Ephesians 2:21-22

2:21 In him ¹  the whole building, ²  being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:12

3:12 in whom we have boldness and confident access ³  to God ⁴  because of ⁵  Christ’s ⁶  faithfulness. ⁷ 

Ephesians 5:18

5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, which ⁸  is debauchery, ⁹  but be filled by the Spirit, ¹⁰ 

Ephesians 1:13

1:13 And when ¹¹  you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ ¹²  – you were marked with the seal ¹³  of the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ 

Ephesians 4:30

4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Ephesians 1:7

1:7 In him ¹⁵  we have redemption through his blood, ¹⁶  the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

Ephesians 1:11

1:11 In Christ ¹⁷  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ¹⁸  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

Ephesians 6:16

6:16 and in all of this, ¹⁹  by taking up the shield ²⁰  of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

[2:21]  ¹ tn Grk “in whom” (v. 21 is a relative clause, subordinate to v. 20).

[2:21]  ² tc Although several important witnesses (א¹ A C P 6 81 326 1739^c 1881) have πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή (pasa Jh oikodomh), instead of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή (the reading of א* B D F G Ψ 33 1739* Ï), the article is almost surely a scribal addition intended to clarify the meaning of the text, for with the article the meaning is unambiguously “the whole building.”

[3:12]  ³ tn Grk “access in confidence.”

[3:12]  ⁴ tn The phrase “to God” is not in the text, but is clearly implied by the preceding, “access.”

[3:12]  ⁵ tn Grk “through,” “by way of.”

[3:12]  ⁶ tn Grk “his.”

[3:12]  ⁷ tn Or “faith in him.” A decision is difficult here. Though traditionally translated “faith in Jesus Christ,” an increasing number of NT scholars are arguing that πίστις Χριστοῦ (pisti" Cristou) and similar phrases in Paul (here and in Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 2:16, 20; 3:22; Phil 3:9) involve a subjective genitive and mean “Christ’s faith” or “Christ’s faithfulness” (cf., e.g., G. Howard, “The ‘Faith of Christ’,” ExpTim 85 [1974]: 212-15; R. B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ [SBLDS]; Morna D. Hooker, “Πίστις Χριστοῦ,” NTS 35 [1989]: 321-42). Noteworthy among the arguments for the subjective genitive view is that when πίστις takes a personal genitive it is almost never an objective genitive (cf. Matt 9:2, 22, 29; Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; Luke 5:20; 7:50; 8:25, 48; 17:19; 18:42; 22:32; Rom 1:8; 12; 3:3; 4:5, 12, 16; 1 Cor 2:5; 15:14, 17; 2 Cor 10:15; Phil 2:17; Col 1:4; 2:5; 1 Thess 1:8; 3:2, 5, 10; 2 Thess 1:3; Titus 1:1; Phlm 6; 1 Pet 1:9, 21; 2 Pet 1:5). On the other hand, the objective genitive view has its adherents: A. Hultgren, “The Pistis Christou Formulations in Paul,” NovT 22 (1980): 248-63; J. D. G. Dunn, “Once More, ΠΙΣΤΙΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ,” SBL Seminar Papers, 1991, 730-44. Most commentaries on Romans and Galatians usually side with the objective view.

[5:18]  ⁵ tn Grk “in which.”

[5:18]  ⁶ tn Or “dissipation.” See BDAG 148 s.v. ἀσωτία.

[5:18]  ⁷ tn Many have taken ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati) as indicating content, i.e., one is to be filled with the Spirit. ExSyn 375 states, “There are no other examples in biblical Greek in which ἐν + the dative after πληρόω indicates content. Further, the parallel with οἴνῳ as well as the common grammatical category of means suggest that the idea intended is that believers are to be filled by means of the [Holy] Spirit. If so there seems to be an unnamed agent. The meaning of this text can only be fully appreciated in light of the πληρόω language in Ephesians. Always the term is used in connection with a member of the Trinity. Three considerations seem to be key: (1) In Eph 3:19 the ‘hinge’ prayer introducing the last half of the letter makes a request that the believers ‘be filled with all the fullness of God’ (πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ). The explicit content of πληρόω is thus God’s fullness (probably a reference to his moral attributes). (2) In 4:10 Christ is said to be the agent of filling (with v. 11 adding the specifics of his giving spiritual gifts). (3) The author then brings his argument to a crescendo in 5:18: Believers are to be filled by Christ by means of the Spirit with the content of the fullness of God.”

[1:13]  ⁷ tn Grk “in whom you also, when…” (continuing the sentence from v. 12).

[1:13]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “you were sealed.”

[1:13]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the Holy Spirit of promise.” Here ἐπαγγελίας (epangelias, “of promise”) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[1:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “in whom” (the relative clause of v. 7 is subordinate to v. 6). The “him” refers to Christ.

[1:7]  ¹⁰ sn In this context his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, refers to the price paid for believers’ redemption, which is the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

[1:11]  ¹¹ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  ¹² tn Grk “we were appointed by lot.” The notion of the verb κληρόω (klhrow) in the OT was to “appoint a portion by lot” (the more frequent cognate verb κληρονομέω [klhronomew] meant “obtain a portion by lot”). In the passive, as here, the idea is that “we were appointed [as a portion] by lot” (BDAG 548 s.v. κληρόω 1). The words “God’s own” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this sense of the verb. An alternative interpretation is that believers receive a portion as an inheritance: “In Christ we too have been appointed a portion of the inheritance.” See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 226-27, for discussion on this interpretive issue.

[6:16]  ¹³ tn Grk “in everything.”

[6:16]  ¹⁴ sn The Greek word translated shield (θυρεός, qureos) refers to the Roman soldier’s large rectangular wooden shield, called in Latin scutum, about 4 ft (1.2 m) high, covered with leather on the outside. Before a battle in which flaming arrows might be shot at them, the soldiers wet the leather covering with water to extinguish the arrows. The Roman legionaries could close ranks with these shields, the first row holding theirs edge to edge in front, and the rows behind holding the shields above their heads. In this formation they were practically invulnerable to arrows, rocks, and even spears.