What Does Ephesians 1:4 Mean in the King James?
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Before the world is laid down, your choosing is already located in him, and its horizon is a life set apart and without blemish in love.
THE MEANING
Your place among those chosen in him is located before the world’s foundation. The verse names the shape of that belonging as being set apart and without blame before him, in love.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that blamelessness is the price of belonging: being chosen in him comes first, and holiness and blamelessness are named as its purpose.
THE ROOT
ἐξελέξατο
exeleksato
GROWS FROM
ἐκλέγομαι (eklegomai), with the stem ἐκλέγ- (ekleg-)
To choose or select; the word carries the sense of selecting out.
The phrase places the chosen people “in him” and locates that belonging before the world’s foundation. “Chosen” can sound like an isolated status in English; here it is joined to relationship and purpose.
ALSO GROWS
eklektos: chosen, selected
ἐκλεκτός
This adjective from the same word family describes someone as chosen, echoing the identity named here.
eklogē: choice, selection
ἐκλογή
This noun names the choosing itself, showing the action and the chosen people belong to one word family.
καταβολή
katabolē
GROWS FROM
βάλλω (ballō), with κατά (kata, down)
To throw, cast, or put; the compound carries the image of laying something down.
English “foundation” sounds like a finished platform, while καταβολή carries the image of a laying-down. The verse places this choosing before the world is laid down, so the world’s order is not the source of this belonging.
ALSO GROWS
kataballō: cast down, lay down
καταβάλλω
This verb is the source of καταβολή and makes the foundation’s image of laying down visible.
bolē: a throw, a casting
βολή
This noun shares the βάλλω root and preserves the action beneath the word translated “foundation.”
ἁγίους
hagious
GROWS FROM
ἁγ- (hag-), in ἅγιος (hagios)
Set apart, distinct, belonging to what is set apart.
“holy” in this verse is hagious. The word family traces holiness as being set apart. Here that distinction is held together with being without blame before him and “in love,” giving the setting apart a relational direction.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: set apart, consecrate
ἁγιάζω
This verb expresses the action of setting apart that the adjective ἅγιος names.
hagiasmos: setting apart, consecration
ἁγιασμός
This noun names the process or state of being set apart, extending the same word family.
THE PATTERN
Belonging and calling are located in God before visible life and its work take shape.
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.THE THREAD
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.The Greek verb translated “chosen” here is the same verb used in Ephesians 1:4. Ephesians places choosing before the world is laid down; here that choosing opens into going and fruit that remains, giving belonging a living direction.
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