Ephesians 3:10

To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God.

The fact of the gospel's promulgation upon earth being, in some manner, for the purpose of "making known" to "principalities and powers in the heavenly places" God's manifold wisdom has not been satisfactorily explained; at least, this student of the Scriptures has not seen any satisfactory explanation of it. We shall take a look at some of the teachings people have allegedly found in this verse:

John Locke: The governments and powers in the heavenly places are the Jewish religious leaders.

MacKnight: They are the different orders of the angels in heaven.[25]

Calvin, Hodge, Grosheide and Lenski thought this refers to the good angels in heaven.[26]

A. T. Robertson understood the reference as to "evil powers or fallen angels, exclusively.[27]

Such variety of opinions suggests that the true interpretation might lie in a different direction altogether. In Ephesians 3:9, as already noted, Paul gave the purpose of gospel preaching to be that of making "all men see." Ephesians 3:10 could be nothing more than a dramatic, rhetorical burst of eloquent hyperbole, having much the same meaning as if he had written:

We shall shout the gospel message to the highest heavens and extol the glory of the church as the demonstration of God's manifold wisdom to the highest beings in the universe!

This view has one thing in common with those already cited - it may be wrong; but at least it makes as much sense as anything else at hand on the subject. Certainly the whole subject of the impact of the gospel of Christ upon creations above and beyond our own human creation, of which so little is known, and concerning which God has not given us very much information, lies totally beyond the exploration projected for this series of commentaries.

The manifold wisdom of God ... Hendriksen pointed out that the word here rendered "manifold" actually means "multicolored, or much variegated," translating the phrase, "the iridescent wisdom of God."[28] This calls attention to the infinite diversity and sparkling beauty of the wisdom of God. Bruce favored "the many-colored wisdom of God."[29] Since wisdom has no literal color, it is clear that Paul was speaking figuratively in this passage.

[25] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 303.

[26] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 158.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Ibid., p. 159.

[29] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 64.