<p>3:10- see on Gal. 6:6.</p><p><i>The intention was that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places</i>- We note the idea of &quot;intention&quot; (as in :9). God will not force His way upon those who refuse Him, and even with those of us who accept His way, He bears with our dysfunctions- which mean that His ideal intentions remain not fully achieved in this life. We waste so much potential by our slowness and obtuse dysfunction in spiritual matters. The wisdom of God was seen by Paul as being His plan to save and unite all men, Jew and Gentile, within His Son (Rom. 11:33; 1 Cor. 1:24; 2:7). That wisdom is given to us by the Spirit (1:17); it is ours for the asking (James 1:5). The unity of Jew and Gentile in the church is the context here, and that was to be the public exhibition of God's manifold wisdom. We can read &quot;the rulers and authorities&quot; as referring simply to the rulers of this world; for 'the heavens' can Biblically refer to those in authority over the masses on 'earth'. The church at Ephesus had been born within a background of conflict with the rulers of this world; and the unity between Jew and Gentile in the church was intended to witness to them of God's manifold wisdom. The church is the body of Christ; He is manifest only through us. We are Him, in that sense. Our bodies are members of His body (1 Cor. 6:15). All that we do, in word and deed, is in the Name of the Lord Jesus- i.e. as representing Him whose Name we called upon ourselves in baptism (Col. 3:17). We are the words of His epistle to both the world and the brotherhood; He has no other face or legs or arms than us (2 Cor. 3:3). We can thereby limit Him if our disunity fails to manifest His wisdom as intended.</p><p>But Paul was a Jew writing to those influenced by Judaism. It could be that &quot;principalities and powers&quot; (AV) could refer to Angels, which were a major aspect of Jewish thought in the first century. In this case it would appear that the Angels learn and increase their knowledge from watching our response to the Gospel. &quot;Principalities and powers&quot; is a phrase apposite to the Angels and&nbsp; it is clearly used regarding the Angels who gave the Law in Col 2:15. In this case Eph. 3:9,10 could be read like this: &quot;To make all (both Angels and Christians- AV &quot;men&quot; is not in the original) see what is the fellowship of the mystery (that both Jews and Gentiles can be saved), which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God (and therefore from the Angels too)&hellip; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the ecclesia the manifold wisdom of God&quot;. We share the heavenlies with the Angels- and in any case, why cannot 'the heavenlies' refer to literal Heaven also in a sense? As Christ was resurrected and ascended to literal Heaven, the Heavenlies of Eph. 1:20, so we are baptized and spiritually ascend to Heaven straight afterwards (Eph. 1:20). An Angelic interpretation would avoid the difficult that the human principalities and powers to whom the mystery was made known&nbsp;would not accept that mystery, according to 1 Cor. 2:7,8,14: &quot;We speak the wisdom of God (cp. Eph. 1 &quot;the manifold wisdom of God&quot;) in a mystery (cp. &quot;the mystery&hellip; which hath been hid&quot; in Eph. 1)&hellip; which none of the princes of this world knew (principalities and powers)&hellip; the natural man (i. e. the princes of this world) receives not the things of the Spirit of God (the &quot;mystery&quot; of :7), for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned&quot;. Because Angels control world rulers, &quot;principalities and powers&quot; could perhaps refer both to them and the Angels behind them.</p>