ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Ephesians 2.4-5

Book: Ephesians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

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:,

4. 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),

  1. and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: 7. that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:2-7, ASV)
WEB

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.

4. 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),

  1. and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7. that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; (Ephesians 2:2-7, WEB)
KJV

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

4. 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

  1. And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7. That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:2-7, KJV)
YLT

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,

4. 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,)

  1. and did raise [us] up together, and did seat [us] together in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus, 7. that He might show, in the ages that are coming, the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:2-7, 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 de theos plousios ōn en eleei, dia tēn pollēn agapēn autou hēn ēgapēsen hēmas, kai ontas hēmas nekrous tois paraptōmasin synezōopoiēsen tō Christō, chariti este sesōsmenoi.

"But God." Ho de theos is the pivot of the letter's argument and arguably of the paragraph's rhetoric. Three verses of diagnosis have run without a main verb; the subject that finally supplies one is God, and everything after it is His action. Whatever account of salvation the passage supports, the grammar of the sentence has already ruled out one in which the dead party contributes the decisive move.

Two nouns for the motive. Eleos, mercy, is compassion directed at misery; agapē is love as settled self-giving regard. Paul intensifies both, God is plousios, rich, in the first, and the second is pollē, great, with a cognate accusative construction, "the great love with which He loved us." The redundancy is not stylistic carelessness; it is the standard Hebrew way of intensifying, and it puts the weight of the sentence on motive before it reaches method.

Synezōopoiēsen. A triple compound: syn (together with) + zōos (living) + poieō (to make). Made alive together with Christ. It is the first of three syn verbs in the paragraph, followed by synēgeiren, raised together, and synekathisen, seated together, at verse 6. The believer's resurrection and enthronement are stated in the aorist, as accomplished, which is the letter's characteristic way of speaking about union with Christ. What happened to Him is spoken of as having happened to those in Him.

The parenthesis. Chariti este sesōsmenoi, "by grace you have been saved," interrupts the sentence before it is finished and is repeated in full at verse 8. The perfect periphrastic este sesōsmenoi denotes a completed action with an abiding result, which is why the phrase carries the weight it does in the doctrine of assurance. Paul cannot wait for verse 8 to say it, which is itself part of the paragraph's argument.

Where the passage stands in the letter. It is the answer to 2:1-3 and the ground of 2:11-22. Because both Jew and Gentile were dead and both were made alive by the same mercy, neither has standing to rebuild a wall between them. The doctrine of grace and the doctrine of the one new man are, in this chapter, the same doctrine.

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.