translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EPH

label: NET translator note

text: rightly places ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets.


text: Or “administration,” “dispensation,” “commission.”


text: Or “namely, that is.”


text: Or “mystery.”


text: Or “as I wrote above briefly.” sn As I wrote briefly may refer to the author’s brief discussion of the divine secret in 1:9 .


text: Grk “which, when reading.”


text: Grk “you are able to.”


text: Grk “which.” Verse 5 is technically a relative clause, subordinate to the thought of v. 4 .


text: Grk “the sons of men” (a Semitic idiom referring to human beings, hence, “people”).


text: Grk “other.”


text: Or “in.”


text: Grk “and fellow members.”


text: Grk “of which I was made a minister,” “of which I became a servant.”


text: Grk “according to.”


text: There is a possible causative nuance in the Greek verb, but this is difficult to convey in the translation.


text: Grk “what is the plan of the divine secret.” Earlier the author had used οἰκονομία ( oikonomia ; here “plan”) to refer to his own “stewardship” (v. 2 ). But now he is speaking about the content of this secret, not his own activity in relation to it.


text: Or “for eternity,” or perhaps “from the Aeons.” Cf. 2:2, 7 .


text: Or “by God.” It is possible that ἐν ( en ) plus the dative here indicates agency, that is, that God has performed the action of hiding the secret. However, this usage of the preposition ἐν is quite rare in the NT, and even though here it does follow a perfect passive verb as in the Classical idiom, it is more likely that a different nuance is intended.


text: Grk “that.” Verse 10 is a subordinate clause to the verb “enlighten” in v. 9 .


text: Or “manifold wisdom,” “wisdom in its rich variety.”


text: Grk “according to.” The verse is a prepositional phrase subordinate to v. 10 .


text: Grk “access in confidence.”


text: The phrase “to God” is not in the text, but is clearly implied by the preceding, “access.”


text: Grk “through,” “by way of.”


text: Grk “his.”


text: Grk “I ask.” No direct object is given in Greek, leaving room for the possibility that either “God” (since the verb is often associated with prayer) or “you” is in view.


text: Grk “my trials on your behalf.”


text: Or “Or who is your glory?” The relative pronoun ἥτις ( Jhti" ), if divided differently, would become ἤ τίς ( h ti" ). Since there were no word breaks in the original mss , either word division is possible. The force of the question would be that for the readers to become discouraged over Paul’s imprisonment would mean that they were no longer trusting in God’s sovereignty.


text: Grk “I bend my knees.”


text: א * A B C P 6 33 81 365 1175 1739 co Or Hier.


text: Or “by.”


text: Or “the whole family.”


text: Grk “that.” In Greek v. 16 is a subordinate clause to vv. 14-15 .


text: Or “with.”


text: Or “infinitely beyond,” “far more abundantly than.”