Ephesians 3:14

Amplified Bible

For this reason [grasping the greatness of this plan by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ] I bow my knees [in reverence] before the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ],

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
So I bow in prayer before the Father.

Revised Standard Version
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For this cause I bowe my knees vnto the father of oure lorde Iesus Christ

Hebrew Names Version
For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah,

New American Standard Bible
For this reason I bend my knees before the Father,

New Century Version
So I bow in prayer before the Father

Update Bible Version
For this cause I bow my knees to the Father,

Webster's Bible Translation
For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

English Standard Version
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

World English Bible
For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Weymouth's New Testament
For this reason, on bended knee I beseech the Father,

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For grace of this thing Y bowe my knees to the fadir of oure Lord Jhesu Crist,

English Revised Version
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,

Berean Standard Bible
... for this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

Contemporary English Version
I kneel in prayer to the Father.

American Standard Version
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,

Bible in Basic English
For this cause I go down on my knees before the Father,

Complete Jewish Bible
For this reason, I fall on my knees before the Father,

Darby Translation
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ],

International Standard Version
This is the reason I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,of our Lord Jesus Christ">[fn]

Etheridge Translation
for this is your glory; and I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jeshu Meshiha,

Murdock Translation
And I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah,

King James Version (1611)
For this cause I bow my knees vnto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ,

New Living Translation
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,

New Life Bible
For this reason, I bow my knees and pray to the Father.

New Revised Standard
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

Geneva Bible (1587)
For this cause I bowe my knees vnto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ,

George Lamsa Translation
For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father, -

Douay-Rheims Bible
For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For this cause I bowe my knees vnto the father of our Lorde Iesus Christe,

Good News Translation
For this reason I fall on my knees before the Father,

Christian Standard Bible®
For this reason I kneel before the Father

King James Version
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Lexham English Bible
On account of this, I bend my knees before the Father,

Literal Translation
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Young's Literal Translation
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For this cause I bowe my knees vnto the father of oure LORDE Iesus Christ,

Mace New Testament (1729)
for this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

THE MESSAGE
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

New English Translation
For this reason I kneel before the Father,

New King James Version
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, [fn]

Simplified Cowboy Version
When I ponder on all this, I always end up on my knees and praying to the Boss.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

Legacy Standard Bible
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

Contextual Overview

¹⁴For this reason [grasping the greatness of this plan by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ] I bow my knees [in reverence] before the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ],¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name [God—the first and ultimate Father]. ¹⁶May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, ¹⁸be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God's people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; ¹⁹and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God's presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself]. ²⁰Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, ²¹to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I: Ephesians 1:16-19, 1 Kings 8:54, 1 Kings 19:18, 2 Chronicles 6:13, Ezra 9:5, Psalms 95:6, Isaiah 45:23, Daniel 6:10, Luke 22:41, Acts 7:60, Acts 9:40, Acts 20:36, Acts 21:5

the Father: Ephesians 1:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 4:26 - Enos 1 Kings 18:36 - Lord God Psalms 72:17 - his name Micah 6:6 - bow Zechariah 14:9 - and Matthew 6:6 - pray Mark 1:40 - kneeling John 4:21 - worship John 14:1 - ye John 14:13 - in my John 16:23 - Whatsoever Acts 6:4 - prayer Romans 1:9 - I make 1 Corinthians 8:6 - one God 2 Corinthians 11:31 - God Ephesians 2:18 - the Philippians 2:10 - every Colossians 1:3 - praying Colossians 1:9 - that ye 2 Thessalonians 1:11 - we pray 1 Peter 1:17 - call

Cross-References

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, "Can it really be that God has said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

Genesis 3:15
"And I will put enmity (open hostility) Between you and the woman, And between your seed (offspring) and her Seed; He shall [fatally] bruise your head, And you shall [only] bruise His heel."

Genesis 3:20
The man named his wife Eve (life spring, life giver), because she was the mother of all the living.

Genesis 9:6
"Whoever sheds man's blood [unlawfully], By man (judicial government) shall his blood be shed, For in the image of God He made man.

Leviticus 20:25
'You are therefore to make a distinction between the [ceremonially] clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that crawls on the ground, which I have set apart from you as unclean.

Psalms 72:9
The nomads of the desert will bow before him, And his enemies will lick the dust.

Isaiah 29:4
Then you [Jerusalem] will be brought low, You will speak from the earth, And from the dust where you lie face down Your muffled words will come. Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the earth [like one produced by a medium], And your speech will whisper and squeak from the dust.

Isaiah 65:25
"The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox [there will no longer be predator and prey]; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain (Zion)," says the LORD.

Micah 7:17
They shall lick the dust like a serpent; Like crawling things of the earth They shall come trembling out of their fortresses and hiding places. They shall turn and come with fear and dread to the LORD our God And they shall be afraid and stand in awe before You [O LORD].

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,.... That is, pray unto him for the perseverance of the saints; for nothing is more desirable to the ministers of Christ than that; which is the pure gift of God, and is what he has promised, and therefore should be prayed to for it; for what God has designed and promised to his people, he will be sought to; and the apostle's view might be also to stir up these saints to pray for themselves: the gesture he used in prayer was bowing the knees; a man is not tied to any particular gesture or posture in prayer, the main thing is the heart; mere postures and gestures are insignificant things with God; though where the mind is affected, the body will be moved; and this gesture may be expressive of reverence, humility, and submission in prayer: the object he prayed unto is the Father; that is, as follows,

of our Lord Jesus; though these words are wanting in the Alexandrian copy, and Ethiopic version, yet are rightly retained in others; for God is the Father of Christ, not by creation, nor adoption, but by generation, being the only begotten of the Father; and as such he is rightly prayed to, since not only Christ prayed to him as such; but he is the Father of his people in and through Christ; and there is no other way of coming to him but by Christ; and all spiritual blessings come though Christ, and from God, as the Father of Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For this cause - Some suppose that this is a resumption of what he had commenced saying in Ephesians 3:1, but which had been interrupted by a long parenthesis. So Bloomfield explains it. But it seems to me more probable that he refers to what immediately precedes. “Wherefore, that the great work may be carried on, and that the purposes of these my sufferings may be answered in your benefit and glory, I bow my knees to God, and pray to him.”

I bow my knees - I pray. The usual, and the proper posture of prayer is to kneel; Compare 2 Chronicles 6:13; Daniel 6:10; Luke 22:21; Acts 7:60; Acts 9:40; Acts 20:26; Acts 21:5. It is a posture which indicates reverence, and should, therefore, be assumed when we come before God. It has been an unhappy thing that the custom of kneeling in public worship has ever been departed from in the Christian churches.

Unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - To whom, undoubtedly, prayer should ordinarily be addressed. But this does not make it improper to address the Lord Jesus in prayer; see the notes; 7:59-60 on Acts 1:24.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees — That you may not faint, but persevere, I frequently pray to God, who is our God and the Father of our Lord Jesus. Some very ancient and excellent MSS. and versions omit the words του Κυριου ἡμων Ιησου Χριστου, of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in them the passage reads: I bow my knees unto the Father. The apostle prays to God the Father, that they may not faint; and he bows his knees in this praying. What can any man think of himself, who, in his addresses to God, can either sit on his seat or stand in the presence of the Maker and Judge of all men? Would they sit while addressing any person of ordinary respectability? If they did so they would be reckoned very rude indeed. Would they sit in the presence of the king of their own land? They would not be permitted so to do. Is God then to be treated with less respect than a fellow mortal? Paul kneeled in praying, Acts 20:36; Acts 21:5. Stephen kneeled when he was stoned, Acts 7:60. And Peter kneeled when he raised Tabitha, Acts 9:40.

Many parts of this prayer bear a strict resemblance to that offered up by Solomon, 2 Chronicles 6:1, c., when dedicating the temple: He kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands towards heaven 2 Chronicles 6:13. The apostle was now dedicating the Christian Church, that then was and that ever should be, to God; and praying for those blessings which should ever rest on and distinguish it; and he kneels down after the example of Solomon, and invokes him to whom the first temple was dedicated, and who had made it a type of the Gospel Church.