Ephesians 3:14-19

Just a short one this time. Paul writes some long and involved Greek sentences sometimes. This one is 6 verses long (obviously breaking his letters into verses happened much later, but you get my point: it is a long sentence. In their efforts to allow modern readers to make sense, translators ( not unreasonably ) chop these sentences up into shorter units. In doing so they often repeat words from elsewhere in the original sentence to carry the sense over.

The only thing is, I am not sure they always get it right. At the very least, I find it becomes hard to follow Paul’s thought through the resulting goulash of words.

Here’s the NIV, followed by the SBL Greek, and finally my own as-literal-as-possible version. No one is likely to prefer mine for its literary elegance, but I at least find it easier to follow Paul’s thread.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ὀνομάζεται, ἵνα δῷ ὑμῖν κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ δυνάμει κραταιωθῆναι διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον, κατοικῆσαι τὸν Χριστὸν διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν ἐν ἀγάπῃ· ἐρριζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι, ἵνα ἐξισχύσητε καταλαβέσθαι σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἁγίοις τί τὸ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος καὶ ὕψος καὶ βάθος, γνῶναί τε τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ.

Of this grace I bend my knee before the Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and upon earth is named, in order that He might give you, according to the wealth of His glory, power to be strengthened through His Spirit in the inner man, Christ codwelling through trust in your hearts, in practical love and respect; being those rooted and grounded, in order that you might have strength to lay hold of with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, to know (once and for all) the going-well-beyond-knowledge love of Christ, in order that you might be filled to all the fullness of God.

That’s all folks.