Passage

Ephesians 2.1

Book: Ephesians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins,

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:, (Ephesians 2:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,

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. (Ephesians 2:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

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} (Ephesians 2:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. Also you, being dead in the trespasses and the sins,

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, (Ephesians 2:1-3, 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

Kai hymas ontas nekrous tois paraptōmasin kai tais hamartiais hymōn.

The grammar is incomplete on purpose. Verse 1 has no main verb. The sentence begun here does not find its predicate until verse 5, synezōopoiēsen tō Christō, "He made us alive together with Christ," after the long parenthesis of verses 2 to 3 and the "but God" of verse 4. The suspension is rhetorical: the condition is held open, without relief, across four clauses, and the verb that ends it is a verb of resurrection.

Nekrous, dead. The adjective is not comparative. Paul does not say weakened, sick or impaired but dead, and the dative tois paraptōmasin kai tais hamartiais is best taken as sphere or cause, dead in or by reason of trespasses and sins. The metaphor's force lies in what corpses cannot do, which is why the verse is a principal text in the debate over the extent of human inability after the fall.

Two words for sin. Paraptōma is a false step, a lapse or transgression across a line; hamartia is the broader term, missing the mark. The pairing covers both discrete acts and settled condition, and the plural of both keeps the reference concrete rather than abstract.

Where the traditions divide. Reformed readers take nekrous to establish total inability, so that the making alive of verse 5 must be monergistic, God acting on one who cannot cooperate. Arminian and Wesleyan readers agree that the natural condition is death and locate the enabling in prevenient grace, which restores the capacity to respond without determining the response. Catholic and Orthodox readings distinguish the wounding of nature from its destruction and read the death as separation from God rather than as the loss of all responsiveness. Each has to reckon with the metaphor as Paul states it, and the honest observation is that the metaphor is stark while the systems that use it are attempting to hold it together with texts that command response.

What is not in dispute. On every reading the initiative in the paragraph is God's. Verse 4 begins ho de theos, "but God," and the verbs from that point forward have God as their subject.

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.

G3498 - nekros, nekros, Strong's G3498
G0266 - hamartia, hamartia, Strong's G0266

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Calvinism, via Ephesians 2.1-3
Calvinism vs Arminianism vs Molinism vs Open Theism, via Ephesians 2.1-3
Canons of Dort, via Ephesians 2.1-3
Monergism, via Ephesians 2.1-5
Original Sin, via Ephesians 2.1-3
Sin, via Ephesians 2.1-3
Soul and Spirit, Origin and Awareness, via Ephesians 2.1-5

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.