Ephesians 1:5

1:5 He did this by predestining ¹  us to adoption as his ²  sons ³  through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure ⁴  of his will –

Ephesians 2:4

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,

Ephesians 2:8

2:8 For by grace you are saved ⁵  through faith, ⁶  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Ephesians 2:16

2:16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. ⁷ 

Ephesians 2:18

2:18 so that ⁸  through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 3:6

3:6 namely, that through the gospel ⁹  the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members ¹⁰  of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

¹ tn Grk “by predestining.” Verse 5 begins with an aorist participle dependent on the main verb in v. 4 (“chose”).

² tn Grk “to himself” after “through Jesus Christ.”

³ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as…sons.”

⁴ tn Or “good pleasure.”

⁵ tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.

⁶ tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pistews, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1881 pc. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia th" pistew") is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1739 al bo) lack the article. Hence, both text-critically and exegetically, the meaning of the text here is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” Regarding the textual problem, the lack of the article is the preferred reading.

⁹ tn Grk “by killing the hostility in himself.”

¹³ tn Or “for.” BDAG gives the consecutive ὅτι (Joti) as a possible category of NT usage (BDAG 732 s.v. 5.c).

¹⁷ sn The phrase through the gospel is placed last in the sentence in Greek for emphasis. It has been moved forward for clarity.

¹⁸ tn Grk “and fellow members.”