Ephesians 1:9

He did this when he revealed ¹  to us the secret ²  of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth ³  in Christ, ⁴ 

Job 23:13,14; Ps 33:11; Isa 14:24-27; Isa 46:10,11; Jer 2:29; La 3:37,38; Mt 13:11; Ac 2:23; Ac 4:28; Ac 13:48; Ro 8:28; Ro 16:25-27; 1Co 2:10-12; Ga 1:12,16; Eph 1:5; Eph 1:11; Eph 1:17,18; Eph 3:3-9; Eph 3:11; Col 1:26-28; 1Ti 3:16; 2Ti 1:9

¹ tn Or “He did this by revealing”; Grk “making known, revealing.” Verse 9 begins with a participle dependent on “lavished” in v. 8; the adverbial participle could be understood as temporal (“when he revealed”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “lavished,” or as means (“by revealing”). The participle has been translated here with the temporal nuance to allow for means to also be a possible interpretation. If the translation focused instead upon means, the temporal nuance would be lost as the time frame for the action of the participle would become indistinct.

² tn Or “mystery.” In the NT μυστήριον (musthrion) refers to a divine secret previously undisclosed.

³ tn Or “purposed,” “publicly displayed.” Cf. Rom 3:25.

⁴ tn Grk “in him”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

sn In Christ. KJV has “in himself” as though the antecedent were God the Father. Although possible, the notion of the verb set forth (Greek προτίθημι, protiqhmi) implies a plan that is carried out in history (cf. Rom 1:13; 3:25) and thus more likely refers to Christ.