That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Ver. 10. That in the dispensation] God is the best economic; his house is exactly ordered for matter of good husbandry, οικονομια. "Dispensation of the fulness of time" is (by a metonmy a of the adjunct) put for "fulness of times," wisely dispensed. (Bain.)
Gather together in one] Gr. ανακεφαλαιωσασθαι, recapitulate, reduce all to a head, recollect, to restore all things, and bring them to their primitive perfection.
Both which are in heaven] The crowned saints, and perhaps the glorious angels, who (according to some divines) being in themselves changeable creatures (and therefore called Shinan, that is, mutable, Psa 68:17), receive confirmation by Christ, so that they cannot leave their first station, as did the apostate angels. Others think that the angels stand not by means of Christ's mediation, but of God's eternal election, and are therefore called the elect angels.
a A figure of speech which consists in substituting for the name of a thing the name of an attribute of it or of something closely related. ŒD