Ephesians 2:3

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as 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 we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.
• Gal 2:15-16 : 15 The Justification of Jews and Gentiles We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, 16 yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
• Ps 51:5 : 5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.
• Eph 2:2 : 2 in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience,
• Eph 4:22 : 22 You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires,
• Rom 13:14 : 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires.
• 1 Cor 4:7 : 7 For who concedes you any superiority? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you did not?
• 1 Pet 1:14 : 14 Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance,
• 1 Pet 2:10-11 : 10 You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,
• 1 John 1:8-9 : 8 If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
• 1 Cor 6:9-9 : 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
• Rom 7:18 : 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.
• Rom 11:30 : 30 Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience,
• Rom 3:22-23 : 22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
• Gen 6:5 : 5 But the LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.
• Job 15:14-16 : 14 What is man that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous? 15 If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, 16 how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, who drinks in evil like water!
• Job 25:4 : 4 How then can a human being be righteous before God? How can one born of a woman be pure?
• Gen 8:21 : 21 And the LORD smelled the soothing aroma and said to himself,“I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, even though the inclination of their minds is evil from childhood on. I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.
• Job 14:4 : 4 Who can make a clean thing come from an unclean? No one!
• Rom 5:12-19 : 12 The Amplification of Justification So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned– 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin when there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam(who is a type of the coming one) transgressed. 15 But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many! 16 And the gift is not like the one who sinned. For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift from the many failures led to justification. 17 For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ! 18 Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.
• Rom 6:12 : 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,
• Isa 53:6 : 6 All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the LORD caused the sin of all of us to attack him.
• Dan 9:5-9 : 5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well. 7 “You are righteous, O Lord, but we are humiliated this day– the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 8 O LORD, we have been humiliated– our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors– because we have sinned against you. 9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.
• Mark 4:19 : 19 but worldly cares, the seductiveness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it produces nothing.
• Mark 7:21-22 : 21 For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly.
• John 1:13 : 13 – children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.
• John 3:1-6 : 1 Conversation with Nicodemus Now a certain man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, 2 came to Jesus at night and said to him,“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus replied,“I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him,“How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” 5 Jesus answered,“I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
• John 8:44 : 44 You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
• Acts 14:16 : 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways,
• Acts 17:30-31 : 30 Therefore, although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
• Rom 1:24 : 24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.
• Rom 3:9-9 : 9 The Condemnation of the World What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin, 10 just as it is written:“There is no one righteous, not even one, 11 there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves, they deceive with their tongues, the poison of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16 ruin and misery are in their paths, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
• Rom 8:7-8 : 7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
• Rom 9:22 : 22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction?
• 2 Cor 7:1 : 1 Self-Purification Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.
• 1 Tim 6:9 : 9 Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
• Jas 4:1-3 : 1 Passions and Pride Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you? 2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; 3 you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.
• Eph 4:17-19 : 17 Live in Holiness So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
• Gal 3:22 : 22 But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise could be given– because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ– to those who believe.
• Gal 5:16-24 : 16 But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
• 1 John 2:8 : 8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
• 1 John 2:16 : 16 because all that is in the world(the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world.
• Jude 1:16-18 : 16 These people are grumblers and fault-finders who go wherever their desires lead them, and they give bombastic speeches, enchanting folks for their own gain. 17 Exhortation to the Faithful But you, dear friends– recall the predictions foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 For they said to you,“In the end time there will come scoffers, propelled by their own ungodly desires.”
• 1 Pet 4:2-3 : 2 in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires. 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries.
• 2 Pet 2:14 : 14 Their eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!
• 2 Pet 2:18 : 18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error.
• Gen 5:3 : 3 When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth.
• Isa 64:6-7 : 6 We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. We all wither like a leaf; our sins carry us away like the wind. 7 No one invokes your name, or makes an effort to take hold of you. For you have rejected us and handed us over to our own sins.