Ephesians 3

Because of all this, I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, people who are not Jewish.

1For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

NoteThe King James sentence beginning "For this cause I Paul" never reaches its main verb. Paul breaks off into a long digression about his commission and picks up the same words again in verse 14, "For this cause I bow my knees." Verses 2 to 13 are the interruption. "The prisoner of Jesus Christ" does not mean Christ is holding him; it means he is in Roman custody because of his work for Christ.

2You have surely heard about the job God gave me to carry out for you, a job given to me by his free kindness.

2If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

Note"Dispensation" here does not mean a period of history. It translates a Greek word for the work of a household manager, the trusted servant who ran an owner's estate and distributed its stores. Paul means a job entrusted to him, not an era. "Grace" throughout this chapter means a gift handed over freely to someone with no claim on it. "To you-ward" is 1611 English for "toward you."

3God himself showed me his hidden plan and made it known to me. I wrote about it briefly earlier in this letter.

3How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,

Note"Mystery" in the King James does not mean a puzzle or something inherently baffling. It translates a word for a secret that was kept hidden and has now been announced out loud. Once told, it is no longer obscure. "As I wrote afore in few words" means "as I wrote briefly earlier," pointing back to chapters 1 and 2.

4When you read what I wrote, you will be able to see what I understand about this hidden plan concerning Christ.

4Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

5In earlier times this plan was not made known to people. But now God's Spirit has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets, the messengers Christ sent out and those who speak for God.

5Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

Note"The sons of men" is a Hebrew-style idiom for human beings in general, not for males specifically. "Apostles" means those sent out as authorized representatives; "prophets" here means people in the early congregations who spoke messages from God, not only the prophets of Israel's past.

6Here is the plan: through the good news, Gentiles receive the inheritance along with Jews, belong to the same body, and share in the same promise in Christ.

6That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

NoteThe Greek piles up three compound words that all begin with the same prefix meaning "together with": joint-heirs, joint-body, joint-sharers. The King James keeps the effect once, in "fellowheirs." Heir language matters because the promises in question were made to Abraham and his descendants, so the claim is that non-Jews inherit alongside Jews rather than at second hand.

7I was made a servant of this good news through God's free kindness, a gift he handed me by the working of his power.

7Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

Note"The effectual working of his power" translates a word meaning power actually in operation and producing results, as opposed to power merely possessed. The English word "energy" comes from it.

8I am less than the least of all God's people, yet God kindly gave me this task: to announce to the Gentiles the riches of Christ, riches so deep no one can measure them.

8Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

Note"Saints" in the King James does not mean a small class of exceptionally holy people or officially recognized ones. It means every member of God's people, all of them together. "Less than the least" renders a word Paul appears to have coined by building a comparative on top of a superlative, something like "leaster than the least." "Unsearchable" comes from a word meaning "untrackable," leaving no footprints that can be followed to the end.

9And I am to make everyone see how this hidden plan is being carried out. It was kept out of sight in God from the beginning of the world, in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.

9And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

NoteTwo manuscript differences sit in this verse. The King James "fellowship of the mystery" follows copies reading a word for sharing; most early copies read the same household-management word translated "dispensation" in verse 2, which is why modern versions say something like "how this secret is administered." And "by Jesus Christ" at the end is missing from the oldest manuscripts, which read simply "who created all things."

10God's purpose was that now, through the church, the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places would be shown how many-sided God's wisdom is.

10To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

Note"Principalities and powers" are rank titles, roughly "rulers and authorities." Set "in heavenly places," they refer to powers in the unseen realm rather than to magistrates in Ephesus, though the same two words are used of human officials elsewhere in the New Testament. "Manifold" translates a word used of things of many colors, such as embroidered cloth or a flowering meadow; the point is variety and intricacy, not merely quantity.

11This fits the lasting purpose that God formed and carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.

11According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

Note"The eternal purpose" is literally "the purpose of the ages," a plan spanning all the long stretches of time. The verb in "which he purposed" can mean either "formed" or "carried out," and translators split on which sense is meant.

12Because we belong to Christ and trust him, we can come to God openly, without fear, sure of our welcome.

12In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

Note"Boldness" translates a word from public life meaning the right of a free citizen to speak openly in the assembly without fear of consequence. "Access" translates a word for being ushered into the presence of a king or a god by someone with the standing to bring you. "The faith of him" is a Greek possessive that can be read two ways: our faith in Christ, or Christ's own faithfulness. The grammar does not settle it.

13So I ask you not to lose heart over the troubles I am going through for you. What I suffer brings honor to you.

13Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

Note"Faint not" means do not lose heart, not do not collapse physically. "Tribulations" translates a word whose root sense is pressure or crushing weight. "Which is your glory" is ambiguous in the Greek about what "which" refers back to: most likely Paul's sufferings, possibly the readers' not losing heart.

14This is why I kneel down before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

14For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

NoteStanding was the ordinary posture for prayer in Jewish practice, so kneeling signals unusual intensity or urgency rather than routine devotion. The words "of our Lord Jesus Christ" after "the Father" are absent from the earliest manuscripts, which read simply "the Father," and their absence is what makes the wordplay in the next verse visible.

15the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its name.

15Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

NoteThis is a pun that cannot survive translation. The Greek word for "Father" is pater, and the word translated "family" is patria, a group descended from a common ancestor: a clan or a line of descent. Every fatherhood, human or angelic, is named after the one Father. The Greek also lacks the article here, so it can mean either "the whole family" as the King James has it or "every family," as most modern versions read it.

16I pray that out of his glorious riches he will make you strong deep inside, with power that comes from his Spirit.

16That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

Note"The inner man" means the inward self, the person considered from the inside, as opposed to the outward body that other people see and that wears out.

17I pray that Christ will live in your hearts as you trust him, and that love will be the soil your roots grow in and the foundation you are built on.

17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18Then you, along with all God's people, will have the strength to take in how wide, how long, how deep, and how high it is,

18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

NoteThe Greek does not say what is being measured. It simply lists the four dimensions with nothing attached, and readers have to supply the object from the next verse, where the love of Christ appears. Manuscripts also vary in the order of the four words. "Comprehend" here means to grasp or seize hold of, closer to catching something than to intellectually following an argument.

19and to know the love of Christ, a love greater than anything we can fully know. Then you will be filled with everything God himself is full of.

19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Note"Passeth knowledge" means goes beyond knowledge, surpasses it; it does not mean the love fades away. There is a deliberate tension in saying that readers should know a love that outruns knowing. "Fulness" translates a word meaning the full measure of what fills a thing up to its brim.

20Now think of God, who is able to do far more than anything we ask for or even imagine, by his power that is at work inside us.

20Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

Note"Exceeding abundantly above" is the King James translators stacking three English words to carry one stacked Greek word, a compound built out of "beyond" plus "out of" plus "more than." The awkwardness of the English matches a deliberate awkwardness in the Greek.

21May he be honored in the church and in Christ Jesus, in every generation, for all time to come. Amen.

21Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Note"Throughout all ages, world without end" is literally "to all the generations of the age of the ages," a piled-up Hebrew-style way of saying time without any stopping point. "World" here means an age or epoch of time, not the planet. "Amen" is a Hebrew word meaning "so be it" or "it is true," said aloud by a gathering to make a spoken prayer their own.