Saints Translation

By Vincent Melli

Ephesians — Greek text and reception

ChaplainReconciled fellowship

Ephesians 2 — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: Ephesians [V2]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Chapter 2

Made alive by grace

Verse 2:1

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And you, being dead in your transgressions and sins,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: “And you” opens an interrupted construction. The main making-alive verb arrives at 2:5 with “us”; the translation preserves that movement rather than supplying a separate main verb here. Reception: R06.

Verse 2:2

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience—

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: “Walked” marks former conduct. The layered ruler/authority/air/spirit wording remains visible; the source does not insert the personal name Satan here, though later reception identifies the ruler that way. Reception: R06.

Verse 2:3

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

among whom we too all once lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the wishes of the flesh and of our thoughts, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: “We too all” includes the writer in the former condition. Flesh and thoughts are both named; “by nature children of wrath” is not replaced with an interpretation of inherited guilt or habit. Reception: R06.

Verse 2:4

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: “But God” turns the interrupted description toward its subject and main verb. Rich mercy and great love are the stated grounds, and the source repeats love in noun and verb. Reception: R06.

Verse 2:5

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

even when we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: God makes “us” alive together with Christ even while dead in transgressions. The parenthesis addresses “you” and uses a completed-saving construction: “you have been saved.” Reception: R06.

Verse 2:6

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

and raised us together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: The two further verbs retain the “together” compounds: raised together and seated together. Their setting is in Christ Jesus; the sentence does not narrate the readers’ physical departure from earth. Reception: R06.

Verse 2:7

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: The purpose reaches into the coming ages. Grace’s surpassing riches are shown in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, retaining both the beneficiaries and the mediating relation. Reception: R06.

Verse 2:8

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: “This” is neuter while grace and faith are feminine. It can refer to the saving event as a whole; the translation does not restrict God’s gift to one preceding noun. Reception: R07, R33.

Verse 2:9

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

not from works, so that no one may boast.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: “Not from works” continues the preceding account of salvation and excludes boasting. It is read together with 2:10, which positively identifies good works as the purpose of creation in Christ. Reception: R07, R33.

Verse 2:10

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: God’s workmanship and creation in Christ lead to good works. The verse retains both God’s preparation beforehand and believers’ walking in those works, not a choice between the two actions. Reception: R07, R33.

Both made one

Verse 2:11

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, called “uncircumcision” by what is called “circumcision,” made by hands in the flesh—

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: The repeated “called” marks the labels uncircumcision and circumcision as human designations. “Made by hands in the flesh” qualifies circumcision without adding a judgment about every Israelite. Reception: R08.

Verse 2:12

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

that at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: Politeia can concern citizenship or the commonwealth. Israel, the covenants of promise, hope and God are separately named in the former exclusion; none is compressed into a general word for religion. Reception: R08.

Verse 2:13

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have become near by the blood of Christ.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: The contrast is “once” and “now”: those far away have become near. The means is Christ’s blood, retaining the specific wording rather than substituting the law or ethnic assimilation. Reception: R08.

Verse 2:14

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

For He Himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the barrier, the hostility, in His flesh,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: Christ Himself is peace and makes both one. “The hostility” explains the wall image; “in His flesh” can attach to breaking down or to the abolition clause in 2:15. Reception: R08.

Verse 2:15

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

having abolished the law of commandments in decrees, so that He might create the two in Himself into one new human being, making peace,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: Katargeō is rendered “abolished,” made inoperative. The law is not narrowed by adding “ceremonial.” The two are created into one new human being, preserving the corporate singular. Reception: R08.

Text: NA28 reads αὐτῷ (SBLGNT ἑαυτῷ); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "in Him" (though αὐτῷ can carry the reflexive sense).R08

Verse 2:16

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility by it.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: Both are reconciled in one body to God through the cross. “By it” takes en autō with the cross; “in Him,” referring to Christ, is another grammatical possibility. Reception: R08.

Verse 2:17

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

And He came and proclaimed peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: The proclamation repeats peace for the far and for the near. The repetition is meaningful within the reconciliation argument and is not reduced to a single unspecified audience. Reception: R09.

Verse 2:18

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

because through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: The two groups share access through Him, in one Spirit, to the Father. The three relations and the shared “both” remain distinct rather than being flattened into a general approach to God. Reception: R09.

Verse 2:19

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

So then you are no longer strangers and resident foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: The status changes from strangers and resident foreigners to fellow citizens and members of God’s household. Civic and household images are both preserved before the building image develops. Reception: R09.

Verse 2:20

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: Apostles and prophets form the named foundation, with Christ Jesus Himself as cornerstone. The verse does not enumerate the prophets or replace them with an explanatory historical group. Reception: R09.

Verse 2:21

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord,

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: “The whole building” takes pasa oikodomē collectively; “every building” is another analysis of the articleless phrase. The structure grows into a holy sanctuary, preserving naos rather than a generic meeting room. Reception: R09.

Verse 2:22

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Textual & Reception Notes

Text: The recipients themselves are being built together. The present passive and shared-building compound identify an ongoing corporate dwelling of God in the Spirit, not merely isolated individual dwellings. Reception: R09.