Ephesians 3:6
Fellow heirs through the gospel
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγέλιον euangelion · gospel
Original
Translations
This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
that the nations are fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in the Christ, through the good news,
이는 이방인들이 복음으로 말미암아 그리스도 예수 안에서 함께 후사가 되고 함께 지체가 되고 함께 약속에 참예하는 자가 됨이라
이 신비는 곧 복음으로 말미암아 이방인들이 그리스도 안에서 동료 상속자가 되고 같은 몸에 속하게 되며 그분의 약속에 참여하는 자가 된다는 것이라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Eph 3:1-7 as a whole
For having preached the doctrine of truth, the apostle was a prisoner, but a prisoner of Jesus Christ; the object of special protection and care, while thus suffering for him. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley Eph 3:6
That the gentiles are joint - heirs - Of God. And of the same body - Under Christ the head. And joint - partakers of his promise - The communion of the Holy Ghost.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
In Ephesians 3 Paul says what "the mystery of Christ" is. Hidden from earlier generations and now revealed by the Spirit to the apostles and prophets, it is this: through the gospel the Gentiles belong to God's people together with Israel, on the same footing.
This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:6Paul opens the passage as "the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles" (Ephesians 3:1). He is in chains because of this very news. The oneness that chapter 2 said was made at the cross he now calls a mystery, mustērion. For Paul a mystery is not a riddle that cannot be solved but a purpose long hidden in God and now made known in its time (3:5, 9). In the next verse he adds, "I became a servant of this gospel" (Ephesians 3:7).
Here stands in the genitive after dia, "through the gospel": it is the means. The way into God's people for the nations is neither descent nor keeping the law, but the gospel. Paul describes the result with three words that all begin with sun-, "together with": sugklēronoma, fellow heirs; , members of the same body; summetocha, fellow partakers. The middle word is hard to find in any writer before Paul, and many scholars think he coined it for this sentence. The point is the threefold "together." Gentile believers are not guests seated beside the family; they have the same inheritance, the same body and the same share in the promise.
The KJV reads "partakers of his promise in Christ," following the Textus Receptus; the BSB, following the older manuscripts, has "the promise in Christ Jesus." The sense is the same.
The English versions handle the three compounds differently. The KJV says the Gentiles "should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise," so that only the first word keeps its "fellow." The BSB carries the prefix through all three, "fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers," and so lets the English reader hear what the Greek ear heard. The LSV reads "the nations are fellow-heirs," a reminder that the word for Gentiles, ethnē, means the nations. All three keep "through the gospel" (or "by the gospel"), the instrument God uses.
Wesley takes the three words one at a time: fellow heirs "Of God"; of the same body "Under Christ the head"; partakers of His promise, "The communion of the Holy Ghost" Wesley. Matthew Henry says that the great truth made known to the apostle was "that God would call the Gentiles to salvation by faith in Christ" Matthew Henry, and he calls the gospel "the great means by which the Spirit works grace in the souls of men" Matthew Henry.
The gospel binds people not only to God but to one another, and makes those who were strangers heirs of one inheritance. Whoever hears it, from whatever nation, is called not to a seat at the edge but to a full share.