SIL Translator’s Notes on Ephesians 2:18

2:18

For through Him: The phrase For through Him refers to Christ dying on the cross for people. The New Living Translation (2004) makes this explicit:

because of what Christ has done for us (New Living Translation (2004))

we both: The phrase we both refers to the Jews and the Gentiles. If it is not clear to whom this phrase refers you may want to make it clearer in the translation.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

both we ⌊Jews⌋ and you ⌊Gentiles
-or-
we ⌊who are Jews⌋ and you ⌊who are not Jews
-or-
we (incl.) all, both ⌊Jews and Gentiles

have access to the Father: The word access means we have the right to enter God’s presence here on earth. Paul meant that believers can talk with God in this life because they have a good relationship with him. Paul was not talking here about believers going to heaven after they died.

If there is a special word in your language that indicates entering the presence of a chief/ruler, you may want to use it here.

It is possible to translate the word access as a verb. For example:

all of us can come to the Father (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
all of us…are able to come…into the presence of the Father (Good News Translation)
-or-
Jewish and non-Jewish people can go to the Father (God’s Word)

by one Spirit: The phrase by one Spirit in this context means “the same Holy Spirit.” It is the same Holy Spirit who leads both Jews and Gentiles to God.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

we all can approach God by ⌊the power of⌋ the same Holy Spirit
-or-
both ⌊Jews and Gentiles⌋ can approach ⌊God our⌋ Father with the help of the same Holy Spirit

Paragraph 2:19–22

In this next paragraph, Paul used three comparisons to describe the unity of Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ. He said that they are like:

(a) citizens of the same country (19a–b)

(b) members of the same family (19c)

(c) bricks of one building (20–21)

© 1999, 2019 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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