[B-Greek] Ephesians 2:1

Ben Crick ben.crick at argonet.co.uk
Fri Apr 15 17:43:40 EDT 2005


On Fri 15 Apr 2005 (12:45:36), cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu forwarded:
> I think that this was intended for the list rather than for myself
> alone. I should note that it was David Bielby, not myself, who called
> attention to the argument in Stott's Commentary on Ephesians; I haven't
> seen the commentary nor do I have access to it myself.

 John RW Stott, /God's New Society/, IVP, Leicester UK, 1979, p71f writes:
 "/And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins
 in which you once walked/ (verses 1-2a).
 "The death to which Paul refers is not a figure of speech, as in the parable
 of the Prodigal Son, 'This my son was dead'; it is a factual statement of
 everybody's spiritual condition outside Christ. And it is traced to their
 /trespasses and sins/. These two words seem to have been carefully chosen to
 give a comprehensive account of human evil. A 'trespass' (PARAPTWMA) is a
 false step, involving either the crossing of a known boundary or a deviation
 from the right path. A 'sin' (hAMARTIA), however, means rather a missing of
 the mark, a falling short of a standard. Together the two words cover the
 positive and negative, or active and passive, aspects of human wrongdoing,
 that is to say, our sins of commission and omission. Before God we are both
 rebels and failures. As a result, we are 'dead' or 'alienated from the life of
 God' (4:18). For true life, 'eternal life', is fellowship with the living God,
 and spiritual death is the separation from him which sin inevitably brings."
 [end of quote]

 In the parallel passage in Colossians, we have NEKROUS ONTAS TOIS PARAPTWMASIN
 KAI THi AKROBUSTIAi THS SARKOS hUMWN (Colossians 2:14). It is not the state of
 uncircumcision which is deadly, but the deeds of the flesh which the
 "spiritually circumcised" should have "cut out" from their behaviour (Romans
 2:25-29).

 FWIW...
 ERRWSQE
 Ben
-- 
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