Efesus 1:12-14

1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope ¹  on Christ, ²  would be to the praise of his glory. 1:13 And when ³  you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ ⁴  – you were marked with the seal ⁵  of the promised Holy Spirit, ⁶  1:14 who is the down payment ⁷  of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, ⁸  to the praise of his glory.

2 Yohanes 1:2

1:2 because of the truth ⁹  that resides in us and will be with us forever.

[1:12]  ¹ tn Or “who had already hoped.”

[1:12]  ² tn Or “the Messiah.”

[1:13]  ³ tn Grk “in whom you also, when…” (continuing the sentence from v. 12).

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Grk “in whom also having believed.” The relative pronoun “whom” has been replaced in the translation with its antecedent (“Christ”) to improve the clarity.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Or “you were sealed.”

[1:13]  ⁶ tn Grk “the Holy Spirit of promise.” Here ἐπαγγελίας (epangelias, “of promise”) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[1:14]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Grk “the possession.”

[1:2]  ⁹ tc The prepositional phrase that begins v. 2, διὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν (dia thn alhqeian, “because of the truth”), is missing in a number of significant mss, among them Ψ 614 1241 1505 1739 al. However, it looks to be a simple case of homoioteleuton, for v. 1 ends with τὴν ἀλήθειαν. For some of these mss it could be an intentional omission, for the sense of the passage is largely the same without the prepositional phrase (the following adjectival participle, in this case, would simply attach itself to the previous τὴν ἀλήθειαν). The phrase could thus have been viewed as redundant and for this reason expunged from the text.

[1:2]  sn While truth certainly has a doctrinal aspect in this context, the following phrase that resides in us and will be with us forever suggests more than doctrine is involved. A close parallel is John 14:16-17 where Jesus promised his disciples that the Spirit (Paraclete) would be with them forever: “He remains with you and will be in you.” The “truth” the author speaks of here is a manifestation of the Spirit of Truth who is permanently with the believer.