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classical writers. sunmevtoca ] Cf. c. Eph. 5:7 note. th'" ejpaggeliva" ] Acts 2:33. The Gentiles were admitted to the Church because they had been made partakers of the gift of the Holy Ghost: Acts 10:47. Comp. Eph. 1:13. This specific reference is at once more forcible and, under the circumstances, more natural than the general reference to the promised salvation which is included in sugklhronovma . There is an expressive sequence in three elements of the full endowment of the Gentiles as coequal with the Jews. They had a right to all for which Israel looked. They belonged to the same Divine society. They enjoyed the gift by which the new society was distinguished from the old. And when regarded from the point of sight of the Apostolic age, the gift of the Holy Spirit, ‘the promise of the Father’ (Lk. 24:49; Acts 1:4; 2:33; 38 f.), is preeminently ‘the promise,’ to which also summevtoca perfectly corresponds.
dia; tou' eujagg .] Comp. 1 Cor. 4:15.
7. St Paul's service as
a minister of the Gospel was determined by two conditions: the original gift of the grace of GOD that was given to him, and the continuous working of GOD'S power in him. The two clauses kata; th;n dwreavn..., kata; th;n ejnevrgeian ...are parallel (comp. Eph. 2:2) and the latter clause is not to be connected with doqeivsh" . The whole phrase th'" car. t. q. th'" doq. m. is repeated from vs. 2 and is complete in itself. With tou' eujagg. diavk . compare 2 Cor. 3:6 kainh'" diaq. d. For kata; th;n ejnevrg . compare Eph. 1:19; Col. 1:29.

In the N.T ejnevrgeia and ejnergei'n are characteristically used of moral and spiritual working whether Divine (e.g., Col. 1:29; 2:12; Phil. 3:21) or Satanic (2 Thess. 2:9, 11).

For dwreav see Eph. 4:7 note.
8. The construction of the first clause
ejmoi;...au{th is doubtful. It may be taken to begin a new sentence, so that eujaggel . will be the explanation of hJ cavri" au{th , or it may be a parenthetical reflection of the Apostle. On the whole the second arrangement seems to be most consonant with St Paul's style. In this case eujaggel . will be connected with diavkono" .
tw'/ ejlacistotevrw/ ] Latt. minimo ( infimo, novissimo ). For the form of the word see Winer 2.11, 2b. For the thought compare 1 Cor. 15:9; 1 Tim. 1:15. There is nothing in this confession at variance with the claims which St Paul asserts for that which GOD had given him: 2 Cor. 11:5.
eujaggelivsasqai ...] The scope of the Apostle's ministry was twofold: (1) to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles, and (2) to shew to (all) men its fulness to solve the manifold problems of life (vs. 9).
to; ajnexicn. pl. tou' c. ] Vulg. al. in-investigabiles divitias Christi. (Compare Prov. 5:6; Rom. 11:33 f.) The fulfilment of his work disclosed to St Paul, as we can see from his Epistles, ever-widening views of the scope and power of the Gospel. His own experience assured him that no one could exhaust its depths. And all lies in the Person and work of Christ (Col. 1:27; 2:2 tou' musthrivou tou' qeou', Cristou' ).

9. kai; fwtivsai ...] to bring to light what is .... In addition to his special office of
evangelising the Gentiles, and indeed through the accomplishment of it, St Paul was called to shew how the truth made known to him met the various needs of men. The universality of the Gospel—the ‘mystery’ opened to him—rested upon the fact of the Incarnation. This, as a wise steward, he shewed to furnish a harmony of GOD'S dealings with men, bringing it into true relation with the course of human life. ‘The dispensation of the mystery’ is, in other words, the apostolic application of the


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