Ephesians 2:12

τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ. Dative of time (Romans 16:25; 1 Timothy 2:6).

χωρὶς Χριστοῦ. The isolation of the Gentiles is defined in three relations: first, to the centre of unity: ‘apart from,’ ‘out of conscious communion with’; the natural antithesis to ἐν Χριστῷ; cf. John 15:5 χωρὶς ἐμοῦ in contrast with μείνατε ἐν ἐμοί. Cf. the complementary statements with regard to creation in John 1:3 f. It is true that Christ is the Light that lighteth every man (John 1:9) and that the head of every man is Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3), and that the revelation to St Paul which transformed his whole Theology and made him the Apostle of the Gentiles was the vision of ‘Christ in you (Gentiles), the hope of glory’; yet the relationship remained unfruitful; it was as though it was not, until it was made known and accepted. To the Jews the door had been opened from the beginning of their national existence; they partook from the first of the root of the fatness of the olive; the Gentile was a branch of a wild olive needing to be grafted in (Romans 11:17); he was out of conscious connexion with the Root till then. This separation from the Christ implied in the second place separation from the historic People of God.

ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι. In Ephesians 4:18 (cf. Colossians 1:21) the alienation is from God. Here it is from fellowship with God’s People. Cf. Psalms 68(69):9 ἀπηλλοτριωμένος ἐγενήθην τοῖς�; Sir 11:24 (26). Nothing is said as to the responsibility for this estrangement. The fact is clear. Jew and Gentile had drifted far apart.

τῆς πολιτείας τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ. Cf. συμπολῖται (Ephesians 2:19); Acts 23:1; Philippians 1:27; Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 8:11, &c. Religious life can only find its full expression in an organized society. This idea is implicit in one side of the conception of ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ or τῶν οὐρανῶν in the Gospels; cf. on Ephesians 5:5. In βασιλεία however the thought is primarily of the sovereignty of the head, in πολιτεία the stress is on the rights and responsibilities of the members of the community. Ἰσραήλ. The title describes the nation in the light of the Divine election.

ξένοι. Strangers as such were excluded from the covenants.

τῶν διαθηκῶν. Genit. of separation. For the plur. cf. Romans 9:4. In O.T. covenants are recorded with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, Phinehas and David, but plur. only in Sir 44:11; Sir 44:18; Sir 45:17; Wis 18:22. These covenants were a pledge of a present communion and an earnest of deeper blessings to come. τῆς ἐπ. Cf. Ephesians 1:13.

ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες κ.τ.λ. The third stage of their isolation is marked by spiritual exhaustion. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13. Μὴ, not οὐ, as describing not merely a fact of history but the characteristic of a class. ἐλπίδα. Anarthrous; not merely with no hold on the hope of Israel, but with hope itself dead. Cf. 1 Peter 1:3 (Hort’s note).

ἄθεοι. Not ‘atheists’ in our popular use of the term, but as ‘out of touch with God,’ with no sense of His presence. So 1 Thessalonians 4:5 = Jeremiah 10:25 τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν θεόν, and Galatians 4:8. Cf. Orig. c. Cels. i:1, τῆς�.

ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ. This may (as in Ephesians 2:2; 1 Peter 5:9; 2 Peter 1:4; John 2:15) describe an environment in itself unfavourable to the service of God. The addition of the phrase would then heighten the impression of loneliness. On the other hand St Paul, as we know from Romans 1:20; Acts 14:17; Acts 17:24, felt that the world rightly understood was a constant revelation of the power and wisdom and love of God, so that the words may reflect on the blindness of those who lived without God though surrounded on all hands by the evidence of His works. See Hort on James 1:27.