Redemption by blood; riches of grace; wisdom and the mystery (Eph 1:7–9)
whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses. Redemption—or ransoming—happens for captives who have come under enemies. We have come under the enemies: the ruler of this age and the wicked powers under him; and for that reason we needed redemption and the one who buys us out, so that he might receive us back after we had been estranged from him. So the Savior gave his own blood as the ransom for us; therefore we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses. Forgiveness of trespasses follows redemption; before someone is redeemed, forgiveness of trespasses cannot happen for him. First, then, we must be redeemed and no longer be under the one who took us captive and holds us, so that, freed and outside his hands (so to speak), we may for our benefit be able to receive forgiveness of trespasses and, healed from the wounds of sin, act according to piety and the remaining virtues.
Ephesians 1:8: “according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us.” The one who has understood what it is to be saved by grace and not from works, and who compares trespass with trespass, would see, according to the parable that speaks of the five hundred and the fifty denarii, who ought to confess more favors to the master who remitted the debt. Still, seeing how the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory about to be revealed to us, one would recognize the riches of God’s grace, and how it overflowed upon the called and elect—especially those alien to God’s covenants and strangers to his promises, drawn by Israel’s trespass from the Father’s kindness toward salvation. Still more would someone contemplate the riches of his grace which overflowed upon the blessed by considering “Do you not know that we will judge angels?” and “things into which angels long to look,” and what is said about all being one—“that as I and you are one, they also may be one in us.” And this whole riches of God’s grace which overflowed upon the saints, supplied from some beginning and growing and multiplying, either has the one who obtains what was said competing in zeal and stretching alongside as far as possible, or, if he falls short of doing all that falls to him as far as he can, makes the grace empty toward such a one. If someone falls short, grace becomes as it were empty toward him; but if he does what is from himself without omission, he may say the apostolic word: “his grace toward me was not empty.”
Ephesians 1:9: “in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him for the stewardship of the fullness of the times.” Origen says: what is “all wisdom,” and after that what is “insight”? Jesus also used the word in Wisdom, beginning from “All wisdom is from the Lord and with him it is forever.” So if someone has contemplated the things seen and what is in them or even outside them unseen, and having parcelled them out by reason examines separately the invisible and the visible by the wisdom with which God has made all things—for David says “You made all things in wisdom”—this person would look upon all wisdom from the Lord. But it is likely that someone, despairing that one still wearing this body can already be in all wisdom and insight, and hearing also “we know in part and we prophesy in part,” will stumble at “making known to us the mystery of his will in all wisdom and insight,” as said more generously than truly. For even if the mystery of God is made known to Paul and those like him in wisdom, it is not made known in all wisdom to one who knows all things in part and prophesies in part. See, then, whether another division of the reading does not fit this inquiry of the passage, as follows: “unto the praise of the glory of his grace with which he graced us in the Beloved, in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight”—stopping the division of this passage here, and from another beginning reading thus: “making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,” so that “in all wisdom and insight” does not attach to “making known to us the mystery
Greek
ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ, τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν παραπτωμάτων. ἀπολύτρωσις <ἢ> λύτρωσις γίνεται τῶν αἰχμαλώτων καὶ γενομένων ὑπὸ τοῖς πολεμίοις· γεγόναμεν δὲ ὑπὸ τοῖς πολεμίοις τῷ ἄρχοντι τοῦ αἰῶνο τούτου καὶ ταῖς ὑπ' αὐτὸν πονηραῖς δυνάμεσι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐδεήθημεν ἀπολυτρώσεως καὶ τοῦ ἐξαγοράζοντος ἡμᾶς ἵνα ἡμᾶς ἀπαλλοτριωθέντας αὐτοῦ ἀπολάβῃ· ἔδωκεν οὖν ὁ Σωτὴρ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν λύτρον τὸ ἑαυτοῦ αἷμα· διόπερ ἔχομεν τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ, τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν παραπτωμάτων. τῇ ἀπολυτρώσει ἕπεται ἡ ἄφεσις τῶν παραπτωμάτων, πρὶν ἀπολυτρωθῆναί τινα οὐκ ἐνδεχομένης αὐτῷ γενέσθαι ἀφέσεως παραπτωμάτων. πρῶτον οὖν ἀπολυτρωθῆναι ἡμᾶς δεῖ καὶ μηκέτι εἶναι ὑπὸ τῷ αἰχμαλωτεύσαντι καὶ κεκρατηκότι, ἵνα ἐλευθερωθέντες καὶ ἔξω γενόμενοι τῶν (ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω) χειρῶν αὐτοῦ, ἐπ' ὠφελείᾳ δυνηθῶμεν λαβεῖν τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν παραπτωμάτων καὶ θεραπευθέντες ἀπὸ τῶν τραυμάτων τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐνεργῆσαι κατ' εὐσέβειαν καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς ἀρετάς. [i 8] κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς. ὁ νοήσας τί ἐστὶ χάριτί ἐ τε ε ω μένοι καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων, καὶ υγκρίνων παραπτώματα παραπτώμασι, βλέποι ἂν κατὰ τὴν λέγουσαν παραβολὴν περὶ τῶν πεντακο ίων καὶ πεντήκοντα δηναρίων τίς ὀφείλει πλείονας χάριτας ὁμολογεῖν τῷ συγχωρήσαντι τὸ χρέος οἰκοδεσπότῃ. ἔτι δὲ θεωρῶν πῶς οὐκ ἄξια τὰ παθή ματα τοῦ νῦν καιροῦ πρὸ τὴν μέλλου αν δόξαν ἀνακαλυφθῆναι εἰ ἡμᾶ , τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ χάριτος συνίδοι ἄν, καὶ ὡς ἐπερίσσευσεν οὕτως ἐπὶ τοὺς κλητοὺς καὶ ἐκλεκτούς, μάλιστα τοὺς ἀλλοτρίου τῶν διαθηκῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ξένου τῶν ἐπαγγελιῶν αὐτοῦ, τῷ παραπτώματι τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ ἑλκυσθέντας ἀπὸ τῆς πατρικῆς χρηστότητος ἐπὶ τὴν σωτηρίαν· ἔτι δὲ μᾶλλον τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς χ<άρι>τος αὐτοῦ ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς τοὺς μακαρίους μείζον' <ἄν> τις κατανοήσαι θεωρῶν τὸ οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ἀγγέλου κρινοῦμεν; καὶ τὸ εἰ ἃ ἐπιθυμοῦ ιν ἄγγελοι παρακύψαι, καὶ τὸ περὶ τοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσι λεγομένου ἔσεσθαι δὸ ἵνα ὡ ἐγὼ καὶ ὺ ἓν ἐ μέν, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἡμῖν ἓν ὦ ιν. οὗτος δὲ ὁ πᾶς πλοῦτος τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς τοὺς ἁγίους, ἀπό τινος ἀρχῆς ἐπιχορηγούμενο καὶ αὔξων καὶ πληθυνόμενος, ἤτοι ἀντιφιλοτιμούμενον καὶ συμπαρεκτεινόμενον κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἔχει τὸν τυγχάνοντα τῶν προειρημένων, ἢ ἀπολειπόμενον κατὰ τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον ποιεῖν πάντα τὰ ἐπιβάλλοντα. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἀπολείποιτό τις, οἱονεὶ κενὴ γένοιτ' ἂν πρὸς τὸν τοιοῦτον ἡ χάρις· εἰ δὲ τὰ παρ' αὐτοῦ ἀνελλιπῶς ποιήσαι, λέγοι ἂν τὸ ἀποστολικὸν ἡ χάρι αὐτοῦ ἡ εἰ ἐμὲ οὐ κενὴ ἐγενήθη. 5 Eph. i. 9 [ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει γνωρίσας ἡμῖν τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν αὐτοῦ ἣν προέθετο ἐν αὐτῷ εἰς οἰκονομίαν τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν.] [Ὠριγένης φησί] τί τὸ πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο τί τὸ φρονήσει; κέχρηται τῇ λέξει καὶ Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῇ Σοφίᾳ, ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ πᾶ α οφία παρὰ Κυρίου καὶ μετ' αὐτοῦ ἐ τιν εἰ τὸν αἰῶνα. εἴ τις οὖν κατενόησε τὰ βλεπόμενα καὶ τίνα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἢ καὶ ἔξω αὐτῶν μὴ βλεπόμενα, καὶ κατακερματίσας τῷ λόγῳ ἰδίᾳ τὰ ἀόρατα καὶ ἰδίᾳ τὰ ὁρατὰ ἐξετάζοι τὴν σοφίαν ᾗ τὰ πάντα πεποίηκεν ὁ Θεὸς (πάντα γὰρ ἐν οφίᾳ φησὶν ὁ ∆αβὶδ ἐποίη α ), οὗτος τὴν παρὰ Κυρίου πᾶ αν <ἂν> ἐπιβλέποι οφίαν. ἀλλ' εἰκός τινα ἀπογνόντα τὸ ἤδη δύνασθαι ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει γενέσθαι τὸν ἔτι τὸ σῶμα τοῦτο περικείμενον, κατακούοντα δὲ καὶ τοῦ ἐκ μέρου γινώ κομεν καὶ ἐκ μέρου προφητεύομεν, προσκόψειν τῷ ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει γνωρίσας ἡμῖν τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ, ὡς κατακεχαρισμένως μᾶλλον ἢ ἀληθῶς εἰρημένῳ· ἵνα γὰρ καὶ ἐν σοφίᾳ γνωρισθῇ Παύλῳ καὶ τοῖς παραπλησίοις αὐτῷ τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ γνωρίζεται πάντα αὐτῷ ἐκ μέρου γινώσκοντι καὶ ἐκ μέρου προφητεύοντι. ὅρα οὖν εἰ μὴ πρὸς τὴν ζήτησιν ταύτην ἄλλη διαστολὴ τῆς ἀναγνώσεως ἁρμόζει τῶν κατὰ τὸν τόπον οὕτως ἔχουσα· εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ ἧς ἐχαρίτωσεν ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ, ἐν ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ, τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν παραπτωμάτων, κατὰ τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει· ἐνθάδε καταπαύσας τὴν τούτου τοῦ τόπου διαστολήν, ἀπ' ἄλλης ἀρχῆς οὕτως ἀναγνώσεται τὸ γνωρίσας ἡμῖν τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν αὐτοῦ, ὥστε τὸ ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει μὴ ἐφαρμόζειν τῷ γνωρίσας ἡμῖν τὸ μυστήριον
About this text
Origen of Alexandria, Fragmenta ex commentariis in epistulam ad Ephesios (Greek).
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 14 (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.