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LXX uses hagios to translate the Hebrew word qadosh, and we must allow the etymology
and usage of the Hebrews word to colour the Greek hagios.
The word hagios occurs in Ephesians fifteen times, and is translated either "saint" or
"holy".
Hagios, translated "saint".
"To the saints which are at Ephesus" (Eph. 1: 1).
"I heard of your . . . . . love unto all the saints" (1: 15).
"The glory of His inheritance in the saints" (1: 18).
"Fellow citizens with the saints" (2: 19).
"Who am less than the least of all saints" (3: 8).
"May be able to comprehend with all saints" (3: 18).
"For the perfecting of the saints" (4: 12).
"Let it not be . . . . . named . . . . . as becometh saints" (5: 3).
"Watching . . . . . with supplication . . . . . for all saints" (6: 18).
Hagios, translated "holy".
"That ye should be holy and without blame" (Eph. 1: 4).
"Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (1: 13).
"Groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord" (2: 21).
"As it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets" (3: 5).
"Grieve not the holy Spirit of God" (4: 30).
"That it should be holy and without blemish" (5: 27).
It will be seen that "the saints" (1: 1) are such by their calling (1: 4), and that this
calling is realized through the finished work of Christ on their behalf (5: 27), and while,
in the first instance, their sainthood derives from what God has done rather than what
they are in themselves, there is, subsequently, such a thing as a manner of life that
"becometh" saints (5: 3), and that love for, and prayer on behalf of, the saints, for one
another, is comely. Some of the passages referred to, for example Eph. 1: 18, will come
under review again, when a more searching examination can be made as to a possible
new translation.
The only derivative of hagios found in Ephesians is hagiazo, "to sanctify"
(Eph. 5: 26). There the word is associated with "cleansing", "washing" and "presenting"
without spot or wrinkle, and illuminates the intention of the Spirit in the use of the word
"saint" in addressing this epistle. The other derivatives are:--
Hagiasmos, "sanctification" (I Cor. 1: 30);
Hagion, used in the plural, "sanctuary" (Heb. 8: 2);
Hagiotes, "holiness", abstract quality (Heb. 12: 10);
Hagiosune, "holiness", the condition (II Cor. 7: 1);