SIL Translator’s Notes on Ephesians 6:15

6:15

and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace: This is a metaphor. There are two ways to understand this metaphor:

(1) It can be explained like this: “Just like a soldier puts on his shoes/boots to get ready for battle, so you must rely on the good news about peace with God to get ready to fight the evil one.” Here is another way to translate this:

For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. (New Living Translation (2004))

(New International Version, New Living Translation (2004), New Century Version, English Standard Version, Revised English Bible, NET Bible)

(2) It can be explained like this: “Just like a soldier puts on his shoes/boots to get ready for battle, so you must get ready to tell others the good news about peace with God.” Here is another way to translate this:

As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. (New Revised Standard Version)

(New Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, God’s Word)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) as it has more commentary support.

with your feet fitted: The phrase with your feet fitted means that “you have put on the shoes.”

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

Put on your ⌊war⌋ shoes/sandals
-or-
having put on your shoes ⌊fit for war
-or-
with your shoes/sandals fitted ⌊appropriately for war

readiness: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as readiness refers to being ready, prepared or equipped. Here are some ways to translate this:

equipped by the gospel of peace
-or-

made ready by the gospel of peace
-or-
made secure by the gospel of peace

gospel of peace: The gospel of peace is the good news that tells how a person can have peace with God. Here, peace probably means having a good relationship with God as in Romans 5:1. See gospel in the Glossary for more information.

Here are some other ways to translate this verse:

For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
On your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. (New Century Version)
-or-
let the shoes on your feet be the gospel of peace, to give you firm footing (Revised English Bible)

© 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.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments