Ephesians 3:15

15. Whole family It was a beautiful interpretation which made this word family include the saints on earth and their fellow-saints in heaven as all one blessed kin with Christ, their elder brother. But both the absence of the Greek article before the word and the spuriousness of the above clause exclude that meaning.

The word here rendered family, ( πατρια , patria,) is derived from the Greek and Latin πατηρ , pater, which, with our word father, are but different forms of the same words. A patria is a great kin, clan, or race, descended genetically from one primitive progenitor. So the three great patriae, or races of the earth, traced their lineage to Shem, Ham, and Japhet as their progenitors. Of every patria the father-founder is called ( patria, progeny, and αρχη , arch, chief, or beginner) patriarch. St. Paul’s thought, then, is, that God is the universal Patriarch. Translating patria by the English word patriarchy, (the word patriarchy importing the progeny of the patriarch,) we may render this clause, Of whom all (or every) patriarchy in heaven and earth is named. The words then include angels above and men below. Angels are not, indeed, born; yet, as originated from God they are called “the sons of God.” The patriae in heaven are the angelic ranks and orders.

Is named The descendants, or patria, of a patriarchal progenitor are often called by his name; and patronymic words, so called, are formed to express the patria. The patria of Japhet are Japhetidae; of Abraham, Abrahamidae. Now, though no proper name precisely parallel to these may be quoted to designate the universal patria of God, yet such a name is the true name of their nature in their divinely-originated relation. “Sons of God,” “Diogeneis,” that is, God-born, or creatures, are what God’s patria may be truly named. Most truly so named in so far as a true name expresses the nature of the thing.

We find no commentator inquiring what relevancy this fatherhood of God over all races has to St. Paul’s present train of thought. We suppose that it springs from his presenting himself in the previous paragraphs as apostle of the Gentiles. He beseeches God, the father of all races, to pour the richest blessings of the Abrahamic promise upon these Japhetidae, this Church in Japhetic and Aryan Ephesus. The drift of Paul’s prayer may be comprehended by noting that Ephesians 3:16-17 express qualifications (as might, and an indwelling Christ) for achieving (Ephesians 3:18-19) knowledge of the boundlessness of Christ’s love, and a possession of God’s fulness; concluding with a doxology expressing the unlimited power of God to do all, and more than all, we can ask.