Ephesians 5:13

τὰ δὲ πάντα ἐλεγχόμενα ὑπὸ τοῦ φωτὸς φανεροῦται, πᾶν γὰρ τὸ φανερούμενον φῶς ἐστί : but all, when they are reproved, are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light. Both the connection and the import of some of the words here are difficult to determine, and various interpretations have been proposed. The RV renders it “but all things when they are reproved are made manifest,” treating it as a general statement. But the point and the harmony of the whole verse are best seen if the phrase τὰ πάντα is taken to refer to the secret practices which have been immediately in view, = “all of them,” “all these things”. The ἐλεγχόμενα, again, must have its proper sense of reproved or rebuked, and cannot be dealt with as synonymous with πεφανεροῦται. The anarthrous participle will express the manner or the time of the action in question, and is not = “all things which are reproved” (Vulg., AV, etc.), but is = “all these things when they are reproved”. The πᾶν must be accepted as a neuter, there being no reason for taking it (with Bengel) as abstract for concrete and so = “every man ”. Further, the φανερούμενον and the φανεροῦται are naturally to be taken as of the same Voice. That the former cannot have the force of the Middle, “that which makes manifest,” appears from the fact that there does not appear to be any instance of φανεροῦσθαι being anything else than a pure passive in the NT, although it occurs some fifty times there. Two particular difficulties remain, viz., (a) the connection of ὑπὸ τοῦ φωτός, and (b) the sense of φῶς in the two clauses. As to (a), some attach the words to the ἐλεγχόμενα, = “when they are reproved by the light” (Syr., Copt., etc.). But, as the ἐλέγχετε (Ephesians 5:11) was introduced without any specification of the agent, it is most natural to connect the ὑπὸ τοῦ φωτός here not with the participle but with the fin. verb, and the best sense is got thereby. As to (b), it is held by some (e.g., Ell.) that the term φῶς must have the same sense in both clauses, whether the primary sense or the metaphorical. But it is difficult to get a clear and consistent sense for the statement on that supposition, neither is it necessary that the τοῦ φωτός in the first clause should have identically the same sense as φῶς in the second. In point of fact in the former the idea of the Christian light, the light of the Christian truth previously referred to, seems to be in view; while in the latter clause, which gives a general statement in support of the preceding particular affirmation, φῶς has its primary sense. It should be added that, if φανερούμενον is part of the statement of a general truth, the objection taken by some (e.g., Abb.) to the interpretation that deals with it as a true passive, viz., that it should then be πεφανερωμένον, falls to the ground. These considerations, therefore, negative all such interpretations as these (1) “he who does not refuse to be made manifest, becomes an enlightened one” (Beng.); (2) “for all that is enlightened by the light, is itself light” (Olsh.); (3) “all things which are tested by the light of the doctrine of Christ, one has no need to keep secret; all, however, which one can perform openly is itself light”; (4) all those constructions which give φανερούμενον the Middle sense, e.g., omne enim illud, quod manifesta facit alia, lux est (Erasm.); lux enim illud est quod omnia facit manifesta (Beza; similarly Calv., Bleek, etc.); (5) and all that make the light the agent of the ἐλέγχειν (De Wette, etc.). The sense, therefore, is this “all these shameful things which are done by them in secret, when they are subjected to the open rebuke which Christians ought to give them, are laid bare by the light of the Christian truth acting in their reproof, so that the doers of them are made to see them in the odiousness of their real nature; for everything that is disclosed in its real colours ceases to be secret and becomes of the nature of light”. So substantially Mey., Ell., etc. The δέ also has its proper, adversative force, as if = “these things indeed are done in secret; but (or yet) they are made manifest and displayed in their true character, when you reprove them in the power of Christian truth”. Thus, the whole sentence becomes a further reason, derived from the effects of the act, for practising the ἐλέγχειν; and the second clause confirms the particular power ascribed to the Christian φῶς by reference to the general statement of the connection between manifestation and light.