Ephesians 1.18a-The Eyes of the Heart Enlightened by the Holy Spirit
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 15, 2023
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:18a-The Eyes of the Heart Enlightened by the Holy Spirit
Lesson # 56
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. 18 Namely, that the eyes of your heart are enlightened in order that each and every one of you would possess the conviction of what constitutes being the confident expectation of blessing produced by His effectual call, what constitutes His inheritance, which is characterized by glorious wealth, residing in the person of the saints. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 1:18 continues Paul’s thought from Ephesians 1:15-17 and in particular from 1:17 since it not only presents the purpose of Paul’s prayer for the recipients of the Ephesian epistle in Ephesians 1:17 but also explains what is meant by the prayer request in this verse.
Ephesians 1:18 is composed of a fronted attributive participial clause followed by an infinitival purpose clause.
The former elaborates on the previous intercessory prayer request Paul offered up to the Father on a regular basis, which as we noted requested that the Father would cause the recipients of the Ephesian epistle to receive divine revelatory wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit.
Now, here in Ephesians 1:18, the fronted attributive participial clause asserts that this request in Ephesians 1:17 would be equivalent to them having the eyes of their heart enlightened.
The infinitival purpose, which follows it, asserts that this request was so that the recipients of this letter would possess the conviction of what constitutes their confident expectation of blessing produced by the Father’s effectual call, and what constitutes the glorious wealth which characterizes the Father’s inheritance located in the person of the saints.
The noun ophthalmos (ὀφθαλμός) is used figuratively of spiritual sight.
This is indicated by the fact that Paul is speaking of the revelation the Holy Spirit gave to him which he is communicating to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle through the contents of this epistle, which present what he desired that they would have the capacity to understand as a result of perception.
Therefore, this noun refers to having the spiritual capacity to understand or discern spiritually as a result of perception what constitutes their confident expectation of blessing, which is produced by Father’s effectual call as well as to what constitutes the glorious wealth of the Father’s inheritance, which is the saints.
They would receive this capacity from the Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 1:17 since this fronted attributive participle clause explains this prayer request in Ephesians 1:17.
This interpretation is indicated by the contents of Ephesians 1:18.
Furthermore, this noun ophthalmos refers to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle having the capacity to understand spiritually as a result of perception what constitutes the incomparable greatness of the Father’s power directed toward them, which was displayed in the exercise of His immense strength.
This interpretation is indicated by the contents of Ephesians 1:19.
The noun kardia (καρδία), “heart” is that aspect of the soul, which circulates thought or mental activity and is where one’s frame of reference and memory center resides.
It is also the place where one’s vocabulary and the classification of thoughts reside as well as the conscience where the norms and standards reside.
A person’s entire mental attitude circulates in the kardia as well as the subconscious where various categories of things that shock or impress from adversity, sin, failure or disappointment are located.
Also, it contains volition, which enables a person to make decisions.
Therefore, this word refers to a person’s mentality, volition, conscience, sub-conscience and emotions.
The accusative masculine plural perfect passive participle conjugation of the verb phōtizō (φωτίζω), “have been enlightened” is functioning as a fronted attributive participle modifying the accusative second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “you,” which appears here in Ephesians 1:18.
The latter serves as the accusative subject of the articular perfect active infinitive conjugation of verb oida (οἶδα), “may know.”
The participle conjugation of this verb phōtizō (φωτίζω), “have been enlightened” is put in the accusative case because the second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “you,” which it modifies, is in the accusative.
The latter is in the accusative because it serves as the accusative subject of the articular perfect active infinitive conjugation of verb oida (οἶδα), “may know.”
Though the causal participle can follow its controlling verb, usually, it precedes it and here the accusative masculine plural perfect passive participle conjugation of the verb phōtizō (φωτίζω), “have been enlightened” follows its controlling verb δώῃ, which we noted appears in Ephesians 1:17.
Also result participles are in the present tense and yet the participle conjugation of the verb phōtizō (φωτίζω), “have been enlightened” is in the perfect tense.
Also, I interpret the participle conjugation of this verb phōtizō (φωτίζω), “have been enlightened” as functioning as a pendent accusative.
This means that the participle conjugation of this verb phōtizō (φωτίζω), “have been enlightened” is introduced into the sentence as if it was functioning as the direct object of the verb δώῃ, which appears in Ephesians 1:17.
However, as we can see the rest of Ephesians 1:18 is completed in a syntactically awkward manner, leaving the word dangling.
It is thrown forward to the beginning of the clause, followed by the infinitival clause eis to eidenai hymas tis estin hē elpis tēs klēseōs autou, tis ho ploutos tēs doxēs tēs klēronomias autou en tois hagiois (εἰς τὸ εἰδέναι ὑμᾶς τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς κλήσεως αὐτοῦ, τίς ὁ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τῆς κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις), “so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” (NET)
The participle conjugation of this verb phōtizō is replaced by the second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “you,” which is in the accusative case because it is required by the syntax.
This pronoun functions as accusative subject of articular perfect active infinitive conjugation of verb oida (οἶδα), “may know.”
The verb phōtizō (φωτίζω) we also noted is used in a figurative sense of the Holy Spirit providing the recipients of the Ephesian epistle spiritual understanding or discernment concerning the revelation Paul received from the Holy Spirit and which revelation he was communicating through the contents of the Ephesian epistle.
In other words, it refers to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle receiving spiritual understanding from the Holy Spirit with regards to the spiritual phenomena Paul received from the Holy Spirit, which he communicated to them through the contents of the Ephesian epistle.
The perfect tense of this verb phōtizō functions as an intensive perfect, which emphasizes the present state of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle receiving enlightenment from the Holy Spirit with regards to the Spirit inspired contents of the epistle as a result of exercising faith in the Spirit inspired contents.
The passive voice of this verb means the recipients of the Ephesian epistle as the subject of this verb receive the action of having the eyes of their heart enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
Now, as we noted in Ephesians 1:17, Paul informs the recipients of this letter that he regularly interceded in prayer for them requesting that the Father would cause them to receive divine revelatory wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit with respect to an experiential knowledge of Himself.
Now, here this fronted accusative attributive participle in Ephesians 1:18 is explaining what he means by this request, namely he wants the Father to cause the eyes of their heart to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, when Paul informs the recipients of this letter that he prayed that the Father would cause them to receive divine revelatory wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit, he means that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened by the Spirit.
This enlightenment we noted would be in regards to what constitutes their confident expectation of blessing and what constitutes the glorious wealth which characterizes the Father’s inheritance, which is located in the person of the saints.
Paul could have put the verb phōtizō (φωτίζω) here in Ephesians 1:18 in the nominative participle conjugation in order to employ it as a participle of means modifying the third person singular aorist active subjunctive conjugation of the verb didōmi (δίδωμι).
The participle of means defines or explains the action of the controlling verb and follows its controlling verb, however, Paul does not do this for emphasis.
Instead, he put this verb in the accusative participle conjugation modifying the second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), which we noted functions as accusative subject of articular perfect active infinitive conjugation of verb oida (οἶδα).
He does this in order to catch not only the ear of the reader but also their eyes and thus, this unusual construction would catch the ear of the recipients of this epistle when the lector or pastor read it as well as when they read it.
In fact, it causes the interpreter today in the twenty-first century to stop and spend a considerable amount of time attempting to understand what Paul is saying with this fronted accusative attributive participle.