Ephesians 2:12

Bible in Basic English (1941)

That you were at that time without Christ, being cut off from any part in Israel's rights as a nation, having no part in God's agreement, having no hope, and without God in the world.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Ὅτι ἦτε ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ χωρὶς Χριστοῦ, ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι τῆς πολιτείας τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ξένοι τῶν διαθηκῶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες, καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ:

Transliteration

That you were in the kairō ekeinō without Christou, apēllotriōmenoi of the politeias of the Israēl, and xenoi of the diathēkōn of the epangelias, elpida not echontes, and atheoi in the kosmō

Grammar Details

• *kairō*: dative singular masculine - time/season/opportunity
• *ekeinō*: dative singular masculine - that/remote
• *Christou*: genitive singular masculine - Christ/Anointed One
• *apēllotriōmenoi*: perfect passive participle, nominative plural masculine - having been alienated/estranged
• *politeias*: genitive singular feminine - citizenship/commonwealth
• *Israēl*: genitive singular - Israel
• *xenoi*: nominative plural masculine - strangers/foreigners
• *diathēkōn*: genitive plural feminine - covenants/testaments
• *epangelias*: genitive singular feminine - promise
• *elpida*: accusative singular feminine - hope/expectation
• *echontes*: present active participle, nominative plural masculine - having
• *atheoi*: nominative plural masculine - without God/godless
• *kosmō*: dative singular masculine - world/universe

Word Meanings

• *kairō*: time/season/appointed time
• *apēllotriōmenoi*: alienated/estranged/excluded
• *politeias*: citizenship/commonwealth/state
• *xenoi*: strangers/foreigners/aliens
• *diathēkōn*: covenants/testaments/contracts
• *epangelias*: promise/announcement/declaration
• *elpida*: hope/expectation/confidence
• *atheoi*: without God/godless/atheists
• *kosmō*: world/ordered system/universe

Referenced Verses

• Gal 4:8 : 8 But at that time, having no knowledge of God, you were servants to those who by right are no gods:
• Col 1:21 : 21 And you, who in the past were cut off and at war with God in your minds through evil works, he has now made one
• 1 Thess 4:5 : 5 Not in the passion of evil desires, like the Gentiles, who have no knowledge of God;
• 1 Thess 4:13 : 13 But it is our desire, brothers, that you may be certain about those who are sleeping; so that you may have no need for sorrow, as others have who are without hope.
• Eph 4:18 : 18 Whose thoughts are dark, to whom the life of God is strange because they are without knowledge, and their hearts have been made hard;
• Acts 28:20 : 20 But for this reason I sent for you, to see and have talk with you: for because of the hope of Israel I am in these chains.
• John 15:5 : 5 I am the vine, you are the branches: he who is in me at all times as I am in him, gives much fruit, because without me you are able to do nothing.
• Gen 15:18 : 18 In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
• Gen 17:7-9 : 7 And I will make between me and you and your seed after you through all generations, an eternal agreement to be a God to you and to your seed after you. 8 And to you and to your seed after you, I will give the land in which you are living, all the land of Canaan for an eternal heritage; and I will be their God. 9 And God said to Abraham, On your side, you are to keep the agreement, you and your seed after you through all generations.
• Ps 89:3-9 : 3 I have made an agreement with the man of my selection, I have made an oath to David my servant; 4 I will make your seed go on for ever, your kingdom will be strong through all generations. (Selah.) 5 In heaven let them give praise for your wonders, O Lord; and your unchanging faith among the saints. 6 For who is there in the heavens in comparison with the Lord? who is like the Lord among the sons of the gods? 7 God is greatly to be feared among the saints, and to be honoured over all those who are about him. 8 O Lord God of armies, who is strong like you, O Jah? and your unchanging faith is round about you. 9 You have rule over the sea in storm; when its waves are troubled, you make them calm. 10 Rahab was crushed by you like one wounded to death; with your strong arm you put to flight all your haters. 11 Yours are the heavens, and the earth is yours; you have made the world, and everything which is in it. 12 You have made the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon are sounding with joy at your name. 13 Yours is an arm of power; strong is your hand and high your right hand. 14 The seat of your kingdom is resting on righteousness and right judging: mercy and good faith come before your face. 15 Happy are the people who have knowledge of the holy cry: the light of your face, O Lord, will be shining on their way. 16 In your name will they have joy all the day: in your righteousness will they be lifted up. 17 For you are the glory of their strength; in your pleasure will our horn be lifted up. 18 For our breastplate is the Lord; and our king is the Holy One of Israel's.
• Jer 17:13 : 13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who give you up will be put to shame; those who go away from you will be cut off from the earth, because they have given up the Lord, the fountain of living waters.
• Ezek 37:26 : 26 And I will make an agreement of peace with them: it will be an eternal agreement with them: and I will have mercy on them and make their numbers great, and will put my holy place among them for ever.
• 1 Pet 1:3 : 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through his great mercy has given us a new birth and a living hope by the coming again of Jesus Christ from the dead,
• Gal 3:16-17 : 16 Now to Abraham were the undertakings given, and to his seed. He says not, And to seeds, as of a great number; but as of one, he says, And to your seed, which is Christ. 17 Now this I say: The law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, does not put an end to the agreement made before by God, so as to make the undertaking without effect.
• 1 Pet 1:21 : 21 Who through him have faith in God who took him up again from the dead into glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.
• 1 Pet 3:15 : 15 But give honour to Christ in your hearts as your Lord; and be ready at any time when you are questioned about the hope which is in you, to give an answer in the fear of the Lord and without pride;
• Hos 3:4 : 4 For the children of Israel will for a long time be without king and without ruler, without offerings and without pillars, and without ephod or images.
• Luke 1:72 : 72 To do acts of mercy to our fathers and to keep in mind his holy word,
• John 4:22 : 22 You give worship, but without knowledge of what you are worshipping: we give worship to what we have knowledge of: for salvation comes from the Jews.
• John 10:16 : 16 And I have other sheep which are not of this field: I will be their guide in the same way, and they will give ear to my voice, so there will be one flock and one keeper.
• Jer 31:31-34 : 31 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah: 32 Not like the agreement which I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to be their guide out of the land of Egypt; which agreement was broken by them, and I gave them up, says the Lord. 33 But this is the agreement which I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my law in their inner parts, writing it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And no longer will they be teaching every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Get knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord: for they will have my forgiveness for their evil-doing, and their sin will go from my memory for ever.
• Jer 33:20-26 : 20 The Lord has said: If it is possible for my agreement of the day and the night to be broken, so that day and night no longer come at their fixed times, 21 Then my agreement with my servant David may be broken, so that he no longer has a son to take his place on the seat of the kingdom; and my agreement with the Levites, the priests, my servants. 22 As it is not possible for the army of heaven to be numbered, or the sand of the sea measured, so will I make the seed of my servant David, and the Levites my servants. 23 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 24 Have you taken note of what these people have said, The two families, which the Lord took for himself, he has given up? This they say, looking down on my people as being, in their eyes, no longer a nation. 25 The Lord has said, If I have not made day and night, and if the limits of heaven and earth have not been fixed by me, 26 Then I will give up caring for the seed of Jacob and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will let their fate be changed and will have mercy on them.
• Ezek 13:9 : 9 And my hand will be against the prophets who see visions without substance and who make false use of secret arts: they will not be in the secret of my people, and they will not be recorded in the list of the children of Israel, and they will not come into the land of Israel; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord.
• Isa 44:6 : 6 The Lord, the King of Israel, even the Lord of armies who has taken up his cause, says, I am the first and the last, and there is no God but me.
• Isa 45:20 : 20 Come together, even come near, you nations who are still living: they have no knowledge who take up their image of wood, and make prayer to a god in whom is no salvation.
• Isa 61:5 : 5 And men from strange countries will be your herdsmen, and those who are not Israelites will be your ploughmen and vine-keepers.
• Jer 14:8 : 8 O you hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble, why are you like one who is strange in the land, and like a traveller putting up his tent for a night?
• Exod 24:3-9 : 3 Then Moses came and put before the people all the words of the Lord and his laws: and all the people, answering with one voice, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do. 4 Then Moses put down in writing all the words of the Lord, and he got up early in the morning and made an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent some of the young men of the children of Israel to make burned offerings and peace-offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; draining out half of the blood over the altar. 7 And he took the book of the agreement, reading it in the hearing of the people: and they said, Everything which the Lord has said we will do, and we will keep his laws. 8 Then Moses took the blood and let it come on the people, and said, This blood is the sign of the agreement which the Lord has made with you in these words. 9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the chiefs of Israel went up: 10 And they saw the God of Israel; and under his feet there was, as it seemed, a jewelled floor, clear as the heavens. 11 And he put not his hand on the chiefs of the children of Israel: they saw God, and took food and drink.
• Num 18:19 : 19 All the lifted offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel give to the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters as a right for ever. This is an agreement made with salt before the Lord, to you and to your seed for ever.
• 2 Chr 15:3 : 3 Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without the law;
• Ezra 4:3 : 3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, You have no part with us in the building of a house for our God; we ourselves will do the work together for the Lord, the God of Israel, as Cyrus, king of Persia, has given us orders.
• Acts 3:25 : 25 You are the sons of the prophets, and of the agreement which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, Through your seed a blessing will come on all the families of the earth.
• Acts 14:15-16 : 15 Good people, why are you doing these things? We are men with the same feelings as you, and we give you the good news so that you may be turned away from these foolish things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things in them: 16 Who in the past let all nations go in the ways which seemed good to them.
• 1 Cor 8:4-6 : 4 So, then, as to the question of taking food offered to images, we are certain that an image is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For though there are those who have the name of gods, in heaven or on earth, as there are a number of gods and a number of lords, 6 There is for us only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we are for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we have our being through him.
• 1 Cor 10:19-20 : 19 Do I say, then, that what is offered to images is anything, or that the image is anything? 20 What I say is that the things offered by the Gentiles are offered to evil spirits and not to God; and it is not my desire for you to have any part with evil spirits.
• Rom 1:28-32 : 28 And because they had not the mind to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them up to an evil mind, to do those things which are not right; 29 Being full of all wrongdoing, evil, desire for the goods of others, hate, envy, putting to death, fighting, deceit, cruel ways, evil talk, and false statements about others; 30 Hated by God, full of pride, without respect, full of loud talk, given to evil inventions, not honouring father or mother, 31 Without knowledge, not true to their undertakings, unkind, having no mercy: 32 Who, though they have knowledge of the law of God, that the fate of those who do these things is death, not only go on doing these things themselves, but give approval to those who do them.
• Rom 9:4-5 : 4 Who are Israelites: who have the place of sons, and the glory, and the agreements with God, and the giving of the law, and the worship, and the hope offered by God: 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom came Christ in the flesh, who is over all, God, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it.
• Col 1:5 : 5 Through the hope which is in store for you in heaven; knowledge of which was given to you before in the true word of the good news,
• Col 1:27 : 27 To whom God was pleased to give knowledge of the wealth of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
• 2 Thess 2:16 : 16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who had love for us and has given us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
• 1 Tim 1:1 : 1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the order of God our Saviour and Christ Jesus our hope;
• Heb 6:18 : 18 So that we, who have gone in flight from danger to the hope which has been put before us, may have a strong comfort in two unchanging things, in which it is not possible for God to be false;
• Heb 11:34 : 34 Put out the power of fire, got safely away from the edge of the sword, were made strong when they had been feeble, became full of power in war, and put to flight the armies of the nations.
• Rom 9:8 : 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh, but the children of God's undertaking, who are named as the seed.
• 1 John 3:3 : 3 And everyone who has this hope in him makes himself holy, even as he is holy.