The readers’ condition In the past is described as that of (spiritual) death because of their disobedience and sins. The Greek noun translated disobedience is the plural form of “transgression” (see 1.7; Revised Standard Version “trespasses”), and it means the departure from a way or norm, in this case, of course, God’s law. The Greek noun for “sin” occurs only here in Ephesians.

In place of a phrase such as In the past, many languages use a past tense indicating a past state of being, for example, “You used to be.”

Spiritually dead is sometimes rendered as “dead, so to speak, as far as your spirits are concerned” or “… were concerned.” In rendering this rather bold figure of speech it is often necessary to mark it as a simile with an expression such as “as though it were” or “like.” In some instances it is also possible to translate spiritually dead as “dead, so to speak, as far as responding to God’s Spirit is concerned,” or “with regard to matters relating to God, you were as though you were dead.”

Because disobedience and sins must often be expressed by verb phrases, it may be necessary to restructure the phrase because of your disobedience and sins as “you were this way because you disobeyed God and sinned.”

Verse 2 continues without a break from verse 1: “in which (that is, ‘your sins’ of verse 1) you once walked….” The Greek verb “to walk” is often used in the figurative sense of manner of life, conduct, morality (also in 2.10; 4.1, 17; 5.2, 8, 15).

The temporal phrase At that time may be rendered in some languages as a so-called continuative past tense equivalent to “that is what you used to do.” At that time you followed the world’s evil way may often be expressed as “you used to follow the world’s evil way.”

The readers’ past conduct was controlled by (1) the world’s evil way (“the aiōn of this world”); the Greek noun, meaning “age, era, epoch” (see 1.21), is here practically personified (see its use further in 3.9 and Col 1.26), as it is in other places in Greek literature. Most translations, however, have “the way of this world” (Jerusalem Bible) or something similar.

Though in English the idea of “following a way” seems to be a perfectly legitimate manner in which to talk about behavior, such a phrase may mean nothing in some languages. Therefore, one may translate you followed the world’s evil way as “you lived just like evil people in the world live.” But this does not do full justice to the characterization of the world’s pattern of life as being essentially evil. Therefore it is better to translate “you lived in an evil way just like the people of this world live in an evil way.”

(2) “The prince of the authority of the air” (Revised Standard Version) is a way of speaking of evil spiritual forces, which were thought of as inhabiting the region between the earth and the sky; for the word “ruler” used of evil forces, see Mark 3.22; Matthew 12.24; John 12.31.

You obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space may be rendered as “you obeyed the one who rules over the spirits in the sky.” But it is possible that such a rendering would be confused with a statement about Jesus ruling over the various supernatural rulers, authorities, powers, and lords mentioned in 1.21. Therefore it may be necessary to be rather specific in rendering this clause as “you obeyed the evil ruler who governs the evil spirits in the sky.”

(3) “The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Revised Standard Version); the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God (Good News Translation): by strict grammatical rules the word “spirit” should be in the accusative case parallel with the accusative of “ruler,” but it is in the genitive case, parallel with “authority,” and so some take it to mean “according to the ruler of the spirit….” Most, however, take this phrase to be independent of and parallel with the preceding one, the genitive case being explained as the result of the attraction of the preceding genitive phrase. This “spirit” is clearly the Devil, the ruler of all evil spiritual forces; it is not necessary, however, to use the word for “Devil” here. “The sons of disobedience” is a Semitic phrase, the word “sons” being used to express nature, character; it means the people who disobey God. Good News Translation controls translates the verb “at work in” (see its use in 1.11, 20); it describes such people as being dominated by the evil spirit.

Because of the problem of the appositional phrase in the final statement of verse 2, namely, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God, it may be best to translate this statement as “this is the spirit who now rules the people who disobey God.” In some instances disobey is rendered quite literally as “refuse to do what someone says,” but in many instances the closest equivalent of disobey is “to refuse to listen to.”

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 .