Saturday was a beautiful fall day here in Colorado with the bright blue skies, crisp air that is at the same time warm in the sparkling sunshine. Jeremy and I had a blast mountain biking with some new friends on the trails right next to our neighborhood. Since the day was used up playing instead of working on projects, we decided to go visit our middle son at his new taco shop job where they do make the best tacos I’ve ever eaten, but my appetite was whet without bedding it back down. (Do you recognize the movie quote? Do you? Do you? I think it’s a funny one!) We happened to hit the exact time that Kyle was going on break. Thank you, Lord! Visiting Kyle was so nice. Then coming home, my beloved and I got a couple of things done before we settled in for the evening. Watching the sunset, eating pulled pork sandwiches on homemade sourdough buns, watching a movie and eating junk food. Good day.
There are other situations in our lives that are painful. Even as I turn my attention to them, tears are welling up in my eyes. I won’t describe that because I will full-on cry. I won’t be able to see typos and I’ll short out my computer from the rivers flowing from my eyes. But you are acquainted with pain. Loss of job, death of loved one, shocking health developments, watching train wrecks in people’s lives that you have no power to stop or even help. The list would never stop.
And yet.
The gospel still goes forth. The story is not over. The pain will not endure. Paul talks about this in our section.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:7–10 (ESV)
Let’s look at this word behind the English word unite. Within the study of it, we will learn a little more Bible study technique.
Cross References
First, we want to see where else the word is used in scripture, right?
There you go. That’s it. The word is either translated in the ESV unite or summed. Hm. That doesn’t seem particularly helpful.
What else can a student of the Word do to try to understand a word better? We’ve attempted to find cross references and came up short. The next step would be to look at other scholarly translations and see what they say. Let’s choose a few and take a look.
Translation Comparison
9 He did this when he revealed to us the secret of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,10toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ—the things in heaven and the things on earth.
Ephesians 1:9–10 (NET)
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
Ephesians 1:9–10 (NASB95)
9 For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:9–10 (RSV)
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in him, 10 for the administration of the fullness of times, to bring together all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him
Ephesians 1:9–10 (LEB)
We have a selection of Bible translations that I’ve used for years and trust (English Standard Version, NET, New American Standard), a version that people I’ve put myself under their teaching use (Revised Standard Version), or that people I’ve known personally and trust actually translated (Lexham English Bible). Let’s examine how each of these have tried to explain this Greek word to us.
- ESV (from above)
- unite
- NET
- head up
- NASB
- summing up
- RSV
- unite
- LEB
- bring together
From each of these, we can observe as we try to harmonize the translations that there is some kind of motion or action from one kind of order (even if that is a lack of order) to another kind of order.
When we look at various translations, what our focus needs to be is on how these scholars sat in a room together for years of their lives, discussing/debating/deciding what words and sentence structure would make the scripture comprehensible and accurate. Pitting one translation against another is not our purpose. Reading the options like they are on a buffet line at an all-you-can-eat place and picking which one is your favorite based on the appetite of your mood is not our purpose. We do not assign meaning to the text; we are trying to discern what the author meant when he wrote the text. Never do we get to say, “I like this one so that is what it means.”
When attempting to understand a rare word, reconciling the different wordings in translations should be our purpose. Harmonize the scholarly translations, because within the established philosophies (word-for-word, dynamic, reading level of 7th grade, etc) of the various translations, they were all trying to bring us non Greek speakers the ability to read the word of God for ourselves.
We have a general idea of this action that is taking place; motion of some sort of organization. I am going to break out the dictionaries in a minute, but before I do, we have one more resource at our disposal. Let’s look at the NET’s notes and see if this word has some additional information provided by the translators.
Translator Notes
In fact, there is a tn 25 next to head up.
25 tn The precise meaning of the infinitive ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι (anakephalaiōsasthai) in v. 10 is difficult to determine since it was used relatively infrequently in Greek literature and only twice in the NT (here and Rom 13:9). While there have been several suggestions, three deserve mention: (1) “To sum up.” In Rom 13:9, using the same term, the author there says that the law may be “summarized in one command, to love your neighbor as yourself.” The idea then in Eph 1:10 would be that all things in heaven and on earth can be summed up and made sense out of in relation to Christ. (2) “To renew.” If this is the nuance of the verb then all things in heaven and earth, after their plunge into sin and ruin, are renewed by the coming of Christ and his redemption. (3) “To head up.” In this translation the idea is that Christ, in the fullness of the times, has been exalted so as to be appointed as the ruler (i.e., “head”) over all things in heaven and earth (including the church). That this is perhaps the best understanding of the verb is evidenced by the repeated theme of Christ’s exaltation and reign in Ephesians and by the connection to the κεφαλή- (kephalē-) language of 1:22 (cf. Schlier, TDNT 3:682; L&N 63.8; M. Barth, Ephesians [AB 34], 1:89–92; contra A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians [WBC], 32–33).
NET tn 25 on the word head up, Ephesians 1:10
Well now, that sheds some light, doesn’t it? First, we can see that why there are challenges to translating the word; even outside of scripture, it was rarely used.
According to the NET translators, there is reason to consider NASB’s summed up–it isn’t outside the possibility of meaning based on the usage in Romans. But based on the rest of Paul’s letter, NET decided on to head up, which, when I read the progression of reasoning, seems right. However, we have one more tool in the toolbox: dictionaries.
Dictionaries
The Greek word we are investigating is ἀνακεφαλαιόω and is transliterated as anakephalaioō. When you see it, you might recognize it.
Looking in BDAG, the authors understood the meaning as being
① used of literary or rhetorical summation, sum up, recapitulate
1
That is the definition we found in the NASB. Using this definition, I picture it that there is an idea of taking little piles of stuff and organizing them into a big pile. If there is a literary summing up, that even sounds like perhaps an ending conclusion.
Next we’ll look at MCE.
to bring together several things under one, reduce under one head; to comprise
2
There are other dictionaries mentioned in the entries of these dictionaries that would take us on a lengthy adventure exploring the root word head with regard to several scriptures in both Ephesians and Colossians, but that would make this into an oversized bite again. We are burgeoning students of the Word and that is an awesome place to be. For now.
Conclusion
Suffice it to say that much of the scholarship I saw leads me to conclude that the words we see in our comparison of translations (unite, head up, summing up, bring together) all attempt to paint the picture of what it will look like when God’s plan for time reaches its apex. When all things are accomplished, this organization of everything, things in heaven and things on earth, will all be somehow made right in Christ.
This is another one of those times in our study when we can let the truth of God’s Word renew our minds. Catastrophic happenings are going in my life as a mom. Actually have been for almost a decade with my four kids. Things that when you bring your precious baby home from the hospital and you sit on your couch delighting in the miracle of life you would not put on the list of “ooh, could my child please go bananas and do that?!”
And yet.
Here we have a front row seat because we are students of the Word to see that God has, for the fullness of time, a plan to put everything back to the way it was. Everything will be organized correctly and perfectly with Christ uniting, summing up, heading up all things. Things in heaven, things on earth.
All the things that are wrong will be reorganized. We don’t need to know what that will look like, how it will come about, when it will be. We only need to ruminate on the reality that it will be. Let’s keep reminding ourselves of truth and applying it to daily life.
Our Bible Study Bite for today is that even if a word doesn’t have a lot of usages in scripture for examining cross references, there are scholarly translations that are helpful in our quest for understanding. When we attempt to make sense of them together as a symphony of meaning, we can harmonize them for clarity. We can trust that the translators are doing what they can to help us gain understanding
As I look over our passage, I believe we will define one more word, sealed, before we put the entire passage together to interpret and apply.
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- Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 65). Chicago: University of Chicago Press..
- Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 1082). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.