Section 269
79The Vulgate renders happily: ad patrem . . . ex quo omnis paternitas . . . no-minatur. Cf. Tyndale, Coverdale, Great Bible: “the father . . . which is father over all that is called father in heaven and in earth.” See G. Schrenk, TDNT 5, pp. 1016-19 (s. v. πατϱιά.).
80“The whole family” (KJV) is a mistranslation of πᾶσα πατϱιά. It is unlikely that “every πατϱιά” means “every family, whether Jewish or Gentile”: Jews and Gentiles, by faith, have already become fellow-members of one household (Eph. 2:19, οỉϰεῖοι τοῦ θεοῦ). C. L. Mitton, following E. J. Goodspeed (The Meaning of Ephesians, pp. 48-49), suggests that the reference is to “every local church.” Since ἐϰϰλησία in this letter is used of the universal church only, another word had to do duty for the local church, and πατϱιά was pressed into service for this purpose (The Epistle to the Ephesians, pp. 237-38; similarly, it is proposed, the ναòς ἃγιος of Eph. 2:21 is the universal church, while πᾶσα οỉϰοδομή is every local church).
81The pemîlyâ šel ma ‘ălāh and the pemílyá šel mattāh (TB Berākôt 16b, etc.). But pemîlyâ is a loanword from Latin (familia), comprising not children but household servants, in relation to whom God is not father (’āḇ) but master (ba’al habbayiṯ, οỉϰοδεσπóτης). See H. Odeberg, The View of the Universe in the Epistle to the Ephesians, AUL, NF 1, 29, 6 (1934), p. 20. E. Percy (Probleme, p. 277, n. 30) argues that there is no specific allusion to the heavenly family as against the earthly family, the point simply being that “there is absolutely no fatherly relation in existence that does not have its prototype in God.”
82Gk. ϰατὰ τò πλοῦτος τῆς δóξης αὐτοῦ. The question is whether the genitive τῆς δóξης has substantive force or is to be taken as adjectival, after the Hebrew idiom (cf. p. 258, n. 46). It is, however, an academic question here, since the infinite resources of God’s wisdom, power, and love may be spoken of as his “wealth” or his “glory.” (Cf. Phil. 4:19, ϰατὰ τò πλοῦτος αὐτοῦ ἐν δóξη ὲν Xϱιστῷ ’Iησοῦ.)