Passage

Ephesians 1.7

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7, NASB95)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"5. having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6. to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:"

"7. in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,"

"8. which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9. making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him" (Ephesians 1:5-9, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"5. having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, 6. to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,"

"7. in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,"

"8. which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9. making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him" (Ephesians 1:5-9, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"5. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

"7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;"

"8. Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:" (Ephesians 1:5-9, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"5. having foreordained us to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6. to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He did make us accepted in the beloved,"

"7. in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the remission of the trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,"

"8. in which He did abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9. having made known to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure, that He purposed in Himself," (Ephesians 1:5-9, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle (apostolic salutation at 1:1)
Audience: the believers at Ephesus and likely a wider Asian-circular readership; the "at Ephesus" of 1:1 is absent in some early manuscripts, suggesting an encyclical
Location: Paul writes from prison (3:1; 4:1; 6:20), likely the Roman imprisonment of Acts 28
Time period: c. AD 60-62

Theological reading

Ephesians 1:7 sits at the structural center of the great eulogy of Ephesians 1:3-14, a single Greek sentence of 202 words that the NASB95 breaks into a dozen English sentences. The eulogy moves from eternity-past (election, foreordination, vv. 3-6) through history (redemption, forgiveness, mystery-disclosure, vv. 7-10) to eternity-future (inheritance, sealing with the Spirit, vv. 11-14), with each stanza closing on a refrain "to the praise of His glory" (vv. 6, 12, 14).

Verse 7 supplies the historical-redemptive turn: en hō echomen tēn apolutrōsin dia tou haimatos autou, tēn aphesin tōn paraptōmatōn, "in Him we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses." Two coordinate-genitive nouns name the same act under two aspects.

(1) Apolutrōsis, "redemption." The noun names a purchase-by-payment, from the slave-market lexical background (the lutron, "ransom-price" of Mark 10:45). The qualifying phrase dia tou haimatos autou ("through His blood") makes the price explicit: the blood of Christ is the lutron. This is the substitutionary-payment language Paul shares with Mark 10:45, 1 Tim 2:6, 1 Pet 1:18-19, and Rev 5:9.

(2) Aphesis, "forgiveness/remission/release." The noun is the cognate of [[G0863 - aphiemi|aphiēmi]] (G863); the construction tēn aphesin tōn paraptōmatōn names the legal-cancellation-of-trespasses. The parallel at Col 1:14 uses the same construction (tēn aphesin tōn hamartiōn, "the forgiveness of sins"), the two letters together fixing the formula as Pauline-summary vocabulary.

The two nouns are not separable moments: the redemption is the forgiveness, seen from the cost-side (the price paid) and the effect-side (the debt cancelled). The blood-and-forgiveness coupling sits at the heart of the apostolic kerygma summary (Acts 2:38; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18, aphesis hamartiōn as the standard gospel-offer formula). The verse compresses the entire Pauline soteriology into a single relative clause: the eternal Father's election (vv. 4-6) becomes historical-redemption in the Son (v. 7) by means of His blood, and the result is forgiveness-of-trespasses according to the riches of grace (the eulogy's recurring qualifier).

The verse is foundational for Penal Substitutionary Atonement (the blood is the price; redemption is the effect) and for Justification by Faith (forgiveness as forensic-remission, freely given by grace; cf. the kata to ploutos tēs charitos autou qualifier, "according to the riches of His grace"). The Reformed tradition cites Eph 1:7 alongside Rom 3:25 and Col 1:14 as the apostolic-summary triplet for the gospel's structure.

Key words

G0629 - apolytrosis, apolutrōsis (noun), "redemption," the purchase-by-ransom-price noun.
G0859 - aphesis, aphesis (noun), "remission, release, forgiveness," standard NT kerygma vocabulary.
G0863 - aphiemi, aphiēmi (verb), the load-bearing forgiveness lexeme of which aphesis is the noun.
G5485 - charis, charis, "grace," the qualifier that frames the entire eulogy.
paraptōma (G3900), "trespass, false-step, deviation," the offense-vocabulary; contrasts with hamartia ("sin") at Col 1:14 without significant doctrinal difference.
haima (G129), "blood," the substitutionary-payment medium.

Theological themes

Redemption-as-payment. Christ's blood is the ransom price; the noun apolutrōsis presupposes a transaction.
Forgiveness-as-cancellation. The trespasses are not minimized but legally remitted, according to grace's riches.
Election integrated with cross. The eternal foreordination (vv. 4-6) culminates historically in v. 7; the cross executes the decree.
Pauline-summary formula. Blood-plus-forgiveness sits at the apostolic kerygma's center across Acts and the epistles.

Cross-references

Colossians 1.14, the close parallel summary (aphesin tōn hamartiōn).
Romans 3.25, the propitiation-and-justification text; the legal mechanism behind the redemption noun.
Hebrews 9.12, rich hub on Christ's once-for-all entry by His own blood, the priestly counterpart to the Pauline redemption noun.
Matthew 6.12 / Mark 2.5-7 / Luke 23.34 / 1 John 1.9, the verb-form deployments of aphiēmi.

Quoted in

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.