3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple 1 and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, 3 whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.
1 sn You are God’s temple refers here to the church, since the pronoun you is plural in the Greek text. (In 6:19 the same imagery is used in a different context to refer to the individual believer.)
2 tn Grk “the ‘in you’ Holy Spirit.” The position of the prepositional phrase ἐν ὑμῖν (en Jumin, “in you”) between the article and the adjective effectively places the prepositional phrase in first attributive position. Such constructions are generally translated into English as relative clauses.
3 tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.
4 tn Grk “having been built.”
5 sn Apostles and prophets. Because the prophets appear after the mention of the apostles and because they are linked together in 3:5 as recipients of revelation about the church, they are to be regarded not as Old Testament prophets, but as New Testament prophets.
6 tn Grk “while Christ Jesus himself is” or “Christ Jesus himself being.”
7 tn Or perhaps “capstone” (NAB). The meaning of ἀκρογωνιαῖος (akrogwniaio") is greatly debated. The meaning “capstone” is proposed by J. Jeremias (TDNT 1:792), but the most important text for this meaning (T. Sol. 22:7-23:4) is late and possibly not even an appropriate parallel. The only place ἀκρογωνιαῖος is used in the LXX is Isa 28:16, and there it clearly refers to a cornerstone that is part of a foundation. Furthermore, the imagery in this context has the building growing off the cornerstone upward, whereas if Christ were the capstone, he would not assume his position until the building was finished, which vv. 21-22 argue against.
8 tn Grk “in whom” (v. 21 is a relative clause, subordinate to v. 20).
9 tc Although several important witnesses (א1 A C P 6 81 326 1739c 1881) have πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή (pasa Jh oikodomh), instead of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή (the reading of א* B D F G Ψ 33 1739* Ï), the article is almost surely a scribal addition intended to clarify the meaning of the text, for with the article the meaning is unambiguously “the whole building.”
10 sn The Greek makes the contrast between v. 5 and v. 6a more emphatic and explicit than is easily done in English.
11 tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
12 tn Grk “whose house we are,” continuing the previous sentence.
13 tc The reading adopted by the translation is found in Ì13,46 B sa, while the vast majority of
14 tn Grk “the pride of our hope.”
15 tn Or “who is victorious”; traditionally, “who overcomes.”
16 tn Grk “I will make him,” but the pronoun (αὐτόν, auton, “him”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.
17 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
18 sn This description of the city of my God is parenthetical, explaining further the previous phrase and interrupting the list of “new names” given here.