Efesus 3:3

3:3 that ¹  by revelation the divine secret ²  was made known to me, as I wrote before briefly. ³ 

Efesus 3:6

3:6 namely, that through the gospel ⁴  the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members ⁵  of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

Efesus 3:9

3:9 and to enlighten ⁶  everyone about God’s secret plan ⁷  – a secret that has been hidden for ages ⁸  in God ⁹  who has created all things.

[3:3]  ¹ tn Or “namely, that is.”

[3:3]  ² tn Or “mystery.”

[3:3]  ³ tn Or “as I wrote above briefly.”

[3:3]  sn As I wrote briefly may refer to the author’s brief discussion of the divine secret in 1:9.

[3:6]  ⁴ sn The phrase through the gospel is placed last in the sentence in Greek for emphasis. It has been moved forward for clarity.

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Grk “and fellow members.”

[3:9]  ⁶ tn There is a possible causative nuance in the Greek verb, but this is difficult to convey in the translation.

[3:9]  ⁷ tn Grk “what is the plan of the divine secret.” Earlier the author had used οἰκονομία (oikonomia; here “plan”) to refer to his own “stewardship” (v. 2). But now he is speaking about the content of this secret, not his own activity in relation to it.

[3:9]  ⁸ tn Or “for eternity,” or perhaps “from the Aeons.” Cf. 2:2, 7.

[3:9]  ⁹ tn Or “by God.” It is possible that ἐν (en) plus the dative here indicates agency, that is, that God has performed the action of hiding the secret. However, this usage of the preposition ἐν is quite rare in the NT, and even though here it does follow a perfect passive verb as in the Classical idiom, it is more likely that a different nuance is intended.