Efesus 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ¹  dead ²  in your transgressions and sins,

Efesus 2:5

2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! ³  –

Efesus 5:14

5:14 For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ⁴ 

“Awake, ⁵  O sleeper! ⁶ 

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!” ⁷ 

[2:1]  ¹ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ² sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.

[2:5]  ³ tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).

[5:14]  ⁴ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[5:14]  ⁵ tn Grk “Rise up.”

[5:14]  ⁶ tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (Jo kaqeudwn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. Thus, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”

[5:14]  ⁷ sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, and 60:1.