Ephesians 3:15

ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ὀνομάζεται : from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. The ἐξ οὗ denotes the origin of the name, the source whence it is derived (cf. Hom., Il., x., 68; Xen., Mem., iv., 5, 8; Soph., (Œd. R., 1036). The verb ὀνομάζομαι is also followed by ἀπό (Herod., vi., 129); but ἐκ conveys the idea of more direct origination (cf. Ell., in loc.). The noun πατριά, for which πάτρα is the more usual form in classical Greek, never has the sense of πατρότης, paternitas (Syr., Goth., Vulg., Luth., and, so far, also Harl.). It means sometimes ancestry (Herod., ii., 143; iii., 75), but usually family (Exodus 6:15; Exodus 12:3; Numbers 1:2; Luke 2:4), race or tribe, i.e., a number of families descended from a common stock (Herod., i., 200; Numbers 1:16), nation or people (1 Chronicles 16:28; Psalms 22:28; Acts 3:25). In the LXX the πατριαί are the מִשְׁפָּחוֹת as distinguished from the φυλαί, מִטּוֹת. The Israelites were constituted of twelve φυλαί divided into a number of πατριαί, each of these latter again consisting of so many οἶκοι. Here the word seems to have the widest sense of class, order, nation, community, as the idea of family in the proper sense of the term is inapplicable to the case of the angels, who are indicated by ἐν οὐρανοῖς. Further, the anarthrous πᾶσα πατριά grammatically can only mean “every family” (see under Ephesians 2:21 above), not “the whole family” (Mich., Olsh., etc.). All such ideas, therefore, as that angels and men, or the blessed in heaven and the believing on earth, are in view as now making one great family, are excluded. Nor can ὀνομάζεται be made to mean anything else than “are named” certainly not exist, or called into existence (Estius, etc.), or “are named the children of God ” (Beng., etc.). The sense, therefore, is “the Father, from whom all the related orders of intelligent beings, human and angelic, each by itself, get the significant name of family, community ”. The various classes of men on earth, Jewish, Gentile, and others, and the various orders of angels in heaven, are all related to God, the common Father, and only in virtue of that relation has any of them the name of family. The father makes the family; God is the Father of all; and if any community of intelligent beings, human or angelic, bears the great name of family, the reason for that lies in this relation of God to it. The significant name has its origin in the spiritual relationship. It is not possible, however, to give proper expression to the thought in English. In the Greek there is a play upon the words πατήρ, πατριά, which cannot be reproduced. Some have supposed that Paul has certain Rabbinical notions in view here, or that he is glancing at certain Gnostic theories, or at the vain worship of angels. But there is no ground for such far-fetched suppositions. The Rabbinical conceits regarding angels and the Gnostic speculations were both very different from anything suggested here.