{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4263","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":3,"verse_to":3},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: He indicates that he has been shown the revelation of the mystery of God, about which he says that he has written briefly, that is, precisely, according to their capacity to comprehend the wisdom of the apostle in the mystery of Christ.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 3.4</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: It is He who truly shows how we are to know ourselves. It is He who reveals the Father of the universe to whom He wills, and as far as human nature can comprehend. \"For no man knoweth the Son but the Father, nor the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him.\" Rightly, then, the apostle says that it was by revelation that he knew the mystery: \"As I wrote afore in few words, according as ye are able to understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.\" \"According as ye are able,\" he said, since he knew that some had received milk only, and had not yet received meat, nor even milk simply.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 1</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: Rightly, therefore, the divine apostle says, \"By revelation the mystery was made known to me (as I wrote before in brief, in accordance with which, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets.\" For there is an instruction of the perfect, of which, writing to the Colossians, he says, \"We cease not to pray for you, and beseech that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye may walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing; being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to the glory of His power.\" And again he says, \"According to the disposition of the grace of God which is given me, that ye may fulfil the word of God; the mystery which has been hid from ages and generations, which now is manifested to His saints: to whom God wished to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations.\" So that, on the one hand, then, are the mysteries which were hid till the time of the apostles, and were delivered by them as they received from the Lord, and, concealed in the Old Testament, were manifested to the saints. And, on the other hand, there is \"the riches of the glory of the mystery in the Gentiles,\" which is faith and hope in Christ; which in another place he has called the \"foundation.\"<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 5</i></p><p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: Paul indicates that this mystery was made known to him through revelation. From this passage it is evident that a Christian, and a very excellent Christian at that, can be brought into being solely by grace.… Nevertheless, the power of God dispenses grace in many ways. Others come to faith by teaching, wherein by a legitimate training process and through the commandments of the Savior a person is reborn through the Spirit and water, so as to receive the spirit of Christ, in a teaching process that is mediated from human beings and through human beings. But what happened to Paul came to him by the grace of God through revelation. Although he, in my judgment, was the only one who received this particular revelation, God is able to reveal himself in this form or in other ways to others.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 1.3.1-2</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: Now this (mystery) was not made known to previous generations, as he says, it has been written, \"By revelation was made known unto me the mystery;\" and, \"I have heard inexpressible words which it is not possible for man to declare.\" The light, (therefore,) which came down from the Ogdoad above to the Son of the Hebdomad, descended from the Hebdomad upon Jesus the son of Mary, and he had radiance imparted to him by being illuminated with the light that shone upon him.<br/><i>— Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies Book VII</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Perhaps he had informed them of it by some persons, or had not long before been writing to them. Here he is pointing out that the whole is of God, that we have contributed nothing. For what? I ask, was not Paul himself, the wonderful, he that was so versed in the law, he that was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel according to the most perfect manner, was not he saved by grace? With good reason too does he call this a mystery, for a mystery it is, to raise the Gentiles in a moment to a higher rank than the Jews. \"As I wrote afore,\" saith he, \"in few words,\" i.e., briefly.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 6</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: The words I wrote a little before do not mean, as some think, that he has written another letter. For it is not with respect to himself that he says \"I have written\" but with respect to the mystery. For he is referring to \"the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I wrote to you a little while ago,\" yet it is this \"about which I have just now written.\" For this has been his subject from the outset right up to this passage.<br/><i>— Interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesians 3.1-4</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"dfc8515eb496ca05bbea8a68734147cf8336aec8a55639ff886f7b191e070b2c","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4263,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"05f561c66a3b3835ac04b4226a2c11d52803d55728763ffa72670b6d85de729b","translator":null,"work":null}