A.T. Robertson Commentary Ephesians 3:8

A.T. Robertson Commentary

Ephesians 3:8

1863–1934
Southern Baptist
A.T. Robertson
A.T. Robertson

A.T. Robertson Commentary

Ephesians 3:8

1863–1934
Southern Baptist
SCRIPTURE

"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;" — Ephesians 3:8 (ASV)

Unto me who am less than the least of all saints (εμο τω ελαχιστοτερω παντων αγιων). Dative case εμο with ελοθη. The peculiar form ελαχιστοτερω (in apposition with εμο) is a comparative (-τερος) formed on the superlative ελαχιστος. This sort of thing was already done in the older Greek like εσχατοτερος in Xenophon. It became more common in the Koine. So the double comparative μειζοτεραν in 3 John 1:4. The case of αγιων is ablative. This was not mock humility (15:19), for on occasion Paul stood up for his rights as an apostle (2 Corinthians 11:5).

The unsearchable riches of Christ (το ανεξιχνιαστον πλουτος του Χριστου). Ανεξιχνιαστος (α privative and verbal of εξιχνιαζω, to track out, εξ and ιχνος, track) appears first in Job 5:9; 9:10. Paul apparently got it from Job. Nowhere else in N.T. except Ro 11:33. In later Christian writers. Paul undertook to track out the untrackable in Christ.