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[Reading Paul Through TBWM] • [1:1-2] • [1:3-14] • [1:15-23]
[2:1-10] • [2:11-22] • [3:1-13] • [3:14-21] • [4:1-16] • [4:17-32]
[5:1-14] • [5:15-21] • [5:22-33] • [6:1-9] • [6:10-20] • [6:21-24]
Text and Translation
Greek Text
English Translation
15. Διὰ τοῦτο κἀγώ ἀκούσας τὴν καθʼ ὑμᾶς πίστιν ἐν τῷ Κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην τὴν εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους,
15. Because of this, I too, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the holy ones,
16. οὐ παύομαι εὐχαριστῶν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, μνείαν ὑμῶν ποιούμενος ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν μου·
16. ceased not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,
17. ἵνα ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὁ πατὴρ τῆς δόξης, δώῃ ὑμῖν πνεῦμα σοφίας καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως, ἐν ἐπιγνώσει αὐτοῦ·
17. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him,
18. πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς διανοίας ὑμῶν, εἰς τὸ εἰδέναι, ὑμᾶς τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς κλήσεως αὐτοῦ, καὶ τίς ὁ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τῆς κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις,
18. having the eyes of your heart enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling and what is the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in the holy ones,
19. καὶ τί τὸ ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ εἰς ἡμᾶς τοὺς πιστεύοντας κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ
19. and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who are believing according to the working of His mighty strength
20. ἣν ἐνήργησεν ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ, ἐγείρας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις,
20. which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him on His right hand in the heavenly places,
21. ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας καὶ δυνάμεως καὶ κυριότητος, καὶ παντὸς ὀνόματος ὀνομαζομένου οὐ μόνον ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι·
21. above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come.
22. καὶ πάντα ὑπέταξεν ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ, καὶ αὐτὸν ἔδωκε κεφαλὴν ὑπὲρ πάντα τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ,
22. And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things unto the church,
23. ἥτις ἐστὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ, τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ πάντα ἐν πᾶσι πληρουμένου.
23. which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Graphical Grammar
Weighty Words
- δώῃ – 3rd sing. aor. act. subj. ▶ δίδωμι: to give. You may have expected δῷ, the familiar 3rd-person singular aorist subjunctive form of δίδωμι. So what is δώῃ? It is an alternative form of the same aorist subjunctive. The longer -ωῃ forms occur as variants alongside the shorter contracted-looking forms in Hellenistic Greek. Thus δώῃ does not signal a different tense, mood, person, or meaning from δῷ. Here the ἵνα clause makes its subjunctive function especially clear: “that … he may give.”
- ἐγείρας – aor. act. ptc. masc. sing. nom. ▶ ἐγείρω: It has several meanings including to raise, or as BDAG has it “to cause to stand up from a position lower than that of the pers. rendering assistance.” (BDAG at 271.) It can also mean “to cause someone to wake from sleep.” (Ibid.)
Syntax Sense
After the last two weeks’ translation marathon, this TBWM will be delightfully easier. The passage is lengthy, but the translation is not exceptionally tricky. Let’s look at a couple of highlights.
Verse 19 – What to do with stacked “power” words?
Translating this verse is tricky because of τοῦ κράτους and τῆς ἰσχύος. The words, κράτος (“might, dominion, strength”), and ἰσχύς (“strength, might”), are near-synonymous, and both also overlap with δυνάμεως (“power”) and ἐνέργειαν (“working”). Maybe you saw this when you translated it yourself? Let’s put it in a table with a wooden translation and see what this looks like in English?
| Greek | Wooden “translation” |
|---|---|
| καὶ τί (ἐστιν) τὸ ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος | and what (is) the surpassing greatness |
| τῆς δυνάμεως | of the power |
| αὐτοῦ | of him |
| εἰς ἡμᾶς τοὺς πιστεύοντας | toward us who are believing |
| κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν | according to the working |
| τοῦ κράτους | of the (might, dominion, strength) |
| τῆς ἰσχύος | of the (strength, might) |
| αὐτοῦ | of him |
The additive effect of the combination of power-related words creates a rhetorical crescendo that emphasizes the magnitude of God’s strength. It sounds redundant or clunky in English, but is perfectly fine in Greek. Greek likes stacking! The question is how to render it in smooth English while still maintaining the rhetorical power Paul expressed. I’ll leave that for the Your Turn.
Verse 20 – How should ἐγείρας be translated?
First, what do we know of the function of ἐγείρας? It’s a participle, but what kind? A participle can modify a noun or noun phrase—attributive—or it can modify a verb—adverbial. Here, ἐγείρας is part of a relative clause and it modifies the main verb of the clause: ἐνήργησεν. That means the participle tells us something about when, how, why, or under what circumstances the action of the verb happened. Ἐγείρας is not attributively modifying a noun phrase; rather, it’s providing supplementary information about the main action.
Therefore, ἐγείρας is telling us something about how God worked. But what does it tell us? Adverbial participles belong to one of eight categories: temporal; manner; means; cause; condition; concession; purpose; or result. (Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 623–624.)
In order to know the category to which a participle belongs, a reader must distinguish between what the participle can convey and what it primarily does convey in a given context. Almost all participles, adverbially or not, are temporal in at least a secondary sense. Thus, if a particular adverbial participle is to be labeled as temporal, this should be the primary element the author wishes to stress.
Ἐγείρας could be understood as temporal (‘when he raised [him]’), identifying when God exercised the power described by ἐνήργησεν. It could also be understood as means (“by raising [him]”). Both interpretations are grammatically viable.
As a temporal participle, it would focus on the time when God exercised this power (at the resurrection); as a participle of means, it would focus on how God exercised this power. Both are true and the participle conveys both notions. The issue at stake is which one is being emphasized. Respected translations have come out both ways on this issue: some temporal; some means. How does a translator decide? Rather than answer—and you can see which option I chose by looking at my translation—I’ll leave this for you to ponder in Your Turn.
Verse 21 – Is αἰῶνι implied?
This is not a complicated syntactical issue, but is worth keeping in mind because implied nouns and verbs can be confusing at first. When we translate verse 21, we know we have a potential problem because ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι (“in the coming”) is functioning attributively–it describes something as “coming”–but there is no expressed noun for it to describe. Is the noun missing?
No, the preceding phrase supplies the answer: ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ (“in this age”) is followed by the parallel ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ [αἰῶνι] μέλλοντι (“but also in the coming [age]”). The case, number, and gender of μέλλοντι agree with the understood αἰῶνι. Greek can leave the repeated noun unstated because the parallel construction makes it readily recoverable.
Other NT Greek usages also offer some support, μέλλων often pairs with αἰών for “the age to come” (e.g., Matt 12:32 and Heb 6:5 (τὸν μέλλοντα αἰῶνα); cf. Mark 10:30). Take a look at the diagram above (or your own) and you can see the fit naturally.
Demystifying the Discourse
Instead of prose, take a moment to examine my diagram—or your own, if you’ve prepared one. What are some things you observe about the pattern of this verse? I see three blocks. The first block shifts rather far to the right with stacked modifiers. The middle block is comparatively narrow and less expansive. Then the third again opens deeply to the right and continues for some distance.
The second and third blocks merit some attention: they form as a result of three coordinated τίς / τίς / τί clauses. Paul concludes the first two relatively compactly. The final τί clause begins the third block, which Paul develops at considerable depth. The third τί doesn’t merely introduce another item in Paul’s list. It opens a grammatical door through which the remainder of the chapter runs.
In verse 19, why all the synonyms? Here are my thoughts. Δυνάμεως refers to inherent power or ability, often divine power in Paul (e.g., Rom 1:16). Ἐνέργειαν emphasizes active operation or effective working (e.g., God’s power at work, cf. Eph 3:20). Κράτους often implies ruling power, dominion, or might (e.g., Eph 6:10). Finally, ἰσχύος denotes inherent strength or force, sometimes physical or moral (e.g., 2 Thess 1:9). Together, κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ describes God’s power as actively working with supreme authority and strength. The genitives (κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος) likely intensify the idea: “the working of the dominion of His strength.”
Your turn!
- If you have not translated and diagrammed the passage, do that first.
- How would you render all the power-related words in Verse 19 in smooth English while maintaining the rhetorical power that Paul expressed? Since κράτους and ἰσχύος both can be glossed as “might” or both be glossed as “strength,” should τοῦ κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ be translated as “might of might of him” or “strength of strength of him” or should a different gloss be chosen? And if so, what gloss should you choose for each of the words?
- How should ἐγείρας be rendered? Is it a temporal participle, or a participle of means? Support your answer.
- What observations can you draw from the flow of this passage? What is Paul telling us? Is he setting something up that he will expand on later, making a stand-alone exposition within the epistle, or something else entirely?
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See complete translation of Ephesians here.