Ephesians 3:15

Ephesians 3:15. From whom every family. This is the only grammatical rendering of the phrase, as the great mass of commentators hold. There is a play on words in the original, which Stier attempts to reproduce in this paraphrase: ‘the true Father over all that is named from fathers.' ‘Family' is not to be taken as equivalent to ‘paternity,' but probably in the wider sense of ‘race,' ‘tribe,' etc. But the sense ‘the whole family' should not be imported into the phrase because of assumed doctrinal difficulties. Nor is the notion the semi-heathen one of an ‘All-Father.' ‘The Apostle seems, regarding God as the Father of us His adopted children in Christ, to go forth into the fact, that He, in this relation to us, is in reality the great original and prototype of the paternal relation, wherever found' (Al-ford).

In heaven and on earth. The varied groups of angels and families of men. That the former are included seems clear, since they too are sons of God, and are divided into hosts and groups. But it is incorrect to find only two classes here, one in heaven and the other on earth, either angels and men, or the redeemed in heaven and on the earth. Wherever in heaven or on earth beings are grouped from their relation to a father, whether directly or indirectly, the name they bear in each case is really derived from the ‘Father' to whom Paul prayed.

Named, in this view, is taken in the simple sense of ‘takes its name.' No other view allows this sense so well, and the play on words seems to demand it. The attempt to limit ‘family' here to the redeemed is due to a misconception of the passage, and has usually found its main support in the incorrect reading followed in the E. V. (Ephesians 3:14). No doubt the relation of God to His redeemed children is the striking fact which suggested the expression, but the thought here is wider. Any unholy idea of the Fatherhood of God, such as men use to obscure the truth respecting His wrath against sin, is forbidden by every theological conception found in the Apostle's writings.