Greek Text of Eph 2:8

Ephesians 2:8 is often quoted as evidence that faith is a gift. The Greek text makes this interpretation a difficult one, however. It may be the case that faith is a gift from God but this verse is inconclusive as proof.

Greek has a concept known as gender agreement. Nouns, pronouns and adjectives share the same gender if they are focused on the same object. Spanish has something similar with "La Bamba" and "Los Lobos".

There are verses, like Eph 2:8 where a pronoun or adjective are ambiguous as to which noun it is referring. One way to eliminate possibilities is to examine the gender of the noun object and the gender of the pronoun or adjective. If the gender does not agree, the pronoun or adjective is not describing the noun.

Eph 2:8 is one such example of this. The English text shows this:

Ephesians 2:8 - For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God

At first glance this passage seems to show faith as the gift of God. But for this to be the case, the gender of the "it is" must agree with the gender of faith and it does not agree in gender. Hence, the "it" which "is" is not faith. But neither is grace in the passage. It has the wrong gender as well.

What is the gift, then? There are a number of possibilities. All that can be said with certainty is that it is not faith nor is it grace. One likely possibility is that it may be the entire package of "salvation by grace through faith" that is the gift. If this is the case, then God has given men the great gift of salvation and uses the means of grace through faith in order to accomplish this.