ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Ephesians 2.2

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;

  1. 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:, 4. but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (Ephesians 2:1-4, 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;

  1. 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. 4. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, (Ephesians 2:1-4, 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:

  1. 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 4. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (Ephesians 2:1-4, 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,

  1. 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, 4. and God, being rich in kindness, because of His great love with which He loved us, (Ephesians 2:1-4, 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

En hais pote periepatēsate kata ton aiōna tou kosmou toutou, kata ton archonta tēs exousias tou aeros, tou pneumatos tou nyn energountos en tois huiois tēs apeitheias.

Three governing powers. The verse names what the unregenerate life was walked "according to," and the list is a triad that the tradition later formalised as the world, the devil and the flesh: ton aiōna tou kosmou toutou, the age of this world; ton archonta tēs exousias tou aeros, the ruler of the authority of the air; and, in verse 3, tais epithymiais tēs sarkos hēmōn, the desires of our flesh. The three are given as a system rather than a list, which is the point of the sentence.

"The prince of the power of the air." Exousia is here most likely collective, a domain or a body of authorities rather than an abstract power, so the phrase means the ruler over the realm of authorities associated with the air. The identification with Satan is secured by the parallel at 6:12, where the struggle is against rulers, authorities, world-forces of darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness en tois epouraniois, in the heavenly places. Ancient cosmology located intermediate spirits in the lower air, between earth and heaven, and Paul uses that spatial vocabulary without endorsing the physics.

"The spirit now working." Tou pneumatos tou nyn energountos stands in apposition and shifts from a ruler to an operative influence, with energeō in the present participle marking ongoing activity. Huioi tēs apeitheias, "sons of disobedience," is a Semitic idiom of characterisation rather than of parentage, meaning those whose defining mark is disobedience.

What the verse does and does not license. It grounds a real doctrine of malevolent spiritual agency operating within human culture and within individual lives. It does not make the human agent a victim: the same sentence says "you walked," an active verb, and verse 3 places Paul himself among those so described. Any reading that turns the verse into an alibi loses the argument the paragraph is making, which is that verse 4 begins with "but God, being rich in mercy." The bondage is stated at full strength precisely so the rescue is not a small one.

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:

Passages:

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.