Ver. 1. The prisoner of Jesus Christ may be regarded as “the prisoner whom the Lord has bound” (so Winer and Meyer), or as “a prisoner belonging to Christ,” or again as “the prisoner for Christ’s sake.” The indignity of an ambassador being “thrown into irons” is lost in the feeling of being, even though bound, the representative of such a Lord.
Ver. 2. If ye have heard.—We have the same form of expression at ch. iv. 21—“assuming that is, that ye heard” (cf. Col. i. 23). Of the grace.—The favour which God conferred on me in appointing me your apostle. The Divine “Taskmaster” (to use Milton’s expression) confers honour upon us when He sets us to work. “He is not served by men’s hands as though He needed anything” (Acts xvii. 25).
Ver. 3. How that by revelation.—The familiar disavowal of any other source than the will of God (cf. Gal. i. 12).
Ver. 4. Ye may understand my knowledge.—You may, as the public reader proceeds to read my letter, discern my insights of the mystery.
Ver. 5. Which in other ages.—R.V. “other generations.” Might possibly refer to those dim ages of the past national history when the Gentiles were thought of only as left to “unconvenanted mercies.” We must note the word for “other”—it means a “different kind.” Was not made known . . . as it is now revealed.—If any distinction is to be observed, we may say the “revelation” is one of the ways of “making known” (see ver. 3) the intuitional. Unto His holy apostles and prophets.—“If all saints were holy à fortiori the apostles” (Bishop Alexander).
Ver. 6. Fellow-heirs . . . the same body . . . partakers.—“The A.V. loses a point of similarity in the three Gentile privileges by not expressing the force of the Greek compounds by the same English word. Lit. ‘heirs together,’ ‘incorporated together,’ ‘sharers together,’ not heirs after, but together with, the Jews; not attached to the Hebrew body, but incorporated into it together with the element that previously constituted it; not receivers of the promise after others had been satisfied, but partakers of it together with them” (Bishop Alexander). “Co-heirs, and concorporate, and comparticipant. The strange English words may perhaps correspond to the strange Greek words which St. Paul invented to express this newly revealed mystery in the strongest form, as though no words could be too strong to express his conception of the reunion in Christ of those who apart from Him are separate and divided” (Farrar).
Ver. 7. Whereof I was made a minister.—A deacon, a runner of errands. A lowly word, which reminds us of his own self-estimate—“not worthy to be called an apostle”—and prepares us for the strange expression in ver. 8.
Ver. 8. Less than the least of all saints.—“As though he said ‘leaster than all Christians’ ” (Bishop Alexander). “The greatest sinner, the greatest saint, are equidistant from the goal where the mind rests in satisfaction with itself. With the growth in goodness grows the sense of sin. One law fulfilled shows a thousand neglected” (Mozley, quoted by Farrar). The unsearchable riches.—“The untrackable wealth” (Farrar), inexplicable by creaturely intelligences, unspeakable therefore by human tongues.
Ver. 9. And to make all men see.—He says to the Galatians (Gal. iii. 1), “Christ was placarded before you”—so here he wants men to see for themselves.
Ver. 10. To the intent that now . . . might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God.—The Church as it expands from a “little flock” to a “multitude which no man can number” is to declare the multiform wisdom of God, ever fertile in new modes of operation. “Manifold” represents a word used to describe a floral wreath as consisting of “variegated” flowers.