en_tn_condensed/eph/04/intro.md

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Ephesians 04 General Notes

Structure and formatting

Some translations prefer to set apart quotations of the Old Testament. The ULB and many other English translations indent the lines of 4:8, which is a quotation from the Old Testament.

Special concepts in this chapter

Spiritual gifts

Spiritual gifts are specific supernatural abilities given to Christians after coming to faith in Jesus. This is not an exhaustive list of the spiritual gifts. Some scholars believe there are some gifts given only in the early church because they were foundational to the development of the church. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/faith)

Unity

Paul places a great importance on unity in the church. This is a major theme of this chapter.

Other possible translation difficulties in this chapter

Old man and new man

The term "old man" probably refers to the sinful nature that a person is born with, while the "new man" is the new nature or new life that is given to a person after coming to faith in Christ. Paul also uses the terms old/new self and old/new creation in the same way.