Luke 12:32

12:32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is well pleased ¹  to give you the kingdom.

Romans 9:11

9:11 even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election ²  would stand, not by works but by ³  his calling) ⁴  –

Romans 9:16

9:16 So then, ⁵  it does not depend on human desire or exertion, ⁶  but on God who shows mercy.

Ephesians 1:5

1:5 He did this by predestining ⁷  us to adoption as his ⁸  sons ⁹  through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure ¹⁰  of his will –

Ephesians 1:9

1:9 He did this when he revealed ¹¹  to us the secret ¹²  of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth ¹³  in Christ, ¹⁴ 

Ephesians 1:11

1:11 In Christ ¹⁵  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ¹⁶  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

Ephesians 2:8

2:8 For by grace you are saved ¹⁷  through faith, ¹⁸  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Ephesians 2:2

2:2 in which ¹⁹  you formerly lived ²⁰  according to this world’s present path, ²¹  according to the ruler of the kingdom ²²  of the air, the ruler of ²³  the spirit ²⁴  that is now energizing ²⁵  the sons of disobedience, ²⁶ 

Ephesians 1:11

1:11 In Christ ²⁷  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ²⁸  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

Ephesians 1:2

1:2 Grace and peace to you ²⁹  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Ephesians 1:9

1:9 He did this when he revealed ³⁰  to us the secret ³¹  of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth ³²  in Christ, ³³ 

[12:32]  ¹ tn Or perhaps, “your Father chooses.”

[9:11]  ² tn Grk “God’s purpose according to election.”

[9:11]  ³ tn Or “not based on works but based on…”

[9:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “by the one who calls.”

[9:16]  ⁵ sn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

[9:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “So then, [it does] not [depend] on the one who desires nor on the one who runs.”

[1:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “by predestining.” Verse 5 begins with an aorist participle dependent on the main verb in v. 4 (“chose”).

[1:5]  ⁸ tn Grk “to himself” after “through Jesus Christ.”

[1:5]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Or “good pleasure.”

[1:9]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Or “mystery.” In the NT μυστήριον (musthrion) refers to a divine secret previously undisclosed.

[1:9]  ¹³ tn Or “purposed,” “publicly displayed.” Cf. Rom 3:25.

[1:9]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “in him”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:11]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  ¹⁶ 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.

[2:8]  ¹⁷ tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.

[2:8]  ¹⁸ 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.

[2:2]  ¹⁹ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

[2:2]  ²⁰ tn Grk “walked.”

[2:2]  ²¹ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

[2:2]  ²² tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

[2:2]  ²³ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

[2:2]  ²⁴ sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Grk “working in.”

[2:2]  ²⁶ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.

[1:11]  ²⁷ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  ²⁸ 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.

[1:2]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:9]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ tn Or “mystery.” In the NT μυστήριον (musthrion) refers to a divine secret previously undisclosed.

[1:9]  ³² tn Or “purposed,” “publicly displayed.” Cf. Rom 3:25.

[1:9]  ³³ tn Grk “in him”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.