Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:17c-Divine Revelatory Wisdom Provided by the One and Only Spirit

Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, after I myself heard about the faith among each and every one of you in the one and only Lord Jesus as well as you are practicing divine-love, which is on behalf of each and every one of the saints, 16 I never permit myself to cease regularly expressing thanks to the one and only God because of each and every one of you. I do this while disciplining myself to make it my practice of remembering each and every one of you during my prayers. 17 I make it a habit of occupying myself with praying that the God, that is, the glorious Father of the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit, who is Jesus Christ, would cause each and every one of you to receive divine wisdom, specifically, divine revelatory wisdom provided by the one and only Spirit with respect to an experiential knowledge of Himself. (Lecturer’s translation)

As was the case when the word appeared in Ephesians 1:8, the noun sophia(σοφία) here in Ephesians 1:17 means “wisdom” and refers to the wisdom of God, which is provided for the church age believer by the Holy Spirit.

The wisdom of God is a transcendent wisdom because it is based upon His omniscience and is His unique ability to devise a perfect plan to accomplish His goal to glorify Himself.

The word speaks of the function or exercise of God’s ability to perfectly execute His plan of salvation and as a result glorify Himself.

The Father’s wisdom is transcendent because it is beyond both angelic and human comprehension.

The wisdom of God was manifested through the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father which provided eternal salvation for all of sinful humanity.

The wisdom of God is also expressed through the gospel of Jesus Christ, which presents God’s provision of eternal salvation for the entire human race through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is revealed by the Spirit’s teaching in the New Testament.

The church age believer receives divine wisdom by exercising faith in the Spirit inspired teaching of the New Testament, which is divine revelation.

The anarthrous construction of this abstract noun sophia emphasizes the divine quality and character of this wisdom because it is provided by the revelation Paul received from the Holy Spirit.

The noun sophia also functions as a genitive of product, which would express the idea that this wisdom is “produced by” the Holy Spirit.

Specifically, it expresses the idea that the Holy Spirit “provides” the church age believer the wisdom of God through the revelation He gave to the apostle Paul.

In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, the apostle Paul condemns the wisdom of the cosmic system, teaching that the wisdom of God as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ is superior and has made foolish the wisdom of the cosmic system.

In 1 Corinthians 1:17-31, Paul attacks the self-confidence of the Greeks, who boast of their human wisdom, which is cosmic viewpoint (1 Co. 1:29; cf. 1 Co. 3:21).

He rejects human wisdom and boasts in the wisdom he received from the Lord through the Spirit.

In Colossians 2:3, Paul teaches that God’s wisdom resides in the mind and thinking of Christ, which appears in the written Word of God.

In Colossians 3:16, he teaches that the believer acquires the wisdom of God by letting the Word of Christ richly dwell in his soul, which gives him the capacity to glorify God in whatever circumstance or relationship in life.

James 3:17 describes wisdom as being pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

In Ephesians 3:1-12, the apostle Paul teaches that the multi-faceted wisdom of God is being made known through the church to the “rulers” and “authorities.”

Now, in Ephesians 1:17, the noun apokalypsis (ἀποκάλυψις) pertains to communication of knowledge which was previously hidden to man by a divine or supernatural agency.

Specifically, it refers to the revelation the Holy Spirit provided Paul and his fellow apostles regarding the Father’s plan for the church age believer, which now appears in the Greek New Testament.

The anarthrous construction of this abstract noun emphasizes the divine quality and character of this revelation because it is provided by the Holy Spirit through Paul’s apostolic teaching.

Like the noun sophia, the noun apokalypsisfunctions as a genitive of product, which would express the idea that this revelation is “produced by” the Holy Spirit.

Specifically, it expresses the idea that the Holy Spirit “provides” the church age believer this revelation from God through the revelation He gave the apostle Paul, which now appears in the Greek New Testament.

This expression sophias kai apokalypseōs (σοφίας καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως) contains the figure of hendiadys, which indicates that Paul is not referring to two different concepts when he uses these two words but rather one.

Wisdom from God and revelation from God should be taken here as one because the wisdom of God is communicated by the Holy Spirit through the revelation He provided mankind in the form of the Old and New Testament.

Thus, the idea of this expression is that the Father would cause the recipients of the Ephesian epistle to receive divine wisdom, specifically, a divine revelatory wisdom produced by or provided by the Holy Spirit with respect to an experiential knowledge of the Father.

In fact, he mentions that he received divine revelation by God through the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 3:1-13 and specifically, in Ephesians 3:5.

Ephesians 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—3:2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3:3 that by revelation the divine secret was made known to me, as I wrote before briefly. 3:4 When reading this, you will be able to understand my insight into this secret of Christ. 3:5 Now this secret was not disclosed to people in former generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, 3:6 namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. 3:7 I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power. 3:8 To me—less than the least of all the saints—this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ 3:9 and to enlighten everyone about God’s secret plan—a secret that has been hidden for ages in God who has created all things. 3:10 The purpose of this enlightenment is that through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms. 3:11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 3:12 in whom we have boldness and confident access to God because of Christ’s faithfulness. 3:13 For this reason I ask you not to lose heart because of what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. (NET)

Therefore, here in Ephesians 1:17, this figure of hendiadys which appears in the expression sophias kai apokalypseōs (σοφίας καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως) indicates that Paul asked the Father in prayer to cause the recipients of the Ephesian epistle to receive divine wisdom, specifically, divine revelatory wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit.