5. ἐν σοφίᾳ] Matt. x. 16 γίνεσθε οὖν φρόνιμοι ὡς οἱ ὄφεις.
τοὺς ἔξω] ‘those without the pale’ of the Church, the unbelievers; as in 1 Cor. v. 12, 13, 1 Thess. iv. 12. So οἱ ἔξωθεν, 1 Tim. iii. 7. The believers on the other hand are οἱ ἔσω, 1 Cor. v. 12. This mode of speaking was derived from the Jews, who called the heathen החיצונים (Schöttgen on 1 Cor. l.c.), translated οἱ ἐκτός Ecclus. Prol. and οἱ ἔξωθεν Joseph. Ant. xv. 9. 2.
ἐξαγοραζόμενοι κ.τ.λ. ‘buying up the opportunity for yourselves, letting no opportunity slip you, of saying and doing what may further the cause of God’: comp. Ephes. v. 16. The expression occurs also in Dan. ii. 8 οἶδα ὅτι καιρὸν ὑμεῖς ἐξαγοράζετε, i.e. ‘are eager to gain time’. Somewhat similar are the phrases τὸν χρόνον κερδαίνειν, τὸ παρὸν κερδαίνειν. In much the same sense Ignatius says, Polyc. 3 τοὺς καιρὸυς καταμάνθανε. For this sense of ἐξαγοράζω ‘coemo’ (closely allied in meaning to συναγοράζω), see Polyb. iii. 42. 2 ἐξηγόρασε παρ’ αὐτῶν τά τε μονόξυλα πλοῖα πάντα κ.τ.λ., Plut. Vit. Crass. 2. More commonly the word signifies ‘to redeem’ (see the note on Gal. iii. 13), and some would assign this sense to it here; but no appropriate meaning is thus obtained. In Mart. Polyc. 2 διὰ μιᾶς ὥρας τὴν αἴωνιον κόλασιν ἐξαγοραζόμενοι it means ‘buying off’, a sense in which ἐξωνεῖσθαι occurs several times. The reason for the injunction is added in Ephes. v. 16, ὅτι αἱ ἡμέραι πονηραί εἰσιν: the prevailing evil of the times makes the opportunities for good more precious.
6. ἐν χάριτι] ‘with grace, favour’, i.e. ‘acceptableness’, ‘pleasingness’; comp. Eccles. x. 12 λόγοι στόματος σοφοῦ χάρις, Ps. xliv (xlv). 3 ἐξεχύθη χάρις ἐν χέιλεσί σου, Eccles. xxi. 16 ἐπὶ χέιλους συνετοῦ ἑυρεθήσεται χάρις. In classical writers χάρις λόγων is a still more common connexion; e.g. Demosth. c. Phil. i. 38, Dionys. Hal. de Lys. §§ 10, 11, Plut. Vit. Mar. 44.
IV. 7]
[← ] ὑμῶν πάντοτε ἐν χάριτι, ἅλατι ἠρτυμένος, εἰδέναι, ὑμᾶς πῶς δεῖ ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ ἀποκρίνεσθαι.
7Τὰ κατ ἐμὲ πάντα γνωρίσει ὑμῖν Τύχικος ὁ ἀγαπητὸς [ →]
ἅλατι] comp. Mark ix. 50 ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας ἄναλον γένηται, ἐν τίνι αὐτὸ )αρτυσετε · ἔχετε ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἅλα. The salt has a twofold purpose. (1) It gives a flavour to the discourse and recommends it to the palate: comp. Job vi. 6 εἰ βρωθήσεται ἄρτος ἄνευ ἁλός· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἔστι γεῦμα ἐν ῥήμασι κενοῖς; in which passage the first clause was rendered by Symmachus μήτι βρωθήσεται ἀνάρτυτον τῷ μὴ ἔχειν ἅλα; This is the primary idea of the metaphor here, as the word ἠρτυμένος seems to show. (2) It preserves from corruption and renders wholesome; Ign. Magn. 10 ἁλίσθητε ἐν αὐτῷ ἵνα μὴ διαφθαρῇ τις ἐν ὑμῖν, ἐπὲι ἀπὸ τῆς ὀσμῆς ἐλεγχθήσεσθε. Hence the Pythagorean saying, Diog. Laert. viii. I. 35 οἱ ἅλες πᾶν σώζουσιν ὅ τι καὶ παραλάβωσι. It may be inferred that this secondary application of the metaphor was present to the Apostle’s mind here, because in the parallel epistle, Ephes. iv. 29, he says πᾶς λόγος σαπρὸς ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν μὴ ἐκπορεύεσθω κ.τ.λ. In the first application the opposite to ἅλατι ἠρτυμένος would be μωρός ‘insipid’ (Luke xiv. 34); in the second, σαπρός ‘corrupt’.
Heathen writers also insisted that discourse should be ‘seasoned with salt’; e.g. Cic. de Orat. i. 34 ‘facetiarum quidam lepos quo, tanquam sale, perspergatur omnis oratio’. They likewise dwelt on the connexion between χάρις and ἅλες; e.g. Plut. Mor. p. 514 F χάριν τινὰ παρασκευάζοντες ἀλλήλοις, ὥσπερ ἁλσὶ τοῖς λόγοις ἐφηδύνουσι τὴν διατριβήν, p. 697 D (comp. p. 685 A) οἱ πολλοὶ χάριτας καλοῦσιν [τὸν ἅλα], ὅτι ἐπὶ τὰ πλεῖστα μιγνύμενος εὐάρμοστα τῇ γεύσει καὶ προσφιλῆ ποιεῖ καὶ κεχαρισμένα, p. 669 A ἡ δὲ τῶν ἁλῶν δύναμις ... χάριν αὐτῷ καὶ ἡδονὴν προστίθησι, Dion. Chrys. Or. xviii. § 13. Their notion of ‘salt’ however was wit, and generally the kind of wit which degenerated into the εὐτραπελία denounced by St Paul in Ephes. v. 4 (see the note there).