Efesus 4:17
Konteks4:17 So I say this, and insist 1 in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility 2 of their thinking. 3
Efesus 2:3
Konteks2:3 among whom 4 all of us 5 also 6 formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath 7 even as the rest… 8
[4:17] 1 tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.
[4:17] 2 tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.
[4:17] 3 tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”
[2:3] 4 sn Among whom. The relative pronoun phrase that begins v. 3 is identical, except for gender, to the one that begins v. 2 (ἐν αἵς [en Jais], ἐν οἵς [en Jois]). By the structure, the author is building an argument for our hopeless condition: We lived in sin and we lived among sinful people. Our doom looked to be sealed as well in v. 2: Both the external environment (kingdom of the air) and our internal motivation and attitude (the spirit that is now energizing) were under the devil’s thumb (cf. 2 Cor 4:4).
[2:3] 7 sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”
[2:3] 8 sn Eph 2:1-3. The translation of vv. 1-3 is very literal, even to the point of retaining the awkward syntax of the original. See note on the word dead in 2:1.