Of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named,

“The expression "rock," he says, he uses of Adam. This, he affirms, is Adam: "The chief corner-stone become the head of the corner. For that in the head the substance is the formative brain from which the entire family is fashioned." "Whom," he says, "I place as a rock at the foundations of Zion." Allegorizing, he says, he speaks of the creation of the man.”

“Then let the high priest say: It is very meet and fight before all things to sing an hymn to Thee, who art the true God, who art before all beings, "from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named;" who only art unbegotten, and without beginning, and without a ruler, and without a master; who standest in need of nothing; who art the bestower of everything that is good; who art beyond all cause and generation; who art alway and immutably the same; from whom all things came into being, as from their proper original.”

“He here shows the spirit of his prayer for them. He does not say simply, "I pray," but manifests the supplication to be heartfelt, by the "bowing of the knees." "From whom every family." That is, no longer, he means, reckoned, according to the number of Angels, but according to Him who hath created the tribes both in heaven above and in earth beneath, not as the Jewish. It seems necessary to state what are meant by "families." Here on earth, indeed there are "families" that is races sprung from one parent stock; but in heaven how can this be, where none is born of another? Surely then, by "families," "the family of Amattari:" or else that it is from Him from whom earthly fathers have their name of father.”

“After the Apostle has treated of the dignity of his office, which pertains to his condition, here he consequently treats of those things which pertain to his affliction, namely, of his sufferings. Concerning this he does two things. First, he exhorts them not to be troubled on account of his tribulations, but to have patience; second, because divine help is necessary for a man not to be troubled, he sets forth a prayer beforehand, that they may fulfill this through divine grace, at the place "for this cause," etc. He says therefore first: from the greatness of my office and its firmness, which I have through faith in Christ, it happens that I suffer tribulations; but they do not trouble me, nor can they tear me away from Christ. Romans 8:35: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Tribulation?" etc.; as if to say: nothing. For which reason I exhort you and ask that you not lose heart in my tribulations, namely, lest on the occasion of my tribulations you fall away entirely from faith and from good works. Hebrews 12:3: "Do not grow weary, fainting in your minds." But I say that you ought not to lose heart, because they are for you, that is, for your benefit. 2 Corinthians 1:6: "Whether we are troubled, it is for your exhortation and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your consolation; or whether we are exhorted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, which works the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer, that our hope may be firm for you, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation." Or he says "for you," that is, for your testing. Wisdom 3:6: "As gold in the furnace the Lord has tried his elect," etc. "Which is your glory," etc., namely if you do not lose heart, but stand strong in tribulations. For "he who shall persevere unto the end," etc. In another way: "which is your glory," that is, the endurance of our sufferings, is for you unto glory, in this, that God has exposed his apostles and prophets to tribulations and sufferings for the sake of your salvation. Hosea 6:5: "Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, and I have slain them," etc. 2 Corinthians 1:14: "We are your glory, as you also are ours," etc. Next, when he says "for this cause," etc., he implores help for them through prayer, that they may profit through his exhortation. And first he sets forth the prayer; second, as though assured of being heard, he gives thanks, at the place "now to him who is able," etc. Again, the first is divided into three, because first he sets forth the object of the prayer; second, the intent of the prayer, at the place "that he would grant you, according to the riches," etc.; third, the fruit of the prayer, at the place "that you may be able to comprehend," etc. Now prayer is rendered able to be heard through humility. Psalm 101:18: "He has had regard to the prayer of the humble," etc. Ecclesiasticus 35:21: "The prayer of him who humbles himself shall pierce the clouds," etc. And therefore he immediately begins his prayer from humility, saying "for this cause," namely lest you fall away from the faith, "I bend my knees to the Father," etc., which is a sign of humility on account of two things. First, because he who bends the knee, in a certain way makes himself small, and subjects himself to him to whom he bends the knee: hence through this sort of act is shown the recognition of one's own frailty and smallness. Second, because in the knee is the strength of the body. When, therefore, someone bends the knee, he professes the weakness of his own strength. And hence it is that exterior bodily signs are exhibited to God for the conversion and spiritual exercise of the interior soul. In the Prayer of Manasseh: "I bend the knees of my heart," etc. Isaiah 45:23: "To me every knee shall bow," etc. Then he describes the object of the prayer, which is God, and describes him from two things: first from affinity, second from authority. For from affinity we are raised up to pray with confidence. And as to this he says "to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," namely of whom we are sons. James 1:17: "Every best gift," etc. Isaiah 63:16: "For you, Lord, are our father," etc. But from authority is confirmed the confidence of obtaining what we ask, because he himself is the one "from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth is named." Here it could be asked whether there is paternity in heaven. It could be said briefly that in heaven, that is, in God or in the divine, there is paternity, which is the principle of all paternity. But this is not asked about at present, because it is known to every believer. But it is asked whether in the heavens, that is, whether in the Angels there is any paternity. To this I say that paternity exists only in living and knowing beings. Now there is a twofold life. One according to act, the other according to potency. Life according to potency is indeed to have the works of life in potency. Hence one who is sleeping, as regards exterior acts, is said to live in potency. But to live according to act is when someone exercises the works of life in act. In this way, not only he who gives the potency of life is the father of him to whom he gives it, but he who gives the act of life can also be called a father. Whoever, therefore, leads someone to some act of life — for instance, to acting well, understanding, willing, loving — can be called his father. 1 Corinthians 4:15: "For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers," etc. Since, therefore, among the Angels one enlightens, perfects, and purges another, and these are hierarchical acts, it is manifest that one Angel is the father of another, just as a teacher is the father of a disciple. But it is doubted whether the paternity which is in the heavens and on earth is derived from the paternity which is in the divine. And it seems that not; because we impose names in this way according as we know the things named; but whatever we know, we know through creatures; therefore the names imposed by us on the things themselves belong more and prior to creatures than to God himself. I respond and say that the name of some thing named by us can be taken in two ways: for it is either expressive, or significative, of a concept of the intellect — because words are marks, or signs of the passions, or of the concepts that are in the soul — and in this way the name is prior in creatures than in God. Or insofar as it is manifestative of the quiddity of the thing named exteriorly, and in this way it is prior in God. Hence this name "paternity," according as it signifies the conception of the intellect of the one naming the thing, is thus found prior in creatures rather than in God, because a creature becomes known to us prior to God; but according as it signifies the very thing named, it is thus prior in God than in us, because certainly every generative power in us is from God. And therefore he says: "from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth is named," as if to say: the paternity which is in the creatures themselves is, as it were, nominal or verbal, but that divine paternity, by which the Father gives the whole nature to the Son, without any imperfection, is true paternity. Next, when he says "that he would grant you," etc., he shows the intent of the prayer. And first he does this; second, he shows by what means he might obtain his purpose, at the place "through his Spirit," etc. He says therefore: I say that I ask that you not lose heart, but stand manfully. Yet I know that you cannot do this of yourselves without the gift of God, and therefore I ask "that he would grant you." James 1:17: "Every best gift," etc. And this indeed "according to the riches of his glory," that is, according to the abundance of his majesty and magnificence. Psalm 111:3: "Glory and riches are in his house." Proverbs 8:18: "With me are riches and glory." Riches, I say, which cause one "to be strengthened with might." Isaiah 40:29: "Who gives strength to the weary, and to those who have no might he multiplies force and strength." And this "in the inner man," because unless a man is strengthened in his interior parts, he is easily overcome by the enemy. Isaiah 9:7: "He shall confirm it and strengthen it in judgment and justice, from henceforth and forever." Then let that interposed clause be taken up again, namely "through the Spirit," in which he shows by what means he can obtain what he asks. For the Spirit himself, who gives strength, is the spirit of fortitude and is the cause of not losing heart in tribulations, whom we obtain through faith, which is most strong: because faith is "the substance of things to be hoped for," that is, it makes the things to be hoped for subsist in us. Hence 1 Peter 5:9: "Whom resist, strong in faith." And therefore he subjoins "that Christ may dwell through faith," and this "in your hearts." 1 Peter 3:15: "But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts." By what? I say that not only through faith, which, as a gift, is most strong, but also through charity, which is in the saints. And therefore he adds "rooted and founded in charity." 1 Corinthians 13:7: "It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things; charity never fails." Song of Songs, last chapter: "Love is strong as death." Hence, just as a tree without a root, and a house without a foundation, easily collapses, so a spiritual building, unless it be founded and rooted in charity, cannot endure.”

“That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory,.... Or according to, and out of that rich, plenteous, and glorious fulness of grace and strength in Christ Jesus. To be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; this is the petition which the apostle puts up on his bended knees to the Father of Christ, that he would strengthen these saints, that so they might not faint at the tribulations which either he or they endured. Believers in Christ need fresh supplies of strength to enable them to exercise grace, to perform duties, to resist Satan and his temptations, to oppose their corruptions, and to bear the cross, and undergo afflictions cheerfully, and to hold on and out to the end: this is a blessing that comes from God, and is a gift of his free grace; a "grant" from him who is the strength of the lives of his people, of their salvation, of their hearts, and of the work of grace in their hearts: the means whereby the saints are strengthened by God, is "his Spirit"; who strengthens them by leading them to the fulness of grace and strength in Christ, by shedding abroad the love of God in their hearts, by applying the promises of the Gospel to them, and by making the Gospel itself, and the ordinances of it, useful to them, causing them to go from strength to strength in them: the subject of this blessing is the "inner man", or the Spirit, or soul of man, which is the seat of grace; and this shows that this was spiritual strength which is here desired, which may be where there is much bodily weakness, and for which there should be the greatest concern; and that this strength is not naturally there, it must be given, or put into it. This last phrase, in the inner man, is joined to the beginning of the next verse in the Arabic, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, "in the inner man Christ may dwell", &c.”

“Of whom the whole family - Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, the spirits of just men made perfect in a separate state, and all the holy angels in heaven, make but one family, of which God is the Father and Head. St. Paul does not say, of whom the families, as if each order formed a distinct household; but he says family, because they are all one, and of one. And all this family is named - derives its origin and being, from God, as children derive their name from him who is the father of the family: holy persons in heaven and earth derive their being and their holiness from God, and therefore his name is called upon them. Christ gives the name of Christians to all the real members of his Church upon earth; and to all the spirits of just men (saved since his advent, and through his blood) in heaven. They are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty.”

“the whole family--ALFORD, MIDDLETON, and others translate, "every family": alluding to the several families in heaven and in earth supposed to exist [THEOPHYLACT, Æcumenius, in SUICER, 2.633], the apostle thus being supposed to imply that God, in His relation of Father to us His adopted children, is the great prototype of the paternal relation wherever found. But the idea that "the holy angels are bound up in spiritual families or compaternities," is nowhere else in Scripture referred to. And Act 2:36, where the article is similarly omitted, and yet the translation is, "All the house of Israel," shows that in New Testament Greek the translation is justifiable, "all the family," or "the whole family": which accords with Scripture views, that angels and men, the saints militant and those with God, are one holy family joined under the one Father in Christ, the mediator between heaven and earth (Eph 1:10; Phi 2:10). Hence angels are termed our "brethren" (Rev 19:10), and "sons of God" by creation, as we are by adoption (Job 38:7). The Church is part of the grand family, or kingdom, which comprehends, besides men, the higher spiritual world, where the archetype, to the realization of which redeemed man is now tending, is already realized. This universal idea of the "kingdom" of God as one divine community, is presented to us in the Lord's Prayer. By sin men were estranged, not only from God, but from that higher spiritual world in which the kingdom of God is already realized. As Christ when He reconciled men to God, united them to one another in a divine community (joined to Himself, the one Head), breaking down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:14), so also He joins them in communion with all those who have already attained that perfection in the kingdom of God, to which the Church on earth is aspiring (Col 1:20) [NEANDER]. is named--derives its origin and its name as sons of God. To be named, and to be, are one with God. To bear God's name is to belong to God as His own peculiar people (Num 6:27; Isa 43:7; Isa 44:5; Rom 9:25-26).”