Ephesians 4:11

4:11 It was he ¹  who gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, ² 

Ephesians 5:25

5:25 Husbands, love your ³  wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her

Ephesians 4:8

4:8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured ⁴  captives; he gave gifts to men.” ⁵ 

Ephesians 5:2

5:2 and live ⁶  in love, just as Christ also loved us ⁷  and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering ⁸  to God.

Ephesians 1:22

1:22 And God ⁹  put ¹⁰  all things under Christ’s ¹¹  feet, ¹²  and he gave him to the church as head over all things. ¹³ 

Ephesians 2:5

2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! ¹⁴  –

Ephesians 1:8

1:8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.

Ephesians 1:5-6

1:5 He did this by predestining ¹⁵  us to adoption as his ¹⁶  sons ¹⁷  through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure ¹⁸  of his will – 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace ¹⁹  that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. ²⁰ 

Ephesians 4:21

4:21 if indeed you heard about him and were taught in him, just as the truth is in Jesus.

Ephesians 1:20

1:20 This power ²¹  he exercised ²²  in Christ when he raised him ²³  from the dead and seated him ²⁴  at his right hand in the heavenly realms ²⁵ 

Ephesians 5:23

5:23 because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body.

[4:11]  ¹ tn The emphasis on Christ is continued through the use of the intensive pronoun, αὐτός (autos), and is rendered in English as “it was he” as this seems to lay emphasis on the “he.”

[4:11]  ² sn Some interpreters have understood the phrase pastors and teachers to refer to one and the same group. This would mean that all pastors are teachers and that all teachers are pastors. This position is often taken because it is recognized that both nouns (i.e., pastors and teachers) are governed by one article in Greek. But because the nouns are plural, it is extremely unlikely that they refer to the same group, but only that the author is linking them closely together. It is better to regard the pastors as a subset of teachers. In other words, all pastors are teachers, but not all teachers are pastors. See ExSyn 284.

[5:25]  ³ tn The Greek article has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[4:8]  ⁵ tn Grk “he led captive captivity.”

[4:8]  ⁶ sn A quotation which is perhaps ultimately derived from Ps 68:18. However, the wording here differs from that of Ps 68 in both the Hebrew text and the LXX in a few places, the most significant of which is reading “gave gifts to” in place of “received gifts from” as in HT and LXX. It has sometimes been suggested that the author of Ephesians modified the text he was citing in order to better support what he wanted to say here. Such modifications are sometimes found in rabbinic exegesis from this and later periods, but it is also possible that the author was simply citing a variant of Ps 68 known to him but which has not survived outside its quotation here (W. H. Harris, The Descent of Christ [AGJU 32], 104). Another possibility is that the words here, which strongly resemble Ps 68:19 HT and LXX (68:18 ET), are actually part of an early Christian hymn quoted by the author.

[5:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “walk.” The NT writers often used the verb “walk” (περιπατέω, peripatew) to refer to ethical conduct (cf. Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16; Col 4:5).

[5:2]  ⁸ tc A number of important witnesses have ὑμᾶς (Jumas, “you”; e.g., א* A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally important witnesses read ἡμᾶς (Jhmas, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א² D F G Ψ 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, hgaphsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (Jumin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being original.

[5:2]  ⁹ tn Grk “an offering and sacrifice to God as a smell of fragrance.” The first expression, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν (prosforan kai qusian), is probably a hendiadys and has been translated such that “sacrificial” modifies “offering.” The second expression, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (ei" osmhn euwdia", “as a smell of fragrance”) has been translated as “a fragrant offering”; see BDAG 728-29 s.v. ὀσμή 2. Putting these two together in a clear fashion in English yields the translation: “a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”

[1:22]  ⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:22]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “subjected.”

[1:22]  ¹¹ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:22]  ¹² sn An allusion to Ps 8:6.

[1:22]  ¹³ tn Grk “and he gave him as head over all things to the church.”

[2:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).

[1:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “by predestining.” Verse 5 begins with an aorist participle dependent on the main verb in v. 4 (“chose”).

[1:5]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “to himself” after “through Jesus Christ.”

[1:5]  ¹⁵ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as…sons.”

[1:5]  ¹⁶ tn Or “good pleasure.”

[1:6]  ¹⁵ tn Or “to the praise of his glorious grace.” Many translations translate δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ (doxh" th" carito" autou, literally “of the glory of his grace”) with τῆς χάριτος as an attributed genitive (cf., e.g., NIV, NRSV, ESV). The translation above has retained a literal rendering in order to make clear the relationship of this phrase to the other two similar phrases in v. 12 and 14, which affect the way one divides the material in the passage.

[1:6]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the beloved.” The term ἠγαπημένῳ (hgaphmenw) means “beloved,” but often bears connotations of “only beloved” in an exclusive sense. “His dearly loved Son” picks up this connotation.

[1:20]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “which” (v. 20 is a subordinate clause to v. 19).

[1:20]  ¹⁸ tn The verb “exercised” (the aorist of ἐνεργέω, energew) has its nominal cognate in “exercise” in v. 19 (ἐνέργεια, energeia).

[1:20]  ¹⁹ tn Or “This power he exercised in Christ by raising him”; Grk “raising him.” The adverbial participle ἐγείρας (egeiras) could be understood as temporal (“when he raised [him]”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “he exercised” earlier in the verse, or as means (“by raising [him]”). 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.

[1:20]  ²⁰ tc The majority of mss, especially the Western and Byzantine mss (D F G Ψ Ï b r Ambst), have the indicative ἐκάθισεν (ekaqisen, “he seated”) for καθίσας (kaqisa", “when he seated, by seating”). The indicative is thus coordinate with ἐνήργησεν (enhrghsen, “he exercised”) and provides an additional statement to “he exercised his power.” The participle (found in Ì^92vid א A B 0278 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 2464 al), on the other hand, is coordinate with ἐγείρας (egeiras) and as such provides evidence of God’s power: He exercised his power by raising Christ from the dead and by seating him at his right hand. As intriguing as the indicative reading is, it is most likely an intentional alteration of the original wording, accomplished by an early “Western” scribe, which made its way in the Byzantine text.

[1:20]  ²¹ sn Eph 1:19-20. The point made in these verses is that the power required to live a life pleasing to God is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. For a similar thought, cf. John 15:1-11.