Ephesians 2:1-10

New English Translation

Notas al pie

1. Ephesians 2:1 tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.
2. Ephesians 2:1 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.
3. Ephesians 2:2 sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.
4. Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “walked.” sn The Greek verb translated lived (περιπατέω, peripateō) in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.
5. Ephesians 2:2 tn Or possibly “Aeon.”sn The word translated present path is the same as that which has been translated [this] age in 1:21 (αἰών, aiōn).
6. Ephesians 2:2 tn That is, “[place of] authority”; see BDAG 353 s.v. ἐξουσία 6.
7. Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).
8. Ephesians 2:2 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).
9. Ephesians 2:2 tn Grk “working in.”
10. Ephesians 2:2 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.
11. Ephesians 2:3 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 hais], ἐν οἵς [en hois]). 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).
12. Ephesians 2:3 tn Grk “we all.”
13. Ephesians 2:3 tn Or “even.”
14. Ephesians 2:3 sn Children of wrath is a Semitic idiom which may mean either “people characterized by wrath” or “people destined for wrath.”
15. Ephesians 2:3 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.
16. Ephesians 2:5 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”).
17. Ephesians 2:7 tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”
18. Ephesians 2:7 tn Or “upon.”
19. Ephesians 2:8 tn See note on the same expression in v. 5.
20. Ephesians 2:8 tc The feminine article is found before πίστεως (pisteōs, “faith”) in the Byzantine text as well as in A Ψ 1241 1881 al. 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 tēs pisteōs) 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 1175 1505 1739 al bo) lack the article. Without the article, the meaning of the text is most likely “saved through faith” as opposed to “saved through the faith.” On both internal and external grounds the anarthrous wording is preferred.
21. Ephesians 2:9 tn Or “not as a result of.”
22. Ephesians 2:9 tn Grk “lest anyone should boast.”
23. Ephesians 2:10 tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).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.