Ephesians 2:1

καὶ ὑμᾶς ὄντας νεκρούς : and you, being dead. The construction is broken, the writer turning off into two relative sentences (Ephesians 2:2-3) before he introduces his leading verb. His original statement is taken up again, as some think, at the καὶ ὄντας νεκρούς of Ephesians 2:5 (Griesb., Rück., etc.). But the resumption begins rather with the ὁ δὲ Θεὸς of Ephesians 2:4 (Mey., Ell., etc.). So the ὑμᾶς ὄντας here is under the regimen of the συνεζωοποίησε (Ephesians 2:5), and the καί has the force of “and you too,” “you, also, as well as Christ”. The ὄντας expresses the condition they were in when God's power wrought in them. The νεκρούς means neither dying nor mortal, nor yet, again, condemned to death, but dead. Meyer, indeed, contends for the sense of “made liable to eternal death,” as he also takes the following συνεζώοποιησεν, συνήγειρεν, συνεκάθισεν as proleptic terms. But the whole series of terms is best understood to express things done then and states belonging to the actual present. The νεκρούς, therefore, means ethically or spiritually dead, and what had been said of the power of God in Christ's case is now applied to the case of the readers themselves. The power that raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him is also the power that took them out of the state of spiritual death and gave them a new life and a new dignity with Christ. τοῖς παραπτώμασιν καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις : through your trespasses and sins. On the authority of such uncials as [129] [130] [131] [132], such Versions as the Syr. and the Vulg., and such Fathers as Theod., ὑμῶν is to be inserted after ἁμαρτίαις. The dat. is the instrumental dat., “by trespasses,” not in them, nor even in respect of them (Moule). Etymologically, παράπτωμα points to sin as a fall, and ἁμαρτία to sin as failure. It is impossible to establish any clear distinction between the two nouns in the plural forms, as if the one expressed acts and the other states of sin, or as if the former meant single trespasses and the latter all kinds of sins. Here sin is that which makes dead the cause of the death-state. In the kindred passage in Colossians 2:13 we have the same idea expressed by τοῖς παραπτώμασι καὶ ἀκροβυστίᾳ τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν, if, with the best MSS. and critics, we omit ἐν. The TR inserts ἐν before παραπτώμασι, in which case sin would be presented there as itself the state of death.

[129] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[130] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[131] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[132] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.