《Eadie’s Commentary on Ephesians (Vol. )》(John Eadie) 04 Chapter Introduction Chapter 4

The apostles were the first and highest order of office-bearers-those “twelve whom also He named apostles.” Luke 6:13. Judas fell; Matthias was appointed his successor and substitute (if a human appointment, and one prior to Pentecost, be valid); and Saul of Tarsus was afterwards added to the number. The essential elements of the apostolate were-

1. That the apostles should receive their commission immediately from the living lips of Christ. Matthew 10:5; Mark 6:7; Galatians 1:1. In the highest sense, they held a charge as “ambassadors for Christ;” they spoke “in Christ's stead.” Matthew 28:19; John 20:21; John 20:23; Hase, Leben Jesu, § 64.

2. That having seen the Saviour after He rose again, they should be qualified to attest the truth of His resurrection. So Peter defines it, Acts 1:21-22; so Paul asserts his claim, 1 Corinthians 9:1; 1 Corinthians 9:5; 1 Corinthians 9:8; so Peter states it, Acts 2:32; and so the historian records, Acts 4:33. The assertion of this crowning fact was fittingly assumed as the work of those “chosen witnesses to whom He showed Himself alive after His passion, by many infallible proofs.”

3. They enjoyed a special inspiration. Such was the promise, John 14:26; John 16:13; and such was the possession, 1 Corinthians 2:10; Galatians 1:11-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:13. Infallible exposition of Divine truth was their work; and their qualification lay in their possession of the inspiring influences of the Holy Ghost.

4. Their authority was therefore supreme. The church was under their unrestricted administration. Their word was law, and their directions and precepts are of permanent obligation. Matthew 18:18; Matthew 18:20; John 20:22-23; 1 Corinthians 5:3-6; 2 Corinthians 10:8.

5. In proof of their commission and inspiration, they were furnished with ample credentials. They enjoyed the power of working miracles. It was pledged to them, Mark 16:15; and they wielded it, Acts 2:43; Acts 5:15; and 2 Corinthians 12:12. Paul calls these manifestations “the signs of an apostle;” and again in Hebrews 2:4, he signalizes the process as that of “God also bearing them witness.” They had the gift of tongues themselves, and they had also the power of imparting spiritual gifts to others. Romans 1:11; Acts 8:17; Acts 19:6.

6. And lastly, their commission to preach and found churches was universal, and in no sense limited. 2 Corinthians 11:28.

This is not the place to discuss other points in reference to the office. The title seems to be applied to Barnabas, Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14, as being in company with Paul; and in an inferior sense to ecclesiastical delegates. Romans 16:7; 2 Corinthians 8:23; Philippians 2:25; Winer, Real-Wörterbuch, art. Apostel; Kitto's Bib. Cycl. do.; M'Lean's Apostolical Commission, Works, i. p. 8; Spanhemius, de Apostolatu, etc., Leyden, 1679.

τοὺς δὲ προφήτας—“and some to be prophets.” δέ looks back to μέν and introduces a different class. We have already had occasion to refer especially to this office under Ephesians 2:20 and Ephesians 3:5. The prophets ranked next in order to the apostles, but wanted some of their peculiar qualifications. They spoke under the influence of the Spirit; and as their instructions were infallible, so the church was built on their foundation as well as that of the apostles; Ephesians 2:20. Prophecy is marked out as one of the special endowments of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 12:10), where it stands after the apostolic prerogative of working miracles. The revelation enjoyed by apostles was communicated also to prophets, Ephesians 3:5. The name has its origin in the peculiar usages of the Old Testament. The Hebrew term נָבִיא, H5566, has reference, in its etymology, to the excitement and rhapsody which were so visible under the Divine afflatus; and the cognate verb is therefore used in the niphal and hithpael conjugations. Gesenius, sub voce; Knobel, Prophetismus, 1.127. The furor was sometimes so vehement that, in imitation of it, the frantic ravings of insanity received a similar appellation. 1 Samuel 18:10 ; 1 Kings 18:29. As the prophet's impulse came from God, and denoted close alliance with Him, so any man who enjoyed special and repeated Divine communications was called a prophet, as Abraham, Genesis 20:7. Because the prophet was God's messenger, and spoke in God's name, this idea was sometimes seized on, and a common internuncius was dignified with the title. Exodus 7:1. This is the radical signification of προφήτης-one who speaks- πρό-for, or in name of another. In the Old Testament, prophecy in its strict sense is therefore not identical with prediction; but it often denotes the delivery of a Divine message. Ezra 5:1. Prediction was a strange and sublime province of the prophet's labour; but he was historian and bard as well as seer. Again, as the office of a prophet was sacred, and was held in connection with the Divine service, lyric effusions and musical accompaniments are termed prophesying, as in the case of Miriam (Exodus 15:20), and of the sons of the prophets, 1 Samuel 10:5. So it is too in Numbers 11:26; Titus 1:12. In 1 Chronicles 25:1, similar language occurs-the orchestra “prophesied with a harp to give thanks and to praise the Lord.” Koppe, Excursus iii. ad Comment. in Epist. ad Ephesios. Thus, besides the special and technical sense of the word, prophesying in a wider and looser signification means to pour forth rapturous praises, in measured tone and cadence, to the accompaniment of wild and stirring music. Similar is the usage of the New Testament in reference to Anna in Luke 2:36, and to the ebullition of Zachariah in Luke 1:67. While in the New Testament προφήτης is sometimes used in its rigid sense of the prophets of the Old Testament, it is often employed in the general meaning of one acting under a Divine commission. Foundation is thus laid for the appellation before us. Once, indeed (Acts 11:28), prediction is ascribed to a prophet; but instruction of a peculiar nature-so sudden and thrilling, so lofty and penetrating-merits and receives the generic term of prophecy. Females sometimes had the gift, but they were not allowed to exercise it in the church. This subordinate office differed from that of the Old Testament prophets, who were highest in station in their church, and many of whose inspired writings have been preserved as of canonical authority. But no utterances of the prophets under the New Testament have been so highly honoured.

Thus the prophets of the New Testament were men who were peculiarly susceptible of Divine influence, and on whom that afflatus powerfully rested. Chrysostom, on 1 Corinthians 12:28, says of them- ὁ μὲν προφητεύων πάντα ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος φθέγγεται. They were inspired improvisatori in the Christian assemblies-who, in animated style and under irresistible impulse, taught the church, and supplemented the lessons of the apostles, who, in their constant itinerations, could not remain long in one locality. Apostles planted and prophets watered; the germs engrafted by the one were nurtured and matured by the other. What the churches gain now by the spiritual study of Scripture, they obtained in those days by such prophetical expositions of apostolical truth. The work of these prophets was in the church, and principally with such as had the semina of apostolical teaching; for the apostle says—“He that prophesieth speaketh unto men, to edification, and exhortation, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3); and again, “prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them that believe,” though not for unbelievers wholly useless, as the sudden and vivid revelation of their spiritual wants and belongings often produced a mighty and irresistible impression. 1 Corinthians 14:22; 1 Corinthians 14:24-25; Neander, Geschichte der Pflanzung der Christl. K. p. 234, 4th ed. Though the man who spake with tongues might be thrown out of self-control, this ecstasy did not fall so impetuously upon the prophets; they resembled not the Greek μάντις, for “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” One would be apt to infer from the description of the effect of prophecy on the mind of an unbeliever, in laying bare the secrets of his heart, that the prophets concerned themselves specially with the subjective side of Christianity-with its power and adaptations; that they appealed to the co nsciousness, and that they showed the higher bearings and relations of those great facts which had already been learned on apostolical authority. 1 Corinthians 14:25. This gift had an intimate connection with that of tongues (Acts 19:6), but is declared by the apostle to be superior to it. Though these important functions were superseded when a written revelation became the instrument of the Spirit's operation upon the heart, yet the prophets, having so much in common with the apostles, are placed next to them, and are subordinate to them only in dignity and position. Romans 12:6. Whether all the churches enjoyed the ministrations of these prophets we know not. They were found in Corinth, Rome, Antioch, Ephesus, and Thessalonica. If our account, drawn from the general statements of Scripture, be correct, then it is wrong on the part of Noesselt, Rückert, and Baumgarten-Crusius to compare this office with that of modern preaching; and it is too narrow a view of it to restrict it to prediction; or to the interpretation of Old Testament vaticinations, like Macknight; or to suppose, with Mr. M'Leod, that it had its special field of labour in composing and conducting the psalmody of the primitive church. Divine Inspiration, by E. Henderson, D.D., p. 207: London, 1836; A View of Inspiration, etc., by Alexander M'Leod, p. 133: Glasgow, 1831. Most improbable of all is the conjecture of Schrader, that the apostle here refers to the prophets of the Old Testament.

τοὺς δὲ εὐαγγελιστάς—“and some to be evangelists.” That those evangelists were the composers of our historical gospels is an untenable opinion, which Chrysostom deemed possible, and which OEcumenius stoutly asserts. On the other hand, Theodoret is more correct in his description- περιϊόντες ἐκήρυττον—“going about they preached.” Eusebius, Historia Eccles. 3.37. The word is used only thrice in the New Testament-as the designation of Philip in Acts 21:8, and as descriptive of one element of the vocation of Timothy. 2 Timothy 4:5. In one sense apostles and prophets were evangelists, for they all preached the same holy evangel, 1 Corinthians 1:17. But this official title implies something special in their function, inasmuch as they are distinguished also from “teachers.” These gospellers may have been auxiliaries of the apostles, not endowed as they were, but furnished with clear perceptions of saving truth, and possessed of wondrous power in recommending it to others. Inasmuch as they itinerated, they might thus differ from stationary teachers. Neander, Geschichte der Pflanzung, etc., 259, 4th ed. While the prophets spoke only as occasion required, and their language was an excited outpouring of brilliant and piercing thoughts, the evangelists might be more calm and continuous in their work. Passing from place to place with the wondrous story of salvation and the cross, they pressed Christ on men's acceptance, their hands being freed all the while from matters of detail in reference to organization, ritual, and discipline. The prophet had an ἀποκάλυψις as the immediate basis of his oracle, and the evangelist had “the word of knowledge” as the ultimate foundation of his lesson. Were not the seventy sent forth by our Lord a species of evangelists, and might not Mark, Luke, Silas, Apollos, Tychicus, and Trophimus merit such a designation? The evangelist Timothy was commended by Paul to the church in Corinth. 1 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Corinthians 16:10. Mr. M'Leod's notions of the work of an evangelist are clearly wrong, as he mistakes addresses given to Timothy as a pastor for charges laid upon him in the character of an evangelist. A View of Inspiration, p. 481. The command to “do the work of an evangelist,” if not used in a generic sense, is something distinct from the surrounding admonitions, and characterizes a special sphere of labour.

τοὺς δὲ ποιμένας καὶ διδασκάλους—“and some to be pastors and teachers.” Critical authorities are divided on the question as to whether these two terms point out two different classes of office-bearers, or merely describe one class by two combined characteristics. The former opinion is held by Theophylact, Ambrose, Pelagius, Calvin, Beza, Zanchius, Calixtus, Crocius, Grotius, Meier, Matthies, de Wette, Neander, and Stier; and the latter by Augustine, Jerome, OEcumenius, Erasmus, Piscator, Musculus, Bengel, Rückert, Harless, Olshausen, Meyer, and Davidson. Ecclesiastical Polity, p. 156.

Those who make a distinction between pastors and teachers vary greatly in their definitions. Thus Theodoret, followed by Bloomfield and Stier, notices the difference, as if it were only local- τοὺς κατὰ πόλιν καὶ κώμην—“town and country clergy.” Theophylact understands by “pastors” bishops and presbyters, and deacons by “teachers,” while Ambrosiaster identifies the same teachers with exorcists. According to Calixtus, with whom Meier seems to agree, the “pastors” were the working class of spiritual guides, and the “teachers” were a species of superintendents and professors of theology, or, according to Grotius, metropolitans. Neander's view is, that the “pastors” were rulers, and the “teachers” persons possessed of special edifying gifts, which were exerted for the instruction of the church. The Westminster Divines also made a distinction—“The teacher or doctor is also a minister of the Word as well as the pastor;” “He that doth more excel in exposition of Scripture, in teaching sound doctrine, and in convincing gainsayers, than he doth in application, and is accordingly employed therein, may be called a teacher or doctor;” “A teacher or doctor is of most excellent use in schools and universities,” etc. Stier remarks that “each pastor should, to a certain extent at least, be a teacher, but every teacher is not therefore a pastor.” By some reference is made for illustration to the school of divinity in Alexandria, over which such men as Didymus, Clement, and Origen presided. None of these distinctions can be scripturally and historically sustained.

We agree with those who hold that one office is described by the two terms. Jerome says-Non enim ait; alios autem pastores et alios magistros, sed alios pastores et magistros, ut qui pastor est, esse debeat et magister; and again-Nemo pastoris sibi nomen assumere debet, nisi possit docere quos pascit. The view of Bengel is similar. The language indicates this, for the recurring τοὺς δέ is omitted before διδασκάλους, and a simple καί connects it with ποιμένας. The two offices seem to have had this in common, that they were stationary- περὶ ἕνα τόπον ἠσχολημένοι, as Chrysostom describes them. Grotius, de Wette, and others, refer us to the functional vocabulary of the Jewish synagogue, in which a certain class of officers were styled פרנסין, after which Christian pastors were named ἐπίσκοποι and πρεσβύτεροι. Vitringa, De Synagog. Vet. p. 621; Selden, De Synedriis Vet. Heb. lib. i. cap. 14.

The idea contained in ποιμήν is common in the Old Testament. The image of a shepherd with his flock, picturing out the relation of a spiritual ruler and those committed to his charge, often occurs. Psalms 23:1; Psalms 80:1; Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 3:15, and in many other places; Isaiah 56:11; Ezekiel 34:2; Ezekiel 37:24; Zechariah 10:3; John 10:14; John 21:15; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2. Such pastors and guides rule as well as feed the flock, for the keeping or tending is essential to the successful feeding. The prominent idea in Psalms 23 is protection and guidance in order to pasture. The same notion is involved in the Homeric and classic usage of ποιμήν as governor and captain. “The idea of administration is,” Olshausen remarks, “prominent in this term.” It implies careful, tender, vigilant superintendence and government, being the function of an overseer or elder. The official name ἐπίσκοπος is used by the apostle in addressing churches formed principally out of the heathen world-as at Ephesus, Philippi, and the island of Crete (Acts 20:28; Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:7); while πρεσβύτερος, the term of honour, is more Jewish in its tinge, as may be found in many portions of the Acts of the Apostles, and in the writings of James, Peter, and John. Speaking to Timothy and Titus, the apostle styles them elders (and so does the compiler of the Acts, in referring to spiritual rulers); but describing the duties of the office itself, he calls the holder of it ἐπίσκοπος. See under Philippians 1:1.

The διδάσκαλοι, placed in the third rank by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 12:28, were persons whose peculiar function it was to expound the truths of Christianity. While teaching was the main characteristic of this office, yet, from the mode of discharging it, it might be called a pastorate. The διδάσκαλος in teaching, did the duty of a ποιμήν, for he fed with knowledge; and the ποιμήν in guiding and governing, prepared the flock for the nutriment of the διδάσκαλος. It is declared in 1 Timothy 3:2 that a Christian overseer or pastor must be “apt to teach”- διδακτικός; and in Titus 1:9 it is said that, in virtue of his office, he must be able “by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers.” Again, in Hebrews 13:7, those who had governed the church are further characterized thus- οἵτινες ἐλάλησαν ὑμῖν τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ.

The one office is thus honoured appropriately with the two appellations. It comprised government and instruction, and the former being subordinate to the latter, διδάσκαλοι are alone mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, but there the evangelists are formally omitted; while the apostle by a sudden change uses the abstract, and the “helps” and “governments” then referred to are, like “healing” and “tongues,” not distinct offices possessed by various individuals, but associated with those previously named. The evangelists and deacons were indeed helps, but government devolved upon the teachers and elders. See Henderson, Divine Inspiration, Lect. iv. p. 184; Rückert, 2nd Beilage-Komment. über Corinth-B.; Davidson, Ecclesiastical Polity, 178. We are ignorant to a very great extent of the government of the primitive church, and much that has been written upon it is but surmise and conjecture. The church represented in the Acts was only in process of development, and there seem to have been differences of organization in various Christian communities, as may be seen by comparing the portion of the epistle before us with allusions in the three letters to Rome, Corinth, and Philippi. Offices seem to be mentioned in one which are not referred to in others. It would appear, in fine, that this last office of government and instruction was distinct in two elements from those previously enumerated; inasmuch as it was the special privilege of each Christian community-not a ministerium vagum, and was designed also to be a perpetual institute in the church of Christ. The apostle says nothing of the modes of human appointment or ordination to these various offices. He descends not to law, order, or form, but his great thought is, that though the ascended Lord gave such gifts to men, yet their variety and number interfere not with the unity of the church, as he also conclusively argues in the twelfth chapter of his first epistle to the church in Corinth.

Verse 12

(Ephesians 4:12.) πρὸς τὸν καταρτισμὸν τῶν ἁγίων, εἰς ἔργον διακονίας, εἰς οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ σώματος τοῦ χριστοῦ—“In order to the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” The meaning of this verse depends upon its punctuation. There are three clauses, and the question is-how are they connected?

1. Some regard the three clauses as parallel or co-ordinate. He gave all these gifts “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Such is the rendering of the English version, as if each clause contained a distinct purpose, and each of the three purposes related with equal independence to the divine gift of the Christian ministry. This mode of interpretation claims the authority of Chrysostom, Zanchius, Bengel, von Gerlach, Holzhausen, and Baumgarten - Crusius. But the apostle changes the preposition, using πρός before the first clause, while εἰς stands before the other two members of the verse, so that, if they are all co-ordinate, a different relation at least is indicated.

2. A meaning is invented by Grotius, Calovius, Rollock, Michaelis, Koppe, and Cramer, through the violent and unwarranted transposition of the clauses, as if Paul had written—“for the work of the ministry, in order to the perfecting of the saints, in order to the edifying of the body of Christ.” Similarly Tyndale—“that the sainctes might have all things necessarie to work and minister withall.”

3. Harless and Olshausen suppose the prime object to be described in the first clause which begins with πρός, and the other clauses, each commencing with εἰς, to be subdivisions of the main idea, and dependent upon it, as if the meaning were-the saints are prepared some of them to teach, and others, or the great body of the church, to be edified. Our objection to such an exegesis is, that it introduces a division where the apostle himself gives no hint, and which the language cannot warrant. For all the ἅγιοι are described as enjoying the “perfecting,” and they are identical with “the body of Christ” which is to be edified. The opinion of Zachariae is not very different, as he makes the second εἰς depend upon the first—“For the work of the ministry instituted in order to the edifying of the body of Christ.”

4. Meier, Schott, Rückert, and Erasmus also regard the two clauses introduced by εἰς as dependent upon that beginning with πρός. Their opinion is-that the apostle meant to say, “for the perfecting of the saints unto all that variety of service which is essential unto the edification of the church.” This interpretation we preferred in our first edition. But Meyer argues that διακονία, in such a connection, never signifies service in general, but official service; and his objection therefore is, that the saints, as a body, are not invested with official prerogative.

5. Meyer's own view is, that the two last clauses are co-ordinate, and that both depend on ἔδωκε, while the first clause contains the ultimate reason for which Christ gave teachers. He has given teachers- εἰς—“for the work of the ministry, and- εἰς-for the edifying of His body- πρός-in order to the perfecting of His saints.” Ellicott and Alford follow Meyer, and we incline now to concur in this opinion, though the order of thought appears somewhat inverted. Jelf, § 625, 3. It is amusing to notice the critical manoeuvre of Piscator- εἰς ἔργον, says he, stands for ἐν ἔργῳ, and that again means δἰ ἔργου-the perfecting of the saints by means of the work of the ministry.

The verbal noun καταρτισμός is not, as Pelagius and Vatablus take it, the filling up of the number of the elect, but as Theodoret paraphrases the participle- τέλειος ἐν πᾶσι πράγμασι. The verb καταρτίζειν-to put in order again-is used materially in the classics, as to refit a ship (Polyb. 1.24, 4; Diodorus Sic. 13.70) or reset a bone (Galen); also in Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19; Hebrews 10:5; Hebrews 11:3. In its ethical sense it is used properly, Galatians 6:1; and in its secondary sense of completing, perfecting, it is found in the other passages where it occurs, as here. Luke 6:40; 2 Corinthians 13:11. The meaning of ἅγιος has been explained under Ephesians 1:1. The Christian ministry is designed to mature the saints, to bring them nearer the Divine law in obedience, and the Lord's example in conformity.