Boldness and Access

Ephesians 3:12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

The Aramaic reads: in him we have boldness and access with confidence by his faith.

Boldness and access is a figure of speech called hendiadys, which means, two things are said, but one thing meant. When this figure is used, it is usually difficult to put the words together, but we have to try to put the phrase together. Boldness is similar to the Greek work parrhesia, which has to do with speaking boldly. You could translate this phrase as “speaking access”. When this figure is used, the two words together mean more than what they do individually. This is a very strong saying. Another way to translate it would be to say, “confident access”.

Because of Jesus Christ’s faith, we have “speaking access” to God. Because he had a truly one on one relationship with the Father, so can we have the exact same thing. We can talk over everything in our lives with our Father and ask him what to do and how to do it. This is wonderful!