FOOTNOTES:

^a There seems to be no verb to this thought. Most often, when that happens, a form of ‘to be’ is implied. It is difficult here. The thought that is begun with toutou charin, ‘Toward that end,’ doesn’t seem to continue after verse 1. It’s like he started his thought, got lost in filling in background thoughts for four verses, and then it seems to give the second half in verse 6. If that’s the case, then it would read something like this: “(1) Toward that end, I, Paul, prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus in support of you of other ethnicities, (6) the other ethnicities to be fellow heirs and the same body and co-participants in the same promise through Christ Jesus through the news of victory.” With the four-verse detour setting up the pieces of the puzzle leading to the conclusion, it’s very difficult to show it as one sentence through all six verses, and even bringing these two verses next to each other, the verb ‘to be’ in verse 6 struggles to knit the thoughts together cleanly. In order to make the progression of thought more perceptible in English, these verses need to be broken into multiple sentences and adding ‘am’ in verse 1 is a necessary clarification to make it work grammatically.

^b The Greek pronoun kata has several uses, and with apokalupsin (‘revelation’) being in the accusative case, the possible uses, according to D. B. Wallace (1996), are 1) standard—‘in accordance with’ or ‘corresponding to,’ 2) spatial—‘along,’ ‘through,’ ‘toward’ or ‘up to,’ 3) temporal—‘at’ or ‘during,’ 4) distributive—‘indicating the division of a greater whole into individual parts,’ 5) purpose—‘for the purpose of,’ and 6) reference/respect—‘with respect to’ or ‘with reference to.’ Most translations translate it here as ‘by’ so that it says ‘by revelation the mystery was made known to me.’ There have been many times when I have used a preposition that wasn’t in the official list of options if it seemed to capture the basic meaning; however, ‘by’ here seems not to be even similar to any of the ideas presented. ‘By’ indicates that the following word is the means of the preceding concept, or that the following word is the agent of the preceding concept. In this case, revelation would be the means by which the mystery was made known to Paul. The problem is that kata is not a preposition of means. It seems that of the six listed possible uses, purpose and reference/respect are the only real options in this context. While reference/respect seems valid, purpose seems most likely. The context of the previous verse shows that Paul is discussing his calling as a steward to care for the church on God’s behalf, and then verse 3 starts with hoti which is translated as ‘that’ and indicates the following information is clarifying something about the preceding information. Verse 3, then, seems to be indicating that he is the recipient of the divine mystery as part of his calling to care for the church—to reveal God’s generosity to them. If kata is taken as a preposition of purpose, then, it would read as ‘for the purpose of revelation,’ meaning the reason the mystery was made known to him was to reveal it to others.

^c Traditionally, ‘revelation.’

^d What follows is the result of Paul revealing the mystery, indicated by the Greek pros ho.

^e The word is noeo, related to metanoia. It has to do with changing the mind, learning or coming to understand things in a new way of thinking.

^f Sunesis is traditionally ‘understanding.’ It also means literally, ‘flowing together.’ It’s a reference to how a person holds ideas together, connecting them to form an understanding of something.

^g Literally ‘sons of humanity’

^h Literally, it means something like ‘cannot be fully explored’ referring to a track. It seems to imply that the track is so long as to make it impossible to explore it fully; the end can never be discovered.

ⁱ Literally, ‘to shine a light on.’ Traditionally, ‘enlighten.’

^j The word oikonomia means ‘management/administration of the house/household’ or ‘stewardship’ or a ‘plan’ developed for the ‘management of the household.’

^k The Greek en here could mean either ‘by’ or ‘with’ in the context. If it seems ‘by’ is the best option, then connecting it back to the plan makes the most sense. More literally, that would make the understanding of what the Greek is saying be something like, “The plan with regard to the God who created everything.” If en to theo is taken to be more connected with ‘mystery hidden,’ then the word ‘by’ could be accurate but it seems harder to understand in the context. ‘With’ could also be accurate, saying that the ‘mystery was hidden with God,’ implying that those who found God had a chance at encountering this mysterious wisdom (that all people groups are called by God). Either of those may be the best way to translate this phrase, but leaving it as God’s plan for managing the house seems to make the most sense in context.

^l This word is related to the word used to translate Genesis 37:3 into Greek for his many-colored coat. That word is polikilos, and this word is polupoikilos. More or less, it literally means ‘many various colored,’ whereas Joseph’s coat was only ‘many colored.’ Translating it into English in a way that makes more sense would be ‘multicolored.’ The shorter version related to Joseph’s coat can also be used to mean ‘varied’ or ‘diverse.’ With polu- as a prefix, it would be emphatic: ‘many variations’ or ‘very diverse.’

^m Traditionally, ‘in the heavenlies.’ Literally, ‘in the over-sky’ or that which is higher than the sky. This has nothing to do with a post-death residence. It represents the level of authority or power of those who are said to be in this place. It represents socio-economic or power/authority status.

ⁿ ‘community’? ‘church’?

^o Or possibly something like ‘displayed,’ ‘shown,’ or ‘presented.’ The word can have either meaning, but with the context that previously explicitly stated it had been hidden, ‘displayed’ seems counter to the flow of thought.

^p Access to what is not named here. However, in Ephesians 2:17, the same word is used to state that ‘access to the Father’ is what is given. It seems likely, though not a foregone conclusion, that it means the same here.

^q This would have the same impact of ‘bowed down to’ that meant ‘submit to’ seen in passages like Matthew 4:10. The difference between bowing to an authority and kneeling to an authority is cultural/geographic. Ancient Near Eastern cultures like Hebrews and Persians bowed face to the ground. Roman and Greek cultures (Ephesus was part of Greek culture, though it was located in Asia Minor, modern day Türkiye) kneeled to show the same sentiment, and they saw the difference as a sign they were more civilized than the cultures further east. Though the motion is different, the significance is the same.

^r There’s a bit of a play on words here that’s harder to convey in English. ‘Father’ is pater, and ‘lineage’ or ‘family line’ or ‘ancestry’ is patria. Something like ‘I kneel before the Ancestor from whom every ancestry…’ or ‘I kneel before the Parent from whom every parentage….’ could work in English, but it’s less natural language.

^s Literally, ‘is named’

^t Is this the first reference to an individual in Ephesians to this point, or is it using ‘person’ as a reference to the body of Christ like it does in Colossians 3? I actually think this in the context of verse 17 is referring to Christ residing in the church, as the house/temple. So far, it’s the strongest equation of Christ with God in Ephesians.

^u Or ‘motivations,’ literally ‘hearts’

^v Literally, ‘rooted.’ ‘Entrenched was used here to align more closely with the house metaphor, especially as the next word has to do with a foundation.

^w Literally, ‘thrown beyond knowledge.’

^x Literally, ‘filled to the whole fullness of God.’ Tou theou is taken as a genitive of production here. It could also be a genitive of contents, continuing the metaphor of Christ moving in as the interior person residing in the temple/house that is the church, and it would read ‘filled up completely with God.’

^y The word is noeo, related to metanoia. It has to do with changing the mind, learning or coming to understand things in a new way of thinking.