⚠ “Dead,” and the word is not softened anywhere in the " "sentence that follows. Nekrous — the ordinary word for a corpse. " "Paul does not say the readers were weak, or sick, or lost; the diagnosis is death, and death " "is not a condition a corpse can improve from from the inside. The grammar of the whole " "passage depends on this: verse 4 does not open with “and so you tried harder” but " "with “but God” — the hinge of the chapter, four verses of " "diagnosis answered by two words.

“The ruler of the authority of the air.” A title for the " "devil found nowhere else in the New Testament in this exact form. KJV " "“the prince of the power of the air”; NIV " "“the ruler of the kingdom of the air.” Ancient cosmology commonly placed the " "lower atmosphere, between earth and moon, under hostile spiritual powers — a physical " "picture, not only a moral one, of exactly where the “heavenly places” of 1:3 are contested territory.

⚠ “By nature children of wrath.” Physei, by " "nature — not by choice, not by accumulated bad acts, but as a condition prior to any " "of them. This single word has carried an enormous weight of later theology (it is one of the " "proof-texts for original sin, argued over by Augustine and Pelagius, by the Reformers and " "their opponents), and this library reports the weight rather than settling under it: the " "verse states a condition Paul says is universal (“as also the rest”) without " "explaining its mechanism.

⚠ “But God” — two words carrying the whole turn of the " "chapter. Ho de theos, positioned exactly where the syntax of vv1-3 seemed " "to be heading toward a verb and a subject dying, unanswered, under its own weight. Some " "preachers have built entire sermons on this phrase alone; the Greek earns it grammatically, " "not just rhetorically — verses 1-3 never complete their own sentence, and God's action " "in verse 5 is what finally supplies the missing main verb.

“Made us alive together with Christ” … “raised us up " "together” … “seated us together.” Three verbs, each built " "on syn-, “with” — synezōopoiēsen, synēgeiren, " "synekathisen — and each describing something that has, grammatically, already " "happened (aorist tense) to people the chapter has just called corpses. The resurrection and " "enthronement are not future hopes here; they are reported as already accomplished, with " "Christ, in the same three stages his own story took: death, resurrection, session at the " "right hand.

“By grace you have been saved” appears twice in this chapter " "(here and v8) in the identical Greek construction — a perfect passive, an action " "completed in the past with continuing effect, not an ongoing project. It interrupts its own " "sentence both times, set off, almost muttered, as if Paul cannot get three clauses into this " "argument without saying it again.

The most quoted sentence in the letter turns on a preposition most " "translations agree on and a pronoun they do not. “This” (touto) is " "neuter; “grace” and “faith” are both feminine in Greek, so “this” " "grammatically cannot refer narrowly to either word alone — it points to the whole " "preceding act of being saved by grace through faith, not to faith considered as a private " "achievement that might itself be a kind of work. The library flags this because a great deal " "of later argument has turned on whether faith itself is the gift being named.

⚠ “Workmanship.” Poiēma — a thing made, " "a work of craftsmanship, and yes, the direct ancestor of English poem: a made thing, " "composed rather than assembled. It is used in the New Testament only here and at Romans " "1:20, of the created world itself. The same word for what God made in six days is used here " "of what God makes of a person.

Not of works … for good works. Verse 9 shuts one door and verse " "10 opens another with the identical word, erga, and the juxtaposition is deliberate: " "salvation is emphatically not earned by good works, and just as emphatically it is for " "them — a purpose stated, not a payment required. KJV " "and ASV keep “workmanship”; NIV “handiwork”; NWT " "“work.”

“Uncircumcision” … “circumcision.” Both " "words in the Greek carry the marker “the so-called” (legomenoi / " "legomenēs) — Paul is naming a slur and its mirror-slur, not endorsing either " "as the real basis of the distinction he is about to erase. This translation keeps the quotation " "marks the Greek's own vocabulary supplies, where several versions print the labels as if they " "were neutral descriptions.

⚠ Four losses, named in a row. Apart from Christ; alienated from " "Israel's citizenship; strangers to the covenants; without hope and without God. The list is " "not rhetorical padding — each phrase names a specific, real exclusion a Gentile in " "Ephesus would have felt exactly, in a city where the distinction between citizen and " "foreigner was a matter of hard civic law, not sentiment.

“Brought near by the blood of Christ.” “Far” and " "“near” are technical rabbinic terms for Gentile and Jew, and Paul will requote " "both in v17, echoing Isaiah 57:19's “peace, peace, to the far and to the near.” " "The distance being closed is not primarily emotional; it is the same citizenship-and-covenant " "distance just listed in v12, closed by the same blood named at 1:7.

⚠ “The dividing wall of the fence” is very likely not a " "metaphor pulled from nowhere. The Second Temple's inner courts were fenced off from " "the outer Court of the Gentiles by a stone balustrade called the soreg, posted with " "inscribed warning stones in Greek and Latin: no foreigner may enter within the " "balustrade… whoever is caught will have himself to blame for the death that follows. " "Two of these actual stones have been excavated — one in 1871, now in the Istanbul " "Archaeology Museum; one in 1936, now in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Paul, who nearly lost " "his life in that same temple over an accusation of bringing a Gentile past that exact " "barrier (Acts 21:28-29), writes to a Gentile-majority church that Christ has broken down a " "wall his own readers may have seen with their own eyes and read the warning on.

“One new man.” Kainon " "— new in kind, not new in time (neos), the same distinction this library has " "tracked since Revelation. Not a merger of Jew and Gentile into a bigger version of either, " "but a third thing neither was before.

“Having killed the hostility in himself” (v16) and “he himself " "is our peace” (v14) frame the whole unit: hostility named at the start, killed " "at the center, replaced by a peace preached in person (v17) to two audiences who could not " "previously stand in the same court of the same building.

“Fellow citizens… members of the household.” Two " "images in one verse, civic and domestic, both correcting v12's “alienated… " "strangers” point for point: no longer excluded from the citizenship of Israel, but " "citizens; no longer strangers to the covenants, but family.

⚠ “Cornerstone” may not mean what a modern reader pictures. " "Akrogōniaios — literally “highest-corner-stone” — is read two " "ways by scholars of ancient architecture: the foundation stone set first, at the corner, that " "fixes the alignment of two walls; or the capstone that completes an arch or gable at the top, " "the last stone placed rather than the first. Both readings connect to the same Old Testament " "text lying behind this word, “the stone the builders rejected has become the head of " "the corner” (Psalm 118:22, quoted again at 1 Peter 2:6-7). KJV/ASV “chief corner stone”; " "NIV “chief cornerstone” — the English shelf " "does not disagree on the word, only architectural historians disagree on what it built.

The building is not finished. “Grows” (v21) and “are " "being built together” (v22) are both present tense, ongoing action, not a completed " "structure being described after the fact. The temple this chapter ends on is still under " "construction, and the readers are not spectators of it but material being added to it.