Ephesians 2:3

Bible in Basic English (1941)

Among whom we all at one time were living in the pleasures of our flesh, giving way to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and the punishment of God was waiting for us even as for the rest.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Ἐν οἷς καὶ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἀνεστράφημέν ποτε ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς σαρκὸς ἡμῶν, ποιοῦντες τὰ θελήματα τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν διανοιῶν· καὶ ἤμεν τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς, ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί.

Transliteration

Among whom also we all anestraphēmen pote in the epithymiais of the sarkos of us, poiountes the thelēmata of the sarkos and of the dianoiōn; and we ēmen tekna by physei of orgēs, as also the loipoi

Grammar Details

• *anestraphēmen*: aorist passive indicative, 1st person plural - conducted ourselves/lived/turned back
• *pote*: adverb - once/formerly
• *epithymiais*: dative plural feminine - desires/lusts/cravings
• *sarkos*: genitive singular feminine - flesh/body/human nature
• *poiountes*: present active participle, nominative plural masculine - doing/practicing
• *thelēmata*: accusative plural neuter - wills/desires/wishes
• *dianoiōn*: genitive plural feminine - thoughts/minds/understandings
• *ēmen*: imperfect active indicative, 1st person plural - we were [continuous]
• *tekna*: nominative plural neuter - children/offspring
• *physei*: dative singular feminine - by nature/innately
• *orgēs*: genitive singular feminine - wrath/anger
• *loipoi*: nominative plural masculine - rest/remainder/others

Word Meanings

• *anestraphēmen*: conducted ourselves/lived/behaved
• *epithymiais*: desires/lusts/cravings/passions
• *sarkos*: flesh/body/sinful human nature
• *thelēmata*: wills/desires/wishes/intentions
• *dianoiōn*: minds/thoughts/understandings/intentions
• *tekna*: children/offspring/descendants
• *physei*: by nature/innately/naturally
• *orgēs*: wrath/anger/indignation
• *loipoi*: rest/remainder/others/remaining ones

Referenced Verses

• Titus 3:3 : 3 For in the past we were foolish, hard in heart, turned from the true way, servants of evil desires and pleasures, living in bad feeling and envy, hated and hating one another.
• Gal 2:15-16 : 15 We being Jews by birth, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 Being conscious that a man does not get righteousness by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we had faith in Christ Jesus, so that we might get righteousness by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law will no flesh get righteousness.
• Ps 51:5 : 5 Truly, I was formed in evil, and in sin did my mother give me birth.
• Eph 2:2 : 2 In which you were living in the past, after the ways of this present world, doing the pleasure of the lord of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in those who go against the purpose of God;
• Eph 4:22 : 22 That you are to put away, in relation to your earlier way of life, the old man, which has become evil by love of deceit;
• Rom 13:14 : 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give thought to the flesh to do its desires.
• 1 Cor 4:7 : 7 For who made you better than your brother? or what have you that has not been given to you? but if it has been given to you, what cause have you for pride, as if it had not been given to you?
• 1 Pet 1:14 : 14 Like children ruled by God, do not go back to the old desires of the time when you were without knowledge:
• 1 Pet 2:10-11 : 10 In the past you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; then there was no mercy for you, but now mercy has been given to you. 11 My loved ones, I make this request with all my heart, that, as those for whom this world is a strange country, you will keep yourselves from the desires of the flesh which make war against the soul;
• 1 John 1:8-9 : 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are false to ourselves and there is nothing true in us. 9 If we say openly that we have done wrong, he is upright and true to his word, giving us forgiveness of sins and making us clean from all evil. 10 If we say that we have no sin, we make him false and his word is not in us.
• 1 Cor 6:9-9 : 9 Have you not knowledge that evil-doers will have no part in the kingdom of God? Have no false ideas about this: no one who goes after the desires of the flesh, or gives worship to images, or is untrue when married, or is less than a man, or makes a wrong use of men, 10 Or is a thief, or the worse for drink, or makes use of strong language, or takes by force what is not his, will have any part in the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you; but you have been washed, you have been made holy, you have been given righteousness in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
• Rom 7:18 : 18 For I am conscious that in me, that is, in my flesh, there is nothing good: I have the mind but not the power to do what is right.
• Rom 11:30 : 30 For as you, in time past, were not under the rule of God, but now have got mercy through their turning away,
• Rom 3:22-23 : 22 That is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all those who have faith; and one man is not different from another, 23 For all have done wrong and are far from the glory of God;
• Gen 6:5 : 5 And the Lord saw that the sin of man was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts of his heart were evil.
• Job 15:14-16 : 14 What is man, that he may be clean? and how may the son of woman be upright? 15 Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes; 16 How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water!
• Job 25:4 : 4 How then is it possible for man to be upright before God? or how may he be clean who is a son of woman?
• Gen 8:21 : 21 And when the sweet smell came up to the Lord, he said in his heart, I will not again put a curse on the earth because of man, for the thoughts of man's heart are evil from his earliest days; never again will I send destruction on all living things as I have done.
• Job 14:4 : 4 If only a clean thing might come out of an unclean! But it is not possible.
• Rom 5:12-19 : 12 For this reason, as through one man sin came into the world, and death because of sin, and so death came to all men, because all have done evil: 13 Because, till the law came, sin was in existence, but sin is not put to the account of anyone when there is no law to be broken. 14 But still death had power from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not done wrong like Adam, who is a picture of him who was to come. 15 But the free giving of God is not like the wrongdoing of man. For if, by the wrongdoing of one man death came to numbers of men, much more did the grace of God, and the free giving by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, come to men. 16 And the free giving has not the same effect as the sin of one: for the effect of one man's sin was punishment by the decision of God, but the free giving had power to give righteousness to wrongdoers in great number. 17 For, if by the wrongdoing of one, death was ruling through the one, much more will those to whom has come the wealth of grace and the giving of righteousness, be ruling in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. 18 So then, as the effect of one act of wrongdoing was that punishment came on all men, even so the effect of one act of righteousness was righteousness of life for all men. 19 Because, as numbers of men became sinners through the wrongdoing of one man, even so will great numbers get righteousness through the keeping of the word of God by one man.
• Rom 6:12 : 12 For this cause do not let sin be ruling in your body which is under the power of death, so that you give way to its desires;
• Isa 53:6 : 6 We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us after his desire; and the Lord put on him the punishment of us all.
• Dan 9:5-9 : 5 We are sinners, acting wrongly and doing evil; we have gone against you, turning away from your orders and from your laws: 6 We have not given ear to your servants the prophets, who said words in your name to our kings and our rulers and our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness is yours, but shame is on us, even to this day; and on the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and on all Israel, those who are near and those who are far off, in all the countries where you have sent them because of the sin which they have done against you. 8 O Lord, shame is on us, on our kings and our rulers and our fathers, because of our sin against you. 9 With the Lord our God are mercies and forgiveness, for we have gone against him;
• Mark 4:19 : 19 And the cares of this life, and the deceits of wealth, and the desire for other things coming in, put a stop to the growth of the word, and it gives no fruit.
• Mark 7:21-22 : 21 Because from inside, from the heart of men, come evil thoughts and unclean pleasures, 22 The taking of goods and of life, broken faith between husband and wife, the desire of wealth, wrongdoing, deceit, sins of the flesh, an evil eye, angry words, pride, foolish acts:
• John 1:13 : 13 Whose birth was from God and not from blood, or from an impulse of the flesh and man's desire.
• John 3:1-6 : 1 Now there was among the Pharisees a man named Nicodemus, who was one of the rulers of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we are certain that you have come from God as a teacher, because no man would be able to do these signs which you do if God was not with him. 3 Jesus said to him, Truly, I say to you, Without a new birth no man is able to see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus said to him, How is it possible for a man to be given birth when he is old? Is he able to go into his mother's body a second time and come to birth again? 5 Jesus said in answer, Truly, I say to you, If a man's birth is not from water and from the Spirit, it is not possible for him to go into the kingdom of God. 6 That which has birth from the flesh is flesh, and that which has birth from the Spirit is spirit.
• John 8:44 : 44 You are the children of your father the Evil One and it is your pleasure to do his desires. From the first he was a taker of life; and he did not go in the true way because there is no true thing in him. When he says what is false, it is natural to him, for he is false and the father of what is false.
• Acts 14:16 : 16 Who in the past let all nations go in the ways which seemed good to them.
• Acts 17:30-31 : 30 Those times when men had no knowledge were overlooked by God; but now he gives orders to all men in every place to undergo a change of heart: 31 Because a day has been fixed in which all the world will be judged in righteousness by the man who has been marked out by him for this work; of which he has given a sign to all men by giving him back from the dead.
• Rom 1:24 : 24 For this reason God gave them up to the evil desires of their hearts, working shame in their bodies with one another:
• Rom 3:9-9 : 9 What then? are we worse off than they? In no way: because we have before made it clear that Jews as well as Greeks are all under the power of sin; 10 As it is said in the holy Writings, There is not one who does righteousness; 11 Not one who has the knowledge of what is right, not one who is a searcher after God; 12 They have all gone out of the way, there is no profit in any of them; there is not one who does good, not so much as one: 13 Their throat is like an open place of death; with their tongues they have said what is not true: the poison of snakes is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of curses and bitter words: 15 Their feet are quick in running after blood; 16 Destruction and trouble are in their ways; 17 And of the way of peace they have no knowledge: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now, we have knowledge that what the law says is for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all men may be judged by God:
• Rom 8:7-8 : 7 Because the mind of the flesh is opposite to God; it is not under the law of God, and is not able to be: 8 So that those who are in the flesh are not able to give pleasure to God.
• Rom 9:22 : 22 What if God, desiring to let his wrath and his power be seen, for a long time put up with the vessels of wrath which were ready for destruction:
• 2 Cor 7:1 : 1 Because God, then, will give us such rewards, dear brothers, let us make ourselves clean from all evil of flesh and spirit, and become completely holy in the fear of God.
• 1 Tim 6:9 : 9 But those who have a desire for wealth are falling into danger, and are taken as in a net by a number of foolish and damaging desires, through which men are overtaken by death and destruction.
• Jas 4:1-3 : 1 What is the cause of wars and fighting among you? is it not in your desires which are at war in your bodies? 2 You are burning with desire, and have not your desire, so you put men to death; you are full of envy, and you are not able to get your desire, so you are fighting and making war; you have not your desire, because you do not make request for it. 3 You make your request but you do not get it, because your request has been wrongly made, desiring the thing only so that you may make use of it for your pleasure.
• Eph 4:17-19 : 17 This I say, then, and give witness in the Lord, that you are to go no longer in the way of the Gentiles whose minds are turned to that which has no profit, 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; 19 Who having no more power of feeling, have given themselves up to evil passions, to do all unclean things with overmuch desire.
• Gal 3:22 : 22 However, the holy Writings have put all things under sin, so that that for which God gave the undertaking, based on faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who have such faith.
• Gal 5:16-24 : 16 But I say, Go on in the Spirit, and you will not come under the rule of the evil desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; because these are opposite the one to the other; so that you may not do the things which you have a mind to do. 18 But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are clear, which are these: evil desire, unclean things, wrong use of the senses, 20 Worship of images, use of strange powers, hates, fighting, desire for what another has, angry feelings, attempts to get the better of others, divisions, false teachings, 21 Envy, uncontrolled drinking and feasting, and such things: of which I give you word clearly, even as I did in the past, that they who do such things will have no part in the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, a quiet mind, kind acts, well-doing, faith, 23 Gentle behaviour, control over desires: against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ's have put to death on the cross the flesh with its passions and its evil desires.
• 1 John 2:8 : 8 Again, I give you a new law, which is true in him and in you; for the night is near its end and the true light is even now shining out.
• 1 John 2:16 : 16 Because everything in the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world.
• Jude 1:16-18 : 16 These are the men who make trouble, ever desiring change, going after evil pleasures, using high-sounding words, respecting men's position in the hope of reward. 17 But you, my loved ones, keep in memory the words which were said before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 How they said to you, In the last days there will be men who, guided by their evil desires, will make sport of holy things.
• 1 Pet 4:2-3 : 2 So that you may give the rest of your lives in the flesh, not to the desires of men, but to the purpose of God. 3 Because for long enough, in times past, we have been living after the way of the Gentiles, given up to the desires of the flesh, to drinking and feasting and loose behaviour and unclean worship of images;
• 2 Pet 2:14 : 14 Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin; turning feeble souls out of the true way; they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy;
• 2 Pet 2:18 : 18 For with high-sounding false words, making use of the attraction of unclean desires of the flesh, they get into their power those newly made free from those who are living in error;
• Gen 5:3 : 3 Adam had been living for a hundred and thirty years when he had a son like himself, after his image, and gave him the name of Seth:
• Isa 64:6-7 : 6 And there is no one who makes prayer to your name, or who is moved to keep true to you: for your face is veiled from us, and you have given us into the power of our sins. 7 But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth, and you are our maker; and we are all the work of your hand.