Here the writer passes from exhortation to exposition and bases his appeal for unity on the sevenfold unity revealed by the Christian event. Abbott’s classification is worth quoting: “First, the oneness of the Church itself: one Body, one Spirit, one Hope. Next the source and instrument of that unity: one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; and lastly, the unity of the Divine Author.”
(1) One body: this is the church, the body of Christ; it is one and indivisible. A literal rendering of there is one body might be misleading, because it might suggest that there was simply one body lying someplace. It may, therefore, be better to translate there is one body as “we form one body” or “we constitute just one body” or “we all belong to one body.”
(2) One Spirit: God’s Spirit, his gift to his people (see 2.18). It may be more meaningful and accurate to translate “there is just one Spirit” or “there is only one Holy Spirit.” The two, one body and one Spirit, may be joined as follows: “Because all of you have the same Spirit, you form with one another a single body.”
(3) One hope to which God has called you: see 1.18. It may be difficult to translate there is one hope, especially for languages in which hope is always a verb rather than a noun. Furthermore, in this context the reference of hope is that which is hoped for. Therefore, the second part of verse 4 may be rendered as “just as there is one thing that we may hope for and it is to this that God has called you” or “… and this is what God has called you to do” or “… invited you to do.”
(4) One Lord: Jesus Christ, the Lord of the church (compare 1 Cor 8.6). It may be more satisfactory to translate “there is only one Lord.”
(5) One faith: the Christian message is one, not many, and it calls for the same faith, belief, commitment from all who accept it. It is doubtful that here the Greek word for “faith” means “creed” (as Murray would define it). In this context one faith must refer to “one way in which we may trust God” or “… trust Christ.”
(6) One baptism: there is one initiatory rite, in which all believers engage, and it is the one symbolic and public demonstration of the believer’s response to God’s grace in Christ. It is quite unlikely that by “one baptism” the writer meant one form of baptism (among various forms), or that the rite was administered only once (not twice or several times). The emphasis in the noun baptisma is not on the action described by the verb baptizō “to dip,” but on the object or result of the act.
A literal translation of one baptism can be misunderstood, either as a single form of baptism or as baptism on only one occasion. The reference here is to the fact that this baptism was a baptism as a follower of Christ and not, for example, as a disciple of John. Accordingly it may be more satisfactory to translate one baptism as “one person in whose name we are baptized” or “one person for whom we are baptized.” Or else, “one purpose for which all of us are baptized.”
(7) One God: he is called one God and Father of all mankind, and his relation to mankind is expressed by three prepositional phrases: “who is over all and through all and in all” (New English Bible). The “all” in these three phrases has the same meaning as the preceding “all” in “one God and Father of all,” that is, all people, mankind, humanity as a whole. This means taking the Greek “of all” (twice) and “for all” as masculine, not neuter (so Abbott; Robinson prefers what he calls “the wider reference” of the neuter, that is, including inanimate creation as well). Such languages as French, Spanish, and Portuguese distinguish between the masculine and neuter forms, unlike English, where “all” may be either masculine or neuter.
A literal translation of one God and Father of all mankind can be misleading, since the use of “and” may imply two persons not one. Therefore the phrase Father of all mankind must often be made an appositional expression, for example, “one God, Father of all mankind” or “one God, who is Father of all mankind” or “… Father of all people.”
“Over all” means Lord of all (see Barclay “who reigns over all”; also Bible en français courant); “through all” is represented in Good News Translation by works through all (so Translator’s New Testament, New American Bible, Barclay); and “in all” means that he is present in all people. The Greek text does not in any way restrict the “all,” the clear implication being that all people are meant; but Moffatt, Goodspeed have “all of us” three times, thereby restricting the reference to Christians. This is not impossible, but it seems better in translation to do as most translations have done and say simply “all” or “all people.”
Who is Lord of all may be rendered as “who is Lord over all people” or “who is Lord ruling all people” or “who is the one who rules all people.”
The phrase works through all is difficult to understand and to translate in a completely adequate manner. To translate “he does his work by using all people” can be misleading for it may imply that God is exploiting people. It may also be possible to say “he causes all people to do what he wants them to do,” but this should not be translated in such a way as to imply that all people always do what God wants them to do.
The final statement is in all may be even more difficult to fully comprehend, but its equivalent in many languages is “dwells in all people.”
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 .