Ephesians 2


Ephesians 2 is the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Traditionally, it is believed to have been written by Apostle Paul while he was in prison in Rome, but more recently it has been suggested that it was written between AD 80 and 100 by another writer using Paul's name and style.
The 1599 Geneva Bible summarises the contents of this chapter:
This chapter contains the well-known verse "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith: and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God".

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 22 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

Reminder of God's Grace (2:1–10)

According to theologian James Dunn, this section contains "one of the most forceful statements in the Bible" about the human condition when separated from God's grace and the work of God's grace for salvation.

Verse 1

"And you hath he quickened …" in the King James Version. The verb is missing from the text, supplied by inference from verse 5. Some translations decline to add a form of words on mankind being made alive: the New Revised Standard Version, for example, reads:

Verse 2

The metaphor, "the prince of the power of the air" or "the ruler of the power of the air", is not used elsewhere in the New Testament.
  • "Prince of the power of the air?" in Mark 4: "The birds fly over the air. They have control over the air." The Bible says Satan is likened to that. So, the atmosphere is Satan’s domain and territory.
Mark 4:4: "And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up."

Verse 3

The verse describes that before being saved, converts were just as bad as those outside the faith - that they gave in to their baser thoughts and impulses.
There is debate about the phrase "children of wrath". Some indicate it refers to Original Sin, in which God was angered by Adam and Eve for disobeying him. Others believe it refers to the descendants of Cain, who slew Abel in his anger and brought murder into the world.

Verse 8

  • "Gift of God": emphasizing that salvation is completely and solely a 'gift'.

Verse 9

  • "Works" here means 'any product of human effort'.

Verse 10

  • "His workmanship": Not only as human beings, but also as Christians, new creatures; pertaining to the persons described in Ephesians 2:1-3 and include both Jews and Gentiles.
  • "Created in Christ Jesus for good works": the grace of God is an act of creation, that is, an infusion of new creatures, which are created in Christ. A person who has become a new creature, is visibly in Christ, ready to perform good works.
  • "God prepared beforehand" or has "before prepared": the preparation of good works to be performed by believers, and the preparation of the believers for performing the works, both are from the Lord. God has appointed good works to be done by his people, but the intention is not that they should be saved by them, but that they should walk in them; and this being God's pre-ordination, as it shows that predestination is not according to good works, since good works are the effects of it.

The New Humanity (2:11–22)

This is another review of the believers' transition from the past life to the "new humanity", from the perspective of the saving work of God through Israel which is now open to all through Christ.

Verse 13

The image of the gentiles as being "far off" and "brought near" is also used in the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter speaks to the Pentecost crowds in Jerusalem saying:
The Cambridge [Bible for Schools and Colleges] notes that "nigh" and "far" were also familiar rabbinical terms in the sense of having or not having part in the covenant. "Johann Jakob Wettstein on this verse quotes, 'inter alia', the following from the Talmud:

Verses 14–16

  • " created in Himself one new man from the two": Lutheran theologian George Stoeckhardt argues that "the Christian Church is de facto the one new man formed from Jews and Gentiles in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek".

Verses 19–22