“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:”
Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world — the five-fold deprivation: choris Christou ('apart from Christ'), xenoi tōn diathēkōn ('strangers to the covenants'), elpis ('hope') absent, atheoi ('without God'), the cosmic alienation of pagan existence.
Church Fathers on Ephesians 2:12
There are many things to show the loving-kindness of God. First, the fact, that by Himself He has saved us, and by Himself through such a method as this. Secondly, that He has saved us, as being what we were. Thirdly, that He has exalted us to the place where we are. For all these things both contain in themselves the greatest demonstration of His loving-kindness, and they are the very subjects which Paul is now agitating in his Epistle. He had been saying, that when we were…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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