Ephesians 6:1-17

6:1 Children, ¹  obey your parents in the Lord ²  for this is right. 6:2 “Honor your father and mother,” ³  which is the first commandment accompanied by a promise, namely, 6:3 “that it may go ⁴  well with you and that you will live ⁵  a long time on the earth.” ⁶ 

6:4 Fathers, ⁷  do not provoke your children to anger, ⁸  but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

6:5 Slaves, ⁹  obey your human masters ¹⁰  with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, 6:6 not like those who do their work only when someone is watching ¹¹  – as people-pleasers – but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. ¹²  6:7 Obey ¹³  with enthusiasm, as though serving the Lord ¹⁴  and not people, 6:8 because you know that each person, whether slave or free, if he does something good, this ¹⁵  will be rewarded by the Lord.

6:9 Masters, ¹⁶  treat your slaves ¹⁷  the same way, ¹⁸  giving up the use of threats, ¹⁹  because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, ²⁰  and there is no favoritism with him.

Exhortations for Spiritual Warfare

6:10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 6:11 Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes ²¹  of the devil. 6:12 For our struggle ²²  is not against flesh and blood, ²³  but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, ²⁴  against the spiritual forces ²⁵  of evil in the heavens. ²⁶  6:13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground ²⁷  on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. 6:14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening ²⁸  the belt of truth around your waist, ²⁹  by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, 6:15 by fitting your ³⁰  feet with the preparation that comes from the good news ³¹  of peace, ³²  6:16 and in all of this, ³³  by taking up the shield ³⁴  of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation ³⁵  and the sword ³⁶  of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

[6:1]  ¹ tn The use of the article τά (ta) with τέκνα (tekna) functions in a generic way to distinguish this group from husbands, wives, fathers and slaves and is left, therefore, untranslated. The generic article is used with γύναῖκες (gunaikes) in 5:22, ἄνδρες (andres) in 5:25, δοῦλοι (douloi) in 6:5, and κύριοι (kurioi) in 6:9.

[6:1]  ² tc B D* F G as well as a few versional and patristic representatives lack “in the Lord” (ἐν κυρίῳ, en kuriw), while the phrase is well represented in Ì⁴⁶ א A D¹ I^vid Ψ 0278 0285 33 1739 1881 Ï sy co. Scribes may have thought that the phrase could be regarded a qualifier on the kind of parents a child should obey (viz., only Christian parents), and would thus be tempted to delete the phrase to counter such an interpretation. It is unlikely that the phrase would have been added, since the form used to express such sentiment in this Haustafel is ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ/Χριστῷ (Jw" tw kuriw/Cristw, “as to the Lord/Christ”; see 5:22; 6:5). Even though the witnesses for the omission are impressive, it is more likely that the phrase was deleted than added by scribal activity.

[6:2]  ³ sn A quotation from Exod 20:12 and Deut 5:16.

[6:3]  ⁴ tn Grk “be.”

[6:3]  ⁵ tn Grk “will be.”

[6:3]  ⁶ sn A quotation from Deut 5:16.

[6:4]  ⁷ tn Or perhaps “Parents” (so TEV, CEV). The plural οἱ πατέρες (Joi patere", “fathers”) can be used to refer to both the male and female parent (BDAG 786 s.v. πατήρ 1.b).

[6:4]  ⁸ tn Or “do not make your children angry.” BDAG 780 s.v. παροργίζω states “make angry.” The Greek verb in Col 3:21 is a different one with a slightly different nuance.

[6:5]  ⁹ tn Traditionally, “Servants” (KJV). Though δοῦλος (doulos) is often translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[6:5]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the masters according to the flesh.” In the translation above, the article τοῖς (tois) governing κυρίοις (kuriois) is rendered in English as a possessive pronoun (i.e., “your”) and the prepositional phrase κατὰ σάρκα (kata sarka) is taken as modifying κυρίοις (indicating that the author is referring to human masters) and not modifying the imperative ὑπακούετε (Jupakouete, which would indicate that obedience was according to a human standard or limitation).

[6:6]  ¹¹ tn Grk “not according to eye-service.”

[6:6]  ¹² tn Grk “from the soul.”

[6:7]  ¹³ tn Though the verb does not appear again at this point in the passage, it is nonetheless implied and supplied in the English translation for the sake of clarity.

[6:7]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “serving as to the Lord.”

[6:8]  ¹⁵ sn The pronoun “this” (τοῦτο, touto) stands first in its clause for emphasis, and stresses the fact that God will reward those, who in seeking him, do good.

[6:9]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:9]  ¹⁷ tn Though the Greek text only has αὐτούς (autous, “them”), the antecedent is the slaves of the masters. Therefore, it was translated this way to make it explicit in English.

[6:9]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “do the same things to them.”

[6:9]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “giving up the threat.”

[6:9]  ²⁰ tn Grk “because of both they and you, the Lord is, in heaven…”

[6:11]  ²¹ tn Or “craftiness.” See BDAG 625 s.v. μεθοδεία.

[6:12]  ²² tn BDAG 752 s.v. πάλη says, “struggle against…the opponent is introduced by πρός w. the acc.”

[6:12]  ²³ tn Grk “blood and flesh.”

[6:12]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 561 s.v. κοσμοκράτωρ suggests “the rulers of this sinful world” as a gloss.

[6:12]  ²⁵ tn BDAG 837 s.v. πνευματικός 3 suggests “the spirit-forces of evil” in Ephesians 6:12.

[6:12]  ²⁶ sn The phrase spiritual forces of evil in the heavens serves to emphasize the nature of the forces which oppose believers as well as to indicate the locality from which they originate.

[6:13]  ²⁷ 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.

[6:14]  ²⁸ sn The four participles fastening… putting on…fitting…taking up… indicate the means by which believers can take their stand against the devil and his schemes. The imperative take in v. 17 communicates another means by which to accomplish the standing, i.e., by the word of God.

[6:14]  ²⁹ tn Grk “girding your waist with truth.” In this entire section the author is painting a metaphor for his readers based on the attire of a Roman soldier prepared for battle and its similarity to the Christian prepared to do battle against spiritually evil forces. Behind the expression “with truth” is probably the genitive idea “belt of truth.” Since this is an appositional genitive (i.e., belt which is truth), the author simply left unsaid the idea of the belt and mentioned only his real focus, namely, the truth. (The analogy would have been completely understandable to his 1st century readers.) The idea of the belt is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense in English.

[6:15]  ³⁰ tn The definite article τοῖς (tois) was taken as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “your,” since it refers to a part of the physical body.

[6:15]  ³¹ tn Grk “gospel.” However, this is not a technical term here.

[6:15]  ³² tn Grk “in preparation of the gospel of peace.” The genitive τοῦ εὐαγγελίου (tou euangeliou) was taken as a genitive of source, i.e., “that comes from….”

[6:16]  ³³ tn Grk “in everything.”

[6:16]  ³⁴ 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.

[6:17]  ³⁵ sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.

[6:17]  ³⁶ 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]).