Father Bernardin de Piconios Commentary on Ephesians Chapter 2

Text in red, if any, are my additions.

God’s charity is too great, relatively to us, for it was too great charity to sacrifice his only begotten Son for enemies and sinners~Father Bernardin de Piconio.

Eph 2:1. And you, when you were dead in your faults and sins,

And you. This is in the objective case, and is governed by the verbs convivificavit  (brought us to life) and couresuscitavit (with him raised us up) in Eph 2:5-6, the intervening words forming a series of relative and dependent sentences. In the last, chapter St. Paul declared that the conversion of the Ephesians was an exercise of God’s power as great as, and similar to, that which was shown in raising Christ from the dead: of which resurrection it should be remembered that Saint Paul himself was a witness, having seen our Lord in the body, two years subsequently to his death on the cross. In the first six verses of this chapter he dwells on and expands the comparison, beginning by a description in this verse of their condition before their conversion, and living in paganism, as like that of the dead. When you were dead spiritually, being deprived of the grace of God, which is the life of the soul, in your faults and sins, your sins of omission and commission, as St. Thomas says.

Eph 2:2. In which at one time you walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, the spirit who now operates upon the sons of unbelief,

In which at one time you walked. As the expression in delictis et peccatis vestris  (in your faults and sins, Eph 2:1) denotes the multiplicity of sin among the pagans, so the expression ambulastis, you walked, denotes its persistency and habitual character. In which sins you long lived and continued, following the fashions and vanities of this transitory world, with reference to which St. John says, love not the world, and as the more real though hidden instigating cause, obeying the guidance of the devil, the spirit who still, in the pagan world, rules, works and dominates in the souls of men who are unbelieving, unfaithful and disobedient to their Creator. For when man revolts from God he falls under the dominion of the devil.

The prince of the power of this air. The air is not, any more than the other elements, materially subject to the power of the devil, for all the material universe serves its Creator mechanically. The expression is probably figurative, as representing the universal prevalence of sin in the human soul, as if it were the air we breathe. The word power seems to bear the same sense as in Eph 1:21, all principality and power, the singular being used for the plural. The prince of the powers who exercise dominion in this air. It is just possible there may be an indirect allusion to the prevalent worship of Zeus or Jupiter, the god of the air. See Acts 19:35. Sons of unbelief is a Hebraism, like Sons of wrath, in the next verse.

3. In which all we also at one time lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the thoughts; and were by  nature sons of wrath, even as the others.

To soften this terrible picture of the former condition of the Ephesians, the Apostle here observes that it is equally applicable to the Jews, not excluding himself, although the general tenor of his argument, as will appear from the application of it in the next chapter, has reference to the Gentile converts only, or especially. In which sins and offences we also, all of us, at one time lived, following the desires, and the perverted will, of the flesh and of the mind, according to the distinction of various kinds of concupiscence into carnal and spiritual, such as envy, ambition, and the like. We were plainly and simply children of wrath, like the pagans, and were nothing else. Deserving and liable to the anger and wrath of God. By nature may signify the nature of sin we inherit from Adam; or the inclination to it which is a phenomenon of human life. The Apostle is not, however, here referring to original, but to actual sin, and probably means to say that we were evidently and completely sons of wrath. The Greek word is φυσει (physei). The Syriac renders it evidently. The old Latin versions, cited by St. Jerome, have plene and omnino (fully and completely). Theophylact, truly and genuinely. St. Chrysostom: We were wrath and nothing else. As who is born of human parents is man, and only man, so we were wrath, and only wrath.

Eph 2:4. But God, who is rich in mercy, on account of the too great charity with which he loved us,

God who is rich in mercy. God is rich, as the owner of all the universe, but his principal riches is his mercy. On account of the too great charity with which he loved us. The Greek has, the great charity, the Syriac, the immense charity with which he loved mankind. God’s charity is too great, relatively to us, for it was too great charity to sacrifice his only begotten Son for enemies and sinners.

Eph 2:5. Even when we were dead in sins, brought us to life with Christ, by whose grace you are saved;

Even when we were, we Jews and you Gentiles, dead in sins, as described in Eph 2:1, God gave us life in Christ and together with Christ, when he raised Christ from the grave. The Greek has gave us life with Christ, the preposition in being added by the Vulgate. What Christ received at the resurrection was the life of the body, what we received in Baptism was the life of the soul. The one is the cause of the other. By whose grace you are saved. The Greek omits whose. You are saved, that is your salvation is begun, by grace, not by destiny, or any law of your creation giving you a different nature from other men.

Eph 2:6. And with him raised us from death, and seated us with him in the heavenly, in Christ Jesus.

And with him raised us from death. The resurrection of the soul in Baptism will be followed by the resurrection of the body at the last day, and both in consequence of the resurrection of Christ. This has already been accomplished in promise. And as the resurrection of Christ, so also his ascension into heaven, and session at the right hand of God. The convivificavit (brought us to life) belongs to the soul, the conresuscitavit  (with him raised us) to the body, the consedere fecit (seated us with him). The past is used for the future, for the certitude of the hope, says St. Thomas. And the right of possession is taken for the possession itself. God has seated us with Christ in the heavenly places, that is in heaven, or as in the Greek, in the places above the heavens.

Eph 2:7. That he might show in the ages to come the abundant riches of his grace, in his goodness upon us in Christ Jesus.

All this God has done, in order that to the centuries now to follow, until the end of the world, he may exhibit his boundless munificence in the kindness he has conferred upon us through Jesus Christ. St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and some other writers, understand by the ages that are to come, the eternity that is to follow the resurrection. But though the statement, so understood, would be true, it seems more in accordance with the mind of St. Paul to understand it as referring to the centuries which are passing in the history of the Church on earth.

Eph 2:8. For by grace you are saved through faith; and this not of you, for it is the gift of God.

You aye saved, that is justified, by faith. This is the beginning of salvation. And it did not begin with you, for faith itself is the gift of God. You are saved, so far as God can save you, for the completion of your salvation depends upon your co-operation with the grace of God, and the consent of your will with his.

Eph 2:9. Not of works, that none may boast.

You are saved by faith, not by works preceding faith. The Apostle does not assert that good works have no bearing on salvation, for in fact obedience to the laws of God is an indispensable condition of it. But works, however good in themselves, which precede faith, and do not therefore proceed from faith, are not effectual to salvation Faith is the beginning of justification. Neither was it for any such works that God gave you faith. That none may boast. Some of the Ephesian converts may possibly have boasted of the sanctity and purity of their lives in the days of their paganism, previous to their acceptance of the faith of Christ, at least in comparison with others. Or there may be some irony in the words of the Apostle. The whole of the argument in these verses is introductory to the practical conclusions drawn in chapter 4. The purity of life which God requires of you is not a development of philosophical virtues you may have exhibited, more or less perfectly, in former times; or in my own case, of my obedience to the ancient law. Rather, we were all then alike in a condition of sin and death. It is a new life, springing from the faith which made you capable of receiving God’s grace in Baptism, similar to, and dependent on, the resurrection of Christ from the grave, and which will not cease to carry you nearer and nearer to God until it leaves you enthroned with Christ in glory on the right hand of the Majesty above the heavens.

Eph 2:10. For we are his own work, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God prepared that we might walk in them.

For we are God’s work, his creation, his workmanship, the thing which his hands have made. But this is said here, not of natural creation, but of regeneration. The spiritual life infused into us by faith is as real, as new, as completely a new creation, as the animal life which God breathed into the insensible form of our first father in the garden of Eden. Regeneration, says St. Chrysostom, is real creation, for by it we are brought out of nothing, and are a new creature, and for this purpose, that we may exist. As to what we were before, we are dead, that is the old man is dead; what we were not before, we have become. This creation is therefore more recent, and far nobler and fairer than the old. For of old we were created to live, now we are created to live well. Let, therefore, no one glory, for the thing created can boast only of its Creator, not of itself. The justification of the sinner is not a physical creation, literally from nothing, but a moral creation, from no antecedent merit; wholly attributable to the merit of Christ, as physical creation is wholly attributable to the omnipotence of God.

In good works. The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic veresions all have or good works. The Greek preposition is ἐπὶ (epi) and Cornelius a Lapide, Grotius, and Erasmus, give many proofs that this preposition used as in this phrase, has the meaning of for or with a view to. Having stated in verse g that we are saved hy faith, not by works, that is worlds antecedent to faith, lest this should be misunderstood, the Apostle adds that we are expressly created for good works following faith επι and Cornelius à Lapide, Grotius, and Erasmus, give many proofs that this preposition used as in this phrase, has the meaning of for or with a view to. Having stated in verse 9 that we are saved by faith, not by works, that is works antecedent to faith, lest this should be misunderstood, the Apostle adds that we are expressly created for good works following faith. Not ἐξ ἔργων, (ex ergon = from works), but ἐπὶ ἔργοις (epi ergois = for works).

Eph 2:11. On this account remember and bear in mind, that you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh done with hands.
Eph 2:12. That you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the conversation of Israel, and strangers to the testaments, having not the hope of the promise, and without God in this world.
Eph 2:13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were afar off, have been brought near, in the blood of Christ.

(vs. 11) On this account, that you may better understand the immense benefit and advantage you have received by your regeneration, remember and bear in mind your former lost and hopeless condition, and your happy deliverance from it. You, who were Gentiles in carnal origin and by hereditary descent, in the flesh, were without any knowledge of Christ or faith in him. You were without a God, in reality atheists, for the gods you worshipped had no real existence. There cannot be a greater misery than for the soul of man to be without God, in whom alone it can find satisfaction, and without Christ, who is the interpreter and revealer to creation of the love of God. Even if a man could gain the whole world, and possess for eternity every pleasure created things could afford, these would soon cease to please, because nothing that is finite can fill the desires of the human soul, but leaves him m desolation and completely miserable. What does it profit, if a man gain all the world, and lose his soul? You had the world, but had lost God. In mundo, sine Christo, sine Deo (“in the world, without Christ, without God.” See vs. 12). And even that incomplete and partial knowledge of the true God, and ot Christ the coming Saviour of the world, which was retained among the people of the Jews, to facilitate the fulfilment of the promises made in ancient days, you, the Gentiles, did not possess. The inheritors of the circumcision—not the spiritual circumcision of the heart, which is the privilege of the Christian, but the outward circumcision made with hands—stigmatized you as the uncircumcision. You were alienated from the conversation of Israel (vs. 12), the chosen people of God, who were prohibited from entering into treaties of alliance with the Gentile nations (Deut 7:2) strangers to the covenants made with the nation of the Israelites, ignorant of the promise God had made to Abraham, to bless all the nations of the earth. (You were the nations of the earth, yet you lived throughout its wide extent, in huc mundo [“on this earth”], ignorant of its Creator.) All this you may usefully remember (vs. 11), in contrast with the position you now hold, in God’s sight.

There are three ways of recalling sin, one evil, the second dangerous, the third useful and advantageous. To remember sin with complacence, is mortal sin renewed, and incurs its guilt and malice over again. To remember sin with disquiet and distrust is dangerous, hindering progress and causing peril of relapse. To remember sin with contrition and gratitude for its forgiveness, increases grace, and glorifies God. It is this to which the Apostle invites the Ephesian Christians.

But remember also that from the time you believed in Christ, the blood of Christ has won for you, and conferred upon you, all that was wanting to you before (vs 13). You who were banished from God, from Christ, from the covenants, the promise, the society of Israel, from hope of salvation, are brought near to God, made one with Christ, become heirs of his promise of everlasting life, brought into the communion of the Holy Catholic Church, raised to heaven in anticipation and with Christ seated at God’s right hand in glory. There is evidently some strong reason which leads the Apostle to insist on enforcing the belief of the high privileges which the Christian faith had procured for the Ephesians, and that either Jewish influence or the pernicious doctrines of the heretics against whom this Epistle is principally directed, were dangerously likely to lead them to distrust the grace of Jesus Christ and the efficacy of the Sacraments of the Christian Church. The heretics made salvation dependent upon the acceptance of some hidden wisdom which they professed themselves able to impart, and which constituted the only true illumination of the soul.

Eph 2:14. For he is our peace, who made the two into one, destroying also the dividing wall of the building, the enmities in his own flesh.

He is our peacemaker or pacificator, who has not only reconciled us to God, but as a result of this reconciliation has conciliated the Jews and Gentiles together, and made them one people. And the wall of partition (the law of Moses) which separated Jews and Gentiles, he destroyed by the death which he suffered in his flesh abolished and replaced the law of commandments by the dogmas of the Gospel, so as to unite both Jews and Gentiles into one Church, which is figuratively one body, and new, founded by his Spirit on the day of Pentecost, reconciling them to God by the cross, by which he slew, at his own death, the enmities of former ages. And coming into this world he preached peace, by his Apostles to you who were at a distance, in his own person to the Jews, among whom he lived. There is therefore no ground for jealousy on your part, because the Gospel of God reached you through the preaching of Apostles who are all Jews. That was an economy of God to facilitate the establishment in the world of the truth of Christ’s resurrection, But Jews have no privileges in the Church of Christ which are not extended in equal measure to the Gentiles, and both are one people and one body in the faith of Jesus Christ.

The word maceria signifies a wall built of uncemented stone, and therefore easily destroyed. The Judaic law, says Theophylact, was a congeries of precepts, not bound together by charity, for the motive of obedience was not love, but fear. Christ by his death broke down, solvens (dissolve, break up), this law, while at the same time he fulfilled it. Christ, says the writer just quoted, dissolved the shadows of the law of ceremonies, while at the same time he exhibited its divine authority by the fulfilment of it; as a painter putting the finishing touches to his picture fills, while he obliterates, the outline his own hand has traced.

Eph 2:15. Abolishing the law of commandments by decrees; to build up the two in himself into one new man, making peace.

Abolished the law of commandment, by decrees. The Greek has in dogmas. The Syriac: Abolished the law of precepts by precepts of his own. The Arabic: Abrogated the law of commandments by his own decrees. The term dogma was popularly applied to the doctrines of the philosophical sects of that day; the Apostle here uses it to denote the truths of heaven, made known by Jesus Christ.

Almost all the interpreters, ancient and modern, understand the words in this sense; but Erasmus, Cajetan, Menochius, and Tyrinus read it, the law of commandments contained in decrees. The law of Moses contained a multiplicity of precepts relating,’ to things indifferent in themselves, sacred days, victims to be offered in sacrifice, meats to be avoided, &c., all which Christ abrogated by the law of faith. This, therefore, the older interpretation, seems to be more in accordance with the usual teaching of St. Paul.

Eph 2:16. And reconcile both in one body, to God through the cross, killing the enmities in himself.

Killing the enmities in himself. St. Jerome and the Syrian version both read in it, that is in the cross, but the sense of both readings is nearly the same. It is to be observed that the participles dissolving, abolishing, making peace, coming, are all in the past tense, in the Greek. The Latin language has no past active participle, and accordingly we have them in the Vulgate in the present tense.

Eph 2:17. And he came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and peace to those who were near.

Coming, he preached peace. An allusion to the words of the Angel in Luke 2:10, 14: I bring you good tidings of joy, peace on earth. Christ also himself preached peace to the nations; many shall come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, Matt 8:2. This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached all over the world, for a testimony to all nations, Matt 24:14. I will draw all to me, John 12:32. Go and teach all the nations, Matt 28:19. Christ therefore preached peace to them that were afar off, as well as to them that were near.

Eph 2:18. Because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

The fruit of the Incarnation of Christ is that we are permitted with confidence to approach God as our Father, through the Spirit, by whose teaching we say Our Father. This is the prime subject matter of chapter 2. Note the references to verses 12 &13 in the next comment.

Eph 2:19. Therefore now you are not strangers and foreigners, but you are citizens of the saints, and domestics of God.

See You were strangers, (vs 12). You were without God, (vs 12), far from God, (vs 13). You are now no longer strangers and foreigners, but citizens; the Greek, fellow-citizens with the Saints. The Syriac: Sons of the city of the Saints, and sons of the house of God. Members of his Church, which is God’s house and family.

Eph 2:20. Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, the highest stone of the corner being Jesus Christ.

Built upon thefoundation of the Apostles and Prophets. For what the Apostles proclaimed, the Prophets had foretold, and the foundations laid by the Apostles had been prepared by the Prophets. In 1 Cor 3:11, Christ is spoken of as the foundation of the Church. The same figure is here varied, for the foundation is the teaching of Prophets and Apostles, and Christ is the corner stone, placed on the summit of the building, its crown and completion. For the Apostles laid the foundations on earth, and Christ will come from heaven to finish and crown their work. The placing of the corner stone on a public building, as the last completion of the structure, was an occasion of public ceremony and rejoicing. The stone which the builders rejected, is placed on the head of the corner, Ps 118:22. He shall bring out the corner stone, and give grace for grace, Zech 4:7.

Eph 2:21. In whom the whole building constructed grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
Eph 2:22. In whom you also are being built together for a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.

Bound together and compacted by the cornerstone, or as we say the key-stone, the whole building is rising into a consecrated temple of God, who dwells in it by his Spirit, and of this temple you and other nations of the Gentile world, hereafter to be converted, form a part.