Ephesians Manuscript Study

If you are new to this blog, please start with 1 (Intro) and then continue in order. Beloved. This word jumped out at me in Ephesians 1:6: In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses... This is the only place in the whole book of Ephesians where Beloved is used to refer to Jesus. And right after this Paul states that "we have redemption through his blood". I found it interesting that right after Paul calls him Beloved, because he is loved by his Father, he refers to his death, his sacrifice, his suffering for us that God, our Father, sent him to accomplish. God loved/loves Jesus perfectly, but he still sent him to die for us! And Jesus willingly laid down his life for us! Wow!!! Adoption In love 5 he predestined us for adoption ...

If you are new to this blog, please start with 1 (Intro) and then continue in order. Here are some of my thoughts on the passage... Paul starts out the letter to the Ephesians by stating his authority to do so, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God." He then turns to the Ephesians, referring to them as "the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus." Did you notice the word saints in Ephesians? If I had to guess, I would have thought it was in there, oh, maybe 3 times. I was shocked to find out that the word "saints" occurs 9 times in the book of Ephesians! Basically, Paul is saying that he is writing to the Chistians in Ephesus. But let's look a little closer at this word. I think it was Kay Arthur who said that the words bleed their meaning from the text. First we are going to look at where it is used in some other books, then we will look at some of the other instances in Ephesians. Romans 1:7 To all those in Ro...

If you are new to this blog, please start with 1 (Intro) and then continue in order. Just like when you did the overview, start each study time with prayer, asking God to open your eyes to the truth and lead and guide you in the truth through his Holy Spirit. DAY 1 Read through chapters 1 and 2, marking every instance of grace and peace. I like to mark grace with an orange circle and peace with blue waves under it (as in peace like a river😁), but any distinct way would be fine. As you do this. look for other repeated words and phrases and write some of them down. Spend some time thanking and praising God for his grace and peace. You could even use some of the language of the passage like, "Thank you, God, for the riches of your grace, which you have lavished upon us." (from verses 7 and 8). DAY 2 AND 3 Choose at least 2 repeated words or phrases in chapters 1 and 2 and mark them in a distinct way. You could also list out the repeated phrases and where they occur, lo...

If you are new to this blog, please start with 1 (Intro) and then continue in order. DAY 1, 2,  AND 3 I have divided the study up into days to help you pace yourself. Also, if you can get a friend or family member to do the study with you, you could have someone to share your findings with. This can be very encouraging! Ok, back to the study...now that you've read through Ephesians, print out a copy of the translation of your choice. Number your pages, if they aren't already numbered. Pray and ask God to show you things as you read and to lead and guide you in the truth. Then mark every instance of God, Jesus, Christ, Lord, Father, Spirit in a distinct way. I am giving you 3 days to do this because I want you to mark these for the whole book. It will be easier if you use different colors as you mark different things. You can use crayons, colored pencils, or markers, whatever you prefer. I suggest you use purple for all references to God, and only for God. So God would be a...

If you are new to this blog, please start with 1 (Intro) and then continue in order. The first thing to do is to read through the whole book of Ephesians to get the big picture. But before you do that, you need to pick a translation. I will be using and referring to the ESV. You can use whatever translation you'd like, however, for this kind of detailed study, a word to word translation would be preferred over a thought to thought translation. The introduction to your translation may talk about this.

If you are new to this blog, please start with 1 (Intro) and then continue in order. Please watch this video clip: Inductive Study which explains a little bit about inductive Bible study. Manuscript Bible study is just one way of doing the first step of observation - what does it say?