Appendix 4

Nature in Eph 2:3

Rex Banks

A brief word about Eph 2:3 is in order because some argue that in this verse φύσις signifies “custom." I my view this is not the case.

The relevant verses say this:

 Eph 2:1 “And you were dead in your  (omitted from KJV) trespasses and sins,

Eph 2:2  in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Eph 2:3  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (NASB).

Thayer  cites Eph 2:3 (and only this verse from the N.T) as an example of the following meaning:  “a mode of feeling and acting which by long habit has become nature ” (Thayer p. 660). On this basis some argue that Paul has social custom in mind in 1 Cor 11:14. Others like Augustine and Calvin appeal to Eph 2:3 as proof of original sin and hereditary total depravity.  In his comments on Eph 2:3 Calvin has:

“Wrath means the judgment of God; so that the children of wrath are those who are condemned before God. Such, the apostle tells us, had been the Jews, -- such had been all the excellent men that were now in the Church; and they were so by nature, that is, from their very commencement, and from their mother's womb.

...

Paul affirms that we are born with sin, as serpents bring their venom from the womb.”

However “by nature” is not synonymous with “by birth.” As we have seen (Text) although φύσις carries shades of meaning in the NT the word does appear to speak of that which is essential as opposed to that which is accidental.  It can indeed describe a characteristic which is innate through birth.  For example “in Gal. 2:15 (φύσις) refers to those who are Jews ‘by nature’ [i. e., birth]" (Mounce’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words). However it is not limited to this meaning. When Paul describes idols as “them that by nature are no gods” (Gal 4:8) he is speaking of the essential character of the objects once worshipped by these former pagans.   According to Mounce “Josephus used the term almost synonymous with ‘character.'" Koster tells us that φύσις is “very common in Josephus” where its use “reflects popular usage in the 1^st century” (TWNT vol 9 p.  269). He adds that “the common dative usually means not ‘by nature’ but rather ‘in character’” (p. 270). The dative is used in Eph 2:3 and in my view this is Paul’s meaning in this verse when he describes a particular class of people as “children of wrath.“

The expression “children of wrath is an example of a “Semitic idiom whereby sons of light, of darkness, of life, of death of belial, etc means simply people worthy of, or associated with light, etc ” (An Idiom Book of the New Testament C. F. D. Moule p. 174). Thus in Eph 2:3 the expression “children of wrath” is applied to those who are deserving or worthy of God’s wrath. What’s more, these individuals are deserving of God’s wrath because of their essential character. In a word they are sinners.  Paul is telling us that the very nature of his condition as a rebel against God makes the sinner the object of divine wrath.  However nothing here or elsewhere in scripture leads to the conclusion that man is in this sinful condition “from … (his) mother’s womb.” 

By way of illustrating the point, given the nature of the Ebola virus, an essential characteristic of the carrier of the virus is the fact that he is contagious.  But it does not follow that  the carrier must have been born into this condition. The carrier is contagious not because this is an innate characteristic of those born into the human family, but rather because this is an innate characteristic of those who become carriers of the virus. Similarly Eph 2:3 speaks of an innate characteristic of those who are sinners not an innate characteristic of those who are born into the human family. Moreover when we look at the text it becomes clear that Paul is discussing those who are sinners by choice, not by birth.

In an article entitled  Are Infants “by Nature” Children of Wrath? brother Wayne Jackson discusses Paul’s characterisation of those under divine condemnation:

“First, note that in verse one the apostle plainly declares that spiritual death is the consequence of ‘your trespasses and sins’ (ASV).  Note the word ‘your.’  This emphasizes personal sin. We are not spiritually dead as a result of Adam’s transgression. Though the term “your” is not found in the King James Version (following the Textus Receptus), it is amply supported by evidence from ancient Greek manuscripts, early versions, and the writings of the ‘church fathers’  in the post-apostolic period (Salmond 1956, 283).

Second, in verse three Paul affirms that all of us ‘were . . . children of wrath.’  The verb emetha (‘were’ ) is an imperfect tense form. The imperfect tense describes continuity of action as viewed in the past. Thus, here it depicts the habitual style of life which had characterized these saints prior to their conversion. Had the apostle intended to convey the notion of inherited sinfulness at the time of their birth, he easily could have expressed that idea by saying, “you became by birth children of wrath.”