Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians
1* Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s will, to God’s people at Ephesus, believers in Christ Jesus: 2 grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly sphere in Christ, 4 as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and unblemished before him, 5 foreordaining us in love to adoption through Jesus Christ into himself according to the pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace with which he graced us in the Loved One! 7 in whom we have redemption through his blood, the pardon of offenses as befits the wealth of his grace 8 which he has made to superabound toward us, 9 making known to us in all good sense and wisdom the secret of his will as was his pleasure which he planned to realize in him 10* for the arrangement of all that fills time, to sum up everything in the Christ, what is in the heavens and what is on earth;—
11* In him in whom we received our allotment too, foreordained to it in accordance with the purpose of him who works in everything according to the planning of his will, 12 that we should be for the praise of his glory, we who had set our anticipatory hope on the Christ; 13 in whom you too, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,—in whom having believed too, you were sealed with the holy Spirit of the promise, 14 which is the first installment of our inheritance, for redemption for preservation, to the praise of his glory.
15* Because of this I on my part, hearing of what there is among you of faith in the Lord Jesus and love toward all God’s people, 16 never cease to give thanks for you as I make mention of you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in awareness of him, 18 your heart’s eyes lighted up so that you shall know what is the hope of his call, what the wealth of glory of his inheritance among his people, 19 and what the supreme greatness of his power toward us believers, the like of that exertion of the mightiness of his strength 20 which he has put forth in the case of the Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavenly sphere, 21 up above every government and dominion and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this world but also in the world to come; 22 and he subjected everything under his feet and gave him as head over everything to the church, 23* which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in everything.
2 And you, when you were dead by offenses and by your sins 2 in which you once took your way to suit the times of this world, as suits the ruler of the dominion of air, of the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience; 3*** among whom we too, all of us, once lived our life in the desires of our flesh, doing the things willed by the flesh and the mind, and were by nature objects of anger the same as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in pity, because of his great love with which he loved us 5* brought us to life together with the Christ when we were dead by offenses—it is by grace you are saved— 6 and raised us together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly sphere, in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the ages that are coming on he might show the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you are saved through faith; and not out of yourselves either—God’s is the gift; 9 not on a basis of deeds, lest somebody should boast. 10* For we are his making, created in Christ Jesus with a view to good deeds which God made ready beforehand so that we might occupy ourselves in them.
11 For which reason be mindful that once upon a time you, the foreigners in flesh, you who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision,” artificial, in flesh,— 12* that at that time, away from Christ, you were cut off by unrelation from citizenship in Israel and were strangers to the covenants of the promise, hopeless and godless in the world; 13 but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have by the Christ’s blood come to be nearby. 14 For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke away the fencing-off party-wall, 15* the enmity, in his flesh, superseding the law of commandments in decree form in order to create the two in himself into one new man, making peace, 16 and to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, killing the enmity on it; 17* and he came bringing good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were nearby, 18 because through him we both of us have our presentation to the Father in one Spirit. 19 So then you are not strangers in an immigrant status any longer, but you are fellow-citizens of God’s people and members of God’s family, 20 built in on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself, 21* in whom all the work of the building is being so fitted that it grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you too are being built together in the Spirit into a home of God.
3 On this account I, Paul, Christ Jesus’s man in prison for you foreigners— 2 if you heard of the bestowal of that grace of God’s which was given me for you: 3 it was by way of revelation that the secret was made known to me, as I wrote in brief above, 4 by which as you read you can sense my insight into the secret of the Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been spiritually revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, 6 the nations’ being co-heirs and concorporate and co-sharers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, 7 of which I became an agent in consequence of the gift of that grace of God’s which was given me in accordance with the working of his power. 8* I, the least fit of all God’s people, was given this grace, to bring the nations the gospel of the Christ’s unfathomable richness 9* and to bring into the light what is the system followed with the secret that has from eternity been hidden in God, who created everything, 10 in order that God’s many-sided wisdom might now through the church be made known to the governments and dominions in the heavenly sphere 11 in accordance with the eternal purpose he framed in the Christ our Lord Jesus, 12 in whom we have boldness and the privilege of entering with assurance through faith in him; 13* for which reason I ask you not to give in at my distresses for you, which are your glory.
14 On this account I bend my knees to the Father 15 from whom every father’s family in heaven and on earth takes its name 16 that he may grant to you, in accordance with the richness of his glory, to be strengthened in the inward man with power through his Spirit; 17* to have Christ fix his home in your hearts through faith; with your roots and foundations set fast in love, 18 that you may be enabled to perceive with all God’s people what is the breadth and length and height and depth 19* and to know the Christ’s unknowable love, that you may be filled to all God’s fullness. 20 And to him who can do more than everything beyond the utmost limit of what we ask for or conceive of, in accordance with the power that is at work in us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all the generations of endless time; amen.
4 So I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk in a fashion worthy of the call that was given you, 2 with all humility and meekness, patiently putting up with each other in love, 3* making a point of safeguarding the oneness of the Spirit in the tie of peace. 4* One body and one Spirit, as you were called in one hope too that belongs to your call; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, he who is over all and among all and in all. 7* But each one of us had grace given him in the measure of the Christ’s gift; 8 which is why it says “he went up on high, brought a train of captives, gave presents to men.” 9* And what does “went up” mean if not that he also came down to the lower parts, of the earth? 10 He who came down, he is the one also who went up clear above all the heavens so that he should fill everything; 11 and he gave some to be apostles and some to be prophets and some to be preachers of the gospel and some to be pastors and teachers 12 for the sound training of God’s people, for the work of service for the upbuilding of the Christ’s body, 13 until all of us attain to the oneness of the faith and of awareness of the Son of God, to a grown-up man to the measure of the adulthood of the fullness of the Christ, 14* in order that we may no longer be infants, tossed and driven about by every wind of doctrine in men’s jugglery of tricks governed by the devices of error, 15 but, telling truth in love, may every way grow up into him, him who is the head, Christ, 16* out of whom all the body, fitted together and conjoined by every joint which connects the supply, in accordance with the working of each individual part in measure, produces the growth of the body to its self-upbuilding in love.
17 So this I say and protest in the Lord, that you are no longer to go the same way as the heathen do in their fatuousness of mind, 18 darkened in their thinking as they are, cut off by unrelation from God’s life because of the ignorance they have in them because of their lumpish-heartedness—men who, 19* having lost all sensitiveness, have given themselves up to indecency to work at every sort of foulness as a competitive business. 20 But it was not in that fashion that you learned the Christ; 21* not if you heard of him and were taught in him as is truth in Jesus, 22* that as regards your former way of life you are to throw off the old man who is going bad along the line of the desires he is fooled into, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind 24 and put on the new man who along God’s line has been created in the righteousness and godliness of truth.
25 For which reason, laying aside falsehood, each speak truth with his neighbor, because we are organs of each other; 26 “be angry and do not sin,” let the sun not go down on your exasperation, 27 and do not give the Devil a chance; 28* let him who has been stealing no longer steal but rather labor, putting his hands to work at what is good, in order to have something he can share with the one who is in need; 29* let no foul talk go out of your mouths, but any that is good, tending to the required upbuilding, to impart grace to the hearers, 30 and do not grieve God’s Holy Spirit in which you have had the seal set on you to be ready for the day of redemption; 31 let all crossness and passionateness and anger and loud and abusive language be cleared away from you, with all viciousness, 32 and be kind to each other, good-hearted, mutually making allowances in the same way as God in Christ showed grace to you.
5 So be imitators of God like dear children, 2 and walk in love in the same way as the Christ loved you, and gave himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice of genial odor to God. 3 But let unchastity and any sort of uncleanness or grasping greed not be even named among you, as befits people of God’s; 4 and obscenity and foolery or ribaldry, which are not proper things; but rather, proper thankfulness. 5** For know this well, that any unchaste or unclean person or greedy grasper, which is the same as to say idolater, does not have an inheritance coming to him in the reign of Christ and God. 6 Let nobody deceive you with empty words; for it is on account of these things that God’s anger comes upon the sons of disobedience, 7 so do not be sharers in them. 8 For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light is in every goodness and righteousness and truth), 10* studying what is pleasing to the Lord; 11* and do not be a party to the unfruitful doings of the darkness—rather even expose their character. 12 For it is ugly even to mention the things that are done in hiding by them; 13 but everything when it has its character exposed comes into view by the light; for everything that comes into view is light; 14 which is why it says “Wake, you sleeper, and rise from the dead, and the Christ shall beam upon you.”
15 So look to it carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best you can of the crisis, because the days are wicked. 17 For this reason do not be silly, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18* And do not get stimulated with wine, which carries dissipation with it, but be filled by the Spirit, 19 talking together in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, 20* giving thanks always for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father, 21 submissive to each other in the fear of Christ; 22 wives to their husbands as they are to the Lord, 23 because a husband is the wife’s head the same as the Christ is the church’s. He is the savior of the body; 24 but as the church is submissive to the Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands, in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as the Christ in his case loved the church, and gave himself up for it 26 in order to hallow it, cleansing it by the bath of water with a word, 27 so that he might himself present the church to himself a glorious creature without a spot or a wrinkle or anything of the sort, but holy and flawless; 28 so ought husbands too to love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife is loving himself; 29 for nobody ever hated his own flesh, but one feeds it up and keeps it warm, just as the Christ does with the church 30 because we are organs of his body. 31 “Owing to this a man will leave father and mother and enter into a connection with his wife, and the two will become one flesh”; 32 this secret truth is a great one. I am saying it with reference to Christ and the church; 33 let each of you individually too, though, love his wife just as he does himself. And the wife should fear her husband.
6* Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise, 3 “so that it may be well with you and your time may be long on the earth.” 4 And fathers, do not be provoking to your children, but bring them up with the instruction and admonition of the Lord. 5 Servants, obey those who are your masters in the way of flesh with fear and trembling in single-heartedness as you do the Christ, 6 not in the way of eye-service as man-pleasers do but as servants of Christ’s, doing God’s will whole-souledly, 7 serving in a friendly spirit as doing it for the Lord and not for men, 8 knowing that each one, if he does anything good, will have it coming to him from the Lord, be he slave or freeman. 9 And masters, do the same toward them, going easy as to threatening, knowing that in the heavens is the master of them and of you, and there is no favoritism with him.
10* Henceforth be valiant in the Lord and in the mightiness of his strength; 11 put on God’s armor so that you can stand up to the Devil’s devices, 12 because our match is not with flesh and blood but with the governments, the dominions, the cosmocrats of this darkness, the spiritual essences of wickedness in the heavenly sphere; 13 for this reason take God’s armor in order to be able to defend yourselves on the wicked day, and after you have fought every bit through to stand your ground. 14 So stand your ground with your waists belted with truth and wearing the cuirass of righteousness, 15 and with your feet shod with preparation for carrying the gospel of peace; 16 withal taking the shield of faith, on which you will be able to quench all the flaming missiles of the Evil One. 17 And receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word; 18* praying in the Spirit at every time with every kind of prayer and petition and keeping on the alert for it with all intentness and fullness of petition regarding all God’s people, 19** and for me, that I may be given power to speak with open mouth to make known outspokenly the secret 20* for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may speak it out as I ought.
21 But in order that you may know of my affairs, how I am getting on, Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful errand-runner in the Lord, will acquaint you with everything; 22 I have sent him to you for this express purpose, to let you know about us and to let him cheer your hearts.
23 Peace to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24* Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ imperishably.
MARGINAL NOTES TO EPHESIANS
1:1 Lit. God’s people at Ephesus and believers The most reliable ancient copies read God’s people who are also believers or God’s people who are (blank left for name of place) and believers
1:10 Lit. all that fills the times (not one time but different successive points of time)
1:11 Lit. foreordained (we, not the allotment) in accordance
1:15 The most reliable ancient copies omit the word love
1:23 Or in everybody
2:3 Or in which things we too
2:3 Lit. and the minds
2:3 Lit. children of anger
2:5-6 Var. together in the Christ . . . raised us together and seated us together in the
2:10 Lit. might walk in them
2:12 Lit. alienized from citizenship
2:15 Lit. in decrees
2:17 Lit. coming he brought
2:21 Lit. getting fitted together in whom all (or every) construction is growing
3:8 Lit. the very least of (apparently meaning that of all God’s people he was in the least degree one of Gods people)
3:9 Var. bring into the light for everybody what
3:13 Or ask that I may not give in
3:17 Lit. rooted and foundationed in love
3:19 Lit. knowledge-transcending love
4:3 Or of the spirit
4:4 Or one spirit
4:7 Var. had a grace given him
4:9 Lit. what is “went up” if not
4:14 Lit. in men’s jugglery in trickery
4:16 Lit. every joint of the supply
4:19 Lit. into working at a business of every uncleanness with greedy grasping for the most
4:21 Lit. at least if you heard
4:22 Lit. the desires of deceit
4:28 Lit. working with his own hands at
4:29 Lit. to the upbuilding of the need
5:5 Or For you know this well, that Or For you know better (lit. you know this), being aware that
5:5 Lit. which is idolater
5:10 Lit. investigating
5:11 Lit. but rather even
5:18 Lit. in which there is dissipation
5:20 Lit. to the God and Father
6:1 Var. obey your parents; for
6:10 Var. For the rest, be valiant
6:18 Lit. all intentness and petition
6:19 Or given words when I open my mouth
6:19 Var. the secret of the gospel, for which
6:20 Var. speak out in it as
6:24 Lit. in imperishableness