Ephesians 2:3

World English Bible (2000)

among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of 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 were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
• Gal 2:15-16 : 15 "We, being Jews by nature, and not Gentile sinners, 16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.
• Ps 51:5 : 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.
• Eph 2:2 : 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;
• Eph 4:22 : 22 that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit;
• Rom 13:14 : 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.
• 1 Cor 4:7 : 7 For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn't receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
• 1 Pet 1:14 : 14 as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
• 1 Pet 2:10-11 : 10 who in time past were no people, but now are God's people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
• 1 John 1:8-9 : 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we haven't sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
• 1 Cor 6:9-9 : 9 Or don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
• Rom 7:18 : 18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don't find it doing that which is good.
• Rom 11:30 : 30 For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,
• Rom 3:22-23 : 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
• Gen 6:5 : 5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
• Job 15:14-16 : 14 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? 15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; 16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
• Job 25:4 : 4 How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
• Gen 8:21 : 21 Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.
• Job 14:4 : 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
• Rom 5:12-19 : 12 Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned. 13 For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren't like Adam's disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. 15 But the free gift isn't like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. 17 For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so 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 So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19 For as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
• Rom 6:12 : 12 Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
• Isa 53:6 : 6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
• Dan 9:5-9 : 5 we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances; 6 neither have we listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you. 8 Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him;
• Mark 4:19 : 19 and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
• Mark 7:21-22 : 21 For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, 22 covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
• John 1:13 : 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
• John 3:1-6 : 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 The same came to him by night, and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him." 3 Jesus answered him, "Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can't see the Kingdom of God." 4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God! 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
• John 8:44 : 44 You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn't stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.
• Acts 14:16 : 16 who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
• Acts 17:30-31 : 30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."
• Rom 1:24 : 24 Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves,
• Rom 3:9-9 : 9 What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. 10 As it is written, "There is no one righteous; no, not one. 11 There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one." 13 "Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit." "The poison of vipers is under their lips;" 14 "whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood. 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways. 17 The way of peace, they haven't known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." 19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
• Rom 8:7-8 : 7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be. 8 Those who are in the flesh can't please God.
• Rom 9:22 : 22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,
• 2 Cor 7:1 : 1 Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
• 1 Tim 6:9 : 9 But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction.
• Jas 4:1-3 : 1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2 You lust, and don't have. You kill, covet, and can't obtain. You fight and make war. You don't have, because you don't ask. 3 You ask, and don't receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.
• Eph 4:17-19 : 17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts; 19 who having become callous gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
• Gal 3:22 : 22 But the Scriptures imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
• Gal 5:16-24 : 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, 21 envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that 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, faith, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
• 1 John 2:8 : 8 Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you; because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines.
• 1 John 2:16 : 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn't the Father's, but is the world's.
• Jude 1:16-18 : 16 These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts (and their mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you that "In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts."
• 1 Pet 4:2-3 : 2 that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
• 2 Pet 2:14 : 14 having eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;
• 2 Pet 2:18 : 18 For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
• Gen 5:3 : 3 Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
• Isa 64:6-7 : 6 For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is none who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities.