So far we have attempted to catch the outstanding characteristics of this word, we

must now come closer to its contexts in Ephesians and Colossians.

The translation of Eph. 2: 1-5 found in the A.V. and the R.V. robs the believer both

of the intended association of this passage with Rom. 6:, and of the fact that Paul here is

not speaking of the sinner's state by nature, but of the believer's standing in grace. He is

not speaking of death IN sins, but of death TO sins. This we must examine and establish

before we can proceed.

First, let us set out the Greek original so that it can be referred to by the English reader:

Secondly, let us give a word for word literal rendering:

The words that demand particular attention are (1) ontas "being" and (2) tois . . . . .

There is no reticence noticeable on the part of the Apostle in his employment of the

preposition en "in". Wherever its use is needed the preposition is employed, and that

repeatedly. It occurs twenty-eight times in the first chapter of Ephesians and is translated

"at", "with", "in", and "wherein"; and twenty-eight times in the second chapter, where it

is translated "wherein", "in", "among", "through", "at", "by" and "thereby". The fact

that Paul employs the preposition so frequently in these passages, when set over against

the other fact that he does not use the preposition in Eph. 2: 1 and 5, should at least

make us pause. When the Lord desired to speak of the state of "being dead IN sins" the

preposition en is used (John 8: 21, 24) and when the Apostle uses the hypothetical

argument of I Cor. 15: 17 he uses the preposition en. The reader may ask, what warrant

is there in Eph. 2: 1 to use the word "in" in the translation? The answer is, that the

dative case, indicated by tois. . . . . tais can be so translated where the subject demands it,

but in the majority of cases, the dative is better expressed by such words as "to" or "at".

It may be that not every reader of these lines will be clear as to what is meant by the

"dative case", and we are sure that those who do know, will be the first to join us in our

desire to make this feature as plain as our limited space will permit.

First, as to the word "case". This word is not to be confused with a word of the same

spelling which is derived from the Latin capio "to hold" and so a case, as in the word

"suit-case"; it is derived from the Latin casus "a chance", from cado "to fall". When we

use the term "dative case", we must remember that the nominative, or the subject of the

sentence was conceived as being upright and that other relations indicated by the

genitive, the accusative and the dative, were thought of as deflections from the upright

and hence called "cases". It will be perceived that to speak of the nominative case is

rather like saying "the upright deflection". The word "dative" from the Latin word

datives means "giving", is so named, because when we say, for example "give me the