Fragmenta in epistulam ad Ephesios

Just as he wrote to the Romans, when he had not yet seen them, so also to the Ephesians, John having preceded him and laid the foundation of the proclamation among them, he opportunely exhorts them not to be constrained by the law. Since the apostles, while living in Jerusalem, kept the law on account of those from the circumcision who had believed, then, after John had sufficiently theologized and left nothing lacking among the proclamations concerning the knowledge of God, as far as was accessible to men, for the purpose of setting forth the economy of the incarnation, there comes its own magnitude, and by means of words worthy of the matters, investing it and undertaking the more difficult task. For the dignity of the divinity was its own and acknowledged, but to narrate worthily the humility of the incarnation, as it appeared, was a matter of spiritual power. And here the phrase "through" also pertains to God according to Paul, and the Father is not diminished. He fittingly says "through the will of God," in order to show that just as God willed John to be an apostle, so also he willed me. He writes this so that what is said by him may be credible. If each term is used catachrestically, both "father" and "lord," the Son will be acknowledged as greater than the Father, if the one has the name "father" and the other "lord." But the reason for these expressions is acknowledged. For since he said "our father," and the Father is of Christ, in order that the same name might not be applied both to the only-begotten and to the faithful, either degrading the Son contrary to nature or elevating them beyond nature, having said "our father" and shown that the appellation is by grace, he added "and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For it was not possible that, the appellation being common in nature, the dignity also should be common. Why then is the Father lord of these, but not also himself lord of the Son, if the appellation was used catachrestically of each? If, then, in Christ the saints were determined for adoption, the Son is not adopted, but a son by nature. If according to the law the will is an energy, what is the good pleasure of this will? For he would not have said "will of a will." To the praise of the glory of his grace. I have already said beforehand that he adorns his own discourse with the dignity of the economy. Since the created one fell through disobedience, and because of the impiety of men the heavenly things were alienated from the earthly, Christ came and recapitulated everything. And this he says differently afterwards, saying: having made peace between the things in the heavens and the things on the earth. For he himself is our peace, who made both one, the Jews and the Greeks, through faith in Christ. Here he clearly speaks of one thing as energy and another as will. Having said "of the one who energizes all things according to the counsel," he said "of the will," in order to show that the will is determined. Whatever one might have confirmed from a good counsel, these are determined by judgment, he says, using the terms. Of those foreknown, he says, you also are, being appropriated to Christ through obedience and through faith upon that hearing and through the seal upon that faith, which is a likeness to Christ through the participation of the Spirit. And from whom did they hear the word of truth? Was it not from John the Evangelist? For he was preaching there.

Therefore Paul speaks to them more loftily, since they have been trained by that teaching. Redemption is a matter of acquisition; for in order that we may be acquired and made our own by God, we are redeemed, remembering the blood by which we were redeemed and the entire economy. It is clear that he calls God the flesh of Christ; for nowhere here does he mention the dignity of the divinity, but rather the economy concerning us, which is acknowledged to belong to the flesh. Scripture often calls the essence of God "glory"; for since it is intangible and inaccessible, it named it "glory" so that you might not demand an account but worship. Ezekiel first calls the essence of God "glory," having seen God seated in visions, and adds: "This is the likeness of the glory of the Lord." Elsewhere, interpreting this, God says: "I multiplied visions and was likened in the hands of the prophets." Therefore what Ezekiel called "glory," God calls "I." Paul says: "who is the radiance of the glory"—of what glory?—"and the character of his hypostasis." Here too, then, he calls "God of our Lord Jesus Christ" according to the flesh, and "Father of the glory" according to nature. And of every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the coming one. For in this age we name thrones, principalities, lordships, authorities, powers, angels, archangels; but since there are myriad orders of invisible powers unknown to us and therefore unnameable, after the resurrection they will become known and will receive, along with knowledge, their appellation from us; therefore he said: "and in the coming one.

And he gave himself as head over all to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all things in all. Through this he made clear that he calls the body of Christ, that is, the church, the fullness of God. But why fullness? Because it is filled with God; for just as, he says, he fills all things in all, so also in the church he is fulfilled according to its being the body of Christ. Therefore the church is the body of Christ, but the fullness of God. "Of him who fills all things in all." For he is in heaven, that is, acting not as on earth, and he is on earth, not acting as in heaven, and in angels, in the sun, but in each according to its own nature; for scripture speaks of God from what we partake of, not from what he is; for this is incomprehensible. "World" is spoken of in two ways, both the created order and the system of wicked men. But now he has distinguished matters for the lawless, calling the wickedness and sin of men "age," and the order of the universe "world," just as he says in the letter to the Galatians: that he might take us out of the present evil age. He calls this the present age. Therefore he named the common apostasy and error of men "age," of which even those now believing in Christ were once a part. "According to the ruler of the authority of the air of the spirit." Through this the apostle clearly shows that the devil was not an angel from heaven, but some evil spirit of the air. Even if the Lord says:

I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky; he does not indicate the place from which he fell, but since lightning falls swiftly from above, he compared the swiftness of the diabolical fall to lightning, saying: just as lightning is borne swiftly from the sky, so I saw his fall as swift. Of the one now active, he made clear that the devil does not always have power, but the weakness of men has become his power. Doing the desires of the flesh and of the minds; from this it is shown that the flesh is not opposed to the soul, for it agreed together in sin. And we were children by nature of wrath; just as sons of Gehenna, so also children of wrath. Since he said "having been created," he says: creation is a making one's own; but he added "on good works" so that you may henceforth build yourself up. He did not say "nearer" of those who believed from the circumcision, but "near." He dissolved the middle wall of the fence, not the fence, but the middle wall. And what is the fence? I will remove his fence and it will be for plunder, that is, the security of the spirit. And what is the middle wall? The lack of mixing with the Greeks; for Jews were prevented from mingling with Greeks, lest the Jews fall into idolatry, they who even without this were idolaters. And this is what David says: God settles solitaries in a house. For the leaven needed to become strong, so that thus the whole

of the world be leavened. He speaks of the law of commandments that is customary, as from the Mosaic commandments. In his own teachings, having abolished it, of which it is: not what enters defiles a man—this dissolved the “eat this, do not eat that”—and the not giving a bill of divorce—this was contrary to the letting a wife go for any reason—and the observing of days and months and seasons and years—this was opposed to what Moses gave. And altogether there are many such doctrinal matters by which he abolished the law of commandments, not the commandments as absurd, but the custom as no longer useful. For the commandments are honored even if they are not in effect, but the law, that is, being under the law of commandments, was harmful to us after grace. 2:17 For Greeks, turning away from idolatry as impiety, and Jews, turning away from the law as no longer useful, are built up into some other newness of piety. Making peace. For the law does not wish there to be peace. Why? So that physical peace does not raise war against piety. Reconciling both to God. Since the Greeks were in error, and the Jews had transgressed. Killing the enmity in himself. The meaning has breadth in the brevity of the phrase: since the law was what separated Jews from Greeks according to what was said before, and the law was about to cease, and it ceased in no other way than because the Lord rose from the dead, to whom the church had to be joined to another man after the law, he says that in his flesh he killed that enmity by ending the law.

And coming, he proclaimed peace to you, both those far off and those near. This shows that he does not call the law of Moses impious, as idolatry is; for he says the idolaters are far off, and the Jews are near. The "near" indicates a part of piety, but not perfection; for if they possessed perfection, they would not be near, but in it. And if, on the other hand, they were opposed, they would not be near, but far off with the Greeks. Here he wishes to show that he did not cast them off as aliens taught by others, but that, having been chosen herald of the nations, he owed them this demonstration, and that just as the Lord taught those around John, so also he taught me by revelation. He hinted that he could have said something deeper, but he measured his teaching according to what they could comprehend. So that it might now be known to the authorities. Naturally; for if it had been hidden in God, all the powers would have been ignorant. For by "now" he does not mean the time of grace, but the time from when the prophets began to reveal what was to come. "In the heavens," he says, is the abode of the righteous, but on earth that of all men; for the righteous are not stationed on earth among the living, but they form a distinct, exceptional kind of generation, those who are devoted to God. And the generation of these is called heavenly, as pure, while that of the rest is called earthly, as defiled. It should be noted that from what the apostle shows the name of the Father, it did not ascend from us upward, but came from above to us, clearly as being by nature and not merely in name; for the figurative must always follow the natural, and of the natural, the first is from above, then from below.

It should be noted that he said "patria" as of kinship, not "phratria"; for everywhere divine scripture calls kinships "patriai." He fashioned it more typically, as it were, into the form of a cross; for what else could depth and height and breadth and length be but the nature of the cross? He seems to speak of the cross as double somewhere, not simply. But since the Lord's economy is divinity from above and humanity from below, and the apostolic proclamation extended from north to south and from east to west, bringing together both the Lord's economy and the apostles' service, he spoke thus, displaying the double nature of the economy as in a double cross; for it was not possible for him to speak simply of the places, the above and the below, and the line, the breadth and the length. "That you may be filled unto the whole pleroma of God," that is, the church; for he calls the church "pleroma." "Arise, sleeper," and the like we find written nowhere in the Old or New Testament. What then is it? It was a gift at that time both of prayer and of psalms, with the Spirit prompting, as he says in the letter to the Corinthians: "Each of you has a psalm, has a prayer." What then is it? Shall I pray to the Spirit, shall I also pray to the mind? Shall I sing a psalm to the Spirit, shall I also sing a psalm to the mind? It is clear, then, that this which he recalled was contained in one of these spiritual psalms or prayers. He who ransoms another's slave ransoms and acquires him. Since, therefore, the present time serves the wicked, ransom it, so as to use it for piety.

Since the lamb was brought forward, and we eat his body. The food is accustomed to be distributed into the body of the eater—clearly we eat his body spiritually—. It is distributed into our body, and thus flesh from his flesh, and bone from his bones. Not the mystery, but God. What then is it that he says? That this formation of Adam and Eve from him and the union became a type of Christ and the Church; for this reason he says: we are bone from his bones, and flesh from his flesh, as Eve was from Adam. Therefore, "I say" concerning Christ and the Church, he speaks of the mystery of marriage, meaning that the matters of marital law and the original creation are a type of Christ and the Church. For this reason he added: "but also you, each one individually, so that each may love his own wife as himself." Why did he say "each one individually"? Because the matters concerning Adam were a type of the Church and Christ. For this reason he said: "and you, each individually, love." For the mystery of which marriage was a type has come to be and is true, but the type itself must also be fulfilled, and each must love his own wife. If the sword is a word of God, and the sword is of the Spirit, then God is the Spirit whose sword it is. And if he said the Holy Spirit is a word of God, clearly as the Son of God is Logos, so also the Spirit is a word of God. He called the punitive energy of the Spirit the sword of the Spirit. "Praying in spirit" he did not say simply, but since we do not know how one ought to pray, he says elsewhere:

The Spirit itself intercedes on our behalf, so that these petitions of ours may have nothing fleshly. And we have spiritual petitions, aided by the power of the Spirit. Someone, he says, being delivered from the corruption that comes from the devil, receives the grace of the Spirit in incorruption.