Verse 17 begins with the verbal infinitive “to dwell,” which could be read as the purpose (or result) of the preceding infinitive “to be strengthened”: “that you will be made strong … so that Christ will dwell” (so Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New International Version, Translator’s New Testament). Good News Translation, however, takes it as parallel with the preceding infinitive: “for you to be made strong … and for Christ to dwell” (so Caragounis, who says that there should be an “and” joining the two infinitives; also Revised Standard Version, Moffatt, and others; New English Bible is ambiguous). Beare and Abbott take the second infinitive “to dwell” not as a parallel with the first one “to be made strong,” but as a definition of it. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible understands the Greek verb “to dwell” not as intransitive but as transitive with God as the subject and Christ as the object: “that he make Christ live in your hearts.” This is quite possible.

The statement that Christ will make his home in your hearts may be translated as “that Christ may dwell in your hearts.” But this is often a very strange and bold figure of speech and therefore must often be made a simile, for example, “that Christ will, so to speak, dwell in your hearts.” It may, however, be important to indicate that this dwelling is to be a more or less permanent one, for example, “that Christ will always dwell in your hearts” or “that Christ will continue to dwell in your hearts,” or else “that Christ may take possession of you (through the faith you have in him).”

Through faith is the readers’ faith in God (or Christ), and this must be made clear (as it is not clear in Good News Translation). The phrase introduces a rather complex element, for it not only states the means or attendant circumstances involved in Christ’s dwelling in people’s hearts, but it also implies a particular kind of condition, for example, “this happens when you trust him” or “this will happen if you trust him.”

The following prepositional phrase “in love” (see Hdb|fig:Table_EPH3-13.jpg) may be related to what precedes (so Westcott and Hort [Westcott and Hort], Robinson, New English Bible, Goodspeed) or to what follows (so most editions of the Greek New Testament; Abbott, Barth; Good News Translation, Goodspeed, and most others).

Verse 17 ends “(you) having been rooted and firmly founded” (Hdb|fig:Table_EPH3-13.jpg). The two perfect passive participles (in the nominative case) grammatically function to describe the condition of the readers, but in keeping with the use of participles elsewhere in the New Testament, Good News Translation here takes them to express a wish (or a command): I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love (or “Be rooted and founded”). In the context of a prayer the latter seems more likely.

That you may have your roots and foundation in love is both strange and complex. It certainly represents a mixed metaphor, since roots would apply to a tree while foundation applies to a building. It would be possible to express the idea by a statement such as “I pray that the basis for all you do is love” or “I pray that whatever you do may be the result of love” or “… because you love.” In a number of languages, however, one cannot speak of “love” without indicating the object or the source of love. In this context it may be best to speak of “love for God and people.”

In love is not here made specific, and it may well mean love in all its aspects, toward God and from God, and toward fellow believers. It does not seem probable that it means here specifically God’s (or Christ’s) love alone (so Goodspeed, who takes it to be Christ’s love for us; it is difficult to understand why New American Bible translates “may charity be the root and foundation of your life”).

For the verb “to be rooted” see Colossians 2.7 (which is a passage like the present one), and for “to place a foundation” see Colossians 1.23 (and see in Eph 2.20 the noun “foundation”).

Verse 18 states the purpose of the double request expressed in verses 16-17: “that you will have the strength to grasp” (Hdb|fig:Table_EPH3-13.jpg). The Greek compound verb “to have strength” occurs only here in the New Testament (for the simple form of the Greek verb see such passages as Luke 16.3; Phil 4.13; James 5.16). This verb is quite appropriate with the following “to grasp, lay hold of, possess, seize” (compare John 1.5, where it means “to overcome,” and see in Phil 3.12 the play on the active and the passive voices of the verb). Abbott, New American Bible, Translator’s New Testament translate the whole phrase by “be fully able to grasp.”

So that you … may have the power to understand may often be translated as “so that you may be able to completely understand” or “… completely able to understand.”

“With all the saints”: the whole fellowship of the church, all God’s people, is the place where this knowledge is attained; it is not an individual achievement but a corporate experience. There is a subtle problem involved in the Good News Translation rendering together with all God’s people, since a literal rendering might exclude you from being part of God’s people. Therefore, together with all God’s people must be rendered in many languages as “together with all the rest of God’s people.”

The object of the verb “to grasp” is an indirect question, “what (is) the width and length and height and depth.” Although there are other possibilities, most commentators take “the love of Christ” as the subject being described by these four words of measure (some take the subject to be the secret, others the grace of God, others the wisdom of God, others “your salvation”). They are used to indicate its limitless dimensions, its indescribable size (compare other such expressions: 1.19 “the overwhelming greatness of his power,” 2.4 “the great love with which he loved us,” 2.7 “the overwhelming wealth of his grace,” 3.8 the infinite riches of Christ, 3.10 “the manifold wisdom of God”). The writer likes superlatives.

In a number of languages it makes little sense to speak about Christ’s love being broad and long and high and deep, since love cannot be conceived as having spatial dimensions. In some languages one must drop the figure of speech and translate “so that you will be fully able to understand how very, very great is Christ’s love for you.” It may even be possible to add a statement to imply something of the enormous extent of Christ’s love by saying “you cannot even imagine how great it is” or “… how much Christ truly loves you.”

If “your salvation” is taken to be subject, then the translation can read “… to understand your salvation in its full dimension” or “… to understand the complete scope (or, meaning) of your salvation.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .