The infinitive “to get rid of,” with which the verse begins, goes syntactically with “you were taught” in verse 21. Most translations, like Good News Translation, begin a new sentence with verse 22. Get rid of: see the use of the verb in Colossians 3.8, and for your old self see the same expression in Colossians 3.9; it means the readers’ character, way of life, before becoming Christians. Here get rid of stands in contrast with put on in verse 24; the figure is that of a change of clothes.

A literal translation of get rid of your old self can be seriously misunderstood, even to the point of committing suicide. It may be necessary to abandon completely the underlying figure of speech in the statement get rid of your old self. But one can say “live no longer the way you used to.” One can sometimes introduce a figure of speech so as to make the meaning of verse 24 more significant by translating get rid of by a phrase which is normally used in a context involving getting rid of old clothing, or else the more general terms for “give up,” “put aside,” or “leave behind.”

Which made you live as you used to translates a clause, “according to the former way of life”; this clause comes between the infinitive “to get rid of” and the direct object “the old man,” and may be related to the object as follows: “Get rid of the old self which manifested itself in your former way of life” (see Revised Standard Version “your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life”). The Greek noun “manner of life” is related to the verb translated lived in 2.3.

There may be some problems involved in finding an appropriate reference for the pronoun which, since a complete restructuring of the first clause of verse 22 may require some change in the second clause. It is always possible to introduce a completely new statement, for example, “it was because of that old way of life that you lived as you did” or “… did the things that you did” or “… behaved as you did.”

Destroyed translates a verb meaning “to corrupt” (see its use in 1 Cor 3.17). Some translations try to keep the image of the Greek by using an expression such as “was rotting away.”

Desires translates the same word used in 2.3; and deceitful characterizes those desires as misleading and corrupting those who yield to them.

Because of the necessary changes in the first part of verse 22, it may be difficult to render the second part without some considerable restructuring. In fact, it may be best to translate the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires as “the old way in which you lived was destroying you by causing you to have desires which were deceitful” or “… desires which led you astray.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .