Ephesians 5:9

There is a significant textual variant in Ephesians 5:9 between τοῦ φωτός (“of the light”) and τοῦ πνεύματος (“of the Spirit”). The reading τοῦ φωτός is supported by early and reliable Alexandrian witnesses, including 𝔓46, Codex Sinaiticus (ℵ), and Codex Vaticanus (B), and is adopted by critical editions such as NA28 and UBS5, as well as by Westcott and Hort. This reading coheres closely with the immediate context (Eph. 5:8: “νῦν δὲ φῶς ἐν Κυρίῳ”), and is considered the lectio difficilior—scholars may have been inclined to harmonize the phrase with Galatians 5:22 (“the fruit of the Spirit”). By contrast, τοῦ πνεύματος, found in later Byzantine manuscripts and the Textus Receptus, likely represents such a harmonization. The critical consensus favors τοῦ φωτός as original.