Bible Strands
Ephesians 2:1
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to Gentile believers in Ephesus, looking back at their pre-conversion state. He is setting the baseline from which grace operates.
The words — νεκροὺς (nekrous), "dead," is an adjective describing a condition, not a verb describing an event; they are not dying, they are already dead.
The thread — Colossians 2:13 repeats the phrase almost verbatim ("dead in your trespasses"), and Ephesians 2:5 returns to it moments later. Colossians 3:1 then moves to the consequence: "raised with Christ."
Why it lands — It names the starting condition without softening it: spiritual death, defined by trespasses and sins. A reader who skips this verse skips the diagnosis that makes the cure mean something.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Cross-references
- Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,
- Ephesians 2:5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!
- Colossians 3:1 Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
- Romans 8:2 For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
- Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.
- John 5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wishes.
- John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
- 1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
- John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
- John 5:25 Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.