Eph. 1:3-14, Gleanings from Ephesians (1)

In my NT reading I am in Ephesians, trying to read from my Greek NT.  Let me confess: it is a struggle for me.  I still spend a lot of time in the thesaurus in the back because I can’t remember words that should be familiar.  I am mentioning this, not to brag but to let you know why, over the next few posts, you may see references to things in the Greek.  I especially have learned to pay close attention to the Greek prepositions.  They are the tiny words that connect the big words like predestination and redemption and inheritance and so forth.  But they are incredibly important and are worthy of meditation.  For example:

·       1:5: We are predestined to adoption as sons through (dia, the agency of) Jesus Christ.  “Predestined” is a big word.  We do not become God’s sons apart from predestination.  But this adoption is through Jesus Christ.  Thus, we do not become God’s sons apart from faith in Christ.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12).  “Predestination” is why John goes on to say, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (1:13).

·       1:7: The NKJV translates paraptomaton as “sins”.  The word actually means “trespass.”  The normal term for “sin” is hamartos and means “missing the mark.”  A “trespass” is, of course, a sin.  I only mention this because the “trespass” term is again in Eph. 2:1,5: we were dead in trespasses.  But in Christ there is redemption and forgiveness.

·       1:12: “First trusted” is one, compound word in Greek.  Pro (first) elpizo (to hope in, trust).  It is helpful, I believe, to know that to my knowledge, most English translations, translate elpizo either as “to hope” or “to trust”.  We consider “trust” to be a synonym for “faith” but technically that is not the case.  “Hope” is, of course, faith that looks forward.  Faith, on the other hand, is the “substance” or present confidence, of things hoped for.  Israel in the OT hoped for what was future, a coming Messiah.  Thus, Paul refers in Eph. 1:12 to the Jewish believers who “first hoped” in Christ.  Then along came Gentile believers in v13: you also having believed.  (The NKJV reads in v13: in Him you also trusted; but the word “trusted” is in italics, meaning it is not in the text.  I believe the verse reads correctly if you take out that italicized word.  Israel trusted; Gentiles look back at the cross and believed.)

We have enjoyed too much time in these passages so that we have not come to the prepositional study I see in these verses.  So we will come back to this passage in our next post.