The verse starts, as does verse 21, with the relative phrase “in whom” (that is, in Christ), which Good News Translation translates In union with him. The words you too and the compound verb “build together with” show that the writer has in mind the readers’ being joined to all other Christian believers in the whole process of construction, growth, and eventual completion of a sacred temple, a place where God lives. So Good News Translation with all the others; New English Bible “with all the rest”; Translator’s New Testament “with us”; Barclay “as a part with all his other people.”

The present tense of the two verbs, grow (verse 21) and are being built (verse 22), depicts the action as progressing, with the final end not yet reached.

It may be appropriate to continue the figurative language related to a building, but in some languages it may be more meaningful to translate the central elements in verse 22 as “you, too, are being joined together with all of the others” or “… with all of the other believers.” The following phrase into a place may then be rendered as “so as to form a place” or “so as to be a place.”

And in languages where the passive expression you … are being built is difficult if not impossible to represent, it is possible to use the active form of the verb, with Christ as the agent (which is explicitly stated in verse 21). So verse 21 could begin, “In union with him, Christ is building you, too, together with all the others….”

A place where God lives translates “dwelling place of God.” The Greek noun (used also in Rev 18.2 and nowhere else in the New Testament) comes from a verb meaning “to dwell” (see 3.17) and means “a place where someone lives, a dwelling place.”

The final phrase in Greek, “in the spirit,” means “by means of the Spirit”; New English Bible translates “a spiritual dwelling for God.” Abbott takes the Greek preposition “in” here not just as means or instrument “but the medium by virtue of which God dwells in the Church.” (But “medium” seems to differ little, if any, from “means, instrument.”) Westcott takes “spirit” here to mean the human spirit, but few follow his lead. Translator’s New Testament takes the phrase with the verb, “are being built up … by the Spirit,” but this does not seem very likely. The Spirit is the manner of God’s dwelling in his house, the church, the body of Christ.

It may seem rather strange to speak of a place where God lives through his Spirit as though his Spirit is a substitute for the presence of God, and yet this is the precise reality of which the New Testament speaks. However, rather than speaking about “God living through his Spirit,” it may be more appropriate and even more accurate in some instances to translate “a place where the Spirit of God lives.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .