ETB: The Book of Ephesians
Walk A W ord S tudy
Mark A. Rathel
I
n first-century Israel, people did not
walk to improve their health. Walking served as
the most common means of travel. Jesus walked.
Indeed, Jesus was the most persistent pedestrian in
the Bible.1 The Bible contains extensive references to
the physical act of walking. Beyond the physical act of
walking, the Old and New Testaments use the concept
of walk as a metaphor for ethical behavior or conduct.
In English Bibles, walk translates from the Greek
word peripateo, which is actually a compound verb.
The Greek preposition peri means about or around. The
main verb pateo means to tread or to walk. The resultant
meaning of the compound verb, then, means to walk
about or to walk around.2 The verb peripateo occurs 95
times in the Greek New Testament; in slightly over
50 percent of the occurrences walk is a metaphor for
behavior, or conduct.
In Pauls Letter to the Ephesians, walk occurs
eight times (2:2,10; 4:1,17 [twice]; 5:2,8,15). All
eight occurrences are metaphorical. Walk
functions as a key theme of Ephesians.
In the second half of the Book
of Ephesians, walk serves as
significant marker for ethical
exhortations in Pauls appeal.
Above: A monk Right: Remarkably
walking along preserved, pair of
roadway toward basketry-woven
Saint Catherines sandals dating
Monastery at from Egypts New
Mount Sinai. Kingdom, about
15701070 B.C.
34 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / FALL 2010
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (17/40/6)
Pauls Letter to the Ephesians
Paul wrote Ephesians from prison (4:1), most like-
ly his Roman imprisonment during the early 60s.
Paul addressed the Ephesian letter primarily to young
Gentile Christians in Ephesus and perhaps to those
throughout the Roman province of Asia.3 Pauls doc-
trinal concern focused on the subjection of all things to
the lordship of Christ (1:10). In light of Christs lordship,
Paul instructed and encouraged his readers to adopt a
distinctive Christian lifestyle, and in doing so, the apos-
tle used the metaphor walk. Positively, Paul exhorted
these Christians to walk worthy of their calling (4:1) by
walking in love (5:2), light (v. 8), and wisdom (v. 15).
Negatively, he exhorted them to refuse to walk in the
manner of their former pagan lifestyle (2:2; 4:17).
Background of Pauls Usage
Writers of classical Greek literature did not use walk
to speak figuratively of behavior.4 For the
readers of Pauls Letter to the Ephesians,
the Greek Old Testament provides the
background for understanding walk with
a metaphorical usage. The word trans-
lated walk in Ephesians occurs 33
times in the Septuagint, almost
exclusively for the Hebrew
term halak. In the Hebrew Old
Testament, halak occurs with a lit-
eral usage and a figurative usage as conduct or
behavior.5 A related Hebrew term, halakhah,
refers to the wide spectrum of written and
oral ancient Jewish laws. To keep the hal-
akhah was to walk uprightly or to walk in the

South street at
Ephesus. Chariot
ruts are visible in
the pavement.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (11/36/4)
right way. In his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul
outlined a Christian halakhah, that is, principles,
not laws, for a distinctive Christian walk.
A Walk Through Ephesians
Goal (Eph. 2:2,10)On a walk, one leaves a starting
point and moves toward a goal. Ephesians 2 details
that which a believer leaves behind as well the goal.
Before experiencing Gods abundant mercy, the
readers walked according to a principle and a power.
The Ephesian believers formerly walked according
to the norm or standards of this worldly age
(v. 2, HCSB)with a focus on temporal values
and attitudes and with the worlds perspective.
SCALE: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BRITISH MUSEUM/ LONDON (31/27/79)
Further, they walked under the control of an
authoritative ruler, Satan. Forsaking these,
the believers now walked for the purpose of
producing good works (v. 10).
Manner (Eph. 4:1; 5:8,15)Paul chal-
lenged believers to walk in a worthy
manner (4:1). A good translation of
this challenge reads, live a life that cor-
responds to the standard (God) set when he called you.6
A worthy walk involves balanceboth in looking back to
the beginning of the Christian life and in accepting human
SANDALS: ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ GB HOWELL/ MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS/ BOSTON
responsibility for conduct in light of the divine initiative in
salvation. In fact, the adverb worthy connotes a balanc-
ing of the scales. The Christians walk or conduct is in
balance with or equal to ones call to salvation.7 Our
walk has individual and corporate implications. A believer
walks gracefully with humility, gentleness, patience, and
love in order not to injure the unity of the body.
Additionally, Paul instructed Christians to walk as
light and as wise. Light produces goodness, righ-
teousness, and truth as fruit (5:8-9, HCSB). Walking
as wise entails being Spirit-filled (v. 18).
Clothing (Eph. 4:17)Paul brought together the ideas
Roman bronze
steelyard, 1st2nd
centuries A.D. The
weight, in the
shape of the head
of Athena, was
moved along the
arm until it bal-
anced the pan.
The weight could
then be read
from the arm,
marked with the
graduations. To
walk worthily
carries the idea
of balancing the
scales.
of walk and clothing (4:17-24,). First, Paul exhorted
these new Christians to no longer walk as Gentiles,
or people outside of Christ. He described the walk of
unbelievers: vanity, darkness, alienation, ignorance,
hardness, loss of feeling, lasciviousness, uncleanness,
greediness.8 Second, Paul used the analogy of chang-
ing clothestake off and put on. Decisively,
believers strip off or take off the old man (Adam) like
a filthy garment and put on the new man (Christ) as a
new set of walking clothes.
Sphere (Eph. 5:2)Paul commanded believers
to walk in love, i.e., the sphere or environment
of love (5:2). Walking in love involves forgive-
ness (4:32) and sacrificial self-giving (v. 28).
Surely, the believers in Ephesus clearly under-
stood Pauls metaphor. His challenge to those
first-century believers echoes still today, com-
pelling each Christian to examine his or her
walk with Christ and with others. i
1. Walk, Walking in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, gen. ed. Leland
Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1998), 922.
2. peripatevw [peripateo; go about, walk around] in Walter Bauer, A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., rev. and ed.
Frederick William Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 803.
3. Some New Testament scholars affirm that Paul sent Ephesians to Christians in
the province of Asia, a geographical area that included Ephesus itself. Andreas J.
Kostenberger, L. Scott Kellum, and Charles L. Quarles, The Cradle, The Cross, and the
Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2009), 586.
4. Gunther Ebel, peripatevw [peripateo; go about, walk] in The New International
Dictionary of New Testament Theology, gen. ed. Colin Brown (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1986), 943.
5. For examples of walk used metaphorically, see 2 Kings 20:3 and Ecclesiastes 11:9.
6. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, eds., Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1989),
1:628.
7. Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2002), 504.
8. Curtis Vaughan, Ephesians: A Study Guide Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1977), 99-100.
Mark A. Rathel is associate professor of theology at
The Baptist College of Florida, Graceville, Florida.
FALL 2010 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR 35