which fills; (2.) that which is filled, the state of fulness; or (3.) the act of filling. The last sense is inappropriate here. Either (1.) or (2.) may be accepted with substantially the same result. The reference is to the coming of the Messiah (not to the second advent), as in Galatians, This fulness of the times was the characteristic of the dispensation (dispensatio propria plenitudini temporum). The main question is whether the phrase, as a whole, refers to the entire gospel dispensation, or to the period of the first advent alone. As the explanatory clause which follows points to what is still future, we accept the wider reference.
To gather up together again (for Himself). This explains the design of the dispensation etc. The word used is the equivalent of recapitulate, sum up again (comp. Rom 13:9, where the E. V. renders it is briefly comprehended). Here it has a reflexive sense (for Himself), and further suggests the idea of gathering again what has been sundered. God will gather together again for Himself what He has created for Himself. The fathers found here a reference to Christ as the Head, but this is suggested by the sound of the word, rather than by its sense. That idea is introduced later (Eph 1:22), and the reference here is to Christs atonement rather than to His sovereignty.
All things. This expression must not be limited unnecessarily to persons, or to the redeemed from among men. The expressions used in Rom 8:21, 1Co 15:28, and elsewhere, show that the redemption in Christ has wider relations which affect physical nature (on the proper limitation, see below).
In the Christ. It seems wise to translate the article, which emphasizes the fact that the Messiah had come.
The things which, etc. Both is to be omitted, according to the best authorities. The whole explains all things, and the neuter gender suggests an application to things as well as persons. The explanation: the redeemed from among men, some of whom are now in heaven, and others are still on earth, restricts the sense too much. The neuter might refer to persons (as in Gal 3:22), but the context seems to demand a wider application. Heaven and earth have become places of sin (chaps. Eph 2:2; Eph 6:12); indeed, heaven was the first theatre of sin, when a part of the angels fell into sin and from God (1Ti 3:6; 1Jn 3:8; Jas 2:19; 2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6); thence it came to earth (2Co 11:3), in ever greater dimensions (1Co 10:20-21). Thus the state originally appointed by God and the development. He wished to be without disturbance, ceased (Rom 8:18-24), so that a renewing of the heavens and of the earth was taken into view (2Pe 3:13). The centre of this renewal is Christ and His redeeming work (Col 1:20), which, however, has its development also, both before His appearance up to the fulness of the times, and afterwards up to His second advent, when the restitution of all things (Act 3:21), the palingenesia (Mat 19:28), will be introduced (Braune). Hence we may conclude that physical nature and the world of mind, angels and men, will all stand in some new relation to each other and to Christ, their common centre, when this summing up in Him is completed. As the stone dropped into the lake creates there widening and concentric circles, which ultimately reach the farthest shore, so the deed done on Calvary has sent its undulations through the distant spheres and realms of Gods great empire (Eadie). Evil spirits and unbelieving men shall then be recognized only as conquered and rejected opponents. The doctrine of restoration, according to which even those who have remained unbelieving, and finally devils, shall yet attain to blessedness, contrary as it is to the whole tenor of the N. T., finds in this passage also no support (Meyer). It is not necessary to restrict the former clause to good angels, still less to exclude them altogether.
Even in him. This repetition is for solemn emphasis; without Him, the personal Mediator, this comprehensive re-uniting cannot take place; He is the only sphere in which it can occur.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
These words discover to us the end and design of God in making known the mystery of his will , that is, in revealing the gospel: it was to gather into one universal church both angels and men, Jews and Gentiles, under Christ their head, and by virtue of that union to become one with the Father, as he and Christ are one.
Here note, 1. That Christ is the Head both of angels and men; an head of confirmation to the angels, of redemption to fallen man: both angels and saints in heaven and on earth make up one family, of which Christ is the head; the angels are a part of the worshippers of Christ as well as we, they are apart of his family and household; the angels fill our churches as well as men, and are present in our congregations and assemblies,1Co 11:10.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
God’s Purpose
God was not rushed, or delayed, in the carrying out of his purpose. Instead, when the time was ripe, full or ready, God sent Jesus. He sent him to die, shed his blood, be buried and raised. Then, all the things that had been divided by man’s rebellion could be united in Christ ( Eph 1:10 ).
There are several things which might be included in the time being readied for the Lord. The Jews had seen their inability to live sinless. It was also obvious the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin ( Rom 3:10 ; Rom 3:23 ; Rom 7:7-25 : Heb 10:14 ). The Gentiles had seen the failure of their wisdom and the downward spiral into a depraved existence that had resulted from ignoring God and exalting man’s wisdom. The Greek language had become the near universal language of the common mass. Rome had brought peace to much of the world through its conquests and had opened up highways for relative ease in travel.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
ARGUMENT 2
ALL THINGS REHEADED IN CHRIST
10. In the dispensation of the fullness of the seasons, to rehead all things in Christ, those things in the heavens and those things upon the earth. Where the English says, gather together, the Greek is anakephalaiosasthai, from ana, again, and kephalaion, the head. Hence, it means to rehead all things in Christ, both in the heavens and upon the earth. When God created this world, he constituted Adam and Eve the united head. When the devil succeeded in their abduction, he cut the head off of the world, thus leaving the poor, fallen world without a head. In the glorious restitution, Christ is going to glorify humanity, and restore him back to the headship of the world. In the fall, Satan destroyed spiritual life in humanity, thus cutting mans head off. All the senses are in the head. Hence man, without a head, has no eyes to see hell open before him, no ears to hear the hideous groans of the damned and the dismal drumbeat of his own perdition, no nose to smell the brimstone, no tongue to taste the devils filthy tobacco which would nauseate a dog, and no nerves to feel the awful trepidation inspired by an eternity of woe. This is the reason why the millions of this poor, lost world are rushing at racehorse speed into hell. In regeneration the Lord restores back your head, which you lost in the fall; in sanctification radically exterminating the counterfeit head, which the devil has put on all sinners. Christ will also, in due time, rehead this fallen world, restoring its Edenic glory, sanctifying by fire and transforming it into a heaven, committing it to the glorified saints and unfallen angels, to shine and shout through all eternity. The English word, heaven, is heavens in the Greek, corroborating astronomy in the infinite multiplicity of celestial worlds, all of which were more or less affected by the fall of this world. (Heb 9:23.) Hence, the work of Christ will not only restore this world to its perfect celestial loyalty, but so confirm all other worlds as to effectually fortify them against the liability of future apostasy.
11,12. Here, again, we have a beautiful allusion to the predestination of the saints in harmony with the sweet will of God, who, beforehand, had hope in Christ. This is a beautiful allusion to the glorious millennial harvest, of which the saints, in the gospel dispensation, are the first fruits.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 10
The fulness of times; when the full time had arrived.–Gather together in one, &c.; establish the kingdom of Christ, to which all things were to be subjected.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; [even] in him:
Dispensation is a word to describe management of a household, or taking care of the affairs of a household. It would be a word descriptive of a trusted assistant or servant taking care of the business of a large house with a family and possibly servants. It would involve being a manager of all that goes on in the home. Not unlike the job of a housewife and husband that care for their own home’s business.
It would include paying bills, investments, caring for property etc. We use the term to describe the management or care that God provides over the realm of mankind. We divide God’s dealings with man into seven dispensations. During each dispensation God deals with man a little differently. This is not to say, as many nondispensationalists assert, that dispensationalists believe in multiple methods of salvation. God deals with man in different ways, though salvation is always through the work of Christ on the cross.
In this verse Paul is using the term to designate a time in which certain things are happening. I don’t know that he had any idea of how the church would use the term dispensations for he had no idea of the dispensational teaching. He however did know the difference between law and the church age. He also might have known of the differences between the ages in the Old Testament, though he would probably not have thought much about classifying them into distinct ages or dispensations.
Here, we see Paul mentioning that in the oversight of God there was the present, to him, economy in which certain things are happening. He calls it the fullness of times. He was looking for an immediate kingdom here on earth – the culmination of all the Old Testament prophetic literature.
It seems to me that this is looking toward a time when God will bring all the loose ends of creation together and finalize all of his plans. It will be a time of revealing all that is, and was, in that plan, and it is a time to bring all those things to a close.
The Net Bible translates it this way, “toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ the things in heaven and the things on earth.” indicating that all things will be set to order with Christ as the head over all – that nothing will not be under His headship.
The fact that he was looking for the physical kingdom here on earth is clear from the book of Acts. It mentions that he was continually preaching the kingdom, and this was mentioned in relation to his later life. Act 28:30-31
Paul declares that ALL things in Christ will be gathered together or unified in Him. All things, includes both the earth and the heavenlies. This would include all saints of all time, as well as the creation itself. There is a possibility that even the lost and their eternal existence will be included in this. I say this for two reasons.
1. All that is, proceeds from God, including the lost and their place of eternal dwelling. To remove this from the statement “both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, would be a bit illogical.
2. There is a passage in the Old Testament that seems to indicate that the elect will be able to view the damned in the eternal state.
Isa 66:22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. 23 And it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD. 24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”
The context clearly identifies the passage as the eternal state and it is clear that God’s people will be capable of seeing the transgressors.
All this will take place and seemingly, based on “in him,” be culminated in Christ. Since we are now in Christ, as a part of His body, the church, I would guess this verse is speaking of an extension or expansion of the concept of “in Him.”
Colossians speaks to this as well. Col 1:13 “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated [us] into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins: 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all [things] he might have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased [the Father] that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, [I say], whether [they be] things in earth, or things in heaven.”
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
1:10 {14} That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might {n} gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; [even] in him:
(14) The Father exhibited and gave Christ, who is the head of all the elect to the world, at that time which was convenient according as he most wisely disposed all times from everlasting. And Christ is he in whom all the elect from the beginning of the world (otherwise wandering and separated from God) are gathered together. And some of these elect were in heaven, when he came into the earth, that is, those who by faith in him to come, were gathered together. And others being found upon the earth were gathered together by him, and the rest are daily gathered together.
(n) The faithful are said to be gathered together in Christ, because they are joined together with him through faith, and become as it were one man.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Greek word translated "administration" in the NASB (oikonomia), and not translated in the NIV, means dispensation, arrangement, or administration. The main idea in this word is that of managing or administering the affairs of a household. [Note: See Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, pp. 22-47; or idem, Dispensationalism, pp. 23-43.] The Greek word translated "times" is kairos, which means particular times, rather than the passage of time (chronos). The dispensation in view is the millennial reign of Christ on earth during which everything will be under His rule (1Co 15:27; Col 1:20). Even though in one sense everything is under Christ’s authority now, Jesus Christ will be the head of all things in a more direct way in the messianic kingdom. Everyone and everything will acknowledge and respond to His authority then (cf. Isa 2:2-4; Isa 11:1-10).
"This verse has been used as the keystone of the doctrine of ’Universalism’, that all men shall be saved in the end. It does imply that in the end everything and every being in existence will be under His authority, but it is dangerous to press a doctrine from a verse without regard for the balance of the evidence of Scripture as a whole, and, in this case, without respect for the solemn presentation from one end of Scripture to the other of the alternatives of life and death dependent on the acceptance or rejection of God’s salvation." [Note: Foulkes, p. 53.]