Ephesians 1:5

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Ephesians 1:5 tn Grk “by predestining.” Verse 5 begins with an aorist participle dependent on the main verb in v. 4 (“chose”). sn By predestining. The aorist participle may be translated either causally (“because he predestined,” “having predestined”) or instrumentally (“by predestining”). A causal nuance would suggest that God’s predestination of certain individuals prompted his choice of them. An instrumental nuance would suggest that the means by which God’s choice was accomplished was by predestination. The instrumental view is somewhat more likely in light of normal Greek syntax (i.e., an aorist participle following an aorist main verb is more likely to be instrumental than causal).
2. Ephesians 1:5 tn Grk “to himself” after “through Jesus Christ.”
3. Ephesians 1:5 tn Grk “to adoption as sons.” The Greek term υἱοθεσία (huiothesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as…legal heirs.”sn Adoption as his legal heirs is different from spiritual birth as children. All true believers have been born as children of God and will be adopted as legal heirs of God. The adoption is both a future reality, and in some sense, already true. To be “adopted as a son” means to have the full rights of a legal heir. Thus, although in the ancient world, only boys could be adopted as legal heirs, in God’s family all children—both male and female—are adopted in this way.
4. Ephesians 1:5 tn Or “good pleasure.”