ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Ephesians 4.12

Book: Ephesians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

10. He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11. And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12. for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:

  1. till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14. that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; (Ephesians 4:10-14, ASV)
WEB

10. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. 11. He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;

12. for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;

  1. until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14. that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; (Ephesians 4:10-14, WEB)
KJV

10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) fill: or, fulfil 11. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

  1. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: in: or, into stature: or, age 14. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; (Ephesians 4:10-14, KJV)
YLT

10. he who went down is the same also who went up far above all the heavens, that He may fill all things 11. and He gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] proclaimers of good news, and some [as] shepherds and teachers,

12. unto the perfecting of the saints, for a work of ministration, for a building up of the body of the Christ,

  1. till we may all come to the unity of the faith and of the recognition of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to a measure of stature of the fulness of the Christ, 14. that we may no more be babes, tossed and borne about by every wind of the teaching, in the sleight of men, in craftiness, unto the artifice of leading astray, (Ephesians 4:10-14, 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

Pros ton katartismon tōn hagiōn eis ergon diakonias, eis oikodomēn tou sōmatos tou Christou.

The most consequential punctuation question in the letter. Verse 11 lists the gifted persons Christ gave; verse 12 states why. Everything depends on whether the three prepositional phrases are parallel or sequential.

  • Parallel reading: the gifted persons do all three, the equipping and the work of service and the building up. This is the reading behind the King James rendering, which inserts a comma after "saints," and it yields a ministry performed by an office-holding class on behalf of the congregation.
  • Sequential reading: the gifted persons equip the saints, in order that the saints do the work of service, in order that the body is built up. The shift of preposition supports this, pros introducing the immediate purpose and eis twice introducing successive results, and most modern translations and commentators follow it.

Why the sequential reading is the stronger one. Verse 16 supplies the decisive parallel: the whole body grows kata energeian en metrō henos hekastou merous, "according to the working in due measure of each individual part." Growth is attributed there to the working of every member, which is what the sequential reading of verse 12 sets up and what the parallel reading leaves without a home. The immediate context also favours it, since the appeal from verse 1 is addressed to the whole congregation.

Katartismos. The noun occurs only here in the New Testament. Its verb, katartizō, is used for mending nets (Matt 4:21), for setting a bone, and for restoring a person caught in a fault (Gal 6:1). The sense is putting into full working order, so equipping is repair and fitting-out rather than mere instruction.

Diakonia. Service in the broad sense, not a technical office. The word covers everything from table service (Acts 6:1-4) to the apostolic ministry of the word (Acts 6:4), so the verse does not restrict the saints' work to any one category.

What turns on it. The verse is the principal New Testament text for the claim that the ordinary members of a congregation are the ministers and the gifted offices exist to equip them. That is a large ecclesiological claim to rest on the presence or absence of a comma, which is why the argument should be made from verse 16 and the preposition sequence rather than from the punctuation of any one English version.

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

Concepts:

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.