Ephesians 1:9

1:9 He did this when he revealed ¹  to us the secret ²  of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth ³  in Christ, ⁴ 

Ephesians 3:4

3:4 When reading this, ⁵  you will be able to ⁶  understand my insight into this secret ⁷  of Christ.

Ephesians 5:32

5:32 This mystery is great – but I am actually ⁸  speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

[1:9]  ¹ tn Or “He did this by revealing”; Grk “making known, revealing.” Verse 9 begins with a participle dependent on “lavished” in v. 8; the adverbial participle could be understood as temporal (“when he revealed”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “lavished,” or as means (“by revealing”). The participle has been translated here with the temporal nuance to allow for means to also be a possible interpretation. If the translation focused instead upon means, the temporal nuance would be lost as the time frame for the action of the participle would become indistinct.

[1:9]  ² tn Or “mystery.” In the NT μυστήριον (musthrion) refers to a divine secret previously undisclosed.

[1:9]  ³ tn Or “purposed,” “publicly displayed.” Cf. Rom 3:25.

[1:9]  ⁴ tn Grk “in him”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[3:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “which, when reading.”

[3:4]  ⁶ tn Grk “you are able to.”

[3:4]  ⁷ tn Or “mystery.”

[5:32]  ⁹ tn The term “actually” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to bring out the heightened sense of the statement.