Efesus 1:13-14

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

Efesus 2:18-22

2:18 so that ⁷  through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 2:20 because you have been built ⁸  on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, ⁹  with Christ Jesus himself as ¹⁰  the cornerstone. ¹¹  2:21 In him ¹²  the whole building, ¹³  being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Efesus 4:4

4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling,

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

[1:13]  ² 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]  ³ tn Or “you were sealed.”

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Grk “the Holy Spirit of promise.” Here ἐπαγγελίας (epangelias, “of promise”) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[1:14]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Grk “the possession.”

[2:18]  ⁷ tn Or “for.” BDAG gives the consecutive ὅτι (Joti) as a possible category of NT usage (BDAG 732 s.v. 5.c).

[2:20]  ⁸ tn Grk “having been built.”

[2:20]  ⁹ sn Apostles and prophets. Because the prophets appear after the mention of the apostles and because they are linked together in 3:5 as recipients of revelation about the church, they are to be regarded not as Old Testament prophets, but as New Testament prophets.

[2:20]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “while Christ Jesus himself is” or “Christ Jesus himself being.”

[2:20]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps “capstone” (NAB). The meaning of ἀκρογωνιαῖος (akrogwniaio") is greatly debated. The meaning “capstone” is proposed by J. Jeremias (TDNT 1:792), but the most important text for this meaning (T. Sol. 22:7-23:4) is late and possibly not even an appropriate parallel. The only place ἀκρογωνιαῖος is used in the LXX is Isa 28:16, and there it clearly refers to a cornerstone that is part of a foundation. Furthermore, the imagery in this context has the building growing off the cornerstone upward, whereas if Christ were the capstone, he would not assume his position until the building was finished, which vv. 21-22 argue against.

[2:21]  ¹² tn Grk “in whom” (v. 21 is a relative clause, subordinate to v. 20).

[2:21]  ¹³ tc Although several important witnesses (א¹ A C P 6 81 326 1739^c 1881) have πᾶσα ἡ οἰκοδομή (pasa Jh oikodomh), instead of πᾶσα οἰκοδομή (the reading of א* B D F G Ψ 33 1739* Ï), the article is almost surely a scribal addition intended to clarify the meaning of the text, for with the article the meaning is unambiguously “the whole building.”

[2:21]  tn Or “every building.” Although “every building” is a more natural translation of the Greek, it does not fit as naturally into the context, which (with its emphasis on corporate unity) seems to stress the idea of one building.