Isaiah 57:4

57:4 At whom are you laughing?

At whom are you opening your mouth

and sticking out your tongue?

You are the children of rebels,

the offspring of liars, ¹ 

Ezekiel 16:45-46

16:45 You are the daughter of your mother, who detested her husband and her sons, and you are the sister of your sisters who detested their husbands and their sons. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 16:46 Your older sister was Samaria, who lived north ²  of you with her daughters, and your younger sister, who lived south ³  of you, was Sodom ⁴  with her daughters.

Ephesians 2:2-3

2:2 in which ⁵  you formerly lived ⁶  according to this world’s present path, ⁷  according to the ruler of the kingdom ⁸  of the air, the ruler of ⁹  the spirit ¹⁰  that is now energizing ¹¹  the sons of disobedience, ¹²  2:3 among whom ¹³  all of us ¹⁴  also ¹⁵  formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath ¹⁶  even as the rest… ¹⁷ 

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ¹⁸  dead ¹⁹  in your transgressions and sins,

Ephesians 1:14

1:14 who is the down payment ²⁰  of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, ²¹  to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:2

1:2 Grace and peace to you ²²  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Ephesians 2:14

2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one ²³  and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,

¹ tn Heb “Are you not children of rebellion, offspring of a lie?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course you are!”

² tn Heb “left.”

³ tn Heb “right.”

⁴ sn Sodom was the epitome of evil (Deut 29:23; 32:32; Isa 1:9-10; 3:9; Jer 23:14; Lam 4:6; Matt 10:15; 11:23-24; Jude 7).

⁵ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

⁶ tn Grk “walked.”

⁷ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

⁸ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

⁹ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

¹⁰ 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).

¹¹ tn Grk “working in.”

¹² 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.

¹³ sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).

¹⁴ tn Grk “we all.”

¹⁵ tn Or “even.”

¹⁶ sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”

¹⁷ sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.

¹⁸ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

¹⁹ sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.

²⁰ tn Or “first installment,” “pledge,” “deposit.”

²¹ tn Grk “the possession.”

²² tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

²³ tn Grk “who made the both one.”