ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Ephesians 2.1-3

Book: Ephesians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

1. And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, 2. wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; 3. among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:,

  1. but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5. even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), (Ephesians 2:1-5, ASV)
WEB

1. You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, 2. in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; 3. among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

  1. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, 5. even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (Ephesians 2:1-5, WEB)
KJV

1. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. desires: Gr. wills

  1. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) by: or, by whose grace (Ephesians 2:1-5, KJV)
YLT

1. Also you, being dead in the trespasses and the sins, 2. in which once ye did walk according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, 3. among whom also we all did walk once in the desires of our flesh, doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, as also the others,

  1. and God, being rich in kindness, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5. even being dead in the trespasses, did make us to live together with the Christ, (by grace ye are having been saved,) (Ephesians 2:1-5, 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

The unit describes the condition addressed by the "but God" of verse 4, and it is constructed as a single suspended sentence with no main verb until verse 5.

Three descriptions of the same state. Verse 1 gives the condition, dead in trespasses and sins. Verse 2 gives the conduct, walking according to the age of this world and the ruler of the authority of the air. Verse 3 gives the interior source, living in the desires of the flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the mind. Together they describe a state that is simultaneously a status, a practice and an appetite, which is why remedies aimed at only one of the three do not touch it.

Kai hēmeis pantes, "we too, all of us." Verse 3 is the turn that makes the paragraph more than an indictment of pagans. Having addressed Gentile readers in verses 1 and 2 with "you," Paul includes himself and his fellow Jews in verse 3. The letter's argument for one new man out of two requires this: both groups arrive at the same point by different routes.

Tekna physei orgēs, "by nature children of wrath." Physei is the disputed word. It can mean by natural constitution, which supports a doctrine of inherited depravity, or by settled habit and disposition. Ancient usage supports both, and the phrase has carried a large share of the weight in the history of the doctrine of original sin. What the immediate context supplies is the parallel hoi loipoi, "as also the rest," which puts the condition prior to the individual's own conduct rather than derived from it.

Wrath as a category. Orgē in Paul is not divine temper. It is the settled and judicial opposition of God to evil, described at Romans 1:18 as revealed and at Romans 2:5 as stored up for a day. Reading it as emotional volatility misses both the term and the point, and it is the reading most objections to the phrase actually target.

The structure is the argument. Three verses of unrelieved diagnosis, then ho de theos plousios ōn en eleei, "but God, being rich in mercy." The paragraph is built so that the mercy is measured against the depth of what preceded it, and softening verses 1 to 3 correspondingly shrinks verses 4 to 7.

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.