3:21a
to Him be the glory: A literal English translation of the Greek is “to him the glory.” There is no explicit verb in Greek, so you may need to supply one.
Here are some examples of how to translate this phrase:
• Using the form of a blessing. For example:
That God’s name be big
-or-
May he be honored through Christ
• Using the form of a command. For example:
-or-
⌊Give⌋ to God the glory…
• Using the form of a statement. For example:
God deserves glory…
-or-
Glory belongs to God (God’s Word)
glory: There are two aspects to the word glory in this verse:
(a) praise,
(b) the manifestation of God’s divine perfection and power.
Paul probably had both of these things in mind. When Paul said, “to him [be] glory” he meant “God should be praised because of his greatness.” Some ways to translate this are:
May God be praised for his greatness
-or-
Praise God because of his greatness ⌊which is seen⌋
-or-
May people speak very highly about God’s goodness/majesty/bigness
He did not mean that God must be given some glory because he does not have any.
See glory, Meaning 2 in the Glossary for more information.
3:21b
in the church: The word church here means “God’s people” or “the people who believe in Christ.” It does not refer to a building.
So the phrase “To God be glory in the church ” means that God’s people should glorify God through what they do. People should see God’s glory in his people.
Here are some other ways to translate 3:21a–b:
Praise God because of his greatness ⌊which is seen/shown⌋ in his people
-or-
God deserves/merits praise because of his power ⌊which others can see⌋ in his people
-or-
Let us praise God for his greatness ⌊which⌋ his people ⌊display/show⌋
Also, see how you translated church in 3:10a. And see church in the Glossary for more information.
in Christ Jesus: The phrase in Christ Jesus is parallel grammatically to the phrase “in the church.” We should also praise God because of his greatness that is seen in the church and in Christ Jesus. It may be helpful to translate 3:21a–b as:
To him be praise ⌊for his glory which is seen⌋ both in the church and in Christ Jesus
In some languages, it may be necessary to translate these two phrases in Christ Jesus and “in the church” as two different clauses. For example:
May God’s name be truly high among God’s people, ⌊and⌋ through the work of Christ Jesus, may God’s name always be high with no end.
3:21c
throughout all generations, forever and ever: The phrase throughout all generations and the phrase forever and ever both refer to very long periods of time. Paul used both statements to emphasize that people should never stop praising God.
When you translate these phrases, you will need to decide:
(a) whether it is more natural to combine these two phrases into one. An example of combining them is:
for all time/eternity
(b) where to put them in the sentence. Some possibilities are:
• keep them at the end of the verse and begin a new sentence here. For example:
21a Praise God because of his greatness ⌊which is seen⌋ 21b in his people and in Christ Jesus. 21c ⌊Praise him⌋ throughout all time and forever and ever !
• move these phrases to the beginning of the verse after “to him be glory.” For example:
21a,c Praise God forever and ever because of his greatness ⌊which is seen⌋ 21b in his people and in Christ Jesus.
Amen: The meaning of the word Amen is “Indeed it is true” or “May it be so.” Since people most frequently use this word at the end of a prayer, many people think this Greek word means “the end.” But this is not its true meaning.
Translations in many languages simply transliterate this word rather than translating the meaning. You may do the same.
© 1999, 2019 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.