Ephesians3chapter 3

Ephesians 3:1

Paul names his condition the prisoner of Jesus Christ rather than of Rome, reading Nero's chain as an assignment from a higher authority. For you Gentiles ties the imprisonment directly to the truth just taught in chapter two, that the nations are fellowcitizens in one body. The sentence begun here breaks off and is not finished until verse fourteen resumes for this cause, the parenthesis of verses two through thirteen a digression on the mystery Paul cannot pass by unexplained.

Ephesians 3:2-3

The dispensation of the grace of God renders oikonomia, a stewardship entrusted to a manager rather than a possession owned outright, the same word Paul uses of his apostolic office elsewhere. By revelation he made known unto me the mystery claims direct disclosure, not a tradition received secondhand. As I wrote afore in few words most naturally points back to what the letter has already said in its first two chapters, though some read it of an earlier writing now lost.

Ephesians 3:4

Whereby, when ye read expects the letter itself to do the teaching, the Ephesians grasping Paul's understanding of the mystery of Christ simply by reading what he has set down. My knowledge in the mystery is revelation given to be shared, not private illumination Paul keeps for himself. The clause closes the parenthetical aside begun at verse three before the main argument continues in verse five.

Ephesians 3:5

In other ages was not made known sets a hard contrast against as it is now revealed, the mystery genuinely hidden rather than merely obscure before Christ. His holy apostles and prophets most naturally names the New Testament's own office holders, the same pairing found at 2:20 and again at 4:11, rather than the prophets of Israel. Whether the Old Testament carried any hint of a Gentile inclusion in advance of this revelation is read differently among commentators, though none deny that the fulness of the mystery waited for this hour.

Ephesians 3:6

The mystery's content is now named plainly: Gentiles as fellowheirs, of the same body, and partakers of the promise, three Greek compounds Paul builds on the same syn- prefix, joined-heirs, joined-body, joined-partakers. This is Gentiles brought into Israel's own promise in Christ, the commonwealth named at 2:12, not Israel dissolved into a replacement people; Romans 11 stands across the hall making the same point from the other direction. The gospel is named as the means, in Christ by the gospel, the ordinary preached word carrying what had been secret.

Ephesians 3:7-8

Made a minister according to the gift names Paul's whole office as something given rather than earned, by the effectual working of his power rather than by Paul's own energy. Less than the least of all saints translates a word Paul appears to have coined, elachistoteros, a comparative built onto an already-superlative form, grammatically impossible Greek reaching for a humility ordinary language could not express. The unsearchable riches of Christ, anexichniastos, names wealth that cannot be tracked to its bottom, which is exactly what Paul is commissioned to preach among the Gentiles.

Ephesians 3:9

From the beginning of the world hath been hid in God is the letter's third beat of the mystery thread, following 1:9 and 3:3-4, and hid in God says the secret was held inside God's own counsel rather than merely unnoticed by men. Who created all things by Jesus Christ names the same person now revealing the mystery as the one through whom the world itself was made, Colossians 1:16 making the identical claim. The fellowship of the mystery is Paul's task, to make all men see what had been hidden, a stewardship rather than a discovery he takes credit for.

Ephesians 3:10

To the intent that now is the heavenly places thread's fourth beat, epouranios again, and the audience named is startling: the principalities and powers, the same ranked orders named under Christ's feet at 1:21, learning something they did not already know by watching the church. The manifold wisdom of God translates polypoikilos, many-colored or richly varied, a single Greek word doing what English needs several to say. The church herself becomes a lesson to the unseen world, not merely the recipient of a lesson, real angelic and demonic orders instructed by what grace has done among Jew and Gentile joined in one body.

Ephesians 3:11-12

The eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord roots everything just described in a plan older than its execution, the same ground as the predestination language of chapter one without repeating that question here. Boldness and access with confidence pairs parrhesia, free and open speech, with prosagoge, the word for being led into a royal presence already used at 2:18. By the faith of him is read two ways, the believer's own faith directed toward Christ, or Christ's own faithfulness as the ground of the access, the genitive bearing either sense in Greek.

Ephesians 3:13

Faint not at my tribulations for you asks the Ephesians not to lose heart over a suffering that is, after all, on their behalf, the imprisonment a direct consequence of the Gentile mission just described. Which is your glory turns the expected shame of his chains into their honor, Paul's bonds a credential of the very gospel that reached them. The verse closes the long parenthesis and clears the way for the prayer that follows in verse fourteen.

Ephesians 3:14-15

For this cause resumes the sentence broken off at verse one, the digression on the mystery finally giving way to the prayer it interrupted. I bow my knees marks a posture of unusual earnestness, kneeling being the exception rather than the rule for prayer in this era. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named plays on the Greek pater and patria, father and family, every fatherhood in heaven and on earth deriving its very name from the one Father rather than merely resembling him.

Ephesians 3:16-17

Strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man locates the grant in the same inward place Paul names the outer and inner man in 2 Corinthians 4:16, the outer wasting while the inner is renewed. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith uses katoikeo, to settle down and make a permanent home, not the word for a passing visit. Rooted and grounded joins a plant's metaphor to a building's in one breath, love supplying both the soil a root needs and the foundation a structure needs.

Ephesians 3:18-19

Breadth, and length, and depth, and height names four dimensions without stating what they measure, and the object supplied by most readers is the love of Christ named in the next verse, though some read it of the whole scope of God's plan just described. With all saints makes comprehension a corporate exercise, a grasp no single believer reaches alone. To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge holds a deliberate paradox, knowing what exceeds knowing, and the prayer's final ask, filled with all the fulness of God, reaches for a capacity no creature owns on its own strength.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think translates hyperekperissou, a compound Paul stacks from three prepositions to reach past the highest superlative ordinary Greek offered him. According to the power that worketh in us grounds the claim in a power already active in the readers, not a hope deferred to the future only. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages names the church herself, not heaven alone, as the ongoing place where that glory is now displayed, world without end closing the prayer on the same note the letter opened with in 1:6, 1:12 and 1:14.