Ephesians 4:18

Eph_4:18

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the, life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

Spiritual blindness

A coward never knows what the ecstasy of courage is; and if you ask me why, my reply is, that he has not that in him by which he can know it. A man hearing a magnificent symphony of Beethoven says, I would give more for Yankee Doodle than for a thousand such symphonies. Why? Because he has not that in him by which he can appreciate Beethovens music. A man says in regard to a magnificent work of art, I would rather see the sign that hangs over the door of the tavern in our town than any picture that Raphael ever painted. Very likely he would. That sign is just coarse enough for him to understand; and he has not that in him which would enable him to interpret the paintings of a great master. Many men would rather read a ballad than Miltons Lycidas or Comus or Paradise Lost. (H. W. Beecher.)

The immorality of the heathen

We are environed by an invisible, Divine, and eternal world. It does not lie far away from us in the remote future, but surrounds us now as the starry heavens surround the common earth, There is a faculty in us which, when inspired and illuminated by the Spirit of God, enables us to see it. When once that world is revealed to us our whole conception of human duty and of human destiny is changed. We discover that the pleasures and pains of this brief and transitory life, its poverty and its wealth, its honours and its shame, are of secondary importance, that there is a kind of unreality in them all, that they are external to us, that they are rapidly passing away. In this life indeed it is impossible for us not to be affected by them; and they have their place in the discipline of our righteousness. But our horizon has widened, and we see beyond them. We discover that it is only the larger world which has been revealed to us by Christ that is real and enduring; and that compared with its august and glorious realities things seen and temporal, are but passing shadows. We see that the true life of man is the eternal and Divine life by which he is related to what is eternal and Divine; that the true honour, the true wealth, the true wisdom, the true happiness of man are found in that eternal and Divine kingdom. But Paul says that heathen races are living among things seen and temporal, not among things unseen and eternal. The faculty by which they should be brought into contact with what is real and enduring, is impaired, so that it mistakes shadows for substances, dreams for realities: they walk in the vanity of their mind. And as no light reaches them from the infinite and eternal world, they are darkened in their understanding. Darkness and death go together. Man was so created that the root of his perfection is in God. But where the knowledge of God is lost the life of God is lost. Heathen men are living in regions of moral darkness, in which the life of God cannot be theirs. They are separated, estranged, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. But the ignorance is not a mere intellectual defect involving no moral fault; they are alienated from the life of God … because of the hardening of their heart. Their increasing moral insensibility was the real cause of their ignorance; and their ignorance and moral insensibility were the causes of their alienation from the life of God. What kind of men they had become through this hardening of their heart Paul describes in words which it is not possible to read without a sense of horror. They were past feeling. They had ceased to he sensitive to the obligations of truth, of honesty, of kindness, of purity; and to the guilt of falsehood, of injustice, of cruelty, of sensual sin. They committed the grossest vices, and were conscious of no shame. Their imagination was no longer fascinated by the beauty and nobleness of virtue. No sentiment of personal dignity checked the indulgence of the foulest and most disgraceful passions. They had no reverence for the purer and loftier traditions of better times. They were untouched by the censure and scorn of the wiser and nobler of their contemporaries. All the inducements that draw men to virtue and all the restraints that hold them back from vice were destroyed. They were past feeling. Their sin was therefore gross and habitual. They were not betrayed into sin, against their better purposes; they were not merely overcome now and then by the violence of their passions; they were not mastered by some malignant power, against which they struggled in vain; nor were their worst excesses followed by any remorse. They sinned deliberately and without any protest from their reason or their conscience, or any purer and more generous affections in their moral life. They gave themselves up--it was their own act, done with set purpose and with the consent of their whole nature--they gave themselves up to lasciviousness--to a life in which there was a wilful, reckless, wanton defiance of all moral restraints. Vice, by their own choice and intention, was not to be an occasional incident in their life, it was to be their main business, the employment at which they were to work; and as some men have an insatiable desire for money, these men had an insatiable desire for every kind of impurity, they gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. It is a horrible picture. But Paul was describing the men among whom he had lived and among whom the Christians at Ephesus were living still. The morality of the Greek cities of Asia Minor was so base and so foul that we wonder that the fires of God did not descend to destroy them. Is it surprising that with such a moral environment the Christians at Ephesus, who a few years before had been heathen men themselves, required the ethical teaching contained in the later chapters of this Epistle? (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

Christians must live above the world

To ourselves the ethical condition of the Ephesian Christians is profoundly suggestive, perhaps I ought to say that it is very alarming. English society is free from the gross, the sensual, the brutal vice which infected the great heathen cities of Asia Minor. There is a strong public sentiment on the side of truthfulness, honesty, temperance, purity, industry, self-control, kindliness, and public spirit. We inherit these virtues from our parents; we have been disciplined to them by all the complex influences that have contributed to form our character. In a very true sense they are natural to us, and we practise them without effort. And so it is assumed that when a man receives the life of God there is no reason for any great change in his moral habits. There may be defects of temper which have to be corrected, and in some of the details of moral conduct we may recognize the necessity for amendment; but if he has lived among good moral people he takes it for granted that in working out his own salvation he has to think almost exclusively of his spiritual life; his moral character is already what it should be. He attends public worship more frequently than before; secures more time for private prayer, for religious thought, for reading the Bible and other religious books; he tries to increase the fervour of his love for God and the steadfastness of his faith in God; he takes up some kind of religious work. About moral discipline he thinks very little. About the necessity of reconstructing his whole conception of moral duty, adding to it new elements, resting it on new foundations, he thinks still less. The results of this grave error are most disastrous. The ideal of the ethical life is no higher in the Church than it is in the world. But if the morals of the Church, as a whole, are not distinctly in advance of the morals of society as a whole, if when a man becomes a Christian his moral life is not governed by nobler laws and inspired with a new generosity and force, the power of the Church will be seriously impaired, and its triumphs will be only occasional and intermittent. At times a great passion of religious enthusiasm may enable it to count its converts by thousands; but the fires of enthusiasm soon sink, and for its permanent authority the Church should rely on steadier forces. In heathen countries, although the morality of Christian converts may be grossly defective, it is in advance of the morality of the mass of their fellow countrymen. The darkness of their old life is about them still, but their faces are towards the light. In countries described as Christian there should be the same difference between the morality of those that are in Christ and the morality of those that are not. The revelation of the Divine love and the Divine righteousness, of our kinship to God, of the glorious immortality which is the inheritance of all that have received the Divine life, should ennoble our ideal of every moral virtue, and should inspire us with a more ardent passion for moral perfection. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

Ignorance of religion

Its ignorance of the price of pearls that makes the idiot slight them. Its ignorance of the worth of diamonds that makes the fool choose a pebble before them. Its ignorance of the satisfaction learning affords that makes the peasant despise and laugh at it; and we very ordinarily see how men tread and trample on those plants which are the greatest restoratives, because they know not the virtue of them; and the same may justly be affirmed of religion, the reason why men meddle no more with it is--because they are not acquainted with the pleasantness of it. (Anthony Horneck.)

Ignorance of a depraved heart

But there is another sort of ignorance which is not an ignorance of an empty understanding, but of a depraved heart; such an ignorance as does not only consist in a bare privation, but in a corrupt disposition; where the understanding is like that sort of blind serpents, whose blindness is attended with much venom and malignity. This was such a blindness as struck the Sodomites; there was darkness in their eyes, and withal villany in their hearts. (Dr. South.)

Guilty ignorance

There is also an affected ignorance, such a one as is contracted by a wilful neglect of the means; and this is not excusing but condemning … In the midst of light to be in darkness; for an Israel to have an Egypt in a Goschen; this is highly provoking, and may justly cause God to lay hold on vengeance. (Dr. South.)

Innocent ignorance

Is any father so cruel, or hard hearted, as to disown and cast off his son, because he is a fool? No; an innocent ignorance excuses from sin, both before God and man; and God Himself will own that maxim of equity, Ignorantia excusat peccatum. (Dr. South.)

Different kinds of ignorance

Ignorance may be distinguished into five kinds; human, natural, affected, invincible, proud, and puffed up.

1. Human.

This is not sinful, as in Adam not to know his nakedness nor Satans subtlety; as in the angels, and even Christ, as man, not to know the latter day.

2. Natural.--The ignorance of infirmity, incident to mans nature since the Fall.

3. Affected ignorance (see Joh_3:19).--These shut their ears when God calleth; and, being housed in their security, will not step to the door to see if the sun shines. This ignorance, if I may say so, doth reside rather in their affection than understanding part.

4. Invincible ignorance.--When God hath naturally darkened the understanding by a sore punishment of original sin.

5. A proud ignorance.--Whereof there is no hope, saith Solomon (Pro_27:1). The other is invincible, indeed this more invincible: a fool is sooner taught. (T. Adams.)

Natural ignorance

We read of an ancient king, who being desirous to know what was the natural language of men; in order to bring the matter to a certain issue, made the following experiment:--He ordered two infants, as soon as they were born, to be conveyed to a place prepared for them, where they were brought up without any instruction at all, and without ever hearing a human voice. And what was the event? Why, that when they were at length brought out of their confinement they spake no language at all, they uttered only inarticulate sounds like those of other animals. Were two infants in like manner to be brought up from the womb without being instructed in any religion, there is little room to doubt but (unless the grace of God interposed) the event would be just the same. They would have no religion at all: they would have no more knowledge of God than the beasts of the field, than the wild asss colt. Such is natural religion l abstracted from traditional, and from the influences of Gods spirit. (J. Wesley.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:18 Their minds are full of darkness because their minds are closed and hearts are hard (see 2 Cor 4:4).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eph 4:18. Ἐσκοτισμένοι τῇ διανοίᾳ ὄντες, Having the understanding darkened) This verse has four clauses. The third is to be referred to the first, and in it οὖσαν answers to ὄντες; the fourth, to the second. For ὄντες is connected also in Tit 1:16, as here, with the preceding epithet [βδελυκτοὶ ὄντες]. The participles, darkened, alienated, take for granted, that the Gentiles, before they had revolted from the faith of their fathers, nay rather before Adam’s fall, had been partakers of light and life; comp. be renewed, Eph 4:23.[66]—Τῆς ΖΩῆς, the life) of which, ch. Eph 2:5.—τοῦ Θεοῦ, of God) The spiritual life is kindled in believers from the very life of God,—[67]πώρωσιν [Engl. Vers. blindness], hardness) The antithesis is life: life and feeling (opposed to hardness) exist and fail together. Comp. Mar 3:5, note. Πώρωσις, hardness, is contradistinguished from blindness, where the latter is expressly noticed; otherwise it includes it in itself.—καρδίας, of heart) Rom 1:21.

[66] Implying a previous state of innocence.—ED.

[67] Διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν, on account of the ignorance) This of itself is the commencement of their wretched condition. Rom 1:21; Rom 1:23, [also Eph 4:28].—V.g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_4:18 exhibits the ground of the fact, that the Gentiles walk ἐν ματαιότητι τοῦ νοὸς αὐτῶν, which ground is twofold according to the twofold power belonging to the νοῦς, the intelligent and the practical. To the former ἐσκοτωμένοι relates (see the critical remarks), to the latter ἀπηλλ. τ. ζωῆς τ. Θεοῦ: since they are darkened (comp. Joseph. Antt. ix. 4. 3; the opposite: φωτίζειν τὴν διάνοιαν, viii. 5. 3) in respect of their exercise of thinking and willing (διανοίᾳ, comp. Luk_1:51; Col_1:21; 1Pe_1:13; 1Jn_5:20); estranged from the life of God.

ἐσκοτ.… ὄντες is to be taken together (Clem. Al. Protrep. ix. p. 69, Potter; Theodoret, Bengel, Knapp, Lachmann, Harless, de Wette), since, if ὄντες ἀπηλλοτρ. are joined (Beza and many, including Rückert, Meier, Matthies, Scholz), the logical and formal parallelism is disturbed, inasmuch as then ἔσκοτ. τῇ διανοίᾳ would be merely predicate and ὄντες ἀπηλλοτρ. specifying the reason (subordinate to the former), and the emphatic prefixing of the two perfect participles, as brought into prominence by our punctuation, would go for nothing. And that the second clause does not specify the reason, why the darkening has come over the minds of the Gentiles (in opposition to Rückert), is clear from the following διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν κ.τ.λ., wherein, conversely, the ignorance is indicated as the cause of the estrangement from God. Rückert, moreover, thinks that, according to our punctuation, ὄντες would stand before τῇ διανοίᾳ; but this is groundless, since ἐσκοτ. τῇ διανοίᾳ is conceived of together. Comp. Herod. i. 35: οὐ καθαρὸς χεῖρας ἐών, Xen. Ages. xi. 10: πραότατος φίλοις ὤν.

ἀπηλλοτρ.] See on Eph_2:12, and, concerning the constructio κατὰ σύνεσιν, Buttmann, neut. Gram. pp. 114, 242 [E. T. 281].

τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ] from the life of God, does not admit of any explanation, according to which ζωή would be life-walk, which it never means in the N.T., not even in 2Pe_1:3.[232] Hence not: the life pleasing to God (Michaelis, Zachariae, Koppe, Morus, and others; comp. Theodore, Theophylact, Grotius, and Flatt), but, as Luther aptly renders: the life, which is from God. The genitive is genitive originis (comp. δικαιοσύνη Θεοῦ, Rom_1:17, and see Winer, p. 167 f. [E. T. 233]), and ζωή is the counterpart of θάνατος, so that it is to be understood as: tota vita spiritualis, quae in hoc seculo per fidem et justitiam inchoatur et in futura beatitudine perficitur, quae tota peculiariter vita Dei est, quatenus a Deo per gratiam datur, Estius. Comp. Calvin and Cajetanus. It is at all events the life of Christian regeneration, which is wrought by God in believers through the Spirit (Rom_8:2);[233] while the Gentiles are by their heathen nature alien to this divine life. This in opposition to Harless, who understands it as the estrangement from the life and light of the λόγος in the world (Joh_1:3). Paul in fact is speaking of the Gentiles of that time (not of those who have lived in the time before Christ), in their contrast to the Christians (Eph_4:17) as persons who were partakers of divine life through the παλιγγενεσία (comp. Eph_2:5; Rom_6:4). Various elements are mixed up by Beza: vitam illam, qua Deus vivit in suis quamque praecipit et approbat; and Olshausen: the life, which God Himself is and has, and which pertains to the creature so long as it remains in fellowship with God.

διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν … ΚΑΡΔΊΑς ΑὐΤῶΝ] on account of, etc.; the cause of this estrangement of the Gentiles from the divine life is the ignorance which is in them through hardening of heart, consequently due to their own fault. διὰ τ. πώρ. τ. κ. attaches itself to ΤῊΝ ΟὖΣΑΝ ἘΝ ΑὐΤΟῖς, and is consequently subordinated to the preceding ΔΙᾺ Τ. ἌΓΝΟΙΑΝ Τ. ΟὖΣ. ἘΝ ΑὐΤ. Usually διὰ … διά are regarded as co-ordinate elements; and indeed, according to Harless and Olshausen, who are followed by de Wette, this twofold specification of reason has reference not merely to ἀπηλλοτρ. τ. ζ. τ. Θ., but also to ἘΣΚΟΤ. Τῇ ΔΙΑΝΟΊᾼ ὌΝΤΕς, in which case Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Schenkel (comp. Grotius and Bengel) assume that ΔΙᾺ ΤῊΝ ἌΓΝΟΙΑΝ Κ.Τ.Λ. corresponds to ἘΣΚΟΤ. Κ.Τ.Λ., and then ΔΙᾺ ΤῊΝ ΠΏΡΩΣΙΝ Κ.Τ.Λ. to ἈΠΗΛΛΟΤΡ. Τ. Ζ. Τ. Θ. The ἌΓΝΟΙΑ, however, cannot be the cause, but only the consequence of ἐσκοτ. τῇ διανοίᾳ, since ἌΓΝΟΙΑ (used by Paul only here, but ἈΓΝΟΕῖΝ occurs frequently) is not dulness of the higher faculty of cognition (Rückert), but nothing else than ignorance (Act_3:17; Act_17:30; 1Pe_1:14). The Gentiles were not darkened on account of their ignorance, seeing that in fact ignorance is not inaccessible to the light, as the example of all converted Gentiles shows; but their being estranged from the life of God was occasioned by their ignorance, and, indeed, by their ignorance for which they were to blame on account of hardening of heart. Accordingly, the commas after Θεοῦ and ΑὐΤΟῖς are to be deleted. Meier is quite wrong in holding that the ignorant are the Gentiles, and the hardened the Jews. Paul speaks only of the Gentiles.

τὴν οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς] not: quae iis innata est, nor yet said in contrast to external occasions (Harless), which is not at all implied in the context, but: because Paul wished to annex the cause of the ἄγνοια, he has not put ΔΙᾺ ΤῊΝ ἌΓΝΟΙΑΝ ΑὐΤῶΝ, but, in order to procure the means of annexation, has employed the participial expression paraphrasing the ΑὐΤῶΝ: ΤῊΝ ΟὖΣΑΝ ἘΝ ΑὐΤΟῖς. This expression confirms the view that the second ΔΙΆ is subordinate to the first.

[232] Especially instructive for the distinction of the notion ζωή from that of life-walk, is Gal_5:25.

[233] This divine making alive does not coincide with justification, but the latter is the actus judicialis of God that precedes the former. Comp. especially Rom_8:10 : ζωὴ διὰ δικαιοσύνην.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 4:18 . ἐσκοτισμένοι τῇ διανοίᾳ ὄντες : being darkened in their understanding . For ἐσκοτισμένοι of the TR, with [435] [436] [437] [438] [439] , etc., the more classical form ἐσκοτωμένοι is given in [440] [441] [442] , etc., and is preferred by LTTrWH. The ὄντες is more appropriately attached (with LTTrWHRV, Theod., Beng., Harl., de Wette, Alf., Ell., Abb., Mey., etc.) to this clause than to the following ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι , (Beza, Rück., etc.). The parallelism of the two clauses is better kept in this way, while the emphasis is thrown first on the ἐσκοτωμένοι and then on the ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι . The sentence is a further description of the walk of the Gentiles and an explanation of its vanity . Their walk is what it is because of the condition of moral darkness into which they fell and in which they continue. With ἐσκοτωμένοι compare the ἐσκοτίσθη , κ . τ . λ . of Rom 1:21 , and contrast the πεφωτισμένοι as the note of the new condition in Eph 1:18 . The τῇ διανοίᾳ is not to be taken as if this clause referred only to the intellectual condition. διάνοια covers the ideas not only of understandings , but also of feeling and desiring . It is the faculty or seat of thinking and feeling (Mat 22:37 ; Luk 1:51 ; Luk 10:27 ; Col 1:21 ; 2Pe 3:1 ). The dat. is that known as the dat. of sphere or reference ( cf. Bernh., Synt. , p. 84; Win.-Moult., pp. 263, 270), or the “local dat. ethically used” (Ell. on Gal 1:22 ; Donald., Greek Gram. , p. 488). ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι : alienated . Being in a state of moral darkness they also become alienated from the true life. The word is used of those who have estranged themselves from God, here and in Eph 2:12 ; Col 1:21 ( cf. the OT זוּר in Psa 58:3 ; Eze 14:5 ; Eze 14:7 . τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ : from the life of God . This cannot mean the godly life , the way of life approved by God. For ζωή in the NT seems never to mean the course of life, but life itself, the principle of life as opposed to death . The two things are distinguished, e.g. , in Gal 5:25 . Nor is there any reference here to the life of the Logos (Joh 1:3 ) in the pre-Christian world (Harl.). For it is the ἔθνη as they were known to him that Paul has in view here. The Θεοῦ , therefore, is best taken as the gen. of origin (as in δικαιοσύνη Θεοῦ , Rom 1:17 ; ἡ εἰρήνη τοῦ Θεοῦ , Phi 4:7 ; cf. Win.-Moult., p. 233), = “the life that comes from God,” the spiritual life communicated by God. Some (Ell., Abb., etc.) think that the phrase means more than this, and indicates that the life thus imparted to us by God is His own life, the very life possessed by Himself, in the profoundest and most real sense “the life of God” in us. διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τὴν οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς : because of the ignorance that is in them . Explicit statement of the cause of their estrangement, which was implicitly given in the ἐσκοτωμένοι . The term ἄγνοια again is not a term merely of intellect. It denotes an ignorance of Divine things, a want of knowledge that is inexcusable and involves moral blindness (Act 3:17 ; Act 17:30 ; 1Pe 1:14 ). It is further defined here not simply as αὐτῶν “ their ignorance,” but as an ignorance οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς surely a phrase that is neither tautological nor without a purpose, but one that describes their ignorance in respect of its seat . Their alienation had its cause not in something external, casual, or superficial, but in themselves in a culpable ignorance in their own nature or heart ( cf. the ἐσκοτίσθη ἡ ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία in Rom 1:21 ). διὰ τὴν πώρωσιν τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν : because of the hardening of their heart . This clause, introduced by διά , as the former also is, is taken by most (Harl., Olsh., de Wette, Ell., Alf., etc.) to be an independent statement, coordinate with the διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν , and giving a further explanation of the alienation . Such coordination of clauses is somewhat frequent with Paul ( cf. Gal 4:4 , etc.). Others (Mey., Abb., etc.) attach it to the former clause, and take it to be a statement of the cause of the ἄγνοια . Thus their alienation would be due to their ignorance , and this ignorance would be caused by the hardening of their hearts. The τὴν οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς thus loses its significance, and we should have to regard it as adopted instead of the simple αὐτῶν merely with a view to clearness of connection between the ἄγνοιαν and the διὰ τὴν πώρωσιν . The noun πώρωσις means hardness , not blindness . Formed from πῶρος = hard skin or induration , it means literally the covering with a callus , and in its three occurrences in the NT (here and Mar 3:5 ; Rom 11:25 ) it is used of mental or moral hardening ; as is also the verb πωρόω (Mar 6:52 ; Mar 8:17 ; Joh 12:40 ; Rom 11:7 ; 2Co 3:4 ).

[435] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[436] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( δ ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

[437] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[438] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[439] Codex Porphyrianus (sæc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Eph 2:13-16 .

[440] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[441] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[442] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_4:18

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. This verse at once explains and confirms the preceding statement. The heathen walk in vanity, i.e. in intellectual and moral darkness, because their understanding is darkened, and because they are alienated from the life of God.

The word διάνοια, understanding, in the first clause, means a thinking through; the mind (quatenus intelligit, appetit et sentit) as opposed to the body; an act of the mind, a thought, purpose, or disposition; the intelligence as opposed to the feelings. We are required to love God, ἐν ὅλῇ τῇ διανοίᾳ, with the whole mind; men are said to be enemies, τῇ διανοίᾳ, Col_1:21, as to their state of mind, and proud τῇ διανοίᾳ τῆς καρδίς αὐτῶν. The apostle Peter exhorts us to gird up the loins of the mind; and speaks of our pure mind. And the apostle John says: God has given us διανοίαν that we may know. The word is opposed to σάρξ in Eph_2:3, and to καρδία in Mat_22:37; Heb_8:10, and elsewhere. It depends therefore on the connection whether the word is, to be understood of the whole soul, or of the intelligence, or of the disposition. In this case it means the intelligence; because it is distinguished from νοῦς in the preceding verse and from καρδία in the last clause of this one.

Alienated from the life of God, means strangers to that life. The life of God, means the life of which God is the author. It is spiritual life. That is, the life of which the indwelling Spirit is the principle or source. Vitam Dei, says Beza, appellat vitam illam, qua Deus vivit in suis. Compare Eph_3:16, Eph_3:17, and the remarks on that passage.

In the last clause of the verse πώρωσις is rendered blindness, it more properly means hardness. It does not come from πωρός, blind, but from πῶρος a peculiar kind of stone, and then anything hard or callous. The verb πωρόω rendered to harden, Mar_6:52; Mar_8:17; Joh_12:40, and in all these passages it is used of the heart. So in Rom_11:7, the rest were hardened. The noun is rendered hardness in Mar_3:5, and blindness in Rom_11:25. This is easily accounted for, as the verb is often used in reference to the eyes when covered with an opaque hardened film, and hence πεπώρωται is the same at times with τετύφλωται. The phrase, therefore, πώρωσιν τῆς καρδίας, may be rendered either blindness or hardness of the heart. The latter is the proper meaning, unless the other be required by the context, which is not the case in the present instance.

The principal difficulty in this verse concerns the relation of its several clauses. First, the participle ὄντες may be connected with the second clause, so as to read, Dark as to the understanding, being (ὄντες) alienated from the life of God. This is the view taken by our translators, which supposes that the first clause merely expresses a characteristic of the heathen, for which the second assigns the reason. They are darkened, because alienated. But this is not consistent with the relation of this verse to the preceding. The heathen walk in vanity because darkened, etc. Besides, according to the apostle, the heathen are not in darkness because alienated from the life of God, but they are alienated from that life because of their ignorance. Secondly, the four clauses included in the verse may be considered as so related that the first is connected with the third, and the second with the fourth. The passage would then read, Having the understanding darkened on account of the ignorance that is in them; alienated from the life of God on account of the hardness of their hearts. But this unnaturally dissociates the clauses, contrary to one of the most marked peculiarities of the apostles style; whose sentences are like the links of a chain, one depending on another in regular succession. This mode of construction also makes ignorance the cause of the darkness, whereas it is the effect. A mans being enveloped in darkness is the cause of his not seeing, but his not seeing is not the cause of the darkness. Idiocy is the cause of ignorance and not the reverse. The apostle conceives of the heathen as men whose minds are impaired or darkened, and therefore they are ignorant. Thirdly, the clauses may be taken as they stand, ὄντες being connected with the first clause. The heathen walk in vanity, being (i.e. because they are) darkened as to the understanding, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, through the hardness of their heart. Darkness of mind is the cause of ignorance, ignorance and consequent obduracy of heart are the cause of alienation from God. This is both the logical and theological order of sequence. The soul in its natural state cannot discern the things of God therefore it does not know them, therefore the heart is hard and therefore it is destitute of holiness. This is what the apostle teaches in 1Co_2:14, 1Co_2:16. The blind cannot see; therefore they are ignorant of the beauty of creation, therefore they are destitute of delight in its glories. You cannot heal them by light. The eye must first be opened. Then comes vision, and then joy and love. This view of the passage is in accordance with the analogy of Scripture; which constantly represents regeneration as necessary to spiritual discernment, and spiritual discernment as necessary to holy affections. Therefore the apostle says of the heathen that their understanding is darkened, a film is over their eyes, and they are alienated from God because of the ignorance consequent on their mental blindness.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereby God liveth in them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

More literally, "Being darkened in their understanding," that is, their intelligence, or perceptions (compare Eph 5:8; Act 26:18; Th1 5:4-5).

alienated--This and "darkened," imply that before the fall they (in the person of their first father) had been partakers of life and light: and that they had revolted from the primitive revelation (compare Eph 2:12).

life of God--that life whereby God lives in His own people: as He was the life and light in Adam before the irruption of death and darkness into human nature; and as He is the life in the regenerate (Gal 2:20). "Spiritual life in believers is kindled from the life itself of God" [BENGEL].

through--rather as Greek, "on account of the ignorance," namely, of God. Wilful ignorance in the first instance, their fathers not "choosing to retain God in their knowledge." This is the beginning point of their misery (Act 17:30; Rom 1:21, Rom 1:23, Rom 1:28; Pe1 1:14).

because of--"on account of."

blindness--Greek, "hardness," literally, the hardening of the skin so as not to be sensible of touch. Hence a soul's callousness to feeling (Mar 3:5). Where there is spiritual "life" ("the life of God") there is feeling; where there is not, there is "hardness."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. 2. Having the understanding darkened] This is the second instance alleged by the apostle of the degradation of the Gentiles. Having no means of knowledge, the heart, naturally dark, became more and more so by means of habitual transgression; every thing in the Gentile system having an immediate tendency to blind the eyes and darken the whole soul.

3. Being alienated from the life of God] The original design of God was to live in man; and the life of God in the soul of man was that by which God intended to make man happy, and without which true happiness was never found by any human spirit: from this through the ignorance that was in them, δια την αγνοιαν την ουσαν, through the substantial or continually existing ignorance, which there was nothing to instruct, nothing to enlighten; for the most accurate writings of their best philosophers left them entirely ignorant of the real nature of God. And if they had no correct knowledge of the true God they could have no religion; and if no religion, no morality. Their moral state became so wretched that they are represented as abhorring every thing spiritual and pure, for this is the import of the word απηλλοτριωμενοι (which we translate alienated) in some of the best Greek writers. They abhorred every thing that had a tendency to lay any restraint on their vicious passions and inclinations.

4. Blindness of their heart] δια την πωρωσιν. Because of the callousness of their hearts. Callous signifies a thickening of the outward skin of any particular part, especially on the hands and feet, by repeated exercise or use, through which such parts are rendered insensible. This may be metaphorically applied to the conscience of a sinner, which is rendered stupid and insensible by repeated acts of iniquity.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Being alienated from the life of God. The life of God may either mean what is accounted life in the sight of God, as in that passage,

“they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God,” (John 12:43,)

or, that life which God bestows on his elect by the Spirit of regeneration. In both cases the meaning is the same. Our ordinary life, as men, is nothing more than an empty image of life, not only because it quickly passes, but also because, while we live, our souls, not keeping close to God, are dead. There are three kinds of life in this world. The first is animal life, which consists only of motion and the bodily senses, and which we have in common with the brutes; the second is human life, which we have as the children of Adam; and the third is that supernatural life, which believers alone obtain. And all of them are from God, so that each of them may be called the life of God. As to the first, Paul, in his sermon at Athens, says, (Acts 17:28,) “In him we live, and move, and have our being;” and the Psalmist says,

“Send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created; and thou wilt renew the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:30.)

Of the second Job says,

“Thou hast granted me life, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.” (Job 10:12.)

But the regeneration of believers is here called, by way of eminence, the life of God, because then does God truly live in us, and we enjoy his life, when he governs us by his Spirit. Of this life all men who are not new creatures in Christ are declared by Paul to be destitute. So long, then, as we remain in the flesh, that is, in ourselves, how wretched must be our condition! We may now form a judgment of all the moral virtues, as they are called; for what sort of actions will that life produce which, Paul affirms, is not the life of God? Before anything good can begin to proceed from us, we must first be renewed by the grace of Christ. This will be the commencement of a true, and, as the phrase is, a vital life.

On account of the ignorance that is in them. We ought to attend to the reason which is here assigned; for, as the knowledge of God is the true life of the soul, so, on the contrary, ignorance is the death of it. And lest we should adopt the opinion of philosophers, that ignorance, which leads us into mistakes, is only an incidental evil, Paul shews that it has its root in the blindness of their heart, by which he intimates that it dwells in their very nature. The first blindness, therefore, which covers the minds of men, is the punishment of original sin; because Adam, after his revolt, was deprived of the true light of God, in the absence of which there is nothing but fearful darkness.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(18) Having the understanding darkened.—Of this vanity the first result noted is the intellectual. They are “darkened in the understanding,” and so, “by the ignorance in them alienated from the life of God.” The phrase “the life of God” is unique. It may, however, be interpreted by a similar phrase, the “righteousness of God” (Rom_1:7), i.e., the righteousness given by God. What the life given by God is, we know by our Lord’s own words (Joh_17:3), “This is the life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” So far as the understanding is concerned, this alienation signifies the loss of the central light of Truth in God, and with it the loss, partial or complete, of the vision of other truths in their right proportion and harmony.

But the second result is moral. St. Paul attributes the alienation from God, or (possibly, though less probably) “the ignorance which is in them,” to the hardness of their heart—for the marginal reading is correct; the word used signifies, almost technically, “callousness” and insensibility. To make his meaning clearer still he adds, “who (or, inasmuch as they) being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness.” There is precisely a similar current of thought (noting, however, the characteristic difference referred to above) in Rom_1:24-32, where St. Paul draws out, as consequences of the same vanity, first lusts of uncleanness, next unnatural sin, and at last breaks out into a fearful enumeration of the signs of the reprobate mind. On this side, therefore, “the alienation from the life of God” is the loss of the grace by which He dwells in the soul, and by indwelling gives it the moral and spiritual life.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. having the understanding darkened] Lit., haying been darkened in the understanding. On “the understanding” see note above on Eph_2:3 (where A.V., “mind”). The Gr. word may fairly be said to mean the reason (nous) in action. Here accordingly the phrase defines, so to speak, the phrase just previous; the general illusion of the reason comes out in obfuscated acts of thought.—On the metaphor of darkness cp. Mat_6:23; Joh_3:19; Joh_8:12; Joh_12:35; Joh_12:46; Act_26:18; Col_1:13; 1Th_5:4-5; 1Jn_1:5-6; 1Jn_2:8-9; 1Jn_2:11; and below, ch. Eph_5:8; Eph_5:11, Eph_6:12. It often combines the ideas of blindness and of secrecy; here it gives only the former.

being alienated from the life of God] The words, Gr. and Eng., imply a fall from a state of union. See above on Eph_2:12 where “alienated” occurs in another connexion. Here, as there, the Human Soul in the abstract is viewed as having shared, in its unfallen state, the Life of God, and having lost it in the Fall. And this view is transferred from the Soul to the souls in which it is individualized. Historically, we begin our personal existence aliens; ideally, we began in union and fell from it.

“The life of God”:—the word “life” occurs here only in the Epistle. The phrase here denotes the spiritual force given to the human spirit by spiritual contact with God, resulting in the action and exercise of holiness. The Christian believer finds “this life in His Son” (1Jn_5:11). In Joh_17:3 we have at once its secret and its issue; “to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.” It is entered, from one point of view, by “justification of life” (Rom_5:18), that acceptance of the guilty in Christ which is the sine quâ non in Divine Law. Its development is the state of glory, which is therefore very often called, in a special sense, “eternal life” (e. g. Mat_25:46), though that phrase is also fully true of the present state of the believer (1Jn_3:15; 1Jn_5:13).—It is plain that the word “life,” in spiritual connexions, means very much more than “existence.” See above on Eph_2:1.

through the ignorance] Better, on account of, &c. They lost connexion with the Life of God, and so remain, because of their ignorance of the eternal facts about God and holiness. We have here still something of the idealization explained just above. As the Human Soul fell through guilty “ignorance” of the supreme right and joy of absolute submission to God, so the individual soul is viewed as, ideally, losing union through the same “ignorance” of self-will. Historically, the individual begins self-willed and therefore alienated; ideally, he breaks an existing connexion. The practical aspect of the matter is that he maintains disconnexion by the ignorance of self-will. He “wills not to come that he may have life” (Joh_5:40), “seeing no beauty” in Christ, “that he should desire Him” in an effectual sense (Isa_53:2).

blindness] Better, hardening (so R.V.). The word denotes failure of sensation in general. This clause is a re-statement of that just previous. What took place “on account of ignorance” took place “on account of hardening”; another aspect of the same moral state.

heart] See on Eph_1:18, Eph_3:17. Much more than the seat of emotion is meant by this word in Scripture.—Phrases compounded of “heart” and “harden” occur (in the Gr.) Mar_3:5; Mar_6:52; Mar_8:17; Joh_12:40. In 2Co_3:14 we have (Gr.) “their thoughts were hardened.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Having the understanding darkened,.... Not that the natural faculty of the understanding is lost in men, nor the understanding in things natural and civil, and which is quick enough, especially in things that are evil; but in things spiritual it is very dark and ignorant, as about the nature and perfections of God, his holiness and righteousness; about sin and the consequences of it; about Christ, his person, office, and work, and salvation by him; about the Spirit, and his work of grace upon the soul; and about the Scripture, and the doctrines contained in it; and so it came to be by sin: the understanding of man was at first filled both with natural and divine knowledge; but man was not content with this, and being ambitious of more, even of being as God, lost what he had; for on account of his sin he was banished from the divine presence, which brought not only a darkness upon him, but upon all his posterity; and which is increased by personal iniquity, and oftentimes by Satan the god of this world, who blinds the minds of men; and sometimes men are given up in just judgment by God, to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart; and which issues in utter darkness, in blackness of darkness for evermore:

being alienated from the life of God; not that which God lives in himself, but that which he lives in his people; nor that natural life which men receive from him, but a spiritual life, a life of grace, faith and holiness; and which may be called the life of God, because it is infused by the Spirit of God, and the word of God is the means of it, and it is supported and secured by the power of God, and is according to the will of God, and is directed to his glory: now wicked and unconverted men are alienated from this life; they are estranged from God the fountain of it; and go astray from the law, the rule of an holy life; and are entirely destitute of a principle of life, from whence men can only act and are utterly unacquainted with the pleasures and sweetness of the life of faith and holiness; nor do they approve of such a life, but have the utmost aversion to it:

through the ignorance that is in them; every unregenerate man is an ignorant man, and especially the Gentiles were very ignorant of God, and of divine things; ignorance is natural to men, it comes by sin, and is itself sinful, and is sometimes the punishment of sin, and also the cause of it, as here of alienation from the life of God; for where is ignorance of God, there can be no desire after him, no communion with him, no faith in him, had dependence on him; no true worship of him, or living according to his will, and to his glory: and this ignorance is,

because of the blindness of their hearts, or "the hardness of it"; there is a natural hardness of the heart, the heart is naturally stony, and so it remains till grace takes away the stony heart, and gives an heart of flesh; it is insensible and inflexible, and not susceptive of any impression; and there is a voluntary hardness of it, men willingly harden themselves against the Lord, and make their hearts like an adamant stone, all sin is of an hardening nature; and there is a judicial hardness, which God gives up men unto; and when and where this is the case, in either sense, it is no wonder men should be so ignorant of God, and so alienated from the life of him: , "blindness of heart" (c), is a Rabbinical phrase.

(c) T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 105. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Ver. 18. Having the understanding darkened] By the devil’s black hand held before their eyes, 2Co 4:4. {See Trapp on "2Co 4:4"}

Alienated from the life of God] That is, from a godly life, which none can live but those that partake of the divine nature, 2Pe 1:4.

Because of the blindness] Gr. πωρωσιν, callum obductum. Hardness, brawniness, a hoof upon their hearts, corneas fibras, brawny breasts, horny heart-strings. The Greek word imports a metaphor from the hard hand of hardest labourers. They say in philosophy, that the foundation of natural life is feeling; no feeling, no life: and that the more quick and nimble the sense of feeling is in a man, the better is his constitution. Think the same we may of life spiritual.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Having the understanding darkened - That is, because they were alienated from the true God, and particularly because of “the blindness of their hearts.” The apostle does not say that this was a “judicial” darkening of the understanding; or that they might not have perceived the truth; or that they had no ability to understand it. He speaks of a simple and well-known fact - a fact that is seen now as well as then that the understanding becomes darkened by indulgence in sin. A man who is intemperate, has no just views of the government of the appetites. A man who is unchaste, has no perception of the loveliness of purity. A man who is avaricious or covetous, has no just views of the beauty of benevolence. A man who indulges in low vices, will weaken his mental powers, and render himself incapable of intellectual effort. Indulgence in vice destroys the intellect as well as the body, and unfits a man to appreciate the truth of a proposition in morals, or in mathematics, or the beauty of a poem, as well as the truth and beauty of religion.

Nothing is more obvious than that indulgence in sin weakens the mental powers, and renders them unfit for high intellectual effort. This is seen all over the pagan world now - in the stolid, stupid mind; the perverted moral sense; the incapacity for profound or protracted mental effort, as really as it was among the pagans to whom Paul preached. The missionary who goes among the pagan has almost to create an “intellect” as well as a “conscience,” before the gospel will make an impression. It is seen, too, in all the intellect of the bar, the senate, the pulpit, and the medical profession, that is ruined by intemperance, and in the intellect of multitudes of young men wasted by licentiousness and drunkenness. I know that under the influence of ambition and stimulating drinks, the intellect may seem to put forth unnatural efforts, and to glow with an intensity nowhere else seen. But it “soon burns out” - and the wastes of such an intellect become soon like the hardened scoriae of the volcano, or the cinders of the over-heated furnace. Learn hence, that if a man wishes to be blessed with a clear understanding, he should he a “good man.” He who wishes a mind well balanced and clear, should fear and love God; and had Christianity done no other good on earth than to elevate the “intellect” of mankind, it would have been the richest blessing which has ever been vouchsafed to the race. It follows, too, that as man has debased his “understanding” by sin, it is needful to make an exertion to elevate it again: and hence a large part of the efforts to save people must consist in patient “instruction.” Hence, the necessity of schools at missionary stations.

Being alienated - see the notes on Eph 2:12.

From the life of God - From a life “like” that of God, or a life of which he is the source and author. The meaning is, that they lived a life which was “unlike” God, or which he could not approve. Of the truth of this in regard to the pagan everywhere, there can be no doubt; see the notes on Rom. 1.

Through the ignorance that is in them - The ignorance of the true God, and of what constituted virtue; compare notes on Rom 1:20-23.

Because of the blindness of their heart - Margin, “hardness.” Hardness is a better word. It is a better translation of the Greek; and it better accords with the design of the apostle. Here the reason is stated why they lived and acted as they did, and why the “understanding” was blinded. It is not that God has enfeebled the human intellect by a judicial sentence on account of the sin of Adam, and made it incapable of perceiving I the truth. It is not that there is any I deficiency or incapacity of natural powers. It is not that the truths of religion are so exalted that man has no natural ability to understand them, for they may be as well understood as any other truth; see the notes on 1Co 1:14. The simple reason is, “the hardness or the heart.” That is the solution given by an inspired apostle, and that is enough. A man who has a blind and hard heart sees no beauty in truth, and feels not its force, and is insensible to all its appeals. Learn, then:

(1) That people are to blame for the blindness of their understanding. Whatever proceeds from a “wicked heart” they are responsible for. But for mere “inferiority of intellect” they would not be to blame.

(2) They are under obligation to repent and love God. If it was required of them to enlarge their intellects, or create additional faculties of mind, they could not be bound to do it. But where the whole thing required is to have a “better heart,” they may be held responsible.

(3) The way to elevate the understandings of mankind is to purify the heart. The approach must be made through the affections. Let people “feel” right toward God, and they will soon “think” right; let the heart be pure, and the understanding will be clear.

(Doubtless there is a reciprocal influence between the dark mind and depraved heart. The one acts on the other. Admitting that the understanding is affected “first,” through the will or heart, and that it is a bad heart which makes a spiritually dark mind, still the fact remains the same, that “in consequence of our union with Adam, in consequence of the fall,” all our faculties, understanding, will, affections, have been corrupted. See the supplementary notes, Rom. 5)

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Having the understanding; the mind as reasoning and discoursing, and so their ratiocinations and discourses themselves.

Darkened; as to spiritual things.

Being alienated from the life of God; not only strangers to it, (for so are those creatures which are not capable of it), but estranged from it; implying, that in Adam originally they were not so.

The life of God; a spiritual life; that life which God commands, and approves, and whereby God lives in believers, and they live in him, Gal 2:19,20; and that both as to the principle of life, and the operations of it.

Through the ignorance that is in them; that ignorance which is naturally in them is the cause of their alienation from the life of God, which begins in light and knowledge.

Because of the blindness of their heart; or rather hardness: the Greek word signifies a callum or brawniness in the flesh, which is usual in the hands of labourers. Either this is set down as another cause of their estrangement from the life of God, or as the cause of their ignorance, which, though in part it be natural to them, yet is increased to further degrees by their own hardness and obstinacy, shutting their eyes voluntarily against the light.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Understanding—The region of the play of reasoning, the channel of the ordinary thought-current. As the intuitive power above, of these men, was filled with vanity, so the current of thought flowed in darkness.

Alienated—Foreignized, de-citizenized, as if belonging to another race from the sons of God. From the life of God—That divine regenerative life produced by the vitalizing touches, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, by which we are sons of God. St. Paul’s participle, alienated, glances back to a period when they were home-born natives of the kingdom of God.

And this is true both of our humanity and of every man born into this atonement-pervaded world.

Bengel and others discern a parallelism between the present four clauses by which the first corresponds to the third, and the second to the fourth. Thus:—

Having the understanding darkened,

Through the ignorance that is in them:

Being alienated from the life of God,

Through the callousness of their heart.

But, we may add, this whole double process of darkness through ignorance, and alienation through hardness, is the result of the vanity, in the intuitive mind, by which God has been discarded and apostasy been committed.

Blindness—Rather, hardness. The Greek term is derived from a word signifying stone, and is then applied, in surgery, to a hardening of the flesh into bone—ossification. Hence, viewing the heart as the symbolical seat of the moral emotions, the word designates a stolid insensibility to moral impressions. It forms an encasement through which the life of God cannot enter.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Being darkened in their understanding (second point of difference), and thus blind to all that is most vital ignorant of God, of the way of salvation, of the love of Christ. Even at best the natural understanding cannot discover these things, and when it is not only imperfect but darkened made more obscure than ever by sin (see after) its guidance is altogether defective. It has been said truly that theyoungest scholar in a Sunday school that has been taught the elements of the gospel has more light than the wisest of the heathen. Alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart (third point of difference). Two causes are given for their alienation, viz. ignorance, and hardness of heart, this last being the ultimate cause. Through worldly living, their hearts have become hard, callous, insensible to spiritual influences, perceiving no beauty in Divine things, no preciousness in Divine promises, no excellence in the Divine image; this makes them ignorant, careless, foolish; and such being their state of heart, they are alienated from the life of God, can"t bear vital religion, hate the very idea of spiritual and holy service.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Having their understanding darkened, through the ignorance that is in them - So that they are totally void of the light of God, neither have they any knowledge of his will. Being alienated from the life of God - Utter strangers to the divine, the spiritual life. Through the hardness of their hearts - Callous and senseless. And where there is no sense, there can be no life.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

18. Having the understanding darkened. He shows how the Gentiles walk in vanity. They are in darkness, unenlightened by the gospel. Alienated. Without the spiritual life that comes from knowing God. Because of blindness of heart. The idea is a willful blindness.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

18. ἐσκοτωμένοι. Cf. Eph 5:8; Eph 5:11, Eph 6:12. Darkness is the condition of the Gentile world apart from Christ; cf. Act 26:18; Col 1:13, 1Pe 2:9; Eph 1:17. There is an O.T. background to the thought in Isa 9:1 = Mat 4:16; Luk 1:79. And in words of the Lord Joh 8:12; Joh 12:46. In Rom 1:21 the darkness is part of the judgement on idolatry. In 1Jn 2:11 it is the result of ‘hating the brother.’ Cf. Mat 6:23.

τῇ διανοίᾳ. Cf. Hort on 1Pe 1:13. In LXX. an alternative translation with καρδία for לֵב or לֵבָב for the centre of thought. The Gospel is here regarded primarily as a revelation of Truth.

ὄντες. Westcott Hort connect with ἐσκοτ., Robinson with ἀπηλ. In any case redundant.

ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι. Eph 2:12; Col 1:21.

τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ θεοῦ. In Eph 2:12 the alienation is from ‘the commonwealth of Israel,’ the communion of saints, here it is from the source of personal holiness. The phrase, ‘the life of God,’ does not seem to occur elsewhere. The thought is best illustrated by Psalms 36(35):9 (10), “With Thee is the well of life, and in Thy light shall we see light’ (for the life of God is self-communicating), and by the parable of the Vine, Joh 15:5. The life consists in and is imparted by communion with God, which is expressed on our side by ‘the knowledge of God’; cf. Joh 17:3. St Paul’s thought here is therefore parallel to Rom 1:28. For the relation of ‘life’ and ‘light’ cf. Joh 1:4; Joh 8:12. For the condition of ‘death’ in which the grace of God found them see Eph 2:1.

ἄγνοιαν like σκότος is a characteristic of the Gentile position: cf. Act 17:30; 1Pe 1:14. This ignorance is not to be regarded as an extenuation of their guilt. Cf. 1Co 15:34; 1Ti 1:13. It is self-caused (Rom 1:28).

διὰ τὴν πώρωσιν τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν. Probably best taken as giving the source of the ignorance. The callousness of their hearts, their insensibility to the voice of conscience, shuts out the consciousness of His presence with them. The darkness blinded their eyes. Cf. 1Jn 2:11. πώρωσις, as Robinson shows, expresses the hardening which indicates irresponsiveness rather than wilful rebellion and so is practically equivalent to blindness. τῆς καρδίας virtually synonymous with διάνοια, the seat of moral illumination; cf. on Eph 1:18.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. ἐσκοτωμένοι τῇ δινοίᾳ ὄντες, ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ.

ἐσκοτωμένοι is the form in א A B, while D G K L P have ἐσκοτισμένοι. The former appears to be the more classical.

ὄντες is better joined with the preceding than with the following. If ὄντες ἀπηλλ. be taken together, this would have to be regarded as assigning the ground of ἐσκοτ. But the darkness was not the effect of the alienation, which, on the contrary, was the result of the ἄγνοια. The position of ὄντες is not against this, since ἐσκοτ. τῇ δ. express a single notion. Meyer illustrates from Herod. i. 35, οὐ καθαρὸς χεῖρας ἐών, and Xen. Ages. xi. 10, πραότατος φίλοις ὤν. The two participles thus stand in an emphatic position at the beginning, and this emphasis is lost by joining ὄντες with the following. The change of gender from ἔθνη to ἐσκοτωμένοι ὄντες corresponds to a change from the class to the person.

ἐσκοτωμένοι is opposed to πεφωτισμένοι (1:18). We have the same expression Rom 1:21, ἐσκοτίσθη ἡ ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία, and a remarkable parallel in Josephus, τὴν διάνοιαν ἐπεσκοτισμένους, Ant. ix. 4. 3. Διάνοια strictly means the understanding, but is not so limited in the N.T. Compare Col 1:21, ἐχθροὺς τῇ διανοίᾳ: 2Pe 3:1, διεγείρω … τὴν εἰλικρινῆ διάνοιαν. Here, however, the connexion decides for the meaning “understanding.” On ἀπηλλ. cf. 2:12.

τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ. Explained by Theodoret as = τῆς ἐν ἀρετῇ ζωῆς, i.e. as = the life approved by God, or “godly life.” But ζωή in N.T. does not mean “course of life,” βίος, but true life as opposed to θάνατος. In Gal 5:25 we have it expressly distinguished from “course of conduct”; εἰ ζῶμεν πνεύματι, πνεύματι καὶ στοιχῶμεν. Moreover, ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι implies separation from something real. Erasmus’ explanation of the genitive as one of apposition, “vera vita qui est Deus,” is untenable. The analogy of ἡ εἰρήνη τοῦ Θεοῦ, Php 4:7; αὔξησις τοῦ Θεοῦ, Col 2:19, suggests that the words mean “the life which proceeds from God”; “tota vita spiritualis quae in hoc seculo per fidem et justitiam inchoatur et in futura beatitudine perficitur, quae tota peculiariter vita Dei est, quatenus a Deo per gratiam datur,” Estius. But something deeper than this is surely intended by the genitive, which naturally conveys the idea of a character or quality. It is the life “qua Deus vivit in suis,” Beza (who, however, wrongly adds to this “quamque praecipit et approbat”). Somewhat similarly Bengel: “Vita spiritualis accenditur in credentibus ex ipsa Dei vita.” Harless, indeed, argues that the life of regeneration is not here referred to, since what is in question is not the opposition of the heathen to Christianity, but to God; so that ζωὴ τ. Θεοῦ is to be compared to Joh 1:3, where the λόγος is said to be (from the beginning) the ζωή and φῶς of the world, and thus there was an original fellowship of man with God. So in part many expositors, regarding the perfect participles as indicating “gentes ante defectionem suam a fide patrum, imo potius ante lapsum Adami, fuisse participes lucis et vitae,” Bengel. But St. Paul is here speaking of the contemporary heathen in contrast to those who had become Christians (ver. 17); and it is hard to think that if he meant to refer to this original divine life in man, he would not have expressed himself more fully and precisely. The idea is one which he nowhere states explicitly, and it is by no means involved of necessity in the tense of the participles, which is sufficiently explained as expressing a state. Indeed, the aorist ἀπηλλοτριωθέντες would more suitably suggest the idea of a time when they were not so; cf. 1Pe 2:10, οἱ οὐκ ἠλεημένοι νῦν δὲ ἐλεηθέντες. And how can we think the Gentiles as at a prehistoric time τῇ διανοίᾳ not ἐσκοτωμένοι?

διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τὴν οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς διὰ τὴν πώρωσιν τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν. The cause of their alienation from the Divine life is their ignorance, and this again results from their hardness of heart. Most expositors regard διά … διά as co-ordinate, some connecting both clauses with ἀπηλλ. only (Origen, Alford, Eadie, Ellicott), others with both participles (Bengel, Harless, Olsh. De Wette). Bengel, followed by Olsh. and De Wette, refers διὰ τὴν ἄγν. to ἐσκ. and διὰ τὴν π. to ἀπηλλ. But this is rather too artificial for a letter. Nor does it yield a satisfactory sense; for ἄγνοια is not the cause of the darkness, but its effect. De Wette evades this by saying that ἄγνοια refers to speculative knowledge, ἐσκοτ. to practical. But there is no sufficient ground for this. The substantive ἄγνοια does not elsewhere occur in St. Paul’s Epistles (it is in his speech, Act 17:30, “the times of this ignorance”; and in 1Pe 1:14, besides Act 3:17); but the verb is of frequent occurrence, and always of ignorance only, not of the absence of a higher faculty of knowledge. Such ignorance was not inaccessible to light, as is shown by the instances of the converted Gentiles; but so far as it was due to the hardness of their hearts, it was culpable. It is only by the subordination of the latter clause to the former that the use of τὴν οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς instead of the simple αὐτῶν finds a satisfactory explanation. Compare Rom. 1:18-33. Ellicott, following Harless, explains these words as pointing out the indwelling deep-seated nature of the ἄγνοια, and forming a sort of parallelism to τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, and so, as Harless adds, opposed to mere external occasions. But there is nothing, of this in the context, nor in the words οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς. The ignorance must be in them; and, unless we take the connexion as above (with Meyer), the words express nothing more than αὐτῶν.

πώρωσις is “hardness,” not “blindness,” as most of the ancient versions interpret. Indeed, it is so explained also by Suidas and Hesychius, as if derived from an adjective πωρός, “blind”; which seems, however, to be only an invention of the grammarians (perhaps from confusion with πηρός, with which it is often confounded by copyists). It is really derived (through πωρόω) from πῶρος, which originally meant “tufa,” and then “callus,” a callosity or hardening of the skin. (It is also used by medical writers of the “callus” formed at the end of fractured bones, and of “chalkstones” in the joints.) Hence, from the insensibility of the parts covered with hard skin, the verb means to make dull or insensible. It is thus correctly explained by Theodoret, πώρωσιν τὴν ἐσχάτην ἀναλγησίαν λέγει· καὶ γὰρ αἱ τῷ σώματι ἐγγινόμεναι πωρώσεις οὐδεμίαν αἴσθησιν ἔχουσι. Cicero frequently uses “callum” in a similar figurative sense, e.g. “ipse labor quasi callum quoddam obdueit dolori,” Tusc. Disp. ii. 15.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Understanding [διανοια] . See on Luk 1:51. The moral understanding.

Life of God [ζωης] . See on Joh 1:4. The life which God bestows; life in Christ. See 1Jo 5:11.

Through the ignorance. The cause of the alienation. Not to be construed with darkened, since ignorance is the effect, and not the cause, of the darkness of the understanding Which is in them [την ουσαν εν αυτοις] . The participle of the substantive verb expresses the deep - seated, indwelling character of the ignorance.

Hardening [πωρωσιν] . See on Mr 3:5. Dependent, like ignorance, on allienated. Arrange the whole clause thus : The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.