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For the thought compare Rom. 8:15 ff.; 23 ( th;n ajparch;n tou' pneuvmato" e[conte" ).
eij" ajpoluvtrwsin ...] leading unto .... The temporal sense, until ... is possible,
but the parallelism of the two clauses
eij" ajpoluvtr....eij" e[painon ... is decisive for the
other sense. The redemption of GOD'S own possession, and the consequent praise of His glory are, so to speak, the final cause of the work of Christ and the Mission of the Spirit.
th'" peripoihvsew" ] GOD'S own possession , all that which GOD has made His own in earth and heaven, not men only, who had fallen from Him, and earth which had shared the consequences of man's fall, but all created things, gathered together in the last crisis of their history. ‘Creation’ held ‘in the bondage of corruption’ required redemption. GOD has made us His sons ‘that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creation’ (James 1:18 ajparchvn tina tw'n aujtou' ktismavtwn ). Our inheritance is preparatory to ( eij" ) a larger blessing. The crown of the inheritance of Christians is that their consummation in Christ leads to His complete triumph. Creation waits for their revelation as the sons of GOD (Rom. 8:19 f.). Then shall it also be ‘delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of GOD.’

The interpretation which has been given to peripoivhsi" (after the Syriac and OEcumenius) is not without difficulty. Peripoivhsi" is properly the acquisition of something: 1 Thess. 5:9 eij" peripoivhsin swthriva" , 2 Thess. 2:14 eij" peripoivhsin dovxh" , Heb. 10:39 eij" perip. Yuch'" . In 1 Pet. 2:9 Christians are spoken of as lao;" eij" peripoivhsin in words borrowed from the LXX. (Mal. 3:17 e[sontaiv moi...eij" peripoivhsin ). GOD in His infinite patience and love wins His creatures to Himself. The aujtou' in the last clause gives colour to th'" peripoihvsew" . The thought is of the complete fulfilment of GOD'S purpose. There is therefore nothing unnatural in the use of hJ peripoivhsi" in this widest sense.

Additional Note on 1:1. The words ejn jEfevsw/ .

i 1] <[ ejn jEfevsw/ ] a *B “the older of the MSS” consulted by Bas. 67 ** (Marcion, see below) Orig. loc. (distinctly) Bas. (expressly). Orig. interprets toi'" ou\sin absolutely, in the sense of 1 Cor. 1:28, as he could not have done had he read ejn jEfevsw/ : Bas. probably has Orig. in mind when he refers for this reading to ‘predecessors,’ from whom however Bas. manifestly distinguishes MSS consulted by himself ( ou{tw ga;r kai; oiJ pro; hJmw'n paradedwvkasi kai; hJmei'" ejn toi'" palaioi'" tw'n ajntigravfwn euJrhvkamen ). It is doubtless again to Orig. that Hier. refers when he speaks of ‘certain’ as interpreting the passage in this manner ‘with unnecessary refinement’ ( curiosius quam necesse est ): —a remark which shews on the one hand that Hier. was not himself acquainted with the reading, and on the other that Orig. in his unabridged commentary can have made no reference to any MSS as containing ejn jEfevsw/ , since otherwise Hier. could not have treated the question as though it affected interpretation alone. Tert. distinctly states that Marcion retained this Epistle, but under the title ‘To the Laodicenes.’ Epiph. is silent on this point in his short account of Marcion's readings in the Ep., but after the conclusion of his remarks on all the epistles (374 A pro;" Filipphsivou" iv: ou{tw" ga;r para; tw'/ Markivwni kei'tai ejscavth kai; dekavth ) he subjoins a confused notice of a reading of Marcion (Eph. 4:5) “from the so-called Ep. to the Laodicenes, in harmony with the Ep. to the Ephesians”; so that the unknown source from which he borrowed his information about Marcion's text seems to have contained a misunderstood reference to the title used by


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