ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Ephesians 1.14

Book: Ephesians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

12. to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: 13. in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,, in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

14. which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory.

  1. For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, 16. cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; (Ephesians 1:12-16, ASV)
WEB

12. to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: 13. in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation, in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

14. who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

  1. For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints, 16. don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, (Ephesians 1:12-16, WEB)
KJV

12. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. trusted: or, hoped 13. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

  1. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16. Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; (Ephesians 1:12-16, KJV)
YLT

12. for our being to the praise of His glory, [even] those who did first hope in the Christ, 13. in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the good news of your salvation, in whom also having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise,

14. which is an earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.

  1. Because of this I also, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love to all the saints, 16. do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, (Ephesians 1:12-16, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle.
  • Audience: Believers at Ephesus. Several of the earliest witnesses, including P46 and the original hands of Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, lack the words "in Ephesus" at 1:1, which has long suggested the letter circulated among the churches of the Roman province of Asia rather than addressing one congregation alone.
  • Location: Written from imprisonment. Paul calls himself "the prisoner of Christ Jesus" (Eph 3:1, 4:1) and "an ambassador in chains" (Eph 6:20); the traditional identification is the Roman custody of Acts 28.
  • Time period: c. AD 60-62 on the traditional Roman-imprisonment dating.

Theological reading

Ho estin arrabōn tēs klēronomias hēmōn, eis apolytrōsin tēs peripoiēseōs, eis epainon tēs doxēs autou.

Arrabōn is the load-bearing word. It is a Semitic loanword into Greek, from the Hebrew erabon used at Genesis 38:17-20 for the pledge Judah leaves with Tamar, and it belongs to commercial law: a first instalment that both guarantees the remainder and is of the same kind as it. A deposit differs from a mere token in precisely that respect. Modern Greek retains the word for an engagement ring, which captures the sense exactly. Paul uses it of the Spirit here and at 2 Corinthians 1:22 and 5:5.

What follows from the metaphor. If the Spirit is the first instalment of the inheritance rather than a pledge unlike it, then present Christian experience of God is continuous with the future one, differing in degree rather than in kind. The verse therefore does two jobs at once: it grounds assurance, since a deposit implies a completion, and it sets expectation, since a deposit is not the whole.

"Redemption of the possession." Eis apolytrōsin tēs peripoiēseōs is ambiguous in a productive way. Peripoiēsis can mean the act of acquiring or the thing acquired, so the phrase reads either as the redemption that brings us into full possession, or as the redemption of God's own purchased people. The second suits the Old Testament background, where Israel is God's segullah, His treasured possession (Exodus 19:5, Deuteronomy 7:6), and 1 Peter 2:9 uses the same term of the church.

The refrain. Eis epainon tēs doxēs autou, "to the praise of His glory," closes the third strophe of the long benediction that runs from verse 3 to verse 14. The same refrain appears at verses 6 and 12, marking the Father's choosing, the Son's redeeming and the Spirit's sealing. The structure is trinitarian and the terminus in each case is the same, which is the argument the whole passage is making about the purpose of election.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.