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Verses 15,16 Paul & the epistle authors mention about the saints' faith in Lord Jesus and the love among them within the first 10 lines of a letter opening - [Col 1:4], [Rom 1:9], [1Th 1:2] and [Phm 1:4]. The reason for Paul using the latter half of the letter opening to talk about the Ephesians's faith can be attributed to the following - an expanding church could have brought in several new believers (as indicated in Paul mentioning "having heard"), which meant he wanted to reaffirm their inheritance and predestination/election along with sola gratia doctrine to establish the basic context of the gospel.
Verse 17 He then mentions the specifics of his prayer for them, which brings in 2 unique concepts.
- One is around use of spirit of wisdom. [Ex 28:3] describes the gift bestowed by God in making Aaron's garment, which uses the same phrase and the other one is in [Duet 34:9] when Moses lays hand on Joshua, son of Nun to bestow the spirit of wisdom. [Ex 31:3] and [Isa 11:@] also use the same words around craftsmanship and the stem of Jesse, in fore ordaining the Messiah, respectively.
- The other concept is around the triune nature of our God of the Bible. Although an entire paper can be written on this topic, just using the original Greek words and other parts of Bible we can discern the trinity or atleast Jesus being part of God's personhood, in the following ways. Use of God, is the same word used in [Ezr 7:27] [1Chron 12:17] [Duet 26:7] referencing YHWH, God our fathers, Heavenly Father. These words are typically used using the sequence O Lord God, Lord being Adonai and God being YHWH. So use of God of our Lord Jesus Christ references the same word Lord in OT. In other places, Elohim [Gen 1:!] is used which is a masculine plural form in Hebrew. Plurality here could mean the personhood of God with multiple entities.
Verse 18 The use of the phrase eyes of your heart may be enlightened can be seen as illuminating and brightening up of our seat of knowledge, spirit, vigor and physical life.
The greek word Kardia although the root for cardio in english goes beyond just a piece of muscle pumping blood. It also means centre for all physical and spiritual life. The equivalent words in OT reference a heart being pierced by an arrow as in [2 Sam 18:4, 2Kin 9:24], where as [Psa 101:5, Psa 104:15 and Act 14:17] talk about filling our hearts with food/gladness. A deeper use of the word is in [Dan 1:8] when Daniel didnt wat to define himself eating the king's meat. Here the word leb is used which denotes innerman, soul, conscience, seat of courage and learning.
Hence this enlightening is to know His calling - klesis, which translates to an invitation to a feast of divine invitation to embarace our salvation. [Heb 3:1, Eph 4:1] also reference this heavenly calling affirming this concept of invitation. This invitation is then to the abundance of God's judegement or glory. The inheritance as we have seen is the same word used in [Heb 11:8], which refers to God's promise when He called Abram out of Chaldeans. The riches/ploutos is also used in [Est 1:4] to denote kingly riches or in NT [EPh 3:16, Rom 9:23, Col 1:27] to mean abundance of His glory.
Verses 19,20 Surpassing greatness is also references in [2 Cor 4:7] referencing the power of God and [2Cor 12:7] around His revelations. The greek word hyperballo megethos is also used in [Dan 4:36] when Nebuchadnazzer thanks God after coming back to power, after being humbled by God. this is also a nice reference - in "us who believe" as Nebuchadnazzer who was vain and in unbelief becomes a believer in God. These are in accordance with God's working. This strength of His might (energia kratos) was used when God raised Chris from dead and then seated Him at His right hand. The reference to God's right hand is littered in Psalms and all through OT. More specifically, [Ex 15:6, Ex 15:12] talk about His right hand shattering enemy and earth swallowing them.
Verses 21-23 The last 3 verses closing this chapter is beautiful as it brings together diverse references from OT around our savior, Son of Man.
[Psa 8:5] - "You have made Him little lower than God and You crown Him with glory and majesty. You make Him to rule over the words of Your hand, You have put all things under His feet" and [Heb 2:7-9] "you have put all things in subjection under His feet, made little lower than the angels". In [1Cor 15] the chapter ends, author emphasizes that the subjection is to all things so God may be all in all.
[Psa 110:1] The authority, power and dominion over all things, including the enemies who are made foot stool for your feet, refereces the one seated at the right hand of God. Similarly, the order that is shown is important when we get to the teachings on marriage in [Eph 4]. God - Christ - Church; Christ - Man - Wife - Kids. The reference to His body is a call back to [Gen 2:23], bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh in how Adam described Eve. This will show the sacredness of marriage as we will cover in [Eph 4]. Finally, looking at [Psa 16:11] sums up these verses..."you will make known to me tha path of life, in your presence is fullness of joy; in your right hand there are pleasures forever