Ephesians 4:19

οἵτινες ἀπηλγηκότες : who having become past feeling. οἵτινες has its usual qualitative or explanatory force, = “who as men past feeling”. The ἀπηλγηκότες is naturally suggested by the πώρωσιν. It expresses the condition, not of despair merely (Syr., Vulg., Arm., etc.), but of moral insensibility, “the deadness that supervenes when the heart has ceased to be sensible of the ‘stimuli' of the conscience” (Ell.). A few MSS. ([443] [444] [445], etc.) mistakenly read ἀπηλπικότες or ἀφηλπικότες, = desperantes (Latt., Syr., Arm., etc.). ἑαυτοὺς παρέδωκαν τῇ ἀσελγείᾳ : gave themselves up to lasciviousness. In Romans 1:26 Paul gives us the other side of the same unhappy fact πάρεδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεός. It is at once a guilty choice of men and a judicial act of God. ἀσέλγεια is wantonness, shameless, outrageous sensuality (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; 2 Peter 2:7, etc.). εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ : to the working of all uncleanness with greediness. The noun ἐργασία is used sometimes of work or business (Acts 19:25); sometimes of the gain got by work (Acts 16:19; perhaps also Acts 16:16; Acts 19:24); sometimes of the pains or endeavour (Luke 12:58). Hence some give it the sense of trade here (Koppe, RV marg. = “to make a trade of”). It might perhaps be rendered here “so as to make a business of every kind of uncleanness”. But it seems rather to be simply = τὸ ἐργάζεσθαι. The εἰς denotes the object, the conscious object (Ell.) of the self-surrender. πάσης = every kind of; ἀκαθαρσία is moral uncleanness in the widest sense; ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ, describes the condition or frame of mind in which they wrought the ἀκαθαρσία, viz., that of covetousness or greediness. πλεονεξία is taken by some to mean ἀμετρία, inordinate desire or insatiableness (Chrys., Oec., Calv., Trench, etc.). It is repeatedly coupled indeed with sins of the flesh in the NT (1 Corinthians 5:11; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5) and is akin to them as they all involve self-seeking. But its own proper meaning is greed, covetousness, and that sense is quite applicable here. See further on Ephesians 5:3; Ephesians 5:5. These two things ἀκαθαρσία and πλεονεξία ranked as the two great heathen vices. So the Gentiles, darkened and alienated from the life of God, had become men of such a character that they gave themselves wilfully over to wanton sensuality, in order that they might practise every kind of uncleanness and do that with unbridled greedy desire.

[443] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[444] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[445] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.