Charles Hodge on Ephesians 1:18

V. 18. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Instead of διανοίας understanding, the great majority of ancient manuscripts and versions read καρδίας head, which is no doubt the true reading. The word heart in Scripture is often used as we use the word soul, to designate the whole spiritual nature in man. Rom. 1, 21. 2 Cor. 4, 6.

This clause πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν, may either be taken absolutely as our translators have understood it—or considered as in apposition and explanatory of what precedes. ‘That he may give you the spirit of wisdom, &c., eyes enlightened, &c.’ This latter mode of explanation is the one commonly adopted. The effect of the gift of the spirit of wisdom is this illumination, not of the speculative understanding merely, but of the whole soul. For light and knowledge in Scripture often include the ideas of holiness and happiness, as well as that of intellectual apprehension. Comp. such passages as John 8, 12, "Light of life." Acts 26, 18, "To turn from darkness to light." Eph. 5, 8, "Ye were.sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." Believers, therefore, are called "children of the light." Luke 16, 8. 1 Thess. 5, 5.

The residue of this verse εἰς τὸ εἰδέναι ὑμᾶς, κτλ. contains a second petition. Having prayed that the Ephesians might be enlightened in the knowledge of God and of divine things, the apostle here prays, as the effect of that illumination, that they may have a proper appreciation of the inheritance to which they have attained.

That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, i. e. the hope of which his calling is the source; or to which he has called you. The vocation here spoken of is not merely the external call of the Gospel, but the effectual call of God by the Spirit, to which the word κλῆσις in the epistles of Paul always refers. The word hope is by many here understood objectively for the things hoped for; as in Rom. 8, 24, and Col. 1, 5, "The hope laid up for you in heaven." It is then identical with the inheritance mentioned in the latter part of the verse. This, however, is a reason against that interpretation. There are two things which the apostle mentions and which he desires they may know. First, the nature and value of the hope which they are now, on the call of God, authorized to indulge; and secondly, the glory of the inheritance in reserve for them. It is better, therefore, to take the word in its ordinary subjective sense. It is a great thing to know, or estimate aright the value of a well founded hope of salvation.

And what the riches of the glory of his inheritance, καὶ τίς ὁ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τῆς κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ, i. e. what is the abundance and greatness of the excellence of that inheritance of which God is the author. The apostle labours here, and still more in the following verses, for language to express the greatness of his conceptions. This inheritance is not only divine as having God for its author; but it is a glorious inheritance; and not simply glorious, but the glory of it is inconceivably great.

In the saints, ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις. These words admit of different constructions, but the most natural is to refer them to the immediately preceding clause, His inheritance in the saints; i. e. which is to be enjoyed among them. Comp. Acts 20, 32, and 26, 18, "An inheritance among them that are sanctified." Col. 1, 12, "Partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." It was one part of the peculiar blessedness of the Gentile Christians, who had been strangers and foreigners, that they were become fellow-citizens of the saints. It was therefore an exaltation of the inheritance, now set before them, to call it the inheritance prepared for the saints, or peculiar people of God.