Here the writer names six sins which are to be gotten rid of. The Greek verb “carry off, take away, remove” is in the passive voice, but it does not seem that the writer means anything other than what a speaker in English would mean by ordering someone “This must be gotten rid of.” Barth, however, takes it to indicate God as the actor. The passive serves to make the personal element in the command a little less direct, or the use of the passive may be a purely stylistic device.

In a number of languages an expression such as get rid of is perfectly appropriate when speaking of objects but makes little or no sense in talking about emotions. Therefore, instead of saying get rid of all bitterness it may be necessary to say “cease completely being bitter.”

Of the six sins listed, four are also included in Colossians 3.8: passion, anger, insults, and hateful feelings.

Bitterness translates a noun found also in Acts 8.23; Romans 3.14; Hebrews 12.15. As Robinson says, it denotes “an embittered and resentful spirit which refuses reconciliation.” This is often expressed figuratively, “to feel stings because of someone” or “to feel heat in one’s stomach because of someone.”

Passion and anger are here practically synonymous. Some commentators see the Greek for “anger” as the settled condition and the Greek for “passion” as an occasional outburst of emotion. Care should be taken to avoid the idea of sexual desire in a word for passion; instead, what should be expressed is strong resentment and anger because of what someone else may have done.

Shouting here probably has the idea of “disputes, quarrels” (see the use of the word in Acts 23.9). New International Version has “brawling” (which sounds like fights in a saloon), and Translator’s New Testament has “bawling” (which sound like weeping); New American Bible has “harsh words”; New English Bible “angry shouting.”

Insults (Good News Translation) or “slander” (Revised Standard Version and others) is abusive speech against someone by telling lies or otherwise offending him. (The word may mean “blasphemy,” that is, irreverent speech about God, but this meaning is hardly possible here.)

With terms such as shouting and insults it is frequently necessary to indicate some goal or object, and therefore no more shouting or insults may be rendered as “you must no longer yell at people or insult them.” The final phrase no more hateful feelings of any sort may be rendered as “you must no longer hate anyone at all.”

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 .