Ephesians 3:21

glory Lit., and better, the glory; the glory due to the Father of the Saviour, and of the saints in Him.

in the church by Christ Jesus Lit., in Christ Jesus. "The glory" is ascribed "inHim" as the Father is manifested in Him, and "in Him reconciled the world to Himself." But very strong evidence favours the reading in the Church and in Christ Jesus. If this is adopted, and it is nearlycertain, the meaning is that the reasons of eternal praise to the Father lie both in the Church and in the Saviour; in the Church, as chosen and glorified by Him, in the Saviour as His supreme and all-including Gift.

throughout all ages, &c. Lit., unto all the generations of the age of the ages. Such is the length of prospect revealed for the Church of Christ, as the "habitation of God" (Ephesians 2:22). The meaning manifestly is, "to all eternity," whatever manifestations the eternal Future may bring. This is viewed as one vast "age" (aiôn), the sum and circumference of ages, which ages again contain developments faintly imaged by the "generations" which make up the centuries of Time. The phrases "for ever," or "for ever and ever," of our A. V., usually represent the "unto the age," or "unto the ages," or "unto the ages of the ages," of the Greek. The first Gr. phrase is almost confined to St John's Gospel and Epistles; the last is distinctive of the Revelation, but it occurs also in St Paul and St Peter. St Peter (2 Ephesians 3:18) writes "unto the day ofthe age," the "Day" which shall usher in the Eternal State. On the word aiônsee further, last note on Ephesians 1:21.

Amen The word is properly a Hebrew adverb ("surely"), repeatedly used as here in O. T. See Psalms 89:52; Jeremiah 11:5 (marg. A. V.); &c.

On the great passage thus closed Monod remarks: "This doxology, which concludes at once the Apostle's prayer and the first part of his epistle, would be remarkable anywhere, but it is doubly so here … After the grandest promises which human language can express, the Holy Spirit here closes by declaring that all which can be expressed is infinitely below the reality which is in God.… But nothing less could answer the vast and undefined need of the heart. All that the mind can clearly grasp and the mouth articulately utter is incapable of satisfying us. And thus this close, so astonishing and unexpected, is just what we needed … But alas, if this language which is infinitely below the reality which is in God is infinitely above the reality which is in us!… To pass from Scripture to our experience, seems like a fall from heaven to earth.… The Lord teach us how to bring our experience into harmony with His promises."