Good News Translation picks up The secret is from verses 3, 5; the Greek text begins the verse with “the Gentiles are” (literally “to be the Gentiles”), which is the content of “the secret” in verse 3a. (As has already been noted, verses 3b-5 are a digression from the main line of thought.) It should be noticed that King James Version (King James Version) here “That the Gentiles should be” is quite misleading. Most translations would do well to start a new sentence in verse 6, as Good News Translation has done. The statement The secret is that … may be stated explicitly in some languages as “That which has not as yet been known is that…” or “What God didn’t reveal before is that…” or “What God did not reveal before but has now revealed is that….”
Three compound nouns are used to describe the new condition the Gentiles are in: sun-klēronoma, sun-sōma, and sun-metocha; here, as in “fellow citizens” in 3.9, the Greek preposition sun, “together with,” means that the Gentiles, together with the Jews, have these blessings: (1) they are also “heirs” of God’s blessings (see “inheritance” in 1.14, 18); this same compound is used also in Romans 8.17; Hebrews 11.9; 1 Peter 3.7; (2) they are the same “body,” by implication, the body of Christ, the church; and (3) they are also “partakers” of the promise (see the Greek word for “partner” in Luke 5.7; Heb 1.9; 3.1, 14; 6.4; 12.8). Good News Translation has represented these three Greek nouns by means of verbal phrases: (1) the Gentiles have a part with the Jews; (2) they are members of the same body; and (3) (they) share in the promise.
The statement the Gentiles have a part with the Jews in God’s blessings is much more complex in meaning than what might appear to be the case. To say that the Gentiles have a part with the Jews may be rendered as “the Gentiles and the Jews together share” or “the Gentiles are together with the Jews in receiving,” or “the Gentiles have received the same blessings as the Jews.” One of the difficulties in the use of the verb “to share” is the possible implication that the Jews and Gentiles mutually exchange blessings.
The phrase in God’s blessings may simply be expressed “in what God gives to them” or “in the good things which God does for them.”
If one wishes to retain the figurative meaning of the same body, it may be necessary to introduce a simile, for example, “they are members, so to speak, of the same body” or “… part of the same body.”
Rather than share in the promise it may be necessary to say “they received together what has been promised,” or “… what God has promised.”
The promise that God made through Christ Jesus; “of the promise in Christ Jesus”: this goes with the immediately preceding “coparticipants” and refers in a general sense to the promise of salvation, new life, or however else the Good News is defined. Caragounis and Abbott take the phrase “in Christ Jesus” to mean “by being united with Christ Jesus,” modifying all three compound nouns. This is quite possible and may be preferred to Good News Translation. If a translation prefers this interpretation, the following may be said: “By being united with Christ Jesus, the Gentiles have a part with the Jews in God’s blessings, etc.”
The relationship of primary and secondary agents in the statement that God made through Christ Jesus may sometimes be expressed as “God caused the promise to be made and Christ Jesus said it.” However, the relationship of Christ Jesus to the promise may involve more than merely announcing the promise. In a sense he is the one who causes the promise to be fulfilled. Therefore through Christ Jesus may be rendered as “Christ Jesus caused the promise to come true” or “Christ Jesus made happen what God had promised.”
“Through the gospel”: Good News Translation takes this last phrase in the verse to modify the whole verse, and so places it early in the verse: that by means of the gospel the Gentiles … (also New English Bible, New International Version, Barclay). But it may be taken only with the immediately preceding “the promise in Christ Jesus,” as Translator’s New Testament does: “and share in God’s promise fulfilled in Christ Jesus by means of the Good News he brought” (similarly Jerusalem Bible).
The position of the phrase by means of the gospel depends upon the way in which this phrase is related to the content of the entire verse. If the phrase is associated with all the various events, the phrase may very well come at the end of the verse as “all of this was possible because of the Good News” or even “this is what the Good News was all about.” If, however, one relates the phrase by means of the gospel to the first part of verse 6, the translation may be “the secret is that the gospel has made it possible for both the Gentiles and the Jews to receive God’s blessing.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .