Ephesians 3:18

May be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.

Breadth, length, ... etc., of what .... ?" Beare thought it was "truth.[36] Lipscomb believed it was the love of Christ;[37] Adam Clarke considered it to be the "church of God";[38] MacKnight saw in this a comparison of the church with the dimensions of the temple of Diana;[39] the early "church fathers referred these words to the cross.[40] From all this, it is perfectly evident that "Since Paul purposely omitted all definition, leaving the phrase in absolute generality, no answer can be perfectly satisfactory."[41] Perhaps if we were to cite all of these possible meanings and were privileged to ask the apostle which one is correct, he might very well answer, "Why all of them, of course? Of all the things mentioned as the possible object of these words, people are unable to know the infinite dimensions of them; but Christ in our hearts can help us to understand how infinitely above people are the things of God.

[36] Francis W. Beare, op. cit., p. 679.

[37] David Lipscomb, op. cit., p. 66.

[38] Adam Clarke, op. cit., p. 447.

[39] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 307.

[40] Alfred Barry, Ellicott's Commentary on the Holy Bible, Vol. VII (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1958), p. 35.

[41] Ibid.