Section 308
21Origen (Commentary, ad loc.) interpreted εὐϰαϱɩστία here as εὐϰαϱɩτία (a coinage meaning something like “the mark of fine training”); cf. O. Casel, “Eὐϰαϱɩστία-εὐϰαϱɩτία (Eph. 5, 3 f),” BZ 18 (1929), 84-85. J. A. Robinson (Ephesians, p. 198) has a valuable note in which he demonstrates that Jerome’s comment ad loc. (PL 26, 552D-53B) is dependent on Origen.
22N. A. Dahl (“Der Epheserbrief und der erste Korintherbrief,” in Abraham unser Vater, ed. O. Betz, M. Hengel, and P. Schmidt [Leiden/Köln, 1963], pp. 65-77) compares Eph. 5:5-11 with what we learn from 1 Cor. 5:9-11 about Paul’s “previous” letter to Corinth, and concludes that both passages reproduce, in one form or another (as do also 1 Cor. 6:9-10; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1), pieces of Pauline catechesis, including the warning that those who practice the vices mentioned forfeit all share in the kingdom of God; cf. further Gal. 5:21. (According to Mishnah, Sanhedrin 10.1-4, “all Israelites have a share in the age to come” with certain specified exceptions, including those who deny the resurrection of the dead or the heavenly origin of the Torah.)
23Gk. ἴστε γɩνώσϰοντες, “(you) know, knowing.” With ἴστε, second plural indicative or imperative of οἶδα, cf. ἴσασɩν, third plural indicative, in Acts 26:4; the common Hellenistic replacements for these classical forms are οἴδατε, οἴδασɩν. The problem whether ἴστε is to be taken as indicative or imperative here may be solved by comparing ἢ οὐϰ οἴδατε . . .; (1 Cor. 6:9) and πϱολέγω ὑμῖν, ϰαθὼς πϱοεῖπον (Gal. 5:21), where the warning about failure to inherit the kingdom of God is preceded by a reminder that the readers have been told this already. So here ἴστε γɩνώσϰοντες may be rendered “you know very well.”