Ephesians 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ¹  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Ephesians 1:2

1:2 Grace and peace to you ²  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Ephesians 2:22

2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians 6:23

6:23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, ³  and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:8

2:8 For by grace you are saved ⁴  through faith, ⁵  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Ephesians 2:19

2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

Ephesians 3:2

3:2 if indeed ⁶  you have heard of the stewardship ⁷  of God’s grace that was given to me for you,

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 6:6

6:6 not like those who do their work only when someone is watching ⁸  – as people-pleasers – but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. ⁹ 

Ephesians 6:11

6:11 Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes ¹⁰  of the devil.

Ephesians 6:17

6:17 And take the helmet of salvation ¹¹  and the sword ¹²  of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹³  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], ¹⁴  the faithful ¹⁵  in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3:7

3:7 I became a servant of this gospel ¹⁶  according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by ¹⁷  the exercise of his power. ¹⁸ 

Ephesians 3:10

3:10 The purpose of this enlightenment is that ¹⁹  through the church the multifaceted wisdom ²⁰  of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 3:19

3:19 and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to ²¹  all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 4:18

4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, ²²  being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

Ephesians 5:6

Live in the Light

5:6 Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. ²³ 

Ephesians 6:13

6:13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground ²⁴  on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand.

Ephesians 4:13

4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to ²⁵  the measure of Christ’s full stature. ²⁶ 

Ephesians 5:5

5:5 For you can be confident of this one thing: ²⁷  that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

[5:1]  ¹ tn Or “become.”

[1:2]  ² tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

[6:23]  ³ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[2:8]  ⁴ tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.

[2:8]  ⁵ tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pistews, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1881 pc. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia th" pistew") is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1739 al bo) lack the article. Hence, both text-critically and exegetically, the meaning of the text here is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” Regarding the textual problem, the lack of the article is the preferred reading.

[3:2]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Or “administration,” “dispensation,” “commission.”

[6:6]  ⁶ tn Grk “not according to eye-service.”

[6:6]  ⁷ tn Grk “from the soul.”

[6:11]  ⁷ tn Or “craftiness.” See BDAG 625 s.v. μεθοδεία.

[6:17]  ⁸ sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.

[6:17]  ⁹ sn The Greek term translated sword (μάχαιρα, macaira) refers to the Roman gladius, a short sword about 2 ft (60 cm) long, used for close hand-to-hand combat. This is the only clearly offensive weapon in the list of armor mentioned by the author (he does not, for example, mention the lance [Latin pilum]).

[1:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ¹⁰ tc The earliest and most important mss omit “in Ephesus” (Ì⁴⁶ א* B* 6 1739 [Mcion^T,E]), yet the opening line of this epistle makes little sense without the phrase (“to the saints who are and are faithful…”? or perhaps “to the saints who are also faithful,” though with this sense the οὖσιν [ousin] is redundant and the καί [kai] is treated somewhat unnaturally). What is interesting is Marcion’s canon list which speaks of the letter to the Laodiceans among Paul’s authentic epistles. This, coupled with some internal evidence that the writer did not know his audience personally (cf. 1:15; 3:2; absence of personal names throughout), suggests that Ephesians was an encyclical letter, intended for more than one audience. Does this mean that the shorter reading is to be preferred? Yes and no. A plausible scenario is as follows, assuming Pauline authorship (though this is strongly contested today; for arguments on behalf of Pauline authorship, see M. Barth, Ephesians [AB 34], 1:36-50; P. T. O’Brien, Ephesians, 4-47; and H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 2-61): Paul sent the letter from Rome, intending it first to go to Ephesus. At the same time, Colossians was dispatched. Going counterclockwise through Asia Minor, this letter would first come to Ephesus, the port of entry, then to Laodicea, then Colossae. Tychicus’ instructions may well have been for each church to “fill in the blank” on the address line. The church at Ephesus would have certainly made the most copies, being Paul’s home base for nearly three years. Hence, most of the surviving copies have “in Ephesus” in v. 1 (so א² A B² D F G Ψ 0278 33 1881 Ï latt sy co). But one might expect a hint of evidence that Laodicea also made a few copies: Both Marcion’s list and Col 4:16 may well imply this. What is to account for the early Alexandrian evidence, then? These mss were perhaps made from a very early copy, one reflecting the blank line before each church filled it in. Although it is of course only speculation (as is necessary in a historical investigation lacking some of the pieces to the puzzle), this scenario accounts for all of the data: (1) “in Ephesus” in most mss; (2) Laodicea in Marcion’s list and Col 4:16; (3) the lack of an addressee in the earliest witnesses; (4) why the earliest witnesses’ reading must be rejected as too hard; and (5) why the author seems not to know the readership. In sum, is “in Ephesus” original? Yes and no. Some address belongs there; ἐν ᾿Εφέσῳ (en Efesw) is the predominant address, but several other churches also received this circular letter as their own. For this reason the phrase has been placed in single brackets in the translation. NA²⁷ also lists the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.

[1:1]  ¹¹ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style [and even if this letter is not by Paul it follows the general style of Paul’s letters, with some modifications]) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated. See M. Barth, Ephesians (AB 34), 1:68 and ExSyn 282.

[3:7]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “of which I was made a minister,” “of which I became a servant.”

[3:7]  ¹¹ tn Grk “according to.”

[3:7]  ¹² sn On the exercise of his power see 1:19-20.

[3:10]  ¹¹ tn Grk “that.” Verse 10 is a subordinate clause to the verb “enlighten” in v. 9.

[3:10]  ¹² tn Or “manifold wisdom,” “wisdom in its rich variety.”

[3:19]  ¹² tn Or “with.”

[4:18]  ¹³ tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.

[5:6]  ¹⁴ sn The expression sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” In this context it refers to “all those who are disobedient.” Cf. Eph 2:2-3.

[6:13]  ¹⁵ tn The term ἀνθίστημι (anqisthmi) carries the idea of resisting or opposing something or someone (BDAG 80 s.v.). In Eph 6:13, when used in combination with στῆναι (sthnai; cf. also στῆτε [sthte] in v. 14) and in a context of battle imagery, it seems to have the idea of resisting, standing firm, and being able to stand your ground.

[4:13]  ¹⁶ tn The words “attaining to” were supplied in the translation to pick up the καταντήσωμεν (katanthswmen) mentioned earlier in the sentence and the εἰς (eis) which heads up this clause.

[4:13]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” On this translation of ἡλικία (Jhlikia, “stature”) see BDAG 436 s.v. 3.

[5:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “be knowing this.” See also 2 Pet 1:20 for a similar phrase: τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες (touto prwton ginwskonte").