In my Bible study blog, I have recently been studying Ephesians using the New American Standard Bible and today I noticed something very odd in Ephesians 5:2.
In this verse, the NASB says“and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” while every other translation I looked up says something like “and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”
I looked up the Greek, and it says ἡμᾶς (us). Turns out, there is a variant reading. The NET Bible translators explain:
A number of significant witnesses have ὑμᾶς (humas, “you”; e.g., א* A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally valuable witnesses read ἡμᾶς (hēmas, “us”; P א D F G Ψ 0278 33 1505 1739 1881 2464 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, ēgapēsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (humin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being authentic.
In other words, even though “you” shows up in a handful of important early manuscripts, the context of Ephesians points more naturally toward “us” — Christ’s love and self-giving for us, the community of believers. This fits Paul’s usual pattern of theology and syntax much better.
So, this explains why all the other Bible translations say “us” instead of “you”. And the main meaning of the passage doesn’t change, whether it says “us” or “you”, so it’s fine.
