obvious, and best suits the context.  Compare proelthontes (Acts 20:13) `we

went before'.  Macknight's paraphrase reads, `The inheritance is bestowed even

on us Jews ... who before He came, hoped in Christ for salvation', and he

quotes Chandler here, who refers to such passages as Luke 2:25,38 in contrast

with Gentiles who had no hope in Christ before He came (Eph.  2:12).  Bishop

Wordsworth's comment is: `us who before had hoped.  The participle with the

article indicates the cause ... the preposition pro is explained by kai humeis

(ye also) which follow.  We of the natural Israel were led by our Prophets to

preconceive hopes in Christ.  You Gentiles received the word of truth, and

embraced the Gospel'.  Dr. Weymouth gives a free rendering, `we who were the

first to fix our hopes on Christ'.  The Concordant Version translates `we, who

are in a state of prior expectancy in the Christ', with the comment, `the

perfect or complete form of the verb marks a state rather than an action.  The

Circumcision looked for signs and did not expect the Messiah until after great

affliction.  Those who were under Paul's ministry were expecting Him at any

The reader will perceive that we have before us a passage upon which a

great deal of thought has been expended and concerning which a variety of

conclusions have been drawn.  The book of Proverbs tells us that in the

multitude of counsellors there is safety (Prov. 11:14); but in 10:19 we read

the warning, `in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin', and so while we

must ponder every honest rendering and comment, we must also remember that

truth is not arrived at by the vote of a majority -- rather it appears from the

testimony of history that the majority has usually been wrong.  One of the

items that must be settled is the question, To whom does the apostle refer when

he says `we' and `ye'?

It is the opinion of the majority that the `we' were either (1) the Jews,

who were taught by their prophets to expect the Messiah, or (2) the Pentecostal

Church, who by reason of the fact that this church came into being at the time

when the Ephesians were darkened heathen, must therefore have hoped before in

Christ, or (3) that the `we' refers to those who were joined together with the

apostle in the hope of their calling.  Let us put this notion to the test.  We

will read Ephesians 1:3 -14, using the reference `we' and `us' as of a company

distinct from the Ephesian church and see what happens.  We will not push the

matter to such an extreme as to question the scope of the word `our' in the

words `our Lord Jesus Christ', but continue `who hath blessed us, not you ...

chosen us, not you ... that we should be, not you ... having predestinated us,

not you ... made us, not you, accepted ... we have redemption, not you ... He

abounded toward us, not you ... He made known to us, not you ... we, not you,

have obtained an inheritance, that we, not you, should be to the praise of His

glory who first hoped in Christ, In Whom ye also, not us, were sealed with that

holy spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, not yours,

until the day of redemption'.

We sincerely hope every reader will realize that this is taking a leaf

out of Euclid's book, wherein he says, `which is absurd'.  We have but to read

verses 13 and 14 together to realize the impossibility of thus interpreting the

apostle's language.  We must therefore turn our attention to other features if

we are to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.  Up till now our thoughts have

revolved around the conception that pro must refer to time, but it might be

well to remember that it can apply to position too.  Taking as a key the word

`predestination' that occurs twice in this section, we find that `high favour'

is put in correspondence with `fore -hoping' thus:

Eph. 1:5,6.

A

Predestined as children.