Notes

Editor’s Introduction

1. See Eberhard Busch’s overview of this period in Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts, trans. John Bowden (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 60–153. For a substantive treatment of the significance of the “early Barth” for the development of the entire course of his thought, see the classic study by Bruce L. McCormack, Karl Barth’s Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development 1909–1936 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), especially 207–323. Christopher Asprey surveys the cross-currency between themes of eschatology and revelation in Barth’s texts from the early period in Eschatological Presence in Karl Barth’s Göttingen Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). To date, the most fulsome treatment of Barth’s exegesis during the early 1920s is Richard E. Burnett, Karl Barth’s Theological Exegesis: The Hermeneutical Principles of the Römerbrief Period (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004).

2. The standard German texts of the two editions of Der Römerbrief are found in the Gesamtausgabe (abbreviated below as GA following the first full citation): Karl Barth, Der Römerbrief, Erste Fassung, 1919, hg. Hermann Schmidt, Karl Barth Gesamtausgabe 16 (Zürich: TVZ, 1985); idem, Der Römerbrief, Zweite Fassung, 1922, hg. Cornelis van der Kooi und Katja Tolstaja, GA 47 (Zürich: TVZ, 2010). The 1922 edition is available in English as Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns (London: Oxford University Press, 1968). The 1919 edition of Der Römerbrief remains untranslated. On The Epistle to the Romans, see the helpful supplementary text by Kenneth Oakes, Reading Karl Barth: A Companion to Karl Barth’s “Epistle to the Romans” (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2011), which also contains a summary of the development of the two German editions.

3. See the editor’s “Vorwort” in Karl Barth, Erklärungen des Epheser- und des Jakobusbriefes, 1919–1929, hg. Jörg-Michael Bohnet, GA 46 (Zürich: TVZ, 2009), vii.

4. These early lecture cycles are available in critical editions in the Gesamtausgabe and also, with the exception of the Zwingli lectures, in English: Karl Barth, Die Theologie Calvins, 1922, hg. Hans Scholl, GA 23 (Zürich: TVZ, 1993); → ET, idem, The Theology of John Calvin, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995); idem, Die Theologie Zwinglis, Vorlesung Göttingen 1922/23, hg. Matthias Freudenberg, GA 40 (Zürich: TVZ, 2004); → no ET; idem, Die Theologie der reformierten Bekenntnisschriften, 1923, hg. Eberhard Busch, GA 30 (Zürich: TVZ, 1998); → ET, idem, The Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 1923, trans. and ed. Darrell L. Guder and Judith J. Guder, Columbia Series in Reformed Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002); idem, Die Theologie Schleiermachers, Vorlesung Göttingen 1923/24, hg. Dietrich Ritschl, GA 11 (Zürich: TVZ, 1978); → ET, idem, The Theology of Schleiermacher: Lectures at Göttingen, Winter Semester of 1923/24, ed. Dietrich Ritschl, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, with “Concluding Unscientific Postscript,” trans. George Hunsinger (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982).

5. In the Gesamtausgabe: Karl Barth, «Unterricht in der christlichen Religion», Teil 1: Prolegomena, 1924, hg. Hannelotte Reiffen, GA 17 (Zürich: TVZ, 1985); idem, «Unterricht in der christlichen Religion», Teil 2: Die Lehre von Gott/Die Lehre vom Menschen, 1924/25, hg. Hinrich Stoevesandt, GA 20 (Zürich: TVZ, 1990); idem, «Unterricht in der christlichen Religion», Teil 3: Die Lehre von der Versöhnung/Erlösung, 1925/26, hg. Hinrich Stoevesandt, GA 38 (Zürich: TVZ, 2003). The first volume of the English translation is available as Karl Barth, The Göttingen Dogmatics: Instruction in the Christian Religion, vol. 1, ed. Hannelotte Reiffen, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991).

6. The exegetical lectures from the Göttingen period are gradually being received into the Gesamtausgabe. The lectures on James from the Winter Semester of 1922/23, which Barth titled Erklärung des Jakobusbriefes, are found in GA 46, 157–529. They are published in parallel (on verso) with the lectures on the epistle Barth delivered in Münster in the Wintersemester 1928/29. Barth himself released for publication the lectures on 1 Corinthians 15 and Philippians, and these are available as Karl Barth, Die Auferstehung der Toten: Eine akademische Vorlesung über 1.Kor.15 (München: Kaiser, 1924); → ET, idem, The Resurrection of the Dead, trans. H. J. Stenning (New York: Revell, 1933); idem, Erklärung des Philipperbriefes (München: Kaiser, 1928); → ET, idem, The Epistle to the Philippians: 40th Anniversary Edition, trans. James W. Leitch [from the German 6th ed., 1947] (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002). The lectures on 1 John, Colossians, and the Sermon on the Mount to date remain unpublished.

7. A critical German edition of the 1921/22 lectures on the Heidelberg Catechism is currently in process. They have yet to appear in English.

8. Christopher Asprey, “Remarks concerning Barth’s Ephesians lectures in Göttingen (1921/22) on the Occasion of Their Posthumous Publication,” in Letter from the Karl Barth-Archives 11 (December 10, 2009), 1 (https://karlbarth.unibas.ch/fileadmin/downloads/letter11/Letter11-Asprey.pdf).

9. GA 46.

2. Karl Barth, The Theology of John Calvin, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 389.

3. Perhaps we should not press the distinction too far, and in any event, it is hard to find exact English equivalents to help us do so. Barth’s exegetical lectures, like Luther’s and Calvin’s expository lectures on the Bible, are neither sermons nor academic commentaries but combinations of both elements.

4. Rudolf Bultmann, “Karl Barth, The Resurrection of the Dead,” in Faith and Understanding, ed. Robert F. Funk, trans. Louise Pettibone Smith (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989), 66–94. The phrase mentioned here is on page 86.

5. I was alerted to the significance of intertextual associations in theological exegesis by R. R. Reno’s address “Biblical Theology and Theological Exegesis” at the Conference on Biblical Hermeneutics, University of St Andrews, 2002; cf. John J. O’Keefe and R. R. Reno, Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).

8. Hans-Anton Drewes proposed this metaphor during a conversation at the Karl Barth-Archiv, Basel, August 8, 2004.

11. John Webster, “Barth’s Lectures on the Gospel of John,” in Thy Word Is Truth: Barth on Scripture, ed. George Hunsinger (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 21.

12. The critical edition of the German text is found in Karl Barth, Erklärungen des Epheser- und des Jakobusbriefes, 1919–1929, hg. Jörg-Michael Bohnet, Karl Barth Gesamtausgabe 46 (Zürich: TVZ, 2009).

13. This is the approach adopted by Darrell L. Guder and Judith J. Guder. See “Translator’s Preface,” in Karl Barth, The Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 1923, trans. and ed. Darrell L. Guder and Judith J. Guder, Columbia Series in Reformed Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), xi–xiii.

14. This strategy is an improvement over older translations of Barth’s exegetical lectures, such as Stenning’s rendering of the series on 1 Corinthains, which omits the Greek text. See Karl Barth, The Resurrection of the Dead, trans. H. J. Stenning (New York: Revell, 1933).

15. Vladimir Nabokov, “The Art of Translation,” New Republic, August 4, 1941, 160–62; quotes from 160.

1. Karl Barth, Erklärungen des Epheser- und des Jakobusbriefes, 1919–1929, hg. Jörg-Michael Bohnet, Karl Barth Gesamtausgabe 46 [hereafter GA 46] (Zürich: TVZ, 2009), 91n; → ET, below, Karl Barth, “Exposition of Ephesians, Winter Semester 1921–22” [hereafter Ephesians]. For the biographical context, see Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts, trans. John Bowden (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 126–34.

2. GA 46, ix.

3. Karl Barth, Der Römerbrief, Zweite Fassung, 1922, hg. Cornelis van der Kooi und Katja Tolstaja, Karl Barth Gesamtausgabe 47 [hereafter GA 47] (Zürich: TVZ, 2010), 3–4; → ET, idem, The Epistle to the Romans [hereafter Romans], trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 1–2.

4. GA 47, 11–16; Romans, 6–10.

5. GA 46, 45–50; present volume, 55.

6. GA 46, 45, author’s translation. Cf. present volume, 55.

7. GA 46, 46–47; present volume, 56–58.

8. GA 46, 46–50; present volume, 58.

9. GA 46, 63–67; present volume, 65–71.

10. Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem 5.17.1.

11. Fritz Barth, Einleitung in das Neue Testament (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1908), 70–77.

12. GA 46, 46; present volume, 56, 71.

13. F. Barth, Einleitung, 71 (my translation, as in the quotations that follow).

14. GA 46, 49; present volume, 58.

15. F. Barth, Einleitung, 71. K. Barth, GA 46, 65; present volume, 72. At one point there is verbal overlap. Fritz Barth: “Nun ist es schwer denkbar, dass der Name der angesehenen Gemeinde von Ephesus aus dem Briefeingang sollte getilgt worden sein” (Einleitung, 71). Karl Barth: Ephesians was a circular letter that “die Kirche mit dem angesehen Namen von Ephesus ergänzte” (GA 46, 65; italics added in both cases).

16. F. Barth, Einleitung, iv.

17. GA 46, 50. The Bengel reference has not been traced. Cf. present volume, 59.

18. GA 46, 45, author’s translation. Cf. present volume, 55.

19. GA 46, 67, author’s translation. Cf. present volume, 72.

20. GA 46, 133; present volume, 112.

21. GA 46, 70–73; present volume, 74–76. Cf. GA 47, 207–8; Romans, 150–52.

22. GA 46, 70; present volume, 75. Cf. GA 47, 207; Romans, 151.

23. GA 46, 72, author’s translation. Cf. present volume, 76; GA 47, 207; Romans, 151.

24. GA 46, 72; present volume, 76. Cf. GA 47, 208; Romans, 151. Modifications (italicized) to these sentences from the Romans commentary are purely stylistic: “Nicht im Geringsten hört der Mensch etwa auf, ein Wartender, nur ein Wartender zu sein, ein Hoffender, der nicht schaut. Er wartet und hofft aber auf Gott, und das eben ist sein Friede mit ihm.”

25. GA 46, 106; present volume, 117.

26. GA 47, 207, 208; Romans, 151–52.

27. GA 47, 13; Romans, 7.

28. GA 47, 14; Romans, 8.

29. “Wir denken an Johannes den Täufer auf Grünewalds Kreuzigungsbild mit seiner in fast unmöglicher Weise zeigenden Hand. Diese Hand ist’s, die in der Bibel dokumentiert ist” (Karl Barth, “Biblische Fragen, Einsichten und Ausblicke” [1920], repr. in Jürgen Moltmann, hg., Anfänge der dialektischen Theologie, Theologische Bücherei 17 [Gütersloh: Kaiser, 1962], 1:58; → ET, idem, The Word of God and the Word of Man, trans. Douglas Horton [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1928], 65).

30. A reference to God’s love would require a significant departure from the Greek word order, as in William Tyndale’s translation: “acordynge as he had chosen us in hym throwe love before the foundation of the worlde was layde that we shulde be saynts and without blame in his sight.”

31. Augustine, De doctrina christiana 3.2.2–3.7 (on correct punctuation and pronunciation).

32. GA 46, 54; present volume, 70.

33. Codex Sinaiticus: Facsimile Edition (London: British Library, 2010), Q-84-f.4v. Available online at http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/.

34. GA 46, xxix, 63n, 121; cf. present volume, 116.

35. Eberhard Nestle, Novum Testamentum Graece cum apparatu critico ex editionibus et libris manu scriptis collecto (Stuttgart: Privilegierte Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1898, 1899, 1901).

36. GA 46, 102; present volume, 79.

37. GA 46, 102; present volume, 40.

38. GA 46, 102; present volume, 74.

39. GA 46, 79; present volume, 82.

40. Martin Dibelius, Die Briefe des Apostels Paulus. II. Die neun kleinen Briefe, Handbuch zum Neuen Testament (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1913), 46*. Cf. Barth, GA 46, 79; present volume, 81–82. Barth already refers to Dibelius’s analysis in exegetical notes on the Letter to the Ephesians dating from 1919–20 (GA 46, 3; present volume, 56, 71, 81–82).

41. GA 46, 79; present volume, 81.

42. GA 46, 45, 67, author’s translation. Cf. present volume, 72; Dibelius, Die Briefe des Apostels Paulus, 47*, 66*.

43. GA 46, 47; present volume, 56. Cf. Dibelius, Die Briefe des Apostels Paulus, 113–14.

44. GA 46, 66; present volume, 71. Cf. Dibelius, Die Briefe des Apostels Paulus, 96.

45. The term is still fundamental to Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics, where “grammatical” interpretation investigates a text’s use of language while “psychological” interpretation views it in relation to its author. See Friedrich Schleiermacher, Hermeneutik und Kritik: Mit einem Anhang sprachphilosophischer Texte Schleiermachers, ed. Manfred Frank, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 211 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977), 79 [§§6, 7]). During the nineteenth century, “grammatical” seems to have been displaced by “historical-critical.”

46. See Francis Watson, “Does Historical Criticism Exist?,” in Theological Theology: Essays in Honour of John Webster, ed. R. David Nelson, Darren Sarisky, and Justin Stratis, T&T Clark Theology (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 307–18.

47. GA 46, 79–80; present volume, 82.

48. GA 46, 67–68; present volume, 55.

49. GA 46, 135–37; present volume, 127–30.

50. GA 46, 136; present volume, 129.

51. Konrad Hammann, Rudolf Bultmann: Eine Biographie (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 134–47.

52. GA 46, 138–39; present volume, 131.

53. GA 46, 139–40; present volume, 131–32.

54. Adolf von Harnack, Das Wesen des Christentums: Sechzehn Vorlesungen vor Studierenden aller Fakultäten im Wintersemester 1899/1900 an der Universität Berlin gehalten (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1900); → ET, idem, What Is Christianity? Lectures Delivered in the University of Berlin during the Winter-Term 1899–1900 (London: Williams & Norgate; New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904).

55. GA 46, 141; present volume, 132–33.

56. GA 46, 144; present volume, 134–36.

57. GA 46, 142; present volume, 132–35.

58. GA 46, 143–44; present volume, 134.

59. Hammann, Rudolf Bultmann, 102.

60. Ibid., 136; Cf. Busch, Karl Barth, 135–36.

61. Originally published in four consecutive issues of the Christliche Welt (36.18–21 [1922]); repr. in Moltmann, Anfänge der dialektischen Theologie, 1:119–42; ET in The Beginnings of Dialectic Theology, ed. James M. Robinson (Richmond: John Knox, 1968), 100–120.

62. In §19.2 of the Kirchliche Dogmatik, Barth underlines the close relationship between the content and form of Holy Scripture in its witness to divine revelation and criticizes the assumption of modern historicism that we should penetrate behind the texts to the early history of Israel or to the life of the historical Jesus. There is, he argues, an essential connection between his own recovery of Scripture’s relation to its content (its Gegenständlichkeit) and the recovery of its corresponding form (die jener Gegenständlichkeit entsprechende Gestalt) in the form-critical work of Dibelius, Bultmann, and Schmidt. See Karl Barth, Kirchliche Dogmatik I.2, Studienausgabe, vol. 5, Die Heilige Schrift (Zürich: TVZ, 1993), 547; → ET, idem, Church Dogmatics I.2, The Doctrine of the Word of God, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, G. T. Thomson, and Harold Knight (London: T&T Clark Continuum, 2010), 494.

63. Rudolf Bultmann, Die Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition, Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 29 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1921), 308–16*; → ET, idem, The History of the Synoptic Tradition, 2nd ed., trans. John Marsh (Oxford: Blackwell, 1963), 284–91.

1. See Karl Barth, The Theology of John Calvin, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995); idem, Die Theologie Zwinglis, Vorlesung Göttingen 1922/23, hg. Matthias Freudenberg, Karl Barth Gesamtausgabe [hereafter GA] 40 (Zürich: TVZ, 2004); idem, The Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 1923, trans. and ed. Darrell L. Guder and Judith J. Guder (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002); idem, The Theology of Schleiermacher: Lectures at Göttingen, Winter Semester of 1923/24, ed. Dietrich Ritschl, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, with “Concluding Unscientific Postscript,” trans. George Hunsinger (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982).

2. Karl Barth, «Unterricht in der christlichen Religion», Teil 1: Prolegomena, 1924, hg. Hannelotte Reiffen, GA 17 (Zürich: TVZ, 1985); idem, «Unterricht in der christlichen Religion», Teil 2: Die Lehre von Gott/Die Lehre vom Menschen, 1924/25, hg. Hinrich Stoevesandt, GA 20 (Zürich: TVZ, 1990); idem, «Unterricht in der christlichen Religion», Teil 3: Die Lehre von der Versöhnung/Erlösung, 1925/26, hg. Hinrich Stoevesandt, GA 38 (Zürich: TVZ, 2003). The final lectures in the series, on eschatology, were delivered in Münster. The first volume of the Gesamtausgabe series is available in English as Karl Barth, The Göttingen Dogmatics: Instruction in the Christian Religion, vol. 1, ed. Hannelotte Reiffen, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991).

3. Karl Barth, Die Auferstehung der Toten: Eine akademische Vorlesung über 1.Kor.15 (München: Kaiser, 1924); → ET, idem, The Resurrection of the Dead, trans. H. J. Stenning (New York: Revell, 1933). The English translation is inaccurate and incomplete.

4. Karl Barth, Erklärung des Philipperbriefes (München: Kaiser, 1928); → ET, idem, Epistle to the Philippians: 40th Anniversary Edition, trans. James W. Leitch [from the German 6th ed., 1947] (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002).

5. Karl Barth, Erklärungen des Epheser- und des Jakobusbriefes, 1919–1929, hg. Jörg-Michael Bohnet, GA 46 (Zürich: TVZ, 2009).

6. See Nina-Dorothee Mützlitz, Gottes Wort als Wirklichkeit. Die Paulus-Rezeption des jungen Karl Barth (1906–1927), Neukirchener Theologie (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2013); Martin Westerholm, The Ordering of the Christian Mind. Karl Barth and Theological Rationality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

7. Barth, Theology of John Calvin, 388–89.

8. Ibid., 389 (emphasis original).

9. Karl Barth – Eduard Thurneysen Briefwechsel I. 1913–1921, hg. Eduard Thurneysen, GA 3 (Zürich: TVZ, 1973), 268–69.

10. Karl Barth, Predigten, 1919, hg. Hermann Schmidt, GA 39 (Zürich: TVZ, 2003), 173–334.

11. This material is available in GA 46, 3–44.

12. Present volume, 126 (emphasis original).

13. Barth, Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 38–64; see also idem, “Das Schriftprinzip der reformierten Kirche,” in Vorträge und kleinere Arbeiten, 1922–1925, hg. Holger Finze, GA 19 (Zürich: TVZ, 1990), 500–544.

14. In this connection, Barth’s remarks on “history as life’s teacher” in his opening lecture on Calvin in the 1922 series are illuminating (see Barth, Theology of John Calvin, 1–9). See, further, Hinrich Stoevesandt, “Barths Calvinvorlesung als Station seiner theologischen Biographie,” in Karl Barth und Johannes Calvin: Karl Barths Göttinger Calvin-Vorlesung von 1922, hg. Hans Scholl (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1995), 107–24.

15. Present volume, 72.

16. Present volume, 132–33 (emphasis original).

17. Present volume, 133 (emphasis original).

18. Present volume, 134.

19. Present volume, 134.

20. Present volume, 58–59.

21. See here the 1917 lecture “The New World in the Bible,” in Karl Barth, The Word of God and Theology, trans. Amy Marga (London: T&T Clark, 2011), 15–29.

22. Present volume, 59–60 (emphasis original).

23. A little later, however, Barth notes briefly that apostles are “envoys who are instructed and equipped with power” (present volume, 61).

24. Present volume, 61.

25. Present volume, 61.

26. Present volume, 62–63.

27. Present volume, 64.

28. Present volume, 76–77 (emphasis original).

29. Present volume, 77 (emphasis original).

30. Present volume, 97.

31. Present volume, 80–81.

32. Present volume, 111.

33. Present volume, 111 (emphasis original).

34. Present volume, 112 (emphasis original).

35. Present volume, 112 (emphasis original).

36. Present volume, 89.

37. Present volume, 89.

38. Present volume, 97.

39. Present volume, 102 (emphasis original).

40. Present volume, 89 (emphasis original).

41. Present volume, 123.

42. Christopher Asprey, Eschatological Presence in Karl Barth’s Göttingen Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 24 (emphasis original).

43. Present volume, 60.

44. Present volume, 61.

45. Present volume, 61.

46. Present volume, 82–83.

47. Present volume, 123–24 (emphasis original).

48. Present volume, 103–104.

49. Present volume, 107.

50. J. T. Beck, Erklärung des Briefes Pauli an die Epheser: Nebst Anmerkungen zum Brief Pauli an die Kolosser (Gütersloh: Bertelsman, 1891).

51. Present volume, 107.

52. Present volume, 108.

53. Present volume, 128.

54. Present volume, 129 (emphasis original).

55. Present volume, 129.

56. Present volume, 129.

57. Present volume, 129.

58. Present volume, 65.

59. Present volume, 65.

60. Present volume, 65–66.

61. Present volume, 66.

62. Present volume, 66.

63. Present volume, 67.

64. Present volume, 67.

65. Present volume, 67.

66. Present volume, 67 (emphasis original).

67. Present volume, 68.

68. Present volume, 68.

69. Present volume, 68–69 (emphasis original).

1. “It is doubtful,” a legal term used when there is not sufficient evidence to decide the case. Here Barth follows Adolf Jülicher, who argues that Pauline authorship of Ephesians is unlikely. See Jülicher, An Introduction to the New Testament, trans. Janet Penrose Ward (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), 142–47.

2. Martin Dibelius, An die Epheser, in Die Briefe des Apostels Paulus II: Die neun kleinen Briefe, Handbuch zum Neuen Testament 3/2 (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1913), 113–14.

3. Adolf Jülicher, Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 6. Aufl., Grundriss der theologischen Wissenschaften 3/1 (Tübingen/Leipzig: J. C. B. Mohr, 1921), 120–28; → ET, Jülicher, Introduction to the New Testament, 127–47.

4. Fritz Barth, Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 5. Aufl. (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann 1921), 74–81.

5. Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 3. Aufl. (Freiburg im Breisgau: J. C. B. Mohr, 1892), 257–66, especially 265.

6. Barth’s suggestion and wording here bear a strong resemblance to Fritz Barth’s handling of the subject. See F. Barth, Einleitung, 78. See also B. Weiß, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 3. Aufl. (Berlin: W. Hertz, 1897), 252–53; Jülicher, Einleitung, 127–28.

7. Dibelius, An die Epheser, 113–14.

8. This statement reflects Barth’s experience. He began serious exegetical work on Ephesians shortly after producing a small commentary on 1 Corinthians in November 1919. See Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts, trans. John Bowden (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 108.

9. For the term hieratischen, translated here as “ceremonial,” see Paul Wendland, Die urchristlichen Literaturformen, 3. Aufl., Handbuch zum Neuen Testament 1/3 (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1912), 364; Dibelius, An die Epheser, 97. The term “solemn” appears in Jülicher’s Introduction: the Pauline thanksgivings are distinguished by “a solemn contemplation of the majesty which, through Christ, had given mankind the Gospel of atonement, of re-creation and of peace” (Introduction, 129).

10. Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der Neutestamentlichen Theologie (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1911), 1: 226–51; Wendland, Literaturformen, 364.

11. Holtzmann, Theologie, 1:240–45; cf. 1:250.

12. See ibid., 1:236.

13. See ibid., 1:257.

14. Ibid.

15. See F. Barth, Einleitung, 78; Jülicher, Einleitung, 5.6, 1:120–28.

16. Barth is thinking primarily about the mystical leanings and the Pythagorean tendencies of the older Plato.

17. On the matter of the “metamorphosis” of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775–1854), Holtzman suggests in a note an alternative way of assessing the authorship question; his observation occurs in the wider context of questions about Pauline authorship, which he rejects.

18. Paul Natorp (1854–1924), professor of philosophy and pedagogy at Marburg. Natorp was one of the neo-Kantian thinkers who may have influenced Barth during this period. For a discussion, see Bruce L. McCormack, Karl Barth’s Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development 1909–1936 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 160–62.

19. Holtzmann, Theologie, 1:227; Dibelius, An die Epheser, 113.

20. “Do not ask: Who wrote it? but: What is written?” The editor of the German edition notes that the existence of this sentence cannot be confirmed in the writings of Johann Albrecht Bengel.

21. Here Barth follows Fritz Barth. See F. Barth, Einleitung, 75.

22. “In classical Greek, the word apostolos refers to a fleet expedition [maneuver] or its leader, the admiral” (Hans Lietzmann, Einführung in die Textgeschichte der Paulusbriefe: An die Römer, Handbuch zum Neuen Testament 3 [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck: 1919], 24).

23. “Now about the apostles and prophets: Act in line with the gospel precept. Welcome every apostle on arriving, as if he were the Lord. But he must not stay beyond one day. In case of necessity, however, the next day too. If he stays three days, he is a false prophet. On departing, an apostle must not accept anything save sufficient food to carry him till his next lodging” (“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Commonly Called the Didache,” trans. Cyril C. Richardson, in Early Christian Fathers, Library of Christian Classics 1 [Philadelphia: Westminster: 1953], 176).

24. Lietzmann, Einführung, 23.

25. “Apostolic calling is a paradoxical factor which from first to last in his life stands paradoxically outside his personal identity with himself as the definite person he is” (Søren Kierkegaard, “Of the Difference between a Genius and an Apostle,” trans. Alexander Dru, in The Present Age and Two Minor Ethico-Religious Treatises [London: Oxford University Press, 1940], 143).

26. German: unmittelbares. With this term Barth refers to psychologically quantifiable knowledge that is available without mediation. “Unmediated” conveys Barth’s meaning better than the standard translation “immediate.” “The German terms ‘mittelbar’ and ‘unmittelbar’ translate as ‘mediate’ and ‘immediate,’ where the German emphasis is upon the ‘medium,’ that which ‘mediates.’ Although this root idea is still present in the English terms, it is largely lost in current usage” (Karl Barth, The Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 1923, trans. Darrell L. Guder and Judith J. Guder [Louisville: John Knox, 2002], 286). For a discussion of Barth’s use of the term, see McCormack, Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology, 160–62.

27. German: seine Sache.

28. “An Apostle is what he is through having divine authority. Divine authority is, qualitatively, the decisive factor” (Kierkegaard, “A Genius and an Apostle,” 144 [emphasis original]).

29. “The uniting of opposites.”

30. Cf. Rom. 1:16, which includes the phrase δύναμις . . . θεοῦ.

31. German: nicht sein Erlebnis, seine Erfahrung; alternately: “not his personal experience or empirical experience.”

32. John Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, trans. Arthur Golding (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1973), 11–12. In the manuscript, Barth includes this entire passage, but he alternates between German and the original French for emphasis:

For one of the common artifices which the devil uses to diminish reverence for God’s Word is to place before our eyes the person who brings it. “Or il est certain que nous sommes des vaisseaux fragiles et de nulle valeur, voire mesmes comme des pots cassez.” What is there in those whom God has ordained to be the ministers of his Word? But the treasure is inestimably great at all times, despite the contemptibleness of the vessels [2 Cor. 4:7]. “Notons bien donc, quand les hommes viennent à nous pour estre tesmoins de la remission de nos pechez et du salut qu’il nous faut esperer, que nostre foy doit monter plus haut, et qu’il n’est pas question de nous enquerir, et cestuy-ci merite-il d’estre escouté? Et qui est-il en sa personne? Contentons-nous que Dieu par ce moyen-là nous veut attirer à soy.”

33. For similar use of this expression, see Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 29, 36, 65. This passage is an example of how Barth adapted terminology from Franz Overbeck’s Christentum und Kultur. For a discussion, see McCormack, Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology, 232.

34. “Good pleasure.” In Reformed theology, the phrase is particularly associated with “the ground of God’s elective choice (Eph. 1:5) . . . where emphasis is placed on the freedom and sovereignty of the divine purpose” (Richard A. Muller, Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant and Scholastic Theology [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985], 57).

35. When Barth distinguishes here between miracle (Mirakel) and wonder (Wunder), the latter refers to a divine event that occurs within contingent reality. Describing the devolution of the doctrine of verbal inspiration, Barth says: “The divine wonder of inspiration became the worldly wonder of inspiredness. To put it differently, the wonder [Wunder] became a miracle [Mirakel] that then as such quite rightly had to evoke reservations, criticism, and laughter” (Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 62). However, Barth does not maintain the distinction consistently. Sometimes when he says Mirakel, he clearly means “miracle.” The context determines which meaning is in view.

36. Søren Kierkegaard, Philosophische Brocken: Abschließende unwissenschaftliche Nachschrift, Erster Teil, übers. H. Gottsched und Chr. Schrempf, Gesammelte Werke 6 (Jena: E. Diederichs, 1910), 209.

37. “For what is infinite cannot be spoken of too much” (John Calvin, The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, trans. T. H. L. Parker, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965], 133).

38. In certain games, “Rechenpfennige” serve as temporary payment of winnings. The sentence could be translated: “Because faith is a human action, we must guard against treating it like a counting token that needs to be redistributed once and again. We have only one faith to distribute, and it is a res infinita.”

39. Barth misreads Jerome here. Jerome considers then rejects the suggestion that “those who are saints and faithful in Ephesus are referred to by the term ‘being.’” He mentions interpreters who support this reading on the basis of Exod. 3:14, “He who is has sent me,” and concludes that they are “more curious than is necessary.” Jerome favors the theory that it was “written straightforwardly not to those ‘who are,’ but ‘who are the saints and faithful in Ephesus.’” See Ronald E. Heine, ed., The Commentaries of Origen and Jerome on St Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 80.

40. This is Jülicher’s position; see Jülicher, Introduction, 140–42.

41. Heinrich A. W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Hand-Book to the Epistle to the Ephesians, trans. Maurice J. Evans, rev. and ed. William P. Dickson, Meyer Commentary on the New Testament 7 (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1884), 287–350.

42. Johann Albrecht Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament, vol. 4, trans. James Bryce, rev. and ed. Andrew Fausset (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1858), 61–62.

43. Hermann Olshausen, Biblical Commentary on the New Testament, vol. 4, trans. David Fosdick Jr. (New York: Sheldon, Blakeman, 1857–58).

44. “Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus” (2 Tim. 4:12). Dibelius, An die Epheser, 96.

45. Cf. Rom. 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:4; Phil. 1:3; 1 Thess. 1:2; Philem. 4.

46. “The hidden God is the revealed God.” According to Richard A. Muller, these two expressions convey “the paradox of God’s unknowability and self-manifestation as stated by Luther. . . . God is revealed in his hiddenness and hidden in his revelation” (Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms, 90).

47. Cf. Barth, Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 56–57: “With the statement, ‘It is God’s Word!’ we have arrived apparently at the point where the scriptural principle seems to be grounded on its groundlessness, or better, it is grounded in God alone.”

48. To give honor to God alone is a theme in the theology of John Calvin. See Calvin’s Institutes (1550), I/2.

49. German: mit. “Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Eph. 1:2, Luther’s translation).

50. Barth attributes this idea to Calvin. See Karl Barth, The Theology of John Calvin, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 80.

51. German: das Gnädige der Gnade.

52. Cf. Goethe’s Faust: The Original German and a New Translation and Introduction by Walter Kaufmann (Garden City: Anchor, 1963), part 2, act 5, scene 7, lines 12106–9 (pp. 502–3):

CHORUS MYSTICUS:

What is destructible

Is but a parable;

What fails ineluctably,

The undeclarable,

Here it was seen,

Here it was action.

53. German: sachgemäß.

54. The idea is expressed by Barth in Romans: precisely because this distance is acknowledged, the distance or separation becomes the basis for proximity or closeness.

55. Friedrich Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, trans. H. R. Mackintosh and J. S. Stewart (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1928–56), 16.

56. The phrase “the thought about God” occurs frequently in Barth’s writings during this period. For another example, see Barth, Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 110.

57. Cf. Barth, Romans, 151; John Calvin: “The true conviction which believers have of the word of God, of their own salvation, and of all religion, does not spring from the feeling of the flesh, or from human and philosophical arguments, but from the sealing of the Spirit, who makes their consciences more certain and removes all doubt” (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 131).

58. For other examples of this signature phrase, see Barth, Romans, 11, 83, 346; Barth, The Göttingen Dogmatics: Instruction in the Christian Religion, vol. 1, ed. Hannelotte Reiffen, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 88. See also the discussion in Eberhard Jüngel, “Barth’s Theological Beginnings,” chapter 2 in Karl Barth: A Theological Legacy, trans. Garrett E. Paul (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986).

59. It is not clear which of the two Blumhardts Barth has in mind here. In this context, he could mean Christoph Blumhardt (1842–1919), pastor and leader of the Bad Boll community, which Barth visited in April 1915. Blumhardt’s meditation “Peace Be with You” impressed Barth on that visit. See Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts, trans. John Bowden (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 85. For Barth’s meditation on Blumhardt following Blumhardt’s death, August 2, 1919, see Karl Barth, Predigten, 1919, hg. Hermann Schmidt, GA 39 (Zürich: TVZ, 2003), 291–95.

60. “Then he said to them, ‘Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s’” (Matt. 22:21).

61. “For what is infinite cannot be spoken of too much” (Calvin, Epistles of Paul, 133).

62. The concept of the Ursprung (“origin”) is a dominant theme in Barth’s early theology. For examples, see Barth, Romans, 342, 346; idem, “The Christian’s Place in Society,” in The Word of God and the Word of Man, trans. Douglas Horton (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1928), 285.

63. “God has blessed us in one sense, we bless Him in another” (Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament, 63).

64. In Hegelian terminology, the term “sublation” (Aufhebung) and cognates could be translated “abrogation” or “suppression,” but given Hegel’s special usage, “sublation” is the best choice. According to Charles Taylor, “In Hegel’s special usage, the term combines its ordinary meaning with a rarer sense of ‘setting aside’ or ‘preservation.’ It thus serves to designate the dialectical transition in which a lower state is both cancelled and preserved in a higher” (Hegel [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975], xi).

65. See Calvin’s comments on 1:3 in Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Sermon 1, 15–21; cf. idem, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 123–24.

66. Dibelius, An die Epheser, 99. Barth accurately summarizes Dibelius’s outline, which divides the passage into distinct sections, beginning with the phrase, “in Christ” or “in him.” Dibelius groups vv. 4–6, vv. 7–10, and vv. 11–12 and vv. 12–13, although his schema is not quite as clearly delineated as Barth’s outline.

67. German: so einheitlich, so beweglich.

68. Barth’s translation emphasizes the compelling nature of Paul’s experience. “Obligation” (Zwang) suggests pressure, an irresistible urge, or an impulse rather than a legal obligation.

69. Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Sermon 1, 20.

70. A reference to Paul in Athens, where the apostle speaks of “the unknown god.”

71. “To begin at the beginning” is a signature Barthian phrase from the early period to the very end. See Karl Barth, Predigten, 1916, hg. Hermann Schmidt, GA 29 (Zürich: TVZ, 1998), 118; idem, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1963), 165.

72. “Learned ignorance,” i.e., prescribed or acquired lack of knowledge.

73. “Infused grace.”

74. The editor of the critical edition inserts bezeichnet (from bezeichnen, “to denote”) in brackets to complete the statement.

75. Cf. the controversy over the demand for “simplicity” in the preface to Barth, Romans, 5–6.

76. This comment anticipates Barth’s polemical response to Harnack in 1923, when he repeatedly criticizes Harnack for speaking of the “simple gospel” (“schlichte Evangelium”) and for portraying Paul as complicated, dogmatic, and systematic in contrast to the simple Jesus. What Harnack calls the “simple Gospel,” Barth argues, is “what is left over” when the Bible’s subject matter, i.e., revelation, is removed. Barth concludes that “neither revelation nor faith is made understandable in the familiar ‘simple’ way as a frame of mind” that Harnack advocates. See Karl Barth, “An Professor Dr. Adolf von Harnack, Berlin, 1923,” in Offene Briefe 1909–1935, hg. Diether Koch, GA 35 (Zürich: TVZ, 2001), 55–88; → ET, “The Debate on the Critical Historical Method: Correspondence between Adolf von Harnack and Karl Barth,” in The Beginnings of Dialectic Theology, vol. 1, ed. James M. Robinson, trans. Keith R. Crim (Richmond: John Knox, 1968), 165–87, especially 177, 185.

77. Cf. Barth, Romans, 38: “‘Now, Spirit is the denial of direct immediacy. If Christ be very God, He must be unknown, for to be known directly is the characteristic mark of an idol’ (Kierkegaard).”

78. German: Plerophorie, from the Greek πλήρωμα (Eph. 1:10): “the state of being full, fullness of time.” See A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, rev. and ed. Frederick William Danker, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. “πλήρωμα.”

79. Cf. Barth, Romans, 38.

80. The emphasis and exclamation mark are Barth’s. Luther’s translation has a hortatory element, which is lacking in the English: “Lass dir an meiner Gnade genügen” (“Let my grace be sufficient for you”), Die Lutherbibel, 2 Cor. 12:9.

81. Calvin frequently speaks about “robbing” God when we attribute to ourselves what is rightly God’s. See, e.g., the following passage from Calvin’s commentary on Galatians: “Therefore, let us assure ourselves that we hold all things of God and his pure grace, and that we cannot attribute anything to ourselves, unless we intend to rob him of his right” (Galatians and Ephesians, 12).

82. Alternately: “the ultimate dissolution and reconstituting of my own existence.”

83. An allusion to Luke 9:24.

84. The German critical edition includes in brackets the phrase muss man sagen, “it must be said.”

85. German: Regressus, i.e., by imagining God’s creative activity as a superior form of human creativity.

86. Barth refers here to Faust’s famous revision of the Johannine prologue. See Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust: A Tragedy, trans. Walter Arndt, ed. Cyrus Hamlin, 2nd ed. (New York: Norton, 2001), part 1, “Study,” lines 1224–37 (p. 34).

87. Cf. Dibelius, An die Epheser, 97.

88. Paul “only wanted to express the superiority of that grace which is bestowed on us through Christ” (Calvin, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 124).

89. J. C. K. von Hofmann, Der Brief Pauli an die Epheser (Nördlingen: Beck, 1870), 8.

90. In Barth’s manuscript, there is a cross-reference here to his earlier discussion of ἐν Χριστῷ in his December 1 lecture.

91. See Calvin’s comments in Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Sermon 2, 25–34.

92. Hofmann, Epheser, 9.

93. Albrecht Ritschl, Die christliche Lehre der Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung, 3. Bd., Die positive Entwickelung der Lehre (Bonn: Marcus, 18954), 123.

94. J. T. Beck, Erklärung des Briefes Pauli an die Epheser: Nebst Anmerkungen zum Brief Pauli an die Kolosser (Gütersloh: Bertelsman, 1891), 44–45.

95. Philipp Matthäus Hahn, Erbauungs-Stunden über den Brief an die Epheser (Basel: Ferd. Riehm, 18784), 7–8.

96. Erich Haupt, Der Brief an die Epheser, in Die Gefangenschaftsbriefe, Bd. 8/9, Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar über das Neue Testament, 6. Aufl (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1902), 7.

97. See, e.g., the beginning of Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, Sermon 3, where Calvin comments, “I began to show you . . .” The labor of explaining double predestination took up the entire second sermon and the first part of the third.

98. “. . . such great profit from it that it had been much better if we had never been born than be ignorant of what St. Paul shows here . . . it were better that the whole world should go to confusion than that this doctrine should be reduced to silence” (Calvin, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, 26). The French has been reproduced as it appeared in Barth’s manuscript.

99. See Rom. 9:14–26, where Paul speaks of God’s decision to harden certain hearts and to bear with “patience the objects of his wrath.”

100. One of Barth’s favorite images is the prominent pointing finger of John the Baptist in the Isenheim Altarpiece. There, John’s finger points up to the crucified and dying Christ. See Barth, “Biblical Questions, Insights and Vistas,” in The Word of God and the Word of Man, 65.

101. “The profit of this doctrine.” Barth attributes this phrase to Calvin, but in fact he has created it by combining words from the following sentence: “Au reste, il y a deux raisons pour monstrer qu’il est plus que necessaire que ceste doctrine se presche, et que nous en avons une utilité si grande” (Calvin, Sermons sur L’épître aux Éphésiens, 262 [ET, Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians, 26: “But there are yet two more reasons which show that this doctrine must of necessity be preached, and that we reap such great profit from it”]).

102. A reference to Ps. 90:3. Cf. “Biblical Questions,” 78–79, where Barth says that this psalm expresses the “unmistakable undertone of the piety of the Psalms which people so much admire.”

103. German: Einzelnheit und Einsamkeit. The word Einsamkeit suggests isolation and solitude. Barth’s meaning is clarified by noting how he uses a similar word, Isoliertheit, to speak of God’s complete majesty and freedom: “God speaks—and as we say this, we must always hear God in his superiority, his majesty and freedom, in his isolatedness as God” (Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 56). It is notable that here he applies the same term to Jesus Christ as he does to humanity, a move that is consistent with his concern to show the relation between divine and human existence.

104. “For if we are chosen in Christ, it is outside ourselves” (Calvin, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 125). Barth omits “Nam” and repeats “sumus electi” (“we are chosen”) for emphasis.

105. German: Einzigen.

106. Beck, Epheser, 49.

107. Haupt, Der Brief an die Epheser, 9.

108. Hermann von Soden, Die Briefe an die Kolosser, Epheser, Philemon; die Pastoralbriefe (Freiburg: Mohr Siebeck, 1893), 107.

109. German: auf der ganzen Linie Erschütterter und aus der Bahn Geworfener. Literally: “shaken down the line and thrown off track.” The closest English idiom for the first phrase is “across the boards.” But Barth is playing with the image of a train or tram being pitched while moving down the track and then derailed.

110. “The glory of God is the highest end, to which our sanctification is subordinate” (Calvin, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 125).

111. “Highest end.”

112. German: daß Gott für uns eintritt, taking eintreten für to mean “stand up for someone” or “speak in someone’s defense” in the legal sense.

113. German: diesen objektiven, sozusagen juristischen Eigenschaften des Menschen. By this phrase, Barth means the holiness and blamelessness that are declared by God rather than any ethical qualities that we might possess. The phrase is difficult to translate, since the English expression “human characteristics” sounds like something we possess, which is contrary to Barth’s meaning.

114. Cf. Barth, Romans, 157–58.

115. German: Faktizität.

116. German: Einkindung. Haupt, Der Brief an die Epheser, 9.

117. German: weder geschaffen noch gezeugt.

118. German: Gottesfremden (“estranged from God”); Gotteskindern (“children of God”).

119. Barth uses gegenüber idiosyncratically here, i.e., as a noun to refer to Jesus Christ, who is appointed by God gegunüber der Totalität des uns bekannten Lebenszusammenhangs als das Gegenüber, das eben nur Gott geben kann.

120. Dibelius, An die Epheser, 98.

121. NRSV; alternately: “that which is well pleasing.” Barth uses Wohlgefallen to translate the Greek eudokia.

122. “God embraces us in His love and favour freely and not on a wages basis”; and “in adopting us, therefore, the Lord does not look at what we are, and is not reconciled to us by any personal worth. His single motive is the eternal good pleasure, by which He predestinated us” (Calvin, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 127).

123. “This is the true fountain from which we must draw our knowledge of the divine mercy” (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 126).

124. German: Will-Kür.

125. German: die Logik der Sache.

126. Cf. Barth, Romans, 104–5.

127. Beck, Epheser, 62.

128. German: Belebtheit.

129. German: Weisheit (“wisdom”); Klugheit (“insight”).

130. Beck, Epheser, 68–69.

131. German: Weltwirklichkeit.

132. German: Göttlich Notwendigen. This could otherwise be rendered as: “the unheard of fact of the divine vulnerability to this-world reality” or “the unprecedented event in which God makes himself a necessary part of this world.”

133. German: Zufälligkeit.

134. Not even this moment (of Jesus) qualifies—i.e., as something that can be known indirectly.

135. The “diffuse elements.”

136. Selma Lagerlöf, “In the Temple,” in Christ Legends, trans. Velma Swanston Howard (New York: Henry Holt, 1908), 95–118. In the story, two pillars called “Righteousness’ Gate” stood “so close to each other that hardly a straw could be squeezed in between them” (103). In order to rescue a poor widow from an unscrupulous judge in the temple, Jesus performs a miracle: “He put his shoulder in the groove between the two pillars, as if to make a way. . . . That instant [Righteousness’ Gate] . . . rumbled in the vaults, and it sang in the old pillars, and they glided apart— one to the right and one to the left—and made a space wide enough for the boy’s slender body to pass between them!” (108).

137. German: Denkvorgang.

138. “For what is the analogy (proportio) between the creature and the Creator, without the interposition of the Mediator?” (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 129).

139. Following Dibelius, An die Epheser, 98; cf. Eberhard Nestle, Novum Testamentum Graece cum apparatu critico ex editionibus et libris manu scriptis collecto (Stuttgart: Privilegierte Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1898, 1899, 1901). The Nestle text reads as follows: εἰς οἰκονομίαν τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν, ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ, τὰ ἐπὶ τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς | ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐν ᾧ καὶ ἐκληρώθημεν προορισθέντες κατὰ πρόθεσιν τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐνεργοῦντος κατὰ τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ. The vertical line in the phrase ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς | ἐν αὐτῷ has been added to indicate the crucial transition from v. 10 to v. 11 that Barth has in mind.

140. That is, in contrast to the ἐν αὐτῷ in v. 11, which would not be obviously grammatically connected to Christ.

141. To have the future “as future” is a dialectical expression, conveying the paradox that the future is already actual in the life of the believer and yet still in the form of promise.

142. German: Bestimmungen . . . als Wartende, als Hoffende. This is a characteristic phrase of Barth’s, suggesting God’s sovereign determination to make us who we are. Literally, “It designates them, in contrast to the determinations in vv. 7–10 as the ones who wait, as the ones who hope.”

143. Hofmann, Epheser, 23–24.

144. Beck, Epheser, 3, 82–83.

145. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Hand-Book, 327. According to Meyer: “ἐκληρώθημεν means: we were made partakers of the κλῆρος, ‘inheritance’ (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:12), that is, of the possession of the Messianic kingdom, which before the Parousia is an ideal possession (v. 14; Rom. 8:24), and thereafter a real one.”

146. See Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Egmont, act 3, scene 2 (ET, Goethe’s Plays, trans. Charles E. Passage [New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980], 333).

Sky high exulting

To death burdened down;

Happiness lives

In the lover alone.

See also Barth, Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 123: “Where that does happen, Christianity cannot help but land on the ‘escalator’ [trottoir roulant] of emotional experiences, up in that ‘sky high exulting,’ before which the soul that loves God is not protected and must therefore be defended.”

147. “Self-regulated, or rather, regulated by God.” Literally, “the Christian is a law unto himself or rather, by God’s law.” In the first case, Barth is stressing that the Christian is autonomous or independent of the forces that go up and down. In the second phrase, he qualifies this statement, using a play on words to say that the Christian is not independent of God but rather lives by his command. The translation “self-regulated . . . divine-regulated” is an attempt to express the play on words.

148. Cf. Barth, Romans, 208: “But I am also disturbed, for the demand bids me take up arms against the world of men and against the men of the world.”

149. Beck, Epheser, 86.

150. Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament, 68–69.

151. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Hand-Book, 328–30.

152. Von Soden, Epheser, 111.

153. Dibelius, An die Epheser, 99.

154. Barth seems to be saying that by virtue of addressing the Ephesian Christians as σφραγισθέντες (“those who are sealed by the Spirit”), he touches the objective point in them; he simultaneously addresses them ad hominem, ἐν ᾧ καὶ ὑμεῖς (“in you also”), touching the subjective point in them and therefore the point where the objective εὐλογία πνευματική (v. 3) is revealed as subjective (where subjective and the objective are one).

155. German: durchschauen. The word means to “see through,” or “to see things as they really are.” In order to emphasize the theme of penetrating or breaking through beyond the surface of things, which is implicit in Barth’s argument, this sentence could be translated: “the more clearly we see through the relativity of all things.” Cf. James 1:25, Lutherbibel: “Wer aber durchschaut in das vollkommene Gesetz der Freheit. . . .”

156. German: In ihm ist das Nicht-Gegebene gegeben, Gott offenbar. Alternately: “In him, the noncontingent becomes contingent.”

157. German: Was die Genitive sagen, das tritt real ein mit dem, was das Hauptwort sagt. Barth means that the announcement about salvation actually occasions salvation.

158. John Calvin, Commentarius in Epistolam Sancti Pauli Ad Ephesos, 154; → ET: Paul’s “frequent mention of the glory of God ought not to be thought superfluous, for what is infinite cannot be spoken of too much. This is particularly true in commending the Divine mercy, to whose meaning no godly person will ever be able to do justice in words. All godly tongues will be as ready to utter His praises as their ears will be open to hear them. For if men and angels combined their eloquence on this theme, it would still fall far short of its greatness” (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 133).

159. Karl Barth’s translation.

160. Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament, 257; “a compendium of the gospel.”

161. Cf. Karl Barth and Eduard Thurneysen, Revolutionary Theology in the Making: Barth-Thurneysen Correspondence, 1914–1925, trans. James D. Smart (Richmond: John Knox, 1964), 43: “Paul—what a man he must have been, and what men also those for whom he could so sketch and hint at these pithy things in a few muddled fragments!”

162. Alternately: “I hope that I have convinced you that it is possible to stand with Paul, to perceive what he perceives, and not only to see along with him but to think along with him from that point where the subject matter. . . .”

163. Barth means that one finds oneself only when life is seen from the apex, i.e., life lived to the praise of the glory of God. Because other believers have made the same discovery, it becomes a ligament that binds them to one another, even though this bond may be restricting or quite elastic in other respects.

164. Alternately: “He begins again at the beginning,” one of Barth’s signature phrases.

165. German: Da ist nichts schon im Werden order gar im Sein. In other words, nothing exists in and of itself; it has existence only in relation to God. Cf. Karl Barth, Witness to the Word: A Commentary on John 1 by Karl Barth, Lectures at Münster in 1925 and at Bonn in 1933, ed. Walther Fürst, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 34, where Barth employs similar language in his discussion of “egeneto” in John 1:3: “Everything that has come into being is completely different from him. . . . This is how things are with all that is. It is related to God. It is something and not nothing. But it is something only as it is related to the Word. Its existence is conceivable only in the light of the Word.”

166. “For nothing is more dangerous than satiety of spiritual benefits” (Calvin, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, 134).

167. “God as he really is”; or, “We must call upon God, acknowledging that he alone is God.”

168. German: der Kämpfer um Gott. Barth uses Kämpfer and its cognates to describe someone who is faithful to the truth of the gospel. Cf. Barth, Die Theologie der Reformierten Bekenntnisschriften, GA 30 (Zürich: TVZ, 1998), 136 (→ ET, Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 86), where grace is described as that which “inevitably makes a person into a worker and a fighter [die den Menschen unweigerlich zum Arbeiter und Kämpfer macht].” See also Die Theologie der Reformierten Bekenntnisschriften, 86 (Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 78), where Barth speaks of the “der Richtung des reformierten Kampfes” and of Zwingli’s Geneva confession as a “Kampfdocument” (Barth’s emphases).

169. “Order of salvation.”

170. German: was not tut, ineinander in der lebendigen Bewegung. For a discussion of the ineinander relationship of time and eternity, which appears frequently in Barth, Romans I, see McCormack, Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology, 144–46.

171. German: ihr müßt die Fähigkeit gebrauchen, über dieses Eurige hinaus euch immer wider aufzuschleißen für den Gegenstand. I have substituted visual images where Barth uses spatial metaphors; he is saying that on the basis of what they already have, they are to proceed; and yet any advance is toward the subject that is ahead of them. This idea is consistent with Barth’s overall theme that God’s blessings are the source and the goal of human existence.

172. Barth was given access to Franz Overbeck’s archives by Overbeck’s student Carl Albrecht Bernoulli. Upon reading Overbeck’s Christentum und Kultur: Gedanken und Anmerkungen zur modernen Theologie (Basel: Benno Schwabe, 1919); Kritische Neuausgabe: Franz Overbeck, Werke und Nachlaß, Bd. 6/1, Kirchenlexicon Materialien: Christentum und Kultur, hg. Barbara von Reibnitz (Stuttgart; Weimar: Metzler, 1966), Barth wrote a lengthy review essay (Barth, Unerledigte Anfragen an die heutige Theologie [1920]; reprinted in Die Theologie und Kirche [Munich: Kaiser Verlag, 1928], 2.8, 1–25) in which he summarizes Overbeck’s criticism of modern Christianity, namely, that it has drifted so far from early Christianity that its central claims simply mirror modern thought. As such, “the essence of modern Christianity [is] its insignificance” (see Barth, Unerledigte Anfragen, 15; cf. Overbeck, Christentum und Kultur [Kirchenlexicon Materialien, 100f.]). Overbeck himself remarked of Chateaubriand’s Génie du christianisme and Harnack’s Wesen des Christentums: “Both works would be better understood if given the title The Insignificance of Christianity, or perhaps The Spirit of Christianity in My Time” (Overbeck, Christentum und Kultur, 67–68 [Kirchenlexicon Materialien, 100–101]).

173. “Par excellence.”

174. For a discussion of Barth’s mature thinking on time and eternity, see George Hunsinger, “Mysterium Trinitatis: Karl Barth’s Doctrine of the Holy Spirit,” in Disruptive Grace: Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 186–209.

175. The paradoxical nature of questions and answers is a frequent theme in Barth’s writings of the period. For other examples, see “The Strange New World of the Bible,” in The Word of God and the Word of Man, 28–50, especially 32, 39, 43; note also “Biblical Questions,” 53: “The question we ask becomes a question asked of us.”

176. Barth is saying that even if Paul’s account is superior to other accounts by a factor of 1,000 to 1, the relationship or degree of accuracy of the Pauline account to the event itself is 1,000 to infinity.

177. Cf. the Socratic motto: “He who thinks that he knows, knows not. But he who knows that he knows not is the one who knows.”

178. German: Seid ihr, was ihr seid? Cf. Barth, Romans, 207, where he quotes Godet: “Be what thou already art in Christ.”

179. The “waiting that hastens” is a prominent theme in Barth’s theology during this period. See Barth, Romans, 157, 183.

180. German: die scheidende Mitte. Cf. Barth, Romans, 195, where he says that “the life hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:1) . . . is the invisible point of observation and of relationship, the judgment exercised by my infinite upon my finite existence; it is the threatening and promising which is set beyond time, beyond all visibility, beyond all the finite and concrete events of my life.”

181. ET: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, “On the Proof of the Spirit and of Power,” in Lessing’s Theological Writings, trans. H. Chadwick (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1957), 55: “That, then, is the ugly, broad ditch which I cannot get across.” Cf. Barth, Theology of the Reformed Confessions, 64: “Lessing’s ugly ditch between eternal and rational truth and contingent historical truth had to open up.”

182. German: diesseits (“here-and-now)”; jenseits (“beyond”).

183. German: Aufhebung, translated here and elsewhere as “sublation.” See n. 63 above.

184. German: der Geringste, der Schuldingste unter den Heiligen. Here Barth uses both a play on words and a biblical allusion that cannot be rendered in English. With the first word, Barth alludes to 1 Cor. 15:9: “I am the least of the apostles” (den geringsten unter den Aposteln). The second word, Schuldingste, means the most guilty or greatest sinner. Thus, in Barth’s paraphrase, Paul is “the least” (of the apostles) and “the most guilty” among the believers.

185. Friedrich von Schiller, Die Braut von Messina oder Die feindlichen Brüder, 4. Akt, 7. Szene.

186. Cf. Ps. 121:1. The translation attempts to convey Barth’s rhetorical device of merging his sentences into the psalm. Cf. Barth, Witness to the Word, 2, where he employs the same verse and imagery to describe the work of biblical interpretation, paraphrasing Augustine.

188. “Theology for pilgrims.”