Honestly, I am loathe to leave Ephesians 2:1-10. Having this passage as my anchor during a turbulent event in my life, what God through the apostle revealed to me there is now a harbor of my soul. Yet we cannot stagnate but must continue moving, learning, and growing.
I have in my mind the significance the passage had in my heart (remember from Bite 35 about women?) and I will follow through. Conviction without action is useless. Words are easy as I sit here with my favorite single-origin coffee right now (Kenya!) and say, “I will _____.” Doing is the hard part. I will let you know how it goes.
On to the task at hand. Let’s find our next passage and the adventure it holds for us as we ask Paul his meaning of the text. In order to escape the folly of only securing head knowledge, let’s also ask the Holy Spirit to bring the light of understanding to our hearts.
Identifying the Passage
As we meet together, I like to bring in friends of ours and ask them questions to help us along our way. I realize we have discussed how to determine the passage before, but it is good to keep adding to our knowledge when we can. Today, Bill Mounce is with us within the pages of the book Greek for the Rest of Us and he is going to both reiterate what we might already know and add some points we have yet to learn. “Here are a few of the indicators that the topic has changed.
- Major shifts in the topic of discussion (e.g., Paul has stopped making one point and has gone on to another).
- Shifts in audience (e.g., Jesus stops talking to the Pharisees and starts talking to the disciples).
- Shifts of other types, such as moving from describing what Jesus did to relating what he is teaching.
- Changes in key words and repeated themes.
- Transitional phrases (e.g., “the next day,” “after this”).”1
For us, we know that we will be starting at 2:11, but what is the end limit on our passage? Let’s go to the Bible and read, looking for these possible topic shifts. While the end limit may be the end of chapter 2, we want to resist the temptation to simply follow what others have done to divide the text. We remember divisions and verse designations are not part of the how the Bible was originally written and occasionally they are not correct. I’ve heard Dr. Stein share a story that Stephanus (the man who divided the Bible into verses) was on horseback while he did his work. When the quill came down, that’s where the verse ended. Something like that. It makes me giggle.
I will bring the ESV here so we can examine it together. If you can though, go to your Bible in whatever form you read and see what limits you find. I included the last verse of our last passage to keep us in context. Maybe I got the passage wrong last time–I’m always learning.
2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.
Ephesians 2:10–3:3 (ESV)
Reading this selection, what do you see as indicators of topic change? I see in verse 11 that Paul redirects his address; he goes from the broad audience of both Hebrews and Greeks to narrowed focus of Gentiles. If you remember, that is one of the indicators we’ve learned: a change in audience.
As we keep reading, we find another indicator. Remember from Bite 9 we discussed this one:
“Try not to rely on what the translators decided would be where the passage breaks are. We are watching for a change in topic or thought. Key words for these transitions might be therefore, now, for, or finally. Sometimes there also will be a complete change of subject. The topic will be entirely different.”
Me in Bite 9
Do you see a transition phrase in our selection above with a change in topic? There is a but and a for, however those are not changing topic. Rather they are behaving more as conjunctions, tying thoughts together. The phrase for this reason in 3:1 is a strong indicator. Additionally, it’s in association with Paul transitioning to a discussion about himself; a change in topic. That quill on Stephanus’s horseback ride came down in a good spot.
I think we can conclude that our next passage is Ephesians 2:11-22. Next up is diagramming to see how the pieces fit together into a whole.
Sentence Diagramming
How is the concept of diagramming going for you? Is it daunting? Is it old hat? Somewhere in between? A friend of mine after hanging out here at Bible Study Bites with me for a while told me that she was sitting in church one Sunday listening to the pastor read and reread John 1:1-3 in the sermon and she was sentence diagramming in her head. Made my day! Let me know what your experience is in the comments, I would like to know where we are.
Let’s get after it. Beginning in verse 11, we see a therefore in the ESV. Since that is not a subject word, I’m going to move that phrase over to the right a little so that the subject word you can line up along the left margin. The very next word, Gentiles, is synonymous with the pronoun you so those two words will be aligned along the left margin together.
There is a prepositional phrase modifying the subject (you, Gentiles) and I left it on the same line as Gentiles. Diagramming through, I have the objective of being able to read the skeleton of the passage. The prepositional phrases are like salt in bread: without it the bread tastes flat. With the prepositional phrases, there is more dimension to Paul’s words. I’ll show you what I mean here in a second.
Leaving the long phrase called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision as a whole unit of thought, I put it under what it is associated with which are the Gentiles. What do we learn about the circumcision? Paul tells the audience that what is called the circumcision is made in two ways. I indicated what is called has modifiers by lining them up under the word called. Before you glance down at the photo, see if you’re getting the hang of it–how do they get lined up on your diagram?
As you can see by my hand-written note, I’ve already got questions forming about this text. If you develop some, write them down somewhere. Stickies are great, spiral notebook will let you take notes on them later, but write them somewhere so you remember.
In verse 12, Paul calls to remember again and I scooted that over like the call from verse 11. Our subject is again you and that lines up on the left margin. As usual, Paul writes a prepositional phrase to give depth, at that time gets tabbed over but stays on the same line. Then Paul lists what they were. Easy to organize, those three descriptions go under the word were. After the third description, strangers to the covenants of promise, I see a further description of either the strangers or all three descriptions. Regardless, I line those two modifiers under the word strangers to indicate they all go together.
Again, before you take a look at how I’ve organized it, see if you can get through verse 12 and then compare. That is exactly how I used to learn when Pastor Dax used to hand out his sentence diagram in our class 20 years ago.
Remember a second ago I said I’m wanting a skeleton of the passage? If you look at the subjects (actually it’s one subject that Paul repeated) that are lined up on the left, and what they are/were, omitting the prepositional phrases, we have the basic structure of the passage. Let’s read it like that. We are not taking away from the text; we are finding the core to understand better.
You
Gentiles
called the uncircumcision
you were
separated
alienated
strangers
Can you see the flow or the core of the passage? When we line phrases up, this is what we want to be able to do. We want to be able to get the basic message Paul is conveying.
Continuing on, verse 13 has a but which I lined up with the phrases above with the remember‘s, and then we go back to lining up the you on the left. I prefer having the subject and the verb on one line, but when there are these modifiers sandwiched between, I can see the skeleton better when they are separated out like we are doing.
Two contrasting realities are next: they were far off and have been brought near. I lined those up under the subject you. Answering the questions how and why they have been brought near, I lined up the prepositional phrases of by the blood and for he himself under the word near.
Under the he himself, I lined up the answer to the question “he who?” Since there are no modifiers between the pronoun who and the verb has made, I could keep those on the same line. I lined up the two verbial phrases which are has made us both one and has broken down because they are both connected to the who. Answering the question of how is the prepositional phrase in his flesh which I left on the same line as the broken phrase, but then I have the phrase concerning what underneath. What was broken down? The dividing wall of hostility.
Here is what I’ve done so far:
Are you doing ok? There is a lot of nitty gritty we are talking today and I don’t want you getting lost. Let’s take a minute of a breather.
It’s currently snowing at my house. This is The Günter sitting and waiting for me to let him in.
Have you ever thought about all the snow flakes it takes to pile up just a quarter of an inch of snow? There are thousands of flakes falling right now and they are accumulating. When you look at the snow falling, it looks like an overwhelming number to count, right? Now think about all the flakes of practice we do in Bible study. It takes a lot of flakes to pile up some experience and knowledge.
But if you take one flake at a time; if we slow our perception down and look at one at a time, it isn’t overwhelming, is it? We only need to be concerned for one flake of experience in working with God’s word at a time. Over time, all of those flakes will stack up into a fuller understanding of who God is and will result in deeper trust and richer worship. Be encouraged to keep on.
In the interest of keeping our Bite manageable, we will walk through a couple more verses and then you will have opportunity to wrestle with the last few. Once again, I will leave a link at the bottom so that my diagram is available for anyone who would like to look at it. Or use it.
Moving on to verse 15, we see that it is a prepositional phrase. Always identifying what corresponds with what, we ask what does this modify? As I was organizing my diagram, I don’t think I could tell precisely what it modified, but generally it modifies the broken nature of this wall. It answers how the wall was broken. I placed the phrase by abolishing under the word dividing to indicate a correlation.
It isn’t a prepositional phrase, but there is a phrase that answers the question why next. That he might create is under the by so I remember that they correspond to this broken wall. In himself answers how he created and I left it on the same line but tabbed over to the right a little. To continue his create thought, the phrase one new man goes under create.
In verse 16, there is an and in the ESV. There are a lot of and‘s, aren’t there? When it makes sense, I line those up on the left margin so they are out of the way but not left out. I do that again with this and. The next word is might which goes along with Paul’s thought in verse 15 where he uses the word might. I lined up the might‘s to indicate that they go together. Now we can see that he might create and he might reconcile.
Finishing verse 16, Paul has a string of prepositional phrases, to God, in one body, through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. I lined all of those up under us both.
Let’s have another look at how far we’ve come.
Continuing to try and see the core of what Paul is writing to his audience, the diagram helps us see Paul’s main idea. When we pull out the subjects and verbs, this is what we are left with:
You
Gentiles
called the uncircumcision
you were
separated
alienated
strangers
you
were far off
have been brought near
Of course all the rest of the words are important, too, but we will stay on course better if we remember to identify that there IS a forest and not just look at the trees. I will stay on course better…this is a verifiable weakness I have and this is one tool I use to combat it.
I would love to hear feedback from you as you attempt your own sentence diagram. Was there any confusion? Did you have questions form as you moved through the passage? Especially because you get to finish diagramming Ephesians 2:11-22 on your own, let me know how it went.
Wrap Up
Our Bible Study Bite for today is the small Bite of finding the author’s basic train of thought. In this article I called it a skeleton, core, or it could be called a thread. We want to see where we are going and finding the author’s main point will help us do that.
Realizing that life is in the details, I’m not proposing that we disregard any of the other phrases. But as we identify the main point, we will be more successful at determining what we need to spend time studying in order to more closely arrive at the level of understanding the original audience did.
In a nutshell, we could have this even be a form of summary for the verses we’ve already diagrammed. “You, Gentiles, called the uncircumcision, you were separated, alienated, strangers. You were far off, but have been brought near.” This isn’t the end of the story for this passage; good news follows. But there is this additional glance in the rearview mirror that Paul wants his audience to grapple with.
So we will too. Tell me how your diagramming goes!
P.S. A Sunday has gone by. I went to church and instead of skulking through, I made myself look at people, not just women, in the eye and smile at them. I realize that this seems pathetic, but as I’ve said in other places, we don’t always know what someone’s back story is, do we? As a result of actually following the conviction of the Holy Spirit based on my own study of scripture, I had conversations with people I haven’t spoken to in months. Thank you for praying for me.
