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 

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,

He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him

God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure.

letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ,

Having made clear to us the secret of his purpose, in agreement with the design which he had in mind, to put into his hands

he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,

having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,

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 

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.