συμβιβασθέντες] ‘they being united, compacted,’ for συμβιβάζειν must here have its common meaning, as it has elsewhere in this and the companion epistle: ver. 19 διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ συνδέσμων ... συμβιβαζόμενον, Ephes. iv. 16 πᾶν τὸ σῶμα συναρμολογούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον. Otherwise we might be disposed to assign to this verb here the sense which it always bears in the LXX (e.g. in Is. xl. 13, 14, quoted in 1 Cor. ii. 16), ‘instructed, taught,’ as it is rendered in the Vulgate. Its usage in the Acts is connected with this latter sense; e.g. ix. 22 συμβιβάζων ‘proving,’ xvi. 10 συμβιβάζοντες ‘concluding’; and so in xix. 33 συνεβίβασαν Ἀλέξανδρον (the best supported reading) can only mean ‘instructed Alexander.’ For the different sense of the nominative absolute see the note on iii. 16. The received text substitutes συμβιβασθέντων here. ` ἐν ἀγάπῃ] for love is the σύνδεσμος (iii. 14) of perfection.
καὶ εἰς] ‘and brought unto,’ the thought being supplied from the preceding συμβιβασθέντες, which involves an idea of motion, comp. Joh. xx. 7 ἐντετυλιγμένον εἰς ἕνα τόπον.
πᾶν πλοῦτος] This reading is better supported than either πᾶν τὸ πλοῦτος or πάντα πλοῦτον, while, as the intermediate reading, it also explains the other two.
τῆς πληροφορίας] ‘the full assurance,’ for such seems to be the meaning of the substantive wherever it occurs in the New Testament; 1 Thess. i. 5 ἐν πληροφορίᾳ πολλῇ, Heb. vi. 11 πρὸς τὴν πληροφορίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος, x. 22 ἐν πληροφορίᾳ πίστεως, comp. Clem. Rom. 42 μετὰ πληροφορίας πνεύματος ἁγίου. With the exception of 1 Thess. i. 5 however, all the Biblical passages might bear the other sense ‘fulness’: see Bleek on Heb. vi. 11. For the verb see the note on πεπληροφορημένοι below, iv. 12.
ἐπίγνωσιν] See the note on i. 9.
τοῦ μυστηρίου κ.τ.λ.] ‘the mystery of God, even Christ in whom, etc.,’ Χριστοῦ being in apposition with τοῦ μυστηρίου; comp. i. 27 τοῦ μυστηρίου τούτου ... ὅ ἐστιν Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν, 1 Tim. iii. 16 τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας μυστήριον, Ὅς ἐφανερώθη κ.τ.λ. The reasons for adopting the reading τοῦ Θεοῦ Χριστοῦ are given in the detached note on various readings. Other interpretations of this reading are; (1) ‘the God Christ,’ taking Χριστοῦ in apposition with Θεοῦ; or (2) ‘the God of Christ,’ making it the genitive after Θεοῦ: but both expressions are without a parallel in St Paul. The mystery here is not ‘Christ,’ but ‘Christ as containing in Himself all the treasures of wisdom’; see the note on i. 27 Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν. For the form of the sentence comp. Ephes. iv. 15, 16 ἡ κεφαλή, Χριστὸς ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα κ.τ.λ.
3. πάντες] So πᾶν πλοῦτος ver. 2, πάσῃ σοφίᾳ ii. 28. These repetitions serve to emphasize the character of the Gospel, which is as complete in itself, as it is universal in its application.
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