New Testament in a Year

Footnotes

1. Ephesians 1:1 For the form used at the beginning of each of Paul’s Letters, see note on Rom 1:1.
2. Ephesians 1:1 In Ephesus: omitted in many manuscripts.
3. Ephesians 1:3 The style here becomes solemn and liturgical in the manner of the great Jewish blessings, for the Church is celebrating the plan of God. The stages of the divine plan are set forth in a great movement. To God the Father belongs all the initiative to make human beings his children. Everything is realized “in Christ”: indeed, the whole movement of the universe is oriented toward Christ as an edifice is built on its cornerstone and held up by it. Christ is at the same time the heart and summit, the movement and purpose of history.
   He gathers together the whole of humankind, reuniting in the Church both Gentiles (v. 13) and Jews (vv. 11-12), the two groups whose irreconcilable antagonism is the sign of the broken unity of the human family. And all the forces of the universe—notably the “heavenly forces”: i.e., angels or demons, secret powers of fatality or fecundity to whom religions customarily give names—are carried along in this élan of rebirth and accomplishment. The universe is led to peace under the authority of Christ. There is thus a grand meaning to the world and to history!
   Henceforth, the gift of the Spirit enables Christians to live by it. Indeed, there is a fulfillment of human beings, an “inheritance,” as the Bible says when it wishes to sum up in a word the blessings promised to believers. The Spirit, who is presently at work in the Church, is the pledge of this inheritance. Since the Resurrection of Jesus, this redeemed universe, i.e., a universe delivered from sin and the Law and placed under God’s plan, is being built up by the life of the Church, by the dynamism of the Gospel.
   However, no one can say that any person is predestined either for salvation or for condemnation. When Paul speaks of choosing and placing apart in advance (vv. 5, 11), he simply wishes to indicate that salvation is a grace for all the People of God, that it is the fulfillment of God’s plan.
4. Ephesians 1:3 These verses form a single sentence in the Greek. In it Paul sets forth the blessings that we have from the Father, then those from the Son, and finally those from the Holy Spirit.
5. Ephesians 1:7 Redemption: Paul uses the Greco-Roman practice of redeeming slaves by the payment of ransom to show what Christian redemption means. Christ’s death (“his blood”) constitutes the ransom necessary to free sinners from the bondage of sin and the curse of the Law (see Gal 3:13).
6. Ephesians 1:10 Bring . . . together: i.e., “recapitulate.” The Greek verb contains two ideas: to gather together or unite and to place under a rule or head.
7. Ephesians 1:14 Down payment: for “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you” (Rom 8:11).
8. Ephesians 1:15 Our spirit is gripped with admiration before the diverse aspects of the mystery of Christ: Resurrection, Ascension, universal Kingship, mysterious and activating presence in the Church. The power of God is present in this mystery and sweeps away every other force. And with Christ rises the Church, the community of those called.

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   Paul clearly distinguishes the glorified Christ reigning in heaven and his mystical body developing on earth. We cannot confuse the Church and the Lord. But they are intimately connected. The community of those called is realized and grows under the impulsion of the life that Christ gives it. This community is the “fullness” of God, for in it everything must be reunited to be filled with God’s presence and love. The Church is the mystery of grace and charisms, of unity and growth (see Rom 12:4f; 1 Cor 12:12; Col 1:18).
   The Apostle then goes on to describe the sinful state of humankind, in the grip of the power of evil (Eph 2:1-10), and the new state of humankind in which Gentiles and Jews now form a single new person, created in Christ and reconciled to one another and to God (Eph 2:11-22).

9. Ephesians 1:18 Inheritance: a Biblical word signifying what God promised to the chosen people. This was initially identified with the land and the blessings connected with it. But as revelation progressed, the true meaning of the “inheritance” was increasingly understood, until its definitive content was revealed in the New Testament: the inheritance is the state of the risen Jesus himself, communicated to those who believe in him.