Eph. 2:8: Part II

I have been meditating on Eph. 2:8 over the past few days, trying to understand exactly what it says.

What I need is someone who knows Greek better than I (not a high hurdle) to tell me if the following analysis is viable. If it is not, please tell me why not.

The text in Greek is: “ta gar xariti este sesosmevoi dia pisteos”: Word for word is reads roughly, “the by grace you are saved by faith”.

What I discovered is that the word translated “saved”, “sesosmenoi”, is a perfect (action completed in past with results to the present), passive (the action is being done to the person), participle (verbal adjective which qualifies a noun and usually translated in English with an “ing”).

Since we know the original didn’t have the verses or punctuation, couldn’t the passage be translated as follows:

“By the grace you are: (ta gar xariti este)” Referring to a “state of being or a position” as described in v. 6 “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.”

“having been made thus (reflecting the perfect passive element of sesosmenoi) by your saving [reflecting the adjectival aspect of ‘sesosmenoi’] faith (pisteos: nominative, genitive [showing possession] i.e. ‘your faith’”

So, my question is, could Eph. 2:8 be translated:

“By the Grace you are: having been made thus by your saving faith;” and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God:

Grammatically, the phrase “it is the gift of God” refers back to the word translated “saved”. But since that word is a participle (saving) that modifies a noun (your faith), the “gift of God” is “your saving faith”.

Any comments?

peace to youraying: