Harold Hoehner and Ephesians 4:30

Harold W. Hoehner (1935-2009) specialized in NT studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. More significant for me, he wrote one of the most detailed commentaries about Ephesians that I've ever read. For this entry, I want to discuss Hoehner's remarks about the textual issues surrounding Ephesians 4:30--as a reminder, SBLGNT has this reading for 4:30:

καὶ μὴ λυπεῖτε τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐν ᾧ ἐσφραγίσθητε εἰς ἡμέραν ἀπολυτρώσεως.

Hoehner contends that the coordinating conjunction καὶ links 4:30 with the preceding verse and its imperatival statement, πᾶς λόγος σαπρὸς ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν μὴ ἐκπορευέσθω. So he believes that the command to utter no unwholesome word and μὴ λυπεῖτε τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τοῦ θεοῦ belong together conceptually. Like other commentators, Hoehner likewise reckons that since the holy spirit can be grieved, then the spirit of God must be personal (i.e., a divine person). He also invokes Isaiah 63:10 and other texts to support this position.

Next, Hoehner comes to ἐν ᾧ ἐσϕραγίσθητε εἰς ἡμέραν ἀπολυτρώσεως, which is rendered “by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” While he realizes that  ἐν ᾧ could possibly be referring to the sphere in which Christian sealing occurs, Hoehner professes that the construction "more likely refers to the instrument with which we were sealed (cf. 1:13)." That is, he maintains that Paul is depicting the spirit as the divine instrument whereby Christians are sealed: this claim is similar to Wallace's thought about the dative being able to portray means (instrumentality) with personal agents.

William J. Larkin supplies these observations (Ephesians: A Handbook on the Greek Text, page 103):

ἐν ᾧ. Instrumental (congruent with the dative of means in 1:13; not location, contra Salmond, 348, or sphere of reference, contra Lenski, 584, both of which tie the Spirit more loosely to the verb’s action; see also 1:3 on ἐν Χριστῷ).

ἐσφραγίσθητε. Aor pass ind 2nd pl σφραγίζω. God the Father is the implied agent. On the meaning, see 1:13 on ἐσφραγίσθητε.

I can accept that Paul's use of ἐν ᾧ is instrumental here, but it still appears that theology primarily drives the rendering "by whom." If the relative clause is an example of instrumentality here, then why translate with "by whom"? I will attempt to demonstrate theology drives how translators render Ephesians 4:30 in a future entry.

Rotherham EB: "And be not grieving the Holy Spirit of God, wherewith ye have been sealed unto a day of redemption"

See Joshua M. Greever, "What Does It Mean To Grieve The Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30)?" JBTM 16:1 (Spring 2019) .