in the church by Jesus Christ: Here, we meet a
textual problem that is reasonably easy to solve. The earliest texts from the
fourth and fifth centuries insert the Greek conjunction “and” (και, kai) between the two phrases so that together they read, “in the
church and in Christ Jesus.” The King James translators had access to a later version
of the text that had apparently been adjusted by scribes who thought that mentioning
the church before Christ was disrespectful and needed to be fixed. It was as if
the church and Christ, its head, were being equated in some fashion. A few other
texts inverted Christ and the church so that Christ stood first. But the
earliest reading “in the church and in Christ Jesus” is intrinsically suitable.
For it is as if the Apostle is ending his prayer in the name of Christ Jesus.
Further, in Ephesians the church and Christ are intimately connected. For
example, Christ is the head of the church and its fulness dwells in him (see
1;22-23; 4;15-16); Christ is its cornerstone (see 2:20); Christ is the Savior
of the church (see 5:23); finally, Christ is to present the church to his Father
as “holy and without blemish” (5:27 . . . )
throughout all ages, world without end:
This line, coming at the end of Paul’s prayer, could readily be translated “through
all generations of time, and throughout all eternity.” Commentators agree that
the first part of the expression has to do with historic time and the second
element stretches off into eternity. The term translated “generations” (γενεα,
genea) spreads a wide and rich set of meanings before a
reader, everything from those of the current generation to those who descended
from a notable ancestor to those who are of the same ethnic stock to generations
far in the future. In all, the senses tie either to past, present, or future
time and to this earth (see D&C 20:4, “both now and forever”; . . . ) (S. Kent Brown, The
Epistle to the Ephesians [Brigham Young University New Testament Commentary;
Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 2023], 250-51)
