Ephesians 3:15

πᾶσα πατριὰ. Lit. ‘every family’ or ‘father’s house’ (a sub-division of a tribe). Cf. Exodus 6:15; Numbers 1:2; Numbers 1:4; Luke 2:4; Acts 3:25.

ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς. Cf. Matthew 6:10. God’s heart is revealed in every true father on earth (cf. Luke 11:11 ff.). The bond of ‘fatherhood’ is not necessarily physical (e.g. 1 Corinthians 4:15), so that it is no objection to this interpretation that we cannot tell in what way Angels may be connected in ‘families.’ ‘All the family’ would imply a unity of all creation which can hardly as yet be said to have received a name, even if the absence of the article were not a conclusive objection.

ὀνομάζεται. Cf. Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 5:3. ‘Derives its nature and its name.’ To bear a name implies both a position and the power to fill it. So though πατριά is not strictly abstract (= paternitas, i.e. fatherhood) yet ‘fatherhood’ is at the heart of the conception of a family. Each family exists qua family in proportion as it embodies the principle of fatherhood. And all created fatherhood is derived from the Divine, so that ‘fatherhood’ would be the best rendering of the sense.