Passage

Ephesians 5.18-19

Book: Ephesians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

16. redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17. Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

18. And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; 19. speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21. subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. (Ephesians 5:16-21, ASV)

WEB

16. redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17. Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

18. Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19. speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father; 21. subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. (Ephesians 5:16-21, WEB)

KJV

16. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 21. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:16-21, KJV)

YLT

16. redeeming the time, because the days are evil; 17. because of this become not fools, but, understanding what [is] the will of the Lord,

18. and be not drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in the Spirit, 19. speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the God and Father; 21. subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:16-21, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the apostle, as the letter names him (1:1, 3:1). Most of the church has received it as Paul's; some modern scholars argue that a later follower wrote in his name.
Audience: the saints at Ephesus, and likely the churches of the province of Asia. The words "at Ephesus" in 1:1 are absent from some of the earliest manuscripts, which has suggested a circular letter.
Location: written from imprisonment; Paul calls himself "the prisoner of Christ Jesus" (3:1) and "an ambassador in chains" (6:20), traditionally in Rome
Time period: about AD 60-62 on the traditional dating

Theological reading

Two kinds of filling. "Be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit." Paul contrasts two ways of being under an influence. Wine leads to riot, while the Spirit leads to worship and order. The command to be filled is present tense and plural, a continuing life for the whole church, not a single private experience.

Filling shown in song. The result is "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord." The Spirit's filling is shown in the church's shared worship, which is addressed both to one another and to the Lord. The following verses add thanksgiving (5:20) and mutual submission (5:21).

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.

G2588 - kardia, kardia, Strong's G2588
G4151 - pneuma, pneuma, Strong's G4151
G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Argument from the Universal Music Convergence

Concepts:

Authority to Cast Out Demons, via Ephesians 5.18
Becoming a Christian, via Ephesians 5.18
Marijuana and the Bible, via Ephesians 5.18
Paraclete, Identity and Recipients, via Ephesians 5.18
Pentecost, via Ephesians 5.18
Pneumatology, via Ephesians 5.18

Guides:

Ris3n Arguments

Notes

Your annotations.

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.