Ephesians Chapter 1 - who is who?

by AK - Jeff 7 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • AK - Jeff
    AK - Jeff

    Ephesians Chapter 1;

    Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ! 3 Blessed [is] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who did bless us in every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 according as He did choose us in him before the foundation of the world, for our being holy and unblemished before Him, in love, 5 having foreordained us to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He did make us accepted in the beloved, 7 in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the remission of the trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, 8 in which He did abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure, that He purposed in Himself, 10 in regard to the dispensation of the fullness of the times, to bring into one the whole in the Christ, both the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth -- in him; 11 in whom also we did obtain an inheritance, being foreordained according to the purpose of Him who the all things is working according to the counsel of His will, 12 for our being to the praise of His glory, [even] those who did first hope in the Christ, 13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth -- the good news of your salvation -- in whom also having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory. 15 Because of this I also, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love to all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the recognition of him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, for your knowing what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us who are believing, according to the working of the power of His might, 20 which He wrought in the Christ, having raised him out of the dead, and did set [him] at His right hand in the heavenly [places], 21 far above all principality, and authority, and might, and lordship, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in the coming one; 22 and all things He did put under his feet, and did give him -- head over all things to the assembly, 23 which is his body, the fullness of Him who is filling the all in all,

    This is the way the text reads in the NKJV. I spent some time trying to sort out who was who here - I have made the references that seem to refer to the Son - in bold. The references that seem to refer to the Father - underlined. Have I got them correct? Opinions here? I counted about 20 references to the Son and 30 to the Father.

    How odd the questions that start to come to mind when no authority is trying to make the text support a particular doctrine. To me, the inability to discern easily the diff between the Father and Son in some places makes it easy to see why many have adopted the idea of the Triune or Duel Godhead. Not sure where I come down on this yet.

    Jeff

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    At first reading I think you had it generally correct. Just perhaps beware of the reflexive pronouns ("himself") in the NKJV, which actually stand for the simple (autos), not reflexive (heautos), 3rd person pronoun in v. 5 and 9. Whereas the natural referent seems to be the Father in v. 5, "He destined us for adoption through Jesus Christ to him(self)" (cf. NRSV "He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ"), there is a good case for it to be the Son in v. 9 (the parallelism with v. 10 is better, cf. the NRSV which switches the pronoun and noun in those two verses: "he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth").

  • AK - Jeff
    AK - Jeff

    Thanx Nark for that input.

    Are you a scholar of Greek? I would love to find a good reference for the Greek Scriptures, a commentary that brings it down to the 'layman' that I am - any recs?

    Jeff

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    AK-Jeff,

    Don't call anybody a "scholar" on this board!

    I'm not the best reference for English commentaries, especially if you are looking for a one-volume NT or Bible commentary. I once used the New Jerome Bible Commentary which is handy and often interesting, but there may be other valuable tools around.

    If you want to dig a text deeper, the best is to check several specific commentaries on individual books, which you can easily do in a good library. The Hermeneia, Augsburg, Anchor Bible or International Critical Commentary series offer the best scholarly collections imo -- although there are a few disappointing volumes in the last two (too succinct or too old). Some volumes in the (Evangelical) Word Biblical Commentary or New International Greek Testament Commentary series offer valuable exegetical insight too.

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    That is, BTW, the longest sentence in the whole Bible. That is prolly why it is hard to keep track of who is who.

  • peacefulpete
    peacefulpete

    It further complicates the picture when you isolate the Christology here from the Gospel picture of a human preacher healer of flesh. The 'Christ' here is a spiritual medium through or in whom Paul's god reveals heavenly things, not a man walking about in Palestine. The 'Christ' is serving as a spiritual embodiment much like 'Wisdom' and 'Logos' had for other Hellenistic Jewish writers of the time. God's activities are mediated through this quasi personage therefore maintaining a clear distinction of 'Christ' from God was not really necessary.

  • AK - Jeff
    AK - Jeff
    That is, BTW, the longest sentence in the whole Bible. That is prolly why it is hard to keep track of who is who.

    Leolaia - Hey, thanx for that insight. I did not notice but that whole chapter is one sentence isn't it?

    It further complicates the picture when you isolate the Christology here from the Gospel picture of a human preacher healer

    PeacefulPete - Nice insight. Thanx Nark - Thanx for the references. Sorry for the use of the improper reference to scholar. I still think you are pretty scholarly though. LOL Jeff

  • Cygnus
    Cygnus

    Only Lyndon LaRouche could write a longer run-on sentence, and a more meaningless one that that.

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