What Does Ephesians 1:17 Mean?
That the God of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, the Father of weight, might give you a breath of wisdom and unveiling in the full knowing of him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:THE KEY
God gives breath that uncovers perception, so wisdom and revelation open within the knowing of him.
THE MEANING
God, the Father of weight, gives you breath shaped by wisdom and unveiling as you know him. In this living knowing, what is hidden in your perception opens, and understanding becomes something received.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must produce spiritual clarity by yourself before God can be known.
THE ROOT
ἀποκάλυψις
apokálypsis
GROWS FROM
καλυπτ-
kalypt-
Cover or conceal; the word for revelation carries the sense of uncovering or removing what conceals.
“unveiling” in this verse is apokálypsis. “Revelation” can sound like new information arriving, while this word points to a covering being removed. What becomes visible is uncovered, not manufactured.
ALSO GROWS
kalýptō: to cover or conceal
καλύπτω
It names what revelation removes from view.
apokalýptō: to uncover or reveal
ἀποκαλύπτω
This verb shares the same cover-root and makes the act of unveiling explicit.
kálymma: a veil or covering
κάλυμμα
It gives a concrete image of what can obscure perception.
πνεῦμα
pneuma
GROWS FROM
πνευ-
pneu-
Breath, wind, or blowing.
The Greek word rendered “spirit” also names breath and wind. Here wisdom and unveiling are given as breath from God, joining perception to the life he gives.
ALSO GROWS
pneō: to breathe or blow
πνέω
This verb names the motion from which the breath-word grows.
pnoē: breath or a blast of wind
πνοή
It shows how the same word-family holds breath and wind together.
δόξα
dóxa
GROWS FROM
δοξ-
dox-
Esteem and honor; here, weight, the substantial presence carried by glory.
The Greek word is rendered “glory”; its established shade of weight makes honor substantial rather than ornamental. Calling God the Father of weight places that weight at the source of the breath and wisdom he gives.
ALSO GROWS
doxázō: to glorify or honor
δοξάζω
It is the act of recognizing and giving honor to the weight of someone’s nature.
éndoxos: honored or glorious
ἔνδοξος
It describes someone or something carrying recognized honor and weight.
THE PATTERN
God-given insight opens perception by unveiling what is covered and giving wisdom to know God.
Uncover my eyes, that I may gaze upon the wonders from your instruction.But if any of you is left behind in wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without doubling and without taunting, and it will be given him.Then he threw open their minds, so that they might put the writings together.THE THREAD
The eyes of your heart being lit, so that you may see what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the weight of his inheritance in the set-apart ones.Both lines carry δόξα (dóxa, glory and weight): God is the Father of glory in verse 17, and verse 18 speaks of the riches of that glory. The prayer moves from God giving breath of unveiling to perception opening on the weight of what is already his.
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