6:9 Masters, 13 treat your slaves 14 the same way, 15 giving up the use of threats, 16 because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, 17 and there is no favoritism with him.
1 tn Or “not as a result of.”
2 tn Grk “lest anyone should boast.”
3 tn Grk “making mention [of you].”
5 tn Though the verb does not appear again at this point in the passage, it is nonetheless implied and supplied in the English translation for the sake of clarity.
6 tn Grk “serving as to the Lord.”
7 tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.
8 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 “which.” Verse 5 is technically a relative clause, subordinate to the thought of v. 4.
10 tn Grk “the sons of men” (a Semitic idiom referring to human beings, hence, “people”).
11 tn Grk “other.”
12 tn Or “in.”
11 tn Grk “be knowing this.” See also 2 Pet 1:20 for a similar phrase: τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες (touto prwton ginwskonte").
13 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
14 tn Though the Greek text only has αὐτούς (autous, “them”), the antecedent is the slaves of the masters. Therefore, it was translated this way to make it explicit in English.
15 tn Grk “do the same things to them.”
16 tn Grk “giving up the threat.”
17 tn Grk “because of both they and you, the Lord is, in heaven…”
15 tn BDAG 752 s.v. πάλη says, “struggle against…the opponent is introduced by πρός w. the acc.”
16 tn Grk “blood and flesh.”
17 tn BDAG 561 s.v. κοσμοκράτωρ suggests “the rulers of this sinful world” as a gloss.
18 tn BDAG 837 s.v. πνευματικός 3 suggests “the spirit-forces of evil” in Ephesians 6:12.
19 sn The phrase spiritual forces of evil in the heavens serves to emphasize the nature of the forces which oppose believers as well as to indicate the locality from which they originate.