---
title: "Ephesians 5 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/ephesians/5/
description: "Exhortations to a virtuous life. The mutual duties of man and wife, by the… Ephesians 5 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5 is chapter 5 of 6 in the Letter to the Ephesians. Here are all 33 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Exhortations to a virtuous life. The mutual duties of man and wife, by the example of Christ and of the Church.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Ephesians 5 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Therefore, as most beloved sons, be imitators of God.
2. And walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and delivered himself for us, as an oblation and a sacrifice to God, with a fragrance of sweetness.
3. But let not any kind of fornication, or impurity, or rapacity so much as be named among you, just as is worthy of the saints,
4. nor any indecent, or foolish, or abusive talk, for this is without purpose; but instead, give thanks.
5. For know and understand this: no one who is a fornicator, or lustful, or rapacious (for these are a kind of service to idols) holds an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6. Let no one seduce you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God was sent upon the sons of unbelief.
7. Therefore, do not choose to become participants with them.
8. For you were darkness, in times past, but now you are light, in the Lord. So then, walk as sons of the light.
9. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and justice and truth,
10. affirming what is well-pleasing to God.
11. And so, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead, refute them.
12. For the things that are done by them in secret are shameful, even to mention.
13. But all things that are disputed are made manifest by the light. For all that is made manifest is light.
14. Because of this, it is said: “You who are sleeping: awaken, and rise up from the dead, and so shall the Christ enlighten you.”
15. And so, brothers, see to it that you walk cautiously, not like the foolish,
16. but like the wise: atoning for this age, because this is an evil time.
17. For this reason, do not choose to be imprudent. Instead, understand what is the will of God.
18. And do not choose to be inebriated by wine, for this is self-indulgence. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
19. speaking among yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and reciting psalms to the Lord in your hearts,
20. giving thanks always for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God the Father.
21. Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
22. Wives should be submissive to their husbands, as to the Lord.
23. For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church. He is the Savior of his body.
24. Therefore, just as the Church is subject to Christ, so also should wives be subject to their husbands in all things.
25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and handed himself over for her,
26. so that he might sanctify her, washing her clean by water and the Word of life,
27. so that he might offer her to himself as a glorious Church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she would be holy and immaculate.
28. So, too, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29. For no man has ever hated his own flesh, but instead he nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ also does to the Church.
30. For we are a part of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.
31. “For this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh.”
32. This is a great Sacrament. And I am speaking in Christ and in the Church.
33. Yet truly, each and every one of you should love his wife as himself. And a wife should fear her husband.

## Ephesians 5 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Estote ergo imitatores Dei, sicut filii carissimi,
2. et ambulate in dilectione, sicut et Christus dilexit nos, et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis, oblationem et hostiam Deo in odorem suavitatis.
3. Fornicatio autem, et omnis immunditia, aut avaritia, nec nominetur in vobis, sicut decet sanctos:
4. aut turpitudo, aut stultiloquium, aut scurrilitas, quæ ad rem non pertinet: sed magis gratiarum actio.
5. Hoc enim scitote intelligentes: quod omnis fornicator, aut immundus, aut avarus, quod est idolorum servitus, non habet hæreditatem in regno Christi et Dei.
6. Nemo vos seducat inanibus verbis: propter hæc enim venit ira Dei in filios diffidentiæ.
7. Nolite ergo effici participes eorum.
8. Eratis enim aliquando tenebræ: nunc autem lux in Domino. Ut filii lucis ambulate:
9. fructus enim lucis est in omni bonitate, et justitia, et veritate:
10. probantes quid sit beneplacitum Deo:
11. et nolite communicare operibus infructuosis tenebrarum, magis autem redarguite.
12. Quæ enim in occulto fiunt ab ipsis, turpe est et dicere.
13. Omnia autem, quæ arguuntur, a lumine manifestantur: omne enim, quod manifestatur, lumen est.
14. Propter quod dicit: Surge qui dormis, et exsurge a mortuis, et illuminabit te Christus.
15. Videte itaque, fratres, quomodo caute ambuletis: non quasi insipientes,
16. sed ut sapientes: redimentes tempus, quoniam dies mali sunt.
17. Propterea nolite fieri imprudentes, sed intelligentes quæ sit voluntas Dei.
18. Et nolite inebriari vino, in quo est luxuria, sed implemini Spiritu Sancto,
19. loquentes vobismetipsis in psalmis, et hymnis, et canticis spiritualibus, cantantes et psallentes in cordibus vestris Domino,
20. gratias agentes semper pro omnibus in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi Deo et Patri,
21. subjecti invicem in timore Christi.
22. Mulieres viris suis subditæ sint, sicut Domino:
23. quoniam vir caput est mulieris, sicut Christus caput est Ecclesiæ: ipse, salvator corporis ejus.
24. Sed sicut Ecclesia subjecta est Christo, ita et mulieres viris suis in omnibus.
25. Viri, diligite uxores vestras, sicut et Christus dilexit Ecclesiam, et seipsum tradidit pro ea,
26. ut illam sanctificaret, mundans lavacro aquæ in verbo vitæ,
27. ut exhiberet ipse sibi gloriosam Ecclesiam, non habentem maculam, aut rugam, aut aliquid hujusmodi, sed ut sit sancta et immaculata.
28. Ita et viri debent diligere uxores suas ut corpora sua. Qui suam uxorem diligit, seipsum diligit.
29. Nemo enim umquam carnem suam odio habuit: sed nutrit et fovet eam, sicut et Christus Ecclesiam:
30. quia membra sumus corporis ejus, de carne ejus et de ossibus ejus.
31. Propter hoc relinquet homo patrem et matrem suam, et adhærebit uxori suæ, et erunt duo in carne una.
32. Sacramentum hoc magnum est, ego autem dico in Christo et in Ecclesia.
33. Verumtamen et vos singuli, unusquisque uxorem suam sicut seipsum diligat: uxor autem timeat virum suum.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 1694: Life in Christ ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 616: Jesus Died Crucified ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1852: The Different Kinds of Sins ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2113: "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1216: What is This Sacrament Called? ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1695: Life in Christ ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2641: Prayer of Praise ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 672: He Will Come Again in Glory ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2826: "Thy Will Be Done on Earth as It is in Heaven" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1156: How is the Liturgy Celebrated? ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2633: Prayer of Petition ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2742: Perservering in Love ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1642: The Effects of the Sacrament of Matrimony ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1269: The Grace of Baptism ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2204: The Family in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 757: The Church in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 772: The Church in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 796: The Church - People of God, Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1616: Marriage in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 823: The Church Is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 628: Jesus Christ Was Buried ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 829: The Church Is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1228: Baptism in the Economy of Salvation ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1617: Marriage in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 773: The Church in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1426: Why a Sacrament of Reconciliation after Baptism? ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 796: The Church - People of God, Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1627: Matrimonial Consent ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1602: Marriage in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1624: The Celebration of Marriage ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they are just one thing, and we should not complicate the matter.” — St. Joan of Arc, Trial testimony, 1431, 1431 (On this theme: verse 23)
- “He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother.” — St. Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church, 6, 251 (On this theme: verse 25)
- “Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.” — St. John Vianney, Catechism on Prayer, c. 1850 (On this theme: verse 26)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 24: “Church is subject to Christ” … The church then, according to St. Paul, is ever obedient to Christ, and can never fall from him, but remain faithful to him, unspotted and unchanged to the end of the world.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Aug 8, 2027 (computed): Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time — Second Reading, Ephesians 4:30—5:2
- Sun, Aug 22, 2027 (computed): Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time — Second Reading, Ephesians 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32
- Mon, Oct 30, 2028 (computed): Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Ephesians 4:32—5:8
- Tue, Oct 31, 2028 (computed): Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Ephesians 5:21-33

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).