Charles Hodge on Ephesians 1:8

V. 8. Wherein he hath abounded towards us, ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς. As the word περισσεύω is both transitive and intransitive, the clause may be rendered as above, ἧς being for ᾗ; or, which he has caused to abound towards us, ἧς being for ἥν. The sense is the same; but as the attraction of the dative is very rare, the latter explanation is to be preferred. We are redeemed according to the riches of that grace, which God has so freely exercised towards us.

In all wisdom and prudence, ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει. These words admit of a threefold connection and explanation. 1. They may be connected with the preceding verb and qualify the action of God therein expressed. God, in the exercise of wisdom and prudence, has abounded in grace towards us. 2. They may be connected with the following clause: ‘In all wisdom and prudence making known, &c.’ 3. They may be connected with the preceding relative pronoun. ‘Which (grace) in connection with, or together with, all wisdom and prudence he has caused to abound.’ That is, the grace manifested by God and received by us, is received in connection with the divine wisdom or knowledge of which the subsequent clause goes on to speak. This last explanation seems decidedly preferable because the terms here used, particularly the word φρόνησις prudence, is not in its ordinary sense properly referable to God. Cicero de Off. 1. 43. Prudentia enim, quam Graeci φρόνησιν dicunt, est rerum expetendarum fugiendarumque scientia. And because the sense afforded by the third mentioned interpretation is so appropriate to the context and so agreeable to other passages of Scripture. The apostle often celebrates the goodness of God in communicating to men the true wisdom; not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, but the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world to our glory. See 1 Cor. 1, 17 to the end, and the whole second chapter of that epistle.—Similar modes of expression are common with the apostle. As here he speaks of grace being given (ἐν) in connection with wisdom, so in v. 17 he prays that the Ephesians may receive wisdom (ἐν) in connection with the knowledge of himself.

The wisdom then which the apostle says God has communicated to us, is the divine wisdom in the Gospel, the mystery of redemption, which had been hid for ages in God, but which he has now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. See the glorious doxology for this revelation contained in Rom. 16, 25-27. Indeed this whole Epistle to the Ephesians is a thanksgiving to God for the communication of this mysterious wisdom. Mysterious, not so much in the sense of incomprehensible, as in that of undiscoverable by human reason, and a matter of divine revelation. With wisdom the apostle connects φρόνησις, which is here used much in the same sense as σύνεσις in Col. 1, 9, ‘That ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.’ The verb φρονέω is used for any mental exercise or state whether of the understanding or of the feelings. In the New Testament it is commonly employed to express a state of the affections, or rather, of the whole soul, as in Mark 8, 33, "Thou savourest not the things which be of God." Rom. 8, 5, "To mind the things of the flesh." Col. 3, 2, "Set your affections on things above," &c. &c. Hence its derivative φρόνημα is used not only for thought, but more generally for a state of mind, what is in the mind or soul, including the affections as well as the understanding. Hence we have such expressions as φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός a carnal state of mind; and φρόνημα τοῦ πνεύματος a state of mind produced by the Spirit. The word φρόνησις is equally comprehensive. It is not confined to strictly intellectual exercises, but expresses also those of the affections. In other words, when used in reference to spiritual things, it includes all that is meant by spiritual discernment. It is the apprehension of the spiritual excellence of the things of God, and the answering affection towards them. It is not therefore a mere outward revelation of which the apostle here speaks. The wisdom and understanding which God has so abundantly communicated, includes both the objective revelation and the subjective apprehension of it. This is the third great blessing of which the context treats. The first is election; the second redemption; the third is this revelation both outward and inward. The first is the work of God, the everlasting Father; the second the work of tile Son; and the third the work of the Holy Spirit, who thus applies to believers the redemption purchased by Christ.