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Bible / Ephesians

Ephesians 2

World English Bible, Catholic edition, in plain modern English. About the translations

1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,

2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. Fathers

3 We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. CCC

4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, CCC

5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – CCC

6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, CCC

7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; Fathers

8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 1 Fathers

9 not of works, that no one would boast. Fathers

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands),

12 that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. Fathers

14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, CCC

15 having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, Fathers

16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. CCC

17 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. Fathers

18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. CCC

19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, CCC

20 being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; CCC · Fathers

21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; CCC

22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. CCC

Where our lessons quote this chapter

  1. Verses 8–9: What we share, Faith and works

This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church

Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text.

  1. Verse 2
    Read the Fathers

    • “… himself the glory of a king among those ignorant of his apostasy and robbery; so likewise also the devil, being one among those angels who are placed over the spirit of the air, as the Apostle Paul has declared in his Epistle to the Ephesians,”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXIV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  2. Verse 3CCC 2515
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 2515 “Etymologically, "concupiscence" can refer to any intense form of human desire. Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the movement of…”
  3. Verse 4CCC 211 CCC 654 CCC 1073
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 211 “The divine name, "I Am" or "He Is", expresses God's faithfulness: despite the faithlessness of men's sin and the punishment it deserves,…”
    • CCC 654 “The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the…”
    • CCC 1073 “The liturgy is also a participation in Christ's own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In the liturgy, all…”
  4. Verse 5CCC 654
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 654 “The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the…”
  5. Verse 6CCC 1003 CCC 2796
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 1003 “United with Christ by Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life of the risen Christ, but this life remains "hidden…”
    • CCC 2796 “When the Church prays "our Father who art in heaven," she is professing that we are the People of God, already seated…”
  6. Verse 7
    Read the Fathers

    • “… things of time for man, so that coming to maturity in them, he may produce the fruit of immortality; and who, through His kindness, also bestows [upon him] eternal things, "that in the ages to come He may show the exceeding riches of His grace;”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter V. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  7. Verse 8
    Read the Fathers

    • “… dead, having loosed the bands of the grave." "In whom, though now ye see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;" into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that "by grace ye are saved, not of works,”

      Quoted in Letter to the Philippians, St. Polycarp of Smyrna (early 2nd century), Chapter I. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  8. Verse 9
    Read the Fathers

    • “… dead, having loosed the bands of the grave." "In whom, though now ye see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;" into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that "by grace ye are saved, not of works,”

      Quoted in Letter to the Philippians, St. Polycarp of Smyrna (early 2nd century), Chapter I. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  9. Verse 13
    Read the Fathers

    • “… and His subjection to death, he employs the name of Christ, as in that passage: "Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died." And again: "But now, in Christ, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XVIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

    • “have been brought near in the blood of Christ;”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XIV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  10. Verse 14CCC 2305
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 2305 “Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his…”
  11. Verse 15
    Read the Fathers

    • “have been brought near in the blood of Christ;" and again, "Abolishing in His flesh the enmities, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XIV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  12. Verse 16CCC 2305
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 2305 “Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his…”
  13. Verse 17
    Read the Fathers

    • “He, appearing in these last times, the chief cornerstone, has gathered into one, and united those that were far off and those that were near;”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter V. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  14. Verse 18CCC 51
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 51 “It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will. His will…”
  15. Verse 19CCC 756
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 756 “Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. the Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but…”
  16. Verse 20CCC 756 CCC 857
    Read the Catechism and Fathers
    • CCC 756 “Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. the Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but…”
    • CCC 857 “The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways: - she was and remains built on "the…”

    • “… he might be the father of all who follow the Word of God, and who sustain a life of pilgrimage in this world, that is, of those who from among the circumcision and of those from among the uncircumcision are faithful, even as also "Christ”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  17. Verse 21CCC 756 CCC 797
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 756 “Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. the Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but…”
    • CCC 797 “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church." "To…”
  18. Verse 22CCC 756
    Read the Catechism
    • CCC 756 “Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. the Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but…”
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