3:20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us 5 is able to do far beyond 6 all that we ask or think, 3:21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus 7 for the sake of you Gentiles –
7:1 Now this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him. 18
1:24 Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, 21 and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, 22 without blemish 23 before his glorious presence, 24 1:25 to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.
1 tc Most
2 tn Or “commend.” BDAG 772 s.v. παρατίθημι 3.b has “τινά τινι entrust someone to the care or protection of someone…Of divine protection παρέθεντο αὐτοὺς τῷ κυρίῳ Ac 14:23; cp. 20:32.”
3 tn Grk “word.”
4 tn Grk “the message of his grace, which.” The phrase τῷ δυναμένῳ οἰκοδομῆσαι… (tw dunamenw oikodomhsai…) refers to τῷ λόγω (tw logw), not τῆς χάριτος (ths caritos); in English it could refer to either “the message” or “grace,” but in Greek, because of agreement in gender, the referent can only be “the message.” To make this clear, a new sentence was begun in the translation and the referent “the message” was repeated at the beginning of this new sentence.
5 sn On the power that is working within us see 1:19-20.
6 tn Or “infinitely beyond,” “far more abundantly than.”
7 tc Several early and important witnesses, chiefly of the Western text (א* D* F G [365]), lack ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou, “Jesus”) here, while most Alexandrian and Byzantine
8 tn Grk “I ask.” No direct object is given in Greek, leaving room for the possibility that either “God” (since the verb is often associated with prayer) or “you” is in view.
9 tn Grk “my trials on your behalf.”
10 sn Which. The antecedent (i.e., the word or concept to which this clause refers back) may be either “what I am suffering for you” or the larger concept of the recipients not losing heart over Paul’s suffering for them. The relative pronoun “which” is attracted to the predicate nominative “glory” in its gender and number (feminine singular), making the antecedent ambiguous. Paul’s suffering for them could be viewed as their glory (cf. Col 1:24 for a parallel) in that his suffering has brought about their salvation, but if so his suffering must be viewed as more than his present imprisonment in Rome; it would be a general description of his ministry overall (cf. 2 Cor 11:23-27). The other option is that the author is implicitly arguing that the believers have continued to have courage in the midst of his trials (as not to lose heart suggests) and that this is their glory. Philippians 1:27-28 offers an interesting parallel: The believers’ courage in the face of adversity is a sign of their salvation.
11 tn Or “Or who is your glory?” The relative pronoun ἥτις (Jhti"), if divided differently, would become ἤ τίς (h ti"). Since there were no word breaks in the original
12 sn If indeed. The author is not doubting whether his audience has heard, but is rather using provocative language (if indeed) to engage his audience in thinking about the magnificence of God’s grace. However, in English translation, the apodosis (“then”-clause) does not come until v. 13, leaving the protasis (“if”-clause) dangling. Eph 3:2-7 constitute one sentence in Greek.
13 tn Or “administration,” “dispensation,” “commission.”
14 tn Grk “by killing the hostility in himself.”
15 tn Or “namely, that is.”
16 tn Or “mystery.”
17 tn Or “as I wrote above briefly.”
18 sn A series of quotations from Gen 14:17-19.
19 tn Grk “having been designated,” continuing the thought of Heb 5:9.
20 sn The phrase in the order of Melchizedek picks up the quotation from Ps 110:4 in Heb 5:6.
21 tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “free from falling” is the adjectival complement.
22 tn Grk “with rejoicing.” The prepositional clause is placed after “his glorious presence” in Greek, but most likely goes with “cause you to stand.”
23 tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “without blemish” is the adjectival complement.
24 tn Or “in the presence of his glory,” “before his glory.”