Normative Behavior

So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;  Ephesians 4:17-18 NASB

Futility of their minds – Do you remember our investigation of Psalm 4:4?  As you will recall, Paul cites the verse in Psalms in this section of his letter to the Ephesians (verse 26).  But before we look at that Greek verse again, we need some context, so we’ll start here, in verse 17.

The ESV study guide suggests three themes in Paul’s letter: (1) Christ has reconciled all creation to himself and to God; (2) Christ has united people from all nations to himself and to one another in his church; and (3) Christians must live as new people.[1]  If we accept that fact that Paul was not a Christian, then we need to alter these themes just a bit.  Therefore, the Messiah is the reconciling agent of God, bringing Mankind and the Creation back into relationship with YHVH.  Secondly, because the Messiah’s message is available to all people regardless of ethnic origin, all the nations can enter into a full relationship with the God of Israel without going through the process of Jewish conversion.  And finally, as a result of this reconciliation and restoration, believers in the Messiah, regardless of ethnicity, need to adopt a new way of living, separate from the mores and assumptions of a pagan culture.

With this in mind, we notice immediately that Paul commands, on behalf of the Messiah, that his readers adopt a walk different from the Gentile culture surrounding them.  Why? Because adopting that culture, as persuasive and ubiquitous as it is, excludes the person from the life of God.  Paul characterizes this pagan existence with several phrases, the first of which is “futility of their minds.”  In Greek, the phrase is manaiotēti tou nous autōn.   You might notice something a bid odd here.  While the pronoun is plural (“their”), the noun is singular (“mind,” not “minds”).  We’ll have to look more carefully at this.

Paul’s choice of the Greek mataiótēs (“futility”) is likely based on its occurrences in the LXX.

This rare word is used in Greek for human nothingness. The LXX has it more often, e.g., in Pss. 39:6; 144:4. Eccl. 1:2 calls everything vanity; for this reason we must look to God, with whom alone is no mataiótēs. Rom. 8:20 takes up the thought of Eccl. 1:2. Creation is subject to futility, but God lies before and after it, so that the subjection is in hope of final glory. Eph. 4:17 describes the effect of vanity in human society (cf. 2 Pet. 2:18).^[2]

The root of mataiótēs is the Greek mátaios, which “carries the senses of ‘vain,’ ‘deceptive,’ ‘pointless,’ ‘futile.’ While kenós means ‘worthless,’ mátaios means ‘worthless because deceptive or ineffectual.’ mátaios implies antithesis to the norm, which may at times be liberating but is more often harmful.”^[3]   We might think that the English verse is about vanity or pointlessness, but the Greek reader would see something else.  Pointless, yes, but pointless because it is the dangerous opposite of the norm.  This begs the question, “What is the norm?”  Buried in this verse is the idea that the Jewish way of living, the Torah, is the norm.  Pagan cultural isn’t wrong because it is different.  It’s wrong because it isn’t based on God’s revelation.  Mátaios emphasizes this point by holding up a standard, a divine standard, not just an ethnic difference.

Now we know why nous is singular.  The translation should be “the futility of their mind.”  Though the English grammar would be incorrect, the Greek thought is a collective understanding, a common culture.  It’s not that each person follows worthless mores.  Rather it is that the culture itself, as a whole, has been deceived and is therefore ineffective.  This common culture does not lead to life.  In fact, it does just the opposite while convincing its adherents that it is offering fulfillment.  But the common culture seems so reasonable.  It’s about health, wealth, and prestige.  What could be wrong about those things?  Everyone wants them!  Paul’s warning is not to those who are the rebels of society, nor to the autocrats, oligarchs, or morally corrupt.  They have already stepped away from the norm.  Paul’s warning is to those who are society’s faithful.  They espouse honesty, hard work, and acceptable values.  But they are nevertheless deceived because in the long run all of these laudable virtues without God’s revelation are still mátaios.  They don’t get us anywhere important.

The second theme of Ephesians demonstrates that the wide variety of cultural norms found among all the Gentiles are also mátaios.  Ethnic superiority evaporates with the call of the Messiah, for now all that really matters is the adoption and expression of the Messiah’s teaching in the Messiah’s community.  Christian interpretation thinks of this as the church, but this is not correct.  It isn’t the Church (with a capital C) that constitutes the community of the Messiah.  The Church is just as much a human cultural society as any other society.  Religion is not the issue here.  The ecclesia is the fellowship of all whom God has chosen, whether through the agency of the Messiah or not.  It has no ethnic component.  Its essence is adherence to the covenantal God of Israel, and its citizens are those who follow YHVH’s norms.  They also have a single “mind,” a paradigm shaped by the revelation to Moses, interpreted by the words of the Messiah.

Paul sets the stage for an unraveling of the usual religious identifier.  But he isn’t quite finished with the consequences of mátaios, as we shall see.

Topical Index: mátaios, futility, norm, worthless, ineffective, Ephesians 4:17-18

[1] https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/introduction-to-ephesians/#:~:text=There%20are%20three%20main%20themes,must%20live%20as%20new%20people.

^[2] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 572). W.B. Eerdmans.

^[3] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 571). W.B. Eerdmans.