Section III

the post-historic heavenly glory of Jesus Christ

(Col 1:12-20; Eph 1:1-21)

Every christological view of the world which can lay any claim to the character of being a view of Christian spiritual life, while declaring the historical revelation of the divinity of Christ, declares also at the same time, as has been already indicated, His pre-historic and post-historic divine glory. And again, it can neither announce the eternity of the Son of God before time, without also thereby announcing His eternity after time, nor the latter without implying the former. The mystical Ω is sounded forth in the mystical A, and he who knows the Lord as the Omega necessarily knows Him as the Alpha also. This is specially true of the Apostle Paul.

It was in accordance with his active character, that he showed a predilection for the history of Jesus in its final stage, while the more contemplative John rather turned his attention to the deep ground of all life in the Christ before the foundation of the world. And yet Paul was well acquainted with that eternal ground. He even gives us a new and definite view of it. While John describes the ante-mundane Christ as the Logos, and presents Him chiefly as the light, as the principle of the future transformation of the world, Paul glorifies Him especially as the ground and centre of spiritual blessing and salvation for the elect Church.

It is not our theme to set forth here the Christology of the Apostle Paul; we have only to sketch a part of Christology—Paul’s doctrine of the post-historic glory of Christ. For doing this, we make use of the two above designated important christological passages in Paul’s Epistles, and begin with the more definite and succinct passage—that in Colossians.

The practical tendency of the Epistle to the Colossians is expressed in the passage in which the apostle warns the Christians at Colosse not to let themselves be seduced by the false teachers, whom he describes,¹ into a false (dualistic-ascetic) striving after a false (angelistic) perfection, according to false hypotheses (the maxims of pre-Christian Heathenism and dualistic philosophy), (Col 2:16-23). But on the other hand they ought to exercise the true spiritual askesis, which consists not in putting off the man, but in putting off the old man in order to put on the new (Col 3:1-25).

But they ought, with a view to this, to strengthen themselves by becoming duly conscious of the signification of their Christian calling, namely, that through Christ they are translated into the kingdom of perfection, that through His atoning death they are presented before Him as holy, spotless, and blameless (Col 1:21, comp. Col 1:13).

This wonderful translation of believers from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of perfection is explained by the signification of the personality of Christ, with whom they have, through faith, become one; in Him dwells all fulness. He Himself is the perfection; therefore they who are one with Him have entered into the kingdom of perfection, and so they are in their view above the false (dualistic) view, in the spirit of their efforts above the false (unfree ascetic) efforts, and in the real aim of their life essentially above the false (spiritualistic) aim.

Thus it is in this relation² that the apostle gives here the outlines of his Christology. He calls upon the Colossian Christians to give thanks to the Father who made them (the believers of the apostolic Church) meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints³ in light, delivering them from the power of darkness, and translating them into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom all believers have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And then it is further said concerning Christ:

Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: 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 through Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the Church:⁴ who is the beginning (the ground-principle of things), the first-born from the dead; that He might be the first in all things (the Prince of both æons). For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness (of the self-revelation of God) dwell, and having made peace through the blood of His cross, through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; through Him (I say), whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.

Christ is first presented here in His proper nature, in His fundamental relation to God and to the world. He is the image of God in the unconditioned sense. This expression has, beyond a doubt, essentially the same signification as the Logos of John’s Gospel, and the expression of the divine essence of which the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks (χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτου, Heb 1:3). For Christ is placed, as in the passages referred to, between God and creation, as the Revealer of God, as Founder or Upholder of creation. The difference of the expressions shows only a difference of the relations. John announces Him as the Logos, because his design is to exhibit Him as the clearness of God’s consciousness, and as the clearness of the foundation of the world. The Epistle to the Hebrews presents Him as the express image of the divine hypostasis, because it introduces Him as the one pure and perfect expression of the manifold revelations of God in the Old Testament, and the one and only Upholder of all things. In this passage in Colossians, on the other hand, Christ must be presented as the image of the invisible God, because He is to come before the souls of believers as the pure essential image of the glory of God, as the princely archetype comprehending all the light-giving forms in the world, and is in this form to set them free from the angel-images and false spiritual ideals which they had been seduced to honour. As the image of God, Christ mediates the living view—the true knowledge of God.⁵ As He is the image of God in the unconditioned sense, He is the pure expression, the pure archetype of His essence, or the second form, the beheld, in God’s conscious self-beholding.⁶ Since God is invisible as to His essence, the image of God cannot consist in the reflection of His appearance, but only in an essential copy of His essence.⁷

So Christ is the Son of God and the principle of the world. And He is the principle of the world in every respect; not only of the world in its first, but also in its second form—not only of the old æon in which the natural life of creation, but also of the new æon in which the spiritual life of redemption is the prevailing power. Thus He is the Prince or the first in all things (ἐν πᾶσιν πρωτεύων): in respect to the first world, He is the first-born before every creature (πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως); in respect to the second, the first-born from the dead (πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν).⁸

In respect to the first world, Christ is called the first-born before every creature. That this is not meant to designate Him as the first created, is shown by His being placed at the head of all creation, and also by His being again described in His resurrection as the first-born from the dead. But it is shown specially by the illustration of His name; for, by Him were all things (the All) created; and it is said for further illustration, all things were created through Him, and for Him. The expression ‘by Him’ embraces the whole, comprehending also the third illustration: And by Him all things consist. In brief, this is the relation of the Son of God to the world: He is the ideal and real, and consequently the essential principle of unity of the All. If we look at the origin of the world, all things are through Him; He is the foundation-principle in which all things arise. If we look at the consistence of the world, all things have their living consistency as a unity in relation to the revelation of His life; He is the living, all-embracing centre in which things consist. Finally, if we look at the end of the development of things, all things tend to unfold their ideal unity in and under Him, and so He is the end of the whole development of the world in which things find their consummation.

But the expression, the first-born, implies not merely the divine being, but also the incarnation of the Eternal Christ. This follows from the inward relation in which He stands as Prince of the first world to the creation, and as Prince of the second world as He who has risen from the dead to the resurrection of the dead.

The apostle now proceeds to speak in detail of the creation called into existence by Christ, and which consists through Him and for Him. We have first the contrast, Things in heaven, and things in earth. The heavenly spirits worshipped by the false teachers at Colosse, and their worshippers, who by their superstition put themselves and these spirits out of the right relation to Christ, were made through Him and for Him, and consist in Him alone. We have no doubt that the apostle consciously referred to this; therefore he next reverses the order, and gives a view of the world in the contrast of the visible and the invisible. Christ is the Author and Prince of everything visible: this condemns their dualistic theory and askesis. He stands in the same relation to everything invisible; therefore they were wrong in their superstitious worshipping of the spiritual princes in accordance with their theory, however they might divide them into thrones (throne-spirits, spirits of the first rank⁹), dominions, principalities, and powers. The apostle in the first place accepts their own representation of this spiritual hierarchy, whether the heavenly relations are or are not as they represent. For, however they may represent these spirits, the right knowledge of Christ always demands that they be thoroughly subordinate to Him,¹⁰ It is manifest from Eph 1:21, that Paul himself recognized a gradation of the heavenly spirits. He evidently makes special reference here to the powers of the other world; and Schleiermacher’s opinion, that only earthly ruling powers are spoken of here, has been very properly rejected.¹¹ Yet it cannot be denied that the apostle’s view contained reference also to the thrones, authorities, and powers in the visible world, as is plainly shown by the parallel passage in Ephesians. In the enumeration of the various powers, reference is made in Colossians to the visible¹² as well as the invisible, in Ephesians not only to the world to come, but also to this world.¹³ Thus Christ is the absolute Prince of all the powers of this world (the Prince of the kings of the earth, Rev 1:5), and of all the powers in the other world (Lord over all angels and spirits, Heb 1:6).

Paul attaches great importance to the fact, that He who was before all things, and by whom all things consist, is also Head of the Church, the Prince of the new world of the Spirit.¹⁴ For this truth serves to glorify the greatness of redemption by the depth of the creation, as well as to reveal the ideality of the creation by the holiness of redemption. This one proposition, The Mediator of creation is the Mediator of redemption, excludes innumerable errors, by setting aside, on the one hand, dualism, which represents the world of the Spirit as a hostile power opposed to the world of the creature; and on the other, Pantheism, which makes the waves of a wild emanation of creaturely life overflow and swallow up the world of the Spirit and of the spirits.

He by whom and through whom the All exists, is also the Head of the Church, for He is the first-born from the dead. There can hardly be a more beautiful expression than this (see Rev 1:5). The resurrection from the dead is the third birth of believers, with which their life is complete. The new and eternal world of the perfected Church of God begins with this birth. And as Christ was the principle of the first world, He has also become the principle of the second, and in this sense again the first-born. He is therefore also described here as the beginning from the dead. For not until now comes the right and highest beginning—the beginning of the eternal world which has no end, behind which the first world as a mere introduction must always more and more retire.

The apostle proceeds to say, that the pre-eminence in either relation became Him. According to the good pleasure of God, the whole fulness (of divine revelations) was to be included in Him, as well the divine manifestations and spirits of the first revelation in creation, as the virtues and powers of the second revelation in redemption (comp. Col 2:9).

Hence follows, that the reconciliation which He accomplished in the second revelation is a bringing back of the spirits to Himself (εἰς αὐτόν), as He manifested Himself in the first revelation—that of creation. That is, the reconciled are not, as dualists, ascetics, and spiritualists, estranged from the spirit of creation by the spirit of redemption, but rather, by being reconciled with God through Christ, they are brought into harmony with their own inmost life, reconciled with the Logos in the deepest ground of their life and in the depth of creation, which is Christ Himself. They come to themselves (Luk 15:17); although not in the old form of natural life, but in the new form of freedom in the spirit. The power of this reconciliation embraces the inhabitants of earth and the inhabitants of heaven. The dark saying of the apostle concerning this extension of the reconciliation¹⁵ at all events expresses this truth, that the power of the reconciliation extends to the other world. It works in the spirits which already belong in a general way to the sphere of heaven, but are not yet perfect, and continues to work until they reach perfection, until they become altogether one with Christ, with themselves, and with God. Nay, even the pure spirits, the angels, are drawn into this circle of reconciliation, inasmuch as in Christ, the centre of all union, they are brought into harmony and union with the fallen and redeemed spirits.¹⁶ This is perfect reconciliation when all disharmony on earth and in heaven, and between earth and heaven, ceases. The work of Christ, therefore, by which He brought about this reconciliation, is described as making peace. He made peace through the blood of His cross. The eternal result of His offering up Himself in full peace with Himself, with God, and with the world, in a suffering in which the world’s discord pierced through His very life, in which the world warred against Him to the death, in which God Himself seemed to be against Him, is that now an almighty spirit of peace pervades earth and heaven, and brings into full harmony with it, not only the spirits, but also the things, by changing them from the fashion of the old world into the spiritual clearness of God’s economy.

This last thought is the leading thought of the Epistle to the Ephesians, and especially of its great christological passages. The practical leading thought of the Epistle to the Ephesians is contained in the exhortation to unity in the Spirit addressed to believers, Eph 4:1-6. Diversities among Christians should be shown only in the orderly arrangement of the gifts of the Spirit, not in the spirit of the one contradicting the spirit of the other. Consequently sanctification should be considered as a renewal in order to unity (Eph 4:31-32). Christians should indeed prove their walking in love by avoiding fellowship with the children of darkness, Eph 5:1-7; yet their unity should be mirrored also in the natural life by proper observance of the mutual duties of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, Eph 5:21-33, Eph 6:1-9. On the other hand, Christians are to maintain constant warfare against the spirits of darkness, Eph 6:10, &c.

The leading theoretical thought of the Epistle corresponds to this leading practical thought.¹⁷ It is expressed, Eph 1:10: All things are to be gathered together (reconstructed) in Christ as their head, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.¹⁸ It is the same thought as that which pervades the high-priestly prayer, Joh 17:1-26. It describes the last and highest aim of the Church of Christ, nay, of every development of the world. Hence it can be acquired as a living view only by faithful development of the inward Christian life. One can very easily hold the thought as a formula or phrase; but, as living knowledge, it first springs from Christian hope, and then indeed it contributes most powerfully to the unity of believers. The apostle shows his readers how they come to the possession of this great truth. First of all he reminds them of what is contained in their Christian faith—how, through Christ, they are blessed by God with all spiritual blessings in the new world of the kingdom of heaven in Christ. From this standpoint they are first to look back to the deepest ground of their salvation before the world was; then again to take a steady view of the centre-point of their salvation, in order from it to perceive its last and highest goal. Thus the consciousness of their salvation leads them first to look back. In their redemption, the eternal purpose which God purposed concerning them in Christ, has been realized. There are two things in this decree—election, and predestination. God has chosen us in Him (in Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. At the same time, He has in love predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. This predestination is designed to be to the praise of the glory (of the glorious revelation and manifestation) of His grace.

We see here how Christian life points from its centre back to its primary source in election, and forward to its end in perfection. And the same is true of the knowledge of Christ, since the salvation of Christians depends on Him. The knowledge of the Saviour revealing Himself in redemption necessarily leads to the knowledge of His glory before the world was, in which He is the ground of the election and predestination of believers, and also to the knowledge of His future glory, in which He is to appear as Head of the holy Church. The first beginning and the last end of salvation are mirrored in its middle point, the middle and the end in the beginning, and the middle and the beginning in the end.

The glory of Christ before the world is shown from God’s purpose of salvation in the following way:—The election of believers took place before the foundation of the world. Thus the foundation of the world was conditioned through believers. But their election was conditioned through Christ. Now, since the realization of their election began with the foundation of the world (for creation is the sphere of the realization of election), Christ in His eternal being must have really existed then. In the eternity before the world was, God saw believers holy and without blame in Him; and that He so saw them, that He determined, defined, and beheld their distinctive being, was the cause of their coming into existence, and of their becoming what they are; and as they came into existence, they could proceed only from the eternal being of Christ as their source. Now persons cannot proceed from a mere idea, but only from a person which comprehends them. Hence follows the eternal personality of Christ according to His divine nature. As the God-man, indeed, He existed for the world originally in ideal form, inasmuch as He was not yet made manifest in the flesh; yet never in abstract ideal form, but always an ideal-substantial, for the incarnation of the God-man began from eternity. But in God He was always complete as the God-man, because God pervades and embraces all times with His presence.

The decree of election is executed in God’s fore-ordination, settling whatever befalls His people, making all things work together to bring them to Christ. The sphere in which what is ordained is realized, is the history of men. Now since the predestination was in love, it was in beholding Christ who is the Son of His love, the Son in whom God as love finds the expression of His essence (

Col 1:13). Thus He is the fundamental condition of the world’s history; and in this sense too He is a divine personality, underlying every development of persons. All sonship of men to God must be mediated through Him. This could not be, unless He were the real unity of all sonship (and so the only-begotten Son). The full manifestation of grace is to be presented at the end in Him. This could not be possible, unless He were already the true image of grace in the deepest ground of the world itself, and so the express image of God’s person.

The apostle takes us next to the centre-point of salvation. In His grace He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Thus the Beloved is identical with grace, because He is the Son (the full expression) of His love, and because love in its greatest glory, as it uproots sin, is grace, and grace alone. The decisive historical fact of grace is this: We have in Him redemption through His blood; its effect in believers is, We have in Him forgiveness of sins; and we have both according to the riches of His grace.

It is from this riches of grace that the clear prospect of his highest aim is to be unfolded to the Christian, in the following manner:—Grace manifests itself to believers as rich and abundant, by its not only quieting distress of conscience, but also by its translating them beyond themselves, so that they are able to rejoice in it with the freedom of Christian knowledge. The abounding of grace, however, first shows itself in practical knowledge, in all wisdom (as it knows the holy end), and in all prudence (as it takes the right measures for realizing that end). From this enlightenment, there is a gradual unfolding of the knowledge of the great mystery of God’s will, as it corresponds to His good pleasure (εὐδοκία) which He purposed in Christ¹⁹ before the foundation of the world, and which is to be unfolded in the fulness of times as the perfect household of God, which is the result or pure product of all the developments of the times. The apostle next declares the great mystery, in the words already cited, and which form the theoretical leading thought of the Epistle.

Thus the Christian, in the development of his life, gains a clear view of that future in which Christ as the Head has taken up the whole world into His life, rules in it as a prince, and exhibits it in its ideal unity as the perfect house or kingdom of God.

The apostle now shows how this institute began long ago. In Him, says he, we (the Jews) have been made God’s people, and have received our special dispensation (ἐκληρώθημεν προορισθέντες); in Him, ye also (having become priests) were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (which is the real completion of that promise, the earnest of which was received by Israel alone).²⁰ And now he expresses his wish that the Ephesians might become perfect in the knowledge of the end of this kingdom (Eph 1:15-17). He prays that the eyes of their understanding might be enlightened (that they might have theoretical knowledge emanating from practical piety) to know how rich is the hope which lies in their calling; and as concerns the ground of this hope, how infinitely great is the riches of the glory which is to be unfolded from the inheritance of God in His saints; and finally, as concerns the ground of this glory, what is the exceeding greatness of the power of God towards them that believe, according to the (full) working of the (whole) strength of His (infinite) might. Thus this absolute energy of God is the deepest basis of the believers’ hope; and they are able to know that it is so, for it has already begun to work mightily, namely, in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ (Eph 1:20-23). But the working of this mighty power is shown also in this, that, together with the risen Saviour, God has quickened them—the believing Gentiles in like manner as the believing Jews—and made them to sit with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph 2:1-6, &c.) They are to remember and think on this marvellous matter, that they, Gentiles as well as Jews, have, by the power of grace, already become of the household of God (Eph 2:11-22). Nay, further, he adds, the very reason why he must suffer and be in prison, is this revelation of the mystery, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs in Christ; and therefore his sufferings should not be a stumblingblock to them, but should rather strengthen their confidence, and advance their knowledge of the greatness of the community founded by Christ, and of the exceeding greatness of His love, which passes knowledge, that they might be filled more and more for the perfect dispensation of the unveiled fulness of God²¹ (Eph 3:1-22) It is evident that the foundation is now laid for the practical leading thought of the Epistle—the exhortation to unity.

We can now see clearly in what connection the apostle speaks (Eph 1:20-23) of the exaltation of Christ to heavenly glory and dominion. This exaltation is a pledge to believers that the foundation for the revelation of the perfect dispensation (Eph 1:10) is already laid. In it God has already decided in principle the manifestation of the glorified world; for He has exalted Him with the same mighty power as that by which He builds the new world.

He has raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,²² and every name (titled power) that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come (comp. Php 2:6-11); and has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness (the outspread riches of life)²³ of Him who fills all in all.²⁴

Thus Christ appears in His exaltation as the Lord of glory; all powers are subject to Him. He exercises this power, however, in two forms. The things of creation, as such, are under His feet, nay, even the powers of the world are so, in so far as they have a worldly tendency. Unfree, and with no insight into the future, they are absolutely subordinate to the principle of their life, and this subordination in principle is increasingly carried out in reality. How can we fail to perceive that nature is made dependent on man, and man on the Lordship of Christ? How plainly does it appear that the mightiest princes on earth are subject to the gentle and imperceptible, but almighty sway of Christ’s sceptre-that they must all, even unconsciously and against their will, further His ends, and more and more pay homage to His laws. In this sense He is the absolute Prince of the kings of the earth (including the princes in the kingdom of science and art). But while the world is put under His feet, the Church is His body—in most intimate union in freedom of His Spirit with Him, the Head. The Church is entirely subordinate to Him, as the body has its essential life only from the head, and yet quite on a level with Him, as the body stands in the closest unity of life with the head. And as the Church is His body, she is the living expansion of His fulness of life—the organ by means of which He pervades peoples and governs the All—the life by means of which He quickens and spiritualizes the All, in order to transform the whole world into the perfect kingdom of God in unity with Himself and with the Father.

Thus the post-historic glory of Christ, when completely unfolded, corresponds perfectly to His great work of reconciliation in the midst of time, and to His eternal Mediatorship between God and the world at the beginning of things. And so Christ unveils more and more to the enlightened glance of the spirit His divine nature as the living sum and substance of every revelation of God, the fulness of the revelation of God comprised in one definite person: at the beginning of time, the whole counsel of God; in the midst of time, the great deed of God; at the end of time, the perfect brightness of God.

───♦───

Notes

It hardly requires mention that the previous discussion does not touch upon the question as to the original address of the Epistle to the Ephesians. What Tertullian says regarding the address of the Epistle is quite valid here: Nihil autem de titulis interest (see Harless, xxiv.) And so no one will surely demand an excuse for my having used the Epistles simply as Epistles by Paul.

1) On the false teachers at Colosse, comp. Olshausen, Commentary on the Colossians, Introd. p. 276 ; Neander, History of the Planting, &c., i. 319 [Bohn] ; De Wette, Einl. i. 2 et seq.; Steiger's Commentar. p. 83

2) I follow here Earless view in his excellent Comment, zum Ephescrbrief (Einl. Ixxiv.); but I cannot coincide with him regarding the leading thought of the Epistle.

3) This explanation seems to me to be demanded by the connection. It is certainly not correct to say that the saints 'have a common κληρος whereof each has his μερις.' Olshausen, p. 293. Much rather does every Christian, as an heir of God, in common with all other Christians, gain the whole. The future inheritance is not divided, but the people of God consists of parts. Comp. the parallel passage, Eph. i. 18.

4) De Wette: that is, of the spiritual body which is the Church,' p. 18

5) See Steiger's Commentar zum Colosserbrief, p. 135.

6) De Wette and many others hold here by the idea of the historical Christ, through whom God made the world.

7) Hence called by Luther, 'em göttern Bild' (a divine image). Comp. Nitzsch on the Essential Trinity of God, p. 308.

8) According to Bahr's arrangement, which is certainly the right one, and not Olshausen's.

9) See Steiger, p. 151.

10) 'But the error doubtless lay in the theosophic system, that the various secondary emanations, although mediated by the primary, were not conceived of as included in it, but were disposed round about the concrete πρωτότοκος, as an infinite developing itself in finite manifestations.' Steiger, p. 147. It lies in the nature of the Gnostic system of spirits, that they exclude one another just because they are emanations. As God contrasts Himself with emanation and it with Himself, so the individual emanations are contrasted with Him and with one another. In the later developed Gnostic system of Valentinus, Christ is only one won made up of the pleroma (the fulness of all emanations). The expression pleroma was undoubtedly used in the apostle s days in the Gnostic sense; and so Paul designedly asserts, on the contrary, that the whole pleroma is included in Christ.—[See Burton's Bampton Lectures, passim.]

11) See Steiger, p. 148 ; Olshausen, p. 149

12) The passages, Rom. viii. 38 and 1 Pet. iii. 22, favour the same view, inasmuch as the ἄγῖγελοι are distinguished from the ἀρχαί and δυνάμεις in the first passage, and from the ἐξουσίαι and δυνάμεις in the latter.

13) It is surprising how Olshausen can remark, 'Only we find no other passage in which it can be affirmed with certainty that these expressions, usually employed with respect to angels, are applied to earthly powers,' when it is certain that these expressions were first taken from earthly relations and applied to the angel-world.

14) See Steiger, p. 159

15) On the different expositions, see De Wette, p. 20.

16) ['The union and communion between angels and men,—the order of the whole family in heaven and earth,—the communication of life, grace, power, mercy, arid consolation to the Church,—the rule and disposal of all things unto the glory of God, do all depend hereon. This glory God—designed unto his Son incarnate; and it was the greatest, the highest, that could be communicated unto Him.' Owen, in a chapter full of power and beauty on the Recapitulation of all things, in his work on the Glory of Christ. Some brilliant pages on the same subject, and tending to the same conclusion as the author, occur in Isaac Taylor's Saturday Evening (Unison of the Heavenly Hierarchy).—ED.]

17) Olshausen overlooks this more definite idea and tendency of the Epistle, when he remarks, that the Epistle, as is natural in an encyclical letter, abstains from every thing particular. It treats only of the general Christian ideas in a dogmatic and ethical point of view. The denial of the marked peculiarities of the Epistle goes so far with others, that they have been able to regard it as a kind of copy of the Epistle to the Colossians.

18) The infinitive ἀναξεφαλαιώσασθαι, as Harless rightly remarks, depends on μυστήριον τοῦ θελήματος. But the proposition doubtless refers, although Harless denies it, to the final completion of the kingdom of God.

19) Ἣν προέθετο ἐν αὐτῷ. Harless makes the ἐν αὐτῷ refer, not to Christ, but to God. 'It would be against all rule if the apostle, while God is always the subject in the preceding context, introduced a different subject first (αὐτῷ) by the pronoun and afterwards (τῷ Χριστῷ, ver. 10) by name, while the reverse is the sole and only natural order. We remark in reply, that the reversal of the order is occasioned by the solemnity and formality of the proposition ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι, &c.; and besides Christ was mentioned ver. 7. Moreover the proposition ἣν προέθετο. &c., would be mere tautology if the ἐν αύτῷ referred to God.

20) Which is the earnest of our inheritance, he continues, until the redemption of the people taken into possession by Him (τῆς περιποιήσεως; comp. the exhaustive discussion on this word by Harless, 77, &c.), to the praise of His glory. The apostle is here thinking of the Jewish people. The Gentile Christians received the Spirit of perfect promise, which sealed them, although they had not received the initiatory elements of the promise. The Jewish Christians received the same Spirit as an earnest of their inheritance, by which a pledge was given them that the people of God s possession should be redeemed, although most of them do not now believe.

21) Beautifully, ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ.

22) The apostle seems here to view power as it proceeds from the internal to the external. The ἀρχή is chiefly internal, the κυριότης chiefly external. The δύναμις stands next the κυριότης as its foundation, while the ἀρχή is first unfolded in the ἐξουσία. In Colossians, again, the somewhat different enumeration of the powers seems to be made according to a twofold contrast. In relation to God, the powers with a mainly inward tendency are the θρόνοι, the centre-points of God's rest; the powers with a mainly outward tendency are the κυριότητες, lordships, governments of God. In relation to the world, the powers tending to depth are the ἀνχαί, creative genii; and those tending to manifestation are the ἐξουσίαι, actively working powers.

23) Olshausen is not quite correct in remarking (p. 149), 'Πληρωνε can neither here nor elsewhere, when it refers to God, mean either the filling activity of God, or the condition of being full. He himself has remarked before, that the act of filling is called πλήρωσις. If it can sometimes be called πλήρωμα, yet the latter expression means, in the first instance, the substance which fills. Comp. Harless observation (with reference to Bähr), p. 122.

24) And inasmuch as He is the Logos who upholds The All, filling Himself. Hence perhaps the striking 'solecism' of the middle form πληρουμένου: see Harless, p. 134. (Harless shows that the proposition refers to Christ, notwithstanding its similarity to 1 Cor. xv. 28, from its parallel form in relation to τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ.) The Logos become man in Christ fills His own sphere of life by filling the whole of creation with the whole of redemption.