Deuteronomy 7:18

7:18 you must not fear them. You must carefully recall ¹  what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt,

Psalms 77:11

77:11 I will remember the works of the Lord.

Yes, I will remember the amazing things you did long ago! ² 

Psalms 106:7

106:7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds,

they failed to remember your many acts of loyal love,

and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea. ³ 

Ephesians 2:11-12

New Life Corporately

2:11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body ⁴  by human hands – 2:12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, ⁵  alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, ⁶  having no hope and without God in the world.

Ephesians 2:2

2:2 in which ⁷  you formerly lived ⁸  according to this world’s present path, ⁹  according to the ruler of the kingdom ¹⁰  of the air, the ruler of ¹¹  the spirit ¹²  that is now energizing ¹³  the sons of disobedience, ¹⁴ 

Ephesians 1:12-13

1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope ¹⁵  on Christ, ¹⁶  would be to the praise of his glory. 1:13 And when ¹⁷  you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ ¹⁸  – you were marked with the seal ¹⁹  of the promised Holy Spirit, ²⁰ 

Ephesians 3:1-2

Paul's Relationship to the Divine Mystery

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus ²¹  for the sake of you Gentiles – 3:2 if indeed ²²  you have heard of the stewardship ²³  of God’s grace that was given to me for you,

[7:18]  ¹ tn Heb “recalling, you must recall.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb for emphasis. Cf. KJV, ASV “shalt well remember.”

[77:11]  ² tn Heb “yes, I will remember from old your wonders.”

[106:7]  ³ tn Heb “Reed Sea” (also in vv. 9, 22). “Reed Sea” (or “Sea of Reeds”) is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew expression יָם סוּף (yam suf), traditionally translated “Red Sea.” See the note on the term “Red Sea” in Exod 13:18.

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “in the flesh.”

[2:12]  ⁵ tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”

[2:12]  ⁶ tn Or “covenants of the promise.”

[2:2]  ⁷ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

[2:2]  ⁸ tn Grk “walked.”

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

[2:2]  ¹² 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).

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Grk “working in.”

[2:2]  ¹⁴ 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.

[1:12]  ¹⁵ tn Or “who had already hoped.”

[1:12]  ¹⁶ tn Or “the Messiah.”

[1:13]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “in whom you also, when…” (continuing the sentence from v. 12).

[1:13]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “in whom also having believed.” The relative pronoun “whom” has been replaced in the translation with its antecedent (“Christ”) to improve the clarity.

[1:13]  ¹⁹ tn Or “you were sealed.”

[1:13]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the Holy Spirit of promise.” Here ἐπαγγελίας (epangelias, “of promise”) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[3:1]  ²¹ 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 mss (Ì⁴⁶ א¹ A B [C] D¹ Ψ 33 1739 [1881] Ï lat sy bo) have the word. However, because of the Western text’s proclivities to add or delete to the text, seemingly at whim, serious doubts should be attached to the shorter reading. It is strengthened, however, by א’s support. Nevertheless, since both א and D were corrected with the addition of ᾿Ιησοῦ, their testimony might be questioned. Further, in uncial script the nomina sacra here could have led to missing a word by way of homoioteleuton (cMuiMu). At the same time, in light of the rarity of scribal omission of nomina sacra (see TCGNT 582, n. 1), a decision for inclusion of the word here must be tentative. NA²⁷ rightly places ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets.

[3:2]  ²² 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.

[3:2]  ²³ tn Or “administration,” “dispensation,” “commission.”