Greek Translation
I have put the Greek and English transliteration in the left column and the story in the main part.
The Menu
Παύλος
απόστολος Ιησού Χριστού
δια θελήματος Θεού
τοις άγιος τοις ευσιν
εν Εφέσω
και πιστοις
εν Χριστώ Ιησού,
Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God to the saints, those in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus
Eph. 1.1
Drinks
Χάρις υμίν και ειρήνη
από Θεού Πατρός ημών
και Κυρίου Ιησού Χριστού
Charis human – Grace to you
Kai Irene – And peace
From God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ
Eph. 1:2
Starter
Ευλογητός ο Θεός και Πατήρ
του Κυρίου ημών Ιησού Χριστού
ο ευλογησας ημάς
εν πάση ευλογιά πνευματική
εν τοις επουρανιοις
εν Χριστώ
Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord of us Jesus Christ who has blessed us
in every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places
in Christ
Eph. 1:3
Pro’s
καθώς εξελεξατο ημάς
εν αυτώ
προ καταβολής κόσμου
είναι ημάς αγίους και άμωμους κατενώπιον αυτώ
εν αγάπη
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love. Eph. 1:4
Pretzels?
Προορισας ημάς
είs υιοθεσιαν
δια Ιησού Χριστού
εις αυτον
κατά την ευδοκιαν του θελήματος αυτού
Having predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ into Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.Eph. 1:5
Pink Champagne
Εις έπαινόν δόξης της χάριτος αυτού
ης εχαριτωσεν ημάς
εν τω ηγαπημενω
Into praise of glory of His grace in which he accepted us in the beloved.
Eph. 1:6
Red Meat
Εν ω εχομεν την απολύτρωσίν
δια του αίματος αυτού
την άφεσίν των παραπτωμάτων
κατά το πλούτος της χάριτος αυτού
In whom we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of trespasses according to the riches of His grace
Eph.1:7
Drink Again
Ης επερισσευσεν εις ημάς
εν πάση σοφία και φρονήσει
Which he poured into us in all wisdom and understanding.
Eph. 1:8
Barm Brack
Γνωρισασ ημίν το μυστήριον του θελήματος αυτού
κατά την ευδοκιαν αυτού
ην προεθετό εν αυτώ
Having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself
Eph. 1:9
Transported
Εις οικονομιαν του πληρώματος των καιρών
Ανακεφαλαιωσασθαι τα πάντα εν τω Χριστώ,
τα επι τοις ουρανοις
και τα επι της γης εν αυτώ
an administration suitable for the fulness of the times, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth, in Him.
Eph. 1:10
Living Together
Εν ω και εκληρωθημεν
προορισθέντες
κατά πρόθεσίν του τα πάντα ενεργουντος
κατά την βουλην του θελήματος αυτού
In whom you have received an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will.
Eph. 1:11
For Him
εις τὸ εἶναι ἡμᾶς
εις έπαινόν δόξης αὐτοῦ τούς προηλπικότας ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ.
that we might be for the praise of His glory the ones who hoped in the Christ
Eph. 1:12
Hearing & Believing
ἐν ᾧ καὶ ὑμεῖς
ἀκούσαντες τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας,
τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς σωτηρίας ὑμῶν,
ἐν ᾧ καὶ πιστεύσαντες ἐσφραγίσθητε τῷ πνεύματι τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τῷ ἁγίῳ
In whom you also having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in which also you believed, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise
Eph. 1:13
God’s Inheritance
ὅ ἐστιν ἀρραβὼν τῆς κληρονομίας ἡμῶν
εἰς ἀπολύτρωσιν τῆς περιποιήσεως
εἰς ἔπαινον τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ.
Which is the down payment on our inheritance with a view to buying the whole substance of us, to the praise of His glory.
Eph. 1:14
Because of this
Διά τοῦτο
κάτω άκουσας τὴν καθ ᾽ ὑμᾶς πίστιν
ἐν τῷ κυρίῳ Ιησού
καὶ την ἀγάπην την εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους
Because of this
I also having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus
and your love for all the saints.
Eph. 1:15
οὐ παύομαι εὐχαριστῶν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν μνείαν ποιούμενος ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν μου,
I do not stop giving thanks for you, making memories of you in my prayers
Eph. 1:16
ἵνα
ὁ θεὸς τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ,
ὁ πατὴρ τῆς δόξης, δώῃ ὑμῖν πνεῦμα σοφίας καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως
ἐν ἐπιγνώσει αὐτοῦ,
so that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him
Eph. 1:17
Lighten up!
πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν
εἰς τὸ εἰδέναι ὑμᾶς
τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς κλήσεως αὐτοῦ,
τίς ὁ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τῆς κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις,
that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints
Eph. 1:18
καὶ τί τὸ ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος τής δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ
εις ἡμᾶς τούς πιστεύοντας κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ κράτους τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ.
And what is the overwhelming greatness of His power into us who are believing according to the working of the might of His strength
Eph. 1:19
ἣν ἐνήργησεν ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ ἐγείρας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν
καὶ καθίσας ἐν δεξιᾷ αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις
Which he worked in the Christ having raised Him out of the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies. Eph. 1:20
Far above all
ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆ καὶ ἐξουσίας ⁞ καὶ δυνάμεως ⁞ καὶ κυριότητος ⁞ καὶ παντὸς ὀνόματος ⁞ ὀνομαζομένου, ⁞ οὐ μόνον ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ ⁞ ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι
Far above all rulers and authorities and powers and lords and every name that can be named not only in this age but also in the one to come
Eph. 1:21
καὶ πάντα ὑπέταξεν ⁞ ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ καὶ αὐτὸν ἔδωκεν κεφαλὴν ὑπὲρ πάντα τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ,
And he put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church
Eph. 1:22
ἥτις ἐστὶν τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ, τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν πληρουμένου.
Which is His body the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.
Eph. 1:23
A New Year Project
For some weeks leading up to the end of last year I was considering before the Lord as to what I should do during my quiet times. Every morning I spend some time with God and usually include a reading plan which enables me to read the bible in a year. This year I wanted to learn the Scriptures. I looked it up: there are 7,959 verses in the NT which means that if I learnt one a day it would take me about 22 years to learn the lot. I am 62 and it would not be unreasonable to think I could learn the NT off by heart before I die.
But then I had this crazy thought: what about learning it off in its original Greek language? That seemed impossible. I had also wanted to start with Ephesians, and typical of Paul, the Greek there was some of the most difficult in the Scripture.
Anyway, I got up on January 1st and this happened.
A Restaurant on A River
I got these vivid visions.
Paul had been sent by Jesus to invite His Bride to a meal with Him.
In my vision I could see the Church as a beautiful young woman who was thrilled to be going on a date with her Beloved. She had put on a beautiful light golden dress reaching down to her knees and had let her golden hair fall straight down her back. She was stunning as Paul led her to the table at the restaurant called “God’s will”. Every other eye in the restaurant was drawn to her as she walked past. Jesus was sitting back a little in His chair looking as wonderful as only He could and rose to greet her.
When they had both sat down he picked up the end of a long piece of what looked like meat and motioned to her to pick up the other end. Jesus put it in His mouth and she did the same. She then noticed that the string of meat was actually a long string of connected Greek words. As she ate them some of them tasted kind of metallic[1], others like caramel biscuits covered in honey – that was the word Christ. She could put her tongue into the ‘o’s’ and other letters. She ate towards the middle and ended up with a light kiss on Jesus’ lips.[2]
Then, in my imagination, I was in the Bride myself.
Looking down I noticed that there were other similar strings stretching out from a cake in the centre of the table. The strings had saints names written on them and led into the centre of the cake which was called “First Love”[3]. Faith was a sausage.
[1] Rev. 1: 16
[2] (Psalm 2:12; Songs 1:2; 2 Cor. 13:12) This was the first day and I was hooked. I could see how I could happily learn the NT by heart if it was accompanied by this much fun. What was amazing to me was how much I (a white 60+ year old man) could feel the love and excitement of the Church. I too was head over heels in love with Jesus and so thrilled to be able to dine with Him in this way (Rev. 3:20).
[3] Rev. 2:4
Grace & Peace
Jesus pointed out a golden chalice/ goblet that was on the table. It was full of a pink champagne like drink. “Take a drink”, He said.
I drank down the cup, it tasted like a light sparkling wine, so refreshing. “That’s grace” Jesus said “you are going to need it.” As soon as I put the cup down it filled up again of itself.
Jesus said again “Drink up, you are going to need it.” I drank down the full cup and it immediately filled again. At this stage I am beginning to feel intoxicated.
It was then I noticed the river running underneath the table. Warm calming vapours were rising up from it. Peace like a river was flowing under me and we were in the middle of it.
My sense of intoxication and ecstasy increased.
God the Father then sat down beside us at the table. Despite the smile and easy demeanour He brought to the table, this sobered me up a bit. Jesus also had put on His lordly robe.
“Drink up,” He said a third time, “You are going to need grace.” I drank up and now I was really drunk.
Later that morning I went to church, still feeling very intoxicated. I was giddy and high and having a hard job holding it together.
That evening I began to feel unwell.
The next day I woke up feeling quite ill. I felt like I needed a good detox. All the rich food over the Christmas and New Year was catching up on me I reasoned.
In the meantime the starter was being served.
Bomba Blessing
Paul put a large ball – about the size of a Palantir I reckoned – in front of me and another one for Jesus. It was a masterpiece of spherical symmetry and had a sparkler on top of it. The outside was covered in pasta like tagliatelle. The pasta was the ευλογιά (eulogia) – the good words.
Verse 3 starts with a blessing (eulogia- good speaking) and then keeps speaking good things from here until verse 14.
Verse 3 is a story of 3 blessings and 3 “in’s”
In heaven nothing but good words are spoken about us all the time. We ought to be reflecting that on earth.
Eulogia is often translated as “Blessed” but it is literally a good word. It is not the same Greek word as in the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount. There Matthew uses the Greek word “makarios” which is better translated “happy”.
Jesus encouraged me to stop getting distracted and to dig in.
Prose
As I opened up the globe/ palantir I found that most of the substance of it consisted of “προ’s” (pros) and other words meaning “before”.
He predestined us to this state. Our holiness and blamelessness are as complete as the finished work of the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). We are in Him.
The Shape of His Will
His will kept appearing as crunchy lumps of savoury chocolate coloured shapes in the middle of the globe. His will is a complicated shape and needs a bit of chewing on. It has two narrow grips on each side and the main substance in the middle. It appears that we have to get a grip on His will for it to be done, just because he holds the other side doesn’t mean we will experience it.
How do we understand free will anyway?
The first word of verse 5 could be translated “pre envisioned us”. He foresaw us into our sonship, such is the power of God’s envisioning – through Jesus Christ into Himself. God predestined us into sonship. God thought this was a good idea, He wasn’t leaving anything to chance. We ought to agree with Him on this point even if we don’t understand His choosing.
Grace Overflowing
That same pink champagne like drink kept pouring out of the Palantir as I stuck my fork into it. Jesus encouraged me to pour some of the drink out of my goblet onto it. “You can never have enough grace” He said.
That seemed a bit counter intuitive to me. Surely all that freedom was going to cause problems?
“Not for Me.” He said.
That was obvious enough I guess.
Blood & Gore
I didn’t think it too strange to find blood in amongst the meat. The difficult thing was realising whose blood it was.
“You have to drink My blood” Jesus pointed out “if you really want to know communion with Me.” (John 6:63)
What could I say? I poured some more grace on it. That blood bought me.
Understanding
Have another drink”. It was my Dad speaking this time.
God’s grace to everyone and the abundance of it was something I was still struggling to grasp. Then I remembered that Jesus had turned hundreds of litres of water into about 1000 bottles of the finest wine in His first recorded miracle while on earth (John 2).
Wise and understanding?
Yes. But definitely not a religious way of thinking.
A Mysterious Gift
There was a small, wrapped box in the middle of the Palantir! A small beautifully wrapped purple box with a white bow around it! Somehow it had remained clean in the middle of all that meat.
I fished it out eager to find what was in it. I looked up at Jesus who was smiling at me and indicating that I could open the box. I opened it carefully. Inside was a diamond ring of astonishing beauty. I put it on and immediately I was transported into another dimension.
The Church
I stood in the middle of what looked like Gaudi’s basilica in Barcelona only more alive than even it. It was also much larger stretching like a forest into infinity in the forward direction. Looking back it seemed to converge to a point back a couple of thousand years.
I fiddled with the ring and took it off.
Jesus then began to explain to me what I had seen. “As you may have guessed” He said, “that framework you saw is the Church which started at Pentecost and extends into eternity. “
Sweet Promises
You are the way I am going to administer the universe. You and Me together under our Father and Mother.
Mother was away preparing something in the kitchen.
“It’s a family affair” He continued, “and it is your inheritance. Mom, Dad and I have it all arranged.”
Fruit & Gifts
“You remember when you first heard the truth?” Jesus said.
Mum had just appeared from the kitchen with two boxes in her hands.
“Yes, that’s when I believed and everything changed for me.” I replied.
“Yes and that’s when I gave you these.”
Mum opened the first box.
It contained 9 types of fruit[1]: There was a pomegranate in the middle surrounded by a peach, an olive, an avocado, an orange, an apple, a mandarin, a lychee and a banana.
“Eat up” Mum said, “seeds and all. We want you to have the same spiritual character as we do and to pass that on.”
The fruits tasted like a 10 times enhancement of the ones I had tasted at more usual eating places. Such comfort came over me as I ate, it is so wonderful to think that this is what God is like in His substance in all three persons. The avocado stone was a bit harder to swallow though.
The next box had 9 tools in it[2]: A mobile phone, a laptop, an electric car[3], a quantum matter altering machine[4], an arc reactor, a hammer[5], augmented reality glasses, a babel fish and some earbuds.
[1] Galatians 5:22-23
[2] 1 Cor. 12:4-11
[3] It was a big box!
[4] There is always a problem when looking at things from a time constrained point of view that you can’t put a good name on something that will be commonplace in the future.
[5] Jer. 23:29
These are just the down payment”, Mum said. “We’ve already paid the price to have you in us completely forever.”
“If I wasn’t God I couldn’t wait”, added Jesus eating an avocado.
Dad smiled at me.
I mused on what it might be like to experience my new body in a satisfied soul, melded in my spirit with the three family members of the Godhead.
The experience of the down payment was dramatic enough, what must the consummation be like?
Romance
Music began to play. Soft, romantic dance music.
Jesus said: “Shall we?” offering his hand to me.
We stood up and began to dance upon the waters. The river had turned into a sea and we were carelessly dancing on it, slowly cheek to cheek.
He began to speak softly into my ear:
“I know how much you trust me and how much love you have for all my family.”
I could feel the gold braid of his jacket, the fragrance of his hair, the comfort of his words.
“I’m so grateful for you, constantly talking to my parents about you. My mind is full of you and your beauty.”
The song that was playing changed and I began to sing it to him:
“Light of the world you stepped down into darkness, opened my eyes, let me see, beauty that made this heart adore you. I have hope of a life spent with you. So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that “You’re my God”. You are altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.”
Jesus stayed silent for a while, enjoying the time. Then he said:
“I have asked Dad to give you something only He can impart – a spirit of wisdom and revelation – so that you can get to know Him better.”
The room got gradually brighter and I could now see that the sea stretched in all directions. I could also see that there were people standing on the sea[1], people of remarkable beauty, elegance and majesty. All were singing and lifting their hands towards ….
Where had my beloved gone?
He was seated on the throne[2].
A magnificent throne was set above the sea and He who sat on it was vulnerable and human.
The beauty of those around me was astonishing. And such music! “Hallelujah! Our God reigns!”
[1] Rev. 15:2 (NASB)
[2] Rev. 7:17
Mum came over to me with a beautiful ruby necklace, matching bracelets and earrings. “We couldn’t adorn you” She said “if you were someone who didn’t need or want to be adorned. The fact that you are Our creation makes the power We put into you to raise you up all the more wonderful.”
I wasn’t quite sure I understood. All I could see was Christ exalted and all I wanted to do was hold His feet and weep[1].
[1] Luke 7
Beautiful feet! Even His toenails were beautiful.
I noticed that beneath His feet there were mystical pictures like those seen on the end walls of some ornate churches.
Every name that could be named was there and He was above them all.
The Spirit whispered again: “You are His”
Body, soul and spirit.
How can this be?
faithfulwon 