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Eph 3 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21
In this section, Paul resumed his prayer for the Ephesian Christians. He asked God to strengthen them by the Holy Spirit so that Christ could live in them. He prayed that they would love each other, and that they would know how much Christ loved them, even though he loved them more than people could understand. Paul finished his prayer by praising God for his great power.
Here are some other titles for this section:
Paul prayed that God would strengthen the Ephesians
Paul’s prayer for spiritual strength and love for the Ephesians
In this paragraph Paul prayed the prayer he almost began in 3:1. (See the note at 3:1.) He began this paragraph with the words “for this reason” which are the same words he used at the beginning of 3:1. The BSB indicates this connection by using ellipses here (as it did in 3:1).
…for this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
¶ This is the reason I kneel before God the/our Father.
¶ Because God the Father has done all this for you, I kneel before him to/and pray for you.
for this reason: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as for this reason introduces Paul’s response to all that he had said in chapter 2 and his expansion on part of chapter 2 in 3:1–13. The idea is this:
As I think of God’s great plan, this is the reason
When I think of all that God has done, this is the reason
When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees… (NLT96)
See how you translated this phrase in 3:1a.
I bow my knees before the Father: The phrase bow my knees refers to the way Jewish people prayed to God. They bowed down on their knees instead of standing up. So in this context, bow my knees represents the act of praying. You may need to complete the thought. For example:
I kneel…and pray for you before the Father.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
I fall to my knees and pray to the Father (NLT)
I bow in prayer before the Father (NCV)
I pray to the Father
the Father: It should be clear in your translation that this is a reference to God, the Father. One way to make this clear in the translation is:
I pray to our(incl) heavenly Father
Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-logic-result
τούτου χάριν
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τά γόνατα μού πρός τόν Πατέρα)
The connecting phrase For this reason introduces a reason-result relationship. The reason is that Paul’s sufferings have caused glory for the believers. The result is that Paul prays to the Father. Use a phrase in your language that connects a reason to a result.
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
τούτου χάριν
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τά γόνατα μού πρός τόν Πατέρα)
You may need to make explicit what the reason is. Alternate translation: [Because God has done all this for you]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / synecdoche
κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα
˱I˲_˓am˒_bowing (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τά γόνατα μού πρός τόν Πατέρα)
Bent knees are a picture of the whole person in an attitude of prayer. Alternate translation: [I bow down in prayer to the Father] or [I humbly pray to the Father]
3:14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray: Paul resumes what he started to say at the beginning of the chapter (see 3:1).
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.