Saturday, January 13, 2024

Ambrosiaster on Ephesians 4:11-14

  

11And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

 

By apostles Paul means bishops, and by prophets he means expositors of the Scriptures. It may be true that in the early days there were prophets like Agabus and the four virgins, as is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, but this was in order to support the beginnings of the faith. Nowadays it is interpreters [of Scripture] who are called prophets. The evangelists are deacons, as Philip was. Although they are not priests, they are free to evangelize without their own pulpit, just like Stephen and the above-mentioned Philip. The pastors may be readers, who instruct the people with readings, because man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. The teachers are the exorcists because in the church they are the ones who restrain and beat the unruly. They are also the ones who used to teach children their lessons, a custom which is found among the Jews and which was inherited by us, but which has become obsolete through neglect. Among these people, who came after the bishop, it is further to be understood that there were those who were said to prophesy because they expounded the hidden meaning of Scripture, particularly because they brought out the words of future hope, which is not the function of the presbyterate. All the orders are found in the bishop, who is the chief priest, that is to say, the prince of the priests, as well as the chief prophet, evangelist and so on, in order to fill the offices of the church’s ministry.

 

However, once churches were established all over the place and offices set up, the system changed from what it had originally been. At the beginning they had all preached and baptized on whatever day and at whatever time was convenient. Philip did not fix a day or a time for the eunuch’s baptism, nor did he assign a period of fasting beforehand. Paul and Silas did not waste any time in baptizing the jailer and all his household, nor did Peter have clerks or set a day when he would baptize Cornelius with all his household. He did not do it himself in fact, but ordered the brethren from Joppa who had gone up with him to Cornelius to do so. Up to that time too, no one had been ordained, apart from seven deacons.

 

It was to allow the people to grow and multiply that at the beginning everyone was allowed to evangelize, to baptize and to expound the Scriptures in the church. But when the church became established in every place, congregations were formed and rectors and other officials were appointed, with the result that after that no clerk who was not ordained would dare perform a function which was not appointed or assigned to him. Thus the church began to be governed by a different order and system, because if everyone could do it, there would have been chaos and the whole thing would have looked vulgar and improper. This is why nowadays deacons do not preach in public nor do they (or laymen) baptize, nor are believers anointed on any day whatsoever, unless they happen to be sick.

 

Therefore not everything written by the apostle coincides with the order of things which now exists in the church, because the apostolic writings describe what happened at the beginning. For example, Paul calls Timothy, whom he had made a presbyter, a bishop, because at first presbyters and bishops were the same thing, and when he eventually left the scene Timothy succeeded him. Even today in Egypt presbyters perform confirmations if the bishop is not present. But because succeeding presbyters were not fit to hold the chief offices, the system was changed by judicious foresight, so that it would not be his order but his merit which would create a bishop who would be elected by the judgment of many priests. This was done in order to prevent some unworthy person from claiming the office and becoming a scandal to many. In the law priests were Levites born into the tribe of Aaron. But now everyone belongs to the priestly tribe, as the apostle Peter says: For we are a royal and priestly nation, and therefore anyone can become a priest.

 

Paul says that church order is designed so that the entire human race will be on the same page in the unity of their confession, so that although they are different in dignity they are all one in Christ, having Christ as their head, who is the author of life.

 

13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;

 

Paul says that this order will continue until all those who are predestined to life are united in faith and acknowledge Christ. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to grow so that they may come to a mature faith, which is this: Christ is full and perfect God and is not to be measured in human terms, but recognized in the fullness of his divinity as perfect God. When he talks about mature manhood he is not thinking in terms of age and physical stature, but by what he says here, that he wants us to be perfect in the full understanding of the divinity of the Son of God.

 

14so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.

 

Paul wants us to be rooted and grounded in the doctrine of the catholic faith, which the apostle Peter confessed by God’s revelation. He does not want us to be blown about or to go astray because of the pestilential attacks of different heresies which have been invented by men and which open the door to error which creeps in by the wiles of the enemy and poses as truth. Falsehood’s technique is to introduce error in the guise of truth. And not only in the guise of truth, but also so that now that we have become believers, we should not be weak and doubtful and turn away from the hope promised to us, as we once wandered quite innocently through various errors before we were converted. Paul reminds us that now that we are Christians we must be grounded, because there is no ambiguity in our faith, which is backed up by the power of miracles. (Ambrosiaster, Commentaries on Galatians–Philemon [trans. Gerald L. Bray; Ancient Christian Texts; Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic: 2009], 48–50