Efesus 1:14

1:14 who is the down payment ¹  of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, ²  to the praise of his glory.

Efesus 2:2

2:2 in which ³  you formerly lived ⁴  according to this world’s present path, ⁵  according to the ruler of the kingdom ⁶  of the air, the ruler of ⁷  the spirit ⁸  that is now energizing ⁹  the sons of disobedience, ¹⁰ 

Efesus 2:8

2:8 For by grace you are saved ¹¹  through faith, ¹²  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Efesus 2:10

2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. ¹³ 

Efesus 3:7

3:7 I became a servant of this gospel ¹⁴  according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by ¹⁵  the exercise of his power. ¹⁶ 

Efesus 3:16

3:16 I pray that ¹⁷  according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,

Efesus 3:20

3:20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us ¹⁸  is able to do far beyond ¹⁹  all that we ask or think,

Efesus 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²⁰  urge you to live ²¹  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ²² 

Efesus 4:22

4:22 You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside ²³  the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires,

[1:14]  ¹ tn Or “first installment,” “pledge,” “deposit.”

[1:14]  sn Down payment. The Greek word ἀρραβών (arrabwn) denotes the first payment or first installment of money or goods which serves as a guarantee or pledge for the completion of the transaction. In the NT the term is used only figuratively of the Holy Spirit as the down payment of the blessings promised by God (it is used also in 2 Cor 1:22 and 5:5). In the “already – not yet” scheme of the NT the possession of the Spirit now by believers (“already”) can be viewed as a guarantee that God will give them the balance of the promised blessings in the future (“not yet”).

[1:14]  ² tn Grk “the possession.”

[2:2]  ³ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Grk “walked.”

[2:2]  sn The Greek verb translated lived (περιπατέω, peripatew) in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

[2:2]  sn The word translated present path is the same as that which has been translated [this] age in 1:21 (αἰών, aiwn).

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

[2:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

[2:2]  ⁸ sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Grk “working in.”

[2:2]  ¹⁰ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.

[2:8]  ¹² tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pistews, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1881 pc. Perhaps for some scribes the article was intended to imply creedal fidelity as a necessary condition of salvation (“you are saved through the faith”), although elsewhere in the corpus Paulinum the phrase διὰ τῆς πίστεως (dia th" pistew") is used for the act of believing rather than the content of faith (cf. Rom 3:30, 31; Gal 3:14; Eph 3:17; Col 2:12). On the other side, strong representatives of the Alexandrian and Western texts (א B D* F G P 0278 6 33 1739 al bo) lack the article. Hence, both text-critically and exegetically, the meaning of the text here is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” Regarding the textual problem, the lack of the article is the preferred reading.

[2:10]  ¹³ tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).

[2:10]  sn So that we may do them. Before the devil began to control our walk in sin and among sinful people, God had already planned good works for us to do.

[3:7]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “of which I was made a minister,” “of which I became a servant.”

[3:7]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “according to.”

[3:7]  ¹⁶ sn On the exercise of his power see 1:19-20.

[3:16]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “that.” In Greek v. 16 is a subordinate clause to vv. 14-15.

[3:20]  ¹⁸ sn On the power that is working within us see 1:19-20.

[3:20]  ¹⁹ tn Or “infinitely beyond,” “far more abundantly than.”

[4:1]  ²⁰ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ²¹ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ²² sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[4:22]  ²³ tn An alternative rendering for the infinitives in vv. 22-24 (“to lay aside… to be renewed… to put on”) is “that you have laid aside… that you are being renewed… that you have put on.” The three infinitives of vv. 22 (ἀποθέσθαι, apoqesqai), 23 (ἀνανεοῦσθαι, ananeousqai), and 24 (ἐνδύσασθαι, endusasqai), form part of an indirect discourse clause; they constitute the teaching given to the believers addressed in the letter. The problem in translation is that one cannot be absolutely certain whether they go back to indicatives in the original statement (i.e., “you have put off”) or imperatives (i.e., “put off!”). Every other occurrence of an aorist infinitive in indirect discourse in the NT goes back to an imperative, but in all of these examples the indirect discourse is introduced by a verb that implies a command. The verb διδάσκω (didaskw) in the corpus Paulinum may be used to relate the indicatives of the faith as well as the imperatives. This translation implies that the infinitives go back to imperatives, though the alternate view that they refer back to indicatives is also a plausible interpretation. For further discussion, see ExSyn 605.