Ephesians 1:20

1:20 This power ¹  he exercised ²  in Christ when he raised him ³  from the dead and seated him ⁴  at his right hand in the heavenly realms ⁵ 

Ephesians 1:11

1:11 In Christ ⁶  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ⁷  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

Ephesians 3:20

3:20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us ⁸  is able to do far beyond ⁹  all that we ask or think,

Ephesians 2:2

2:2 in which ¹⁰  you formerly lived ¹¹  according to this world’s present path, ¹²  according to the ruler of the kingdom ¹³  of the air, the ruler of ¹⁴  the spirit ¹⁵  that is now energizing ¹⁶  the sons of disobedience, ¹⁷ 

¹ tn Grk “which” (v. 20 is a subordinate clause to v. 19).

² tn The verb “exercised” (the aorist of ἐνεργέω, energew) has its nominal cognate in “exercise” in v. 19 (ἐνέργεια, energeia).

³ tn Or “This power he exercised in Christ by raising him”; Grk “raising him.” The adverbial participle ἐγείρας (egeiras) could be understood as temporal (“when he raised [him]”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “he exercised” earlier in the verse, or as means (“by raising [him]”). The participle has been translated here with the temporal nuance to allow for means to also be a possible interpretation. If the translation focused instead upon means, the temporal nuance would be lost as the time frame for the action of the participle would become indistinct.

⁴ tc The majority of mss, especially the Western and Byzantine mss (D F G Ψ Ï b r Ambst), have the indicative ἐκάθισεν (ekaqisen, “he seated”) for καθίσας (kaqisa", “when he seated, by seating”). The indicative is thus coordinate with ἐνήργησεν (enhrghsen, “he exercised”) and provides an additional statement to “he exercised his power.” The participle (found in Ì^92vid א A B 0278 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 2464 al), on the other hand, is coordinate with ἐγείρας (egeiras) and as such provides evidence of God’s power: He exercised his power by raising Christ from the dead and by seating him at his right hand. As intriguing as the indicative reading is, it is most likely an intentional alteration of the original wording, accomplished by an early “Western” scribe, which made its way in the Byzantine text.

⁵ sn Eph 1:19-20. The point made in these verses is that the power required to live a life pleasing to God is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. For a similar thought, cf. John 15:1-11.

⁶ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

⁷ tn Grk “we were appointed by lot.” The notion of the verb κληρόω (klhrow) in the OT was to “appoint a portion by lot” (the more frequent cognate verb κληρονομέω [klhronomew] meant “obtain a portion by lot”). In the passive, as here, the idea is that “we were appointed [as a portion] by lot” (BDAG 548 s.v. κληρόω 1). The words “God’s own” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this sense of the verb. An alternative interpretation is that believers receive a portion as an inheritance: “In Christ we too have been appointed a portion of the inheritance.” See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 226-27, for discussion on this interpretive issue.

¹¹ sn On the power that is working within us see 1:19-20.

¹² tn Or “infinitely beyond,” “far more abundantly than.”

¹⁶ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

¹⁷ tn Grk “walked.”

¹⁸ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

¹⁹ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

²⁰ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

²¹ sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

²² tn Grk “working in.”

²³ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.