Translation commentary on Ephesians 5:6 – 5:7

Here the writer warns his readers against people who would deceive them with foolish words, literally “empty words,” that is, words devoid of wisdom, of sense, of truth. Beare translates “specious arguments,” and Abbott summarizes the situation: these are the words of “persons … who made light of sins of impurity.” It is impossible to determine, however, whether such persons were part of the Christian fellowship or were outsiders. The verb translated deceive is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in 1 Timothy 2.14; James 1.26; for the related noun “deceit” see 4.22.

It would be wrong to translate foolish words as “stupid words” or “meaningless words.” In order to be deceitful, such words must be clever but wrong, and therefore in some languages foolish words may be appropriately translated as “lying words.”

Most languages have plenty of words for deceive, but one of the common phrases is “cause someone to believe a lie.”

These very things are the sins listed in verses 3-5. It may be necessary to be specific: “These very things I am talking about.”

For God’s anger see 2.3; and for those who do not obey him (literally “the sons of disobedience”) see 2.2. The whole statement is found exactly in the same form in Colossians 3.6. In place of the statement God’s anger will come upon those, it may be necessary in a number of languages to say “God will be angry with those.”

In verse 7 such people are the people who are attempting to deceive the readers. The Greek is literally “Do not, then, become partners of them”; for the noun “partners” see 3.6. Beare takes the genitive “of them” to refer not to the persons but to their actions (so Barth); others (see Jerusalem Bible) take “of them” to refer to “the sons of disobedience.”

Have nothing at all to do with such people may sometimes be expressed as “avoid such people.” But it may be more in keeping with the context to say “do not join up with such people” or “do not keep company with such 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 .

Translation commentary on Ephesians 6:14 – 6:15

In verses 14-17 the writer mentions the various different items in the Christian’s armor. Again he exhorts his readers So stand ready; compare New English Bible “Stand firm, I say.”

Truth translates the Greek alētheia, and righteousness the Greek dikaiosunē, and these are the meanings that the two words normally have in the Greek New Testament. But in this passage there seems to be an allusion to (or dependence on) Isaiah 11.5, which describes the rule of the future Davidic king: “Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins” (Revised Standard Version), which the Septuagint translates by the same two nouns used here, dikaiosunē and alētheia. The two lines in Hebrew are parallel, and it would seem that no great difference in meaning is intended between the Hebrew “righteousness” and “faithfulness”; the two are synonymous. So it may be that here the Greek alētheia reflects the meaning of the Hebrew noun “faithfulness, loyalty,” that is, the Christian soldier’s faithful devotion to the cause for which he is fighting, his loyalty to his commanding officer.

But some commentators, pointing to the use of the two nouns in 5.9, take the word here to mean truth or truthfulness as a Christian virtue (Murray “sincerity”). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “the truth of God.”

A belt tight around your waist: the loose clothes had to be held tight with a belt (or girdle) to permit rapid movement; see the same metaphorical figure of “girding the loins” (Revised Standard Version) in Luke 12.35; 1 Peter 1.13.

The phrase with truth as a belt tight around your waist may be translated as “your faithfulness to God will be like a belt tied around your waist” or “the truth about God will be like a belt fastened around your waist” or “the true message about God will be….”

Righteousness may be regarded as “integrity, character.” Abbott defines it as uprightness of character. In Isaiah 59.17 it is said of Yahweh, “He put on righteousness as a breastplate” (Revised Standard Version); there Yahweh’s righteousness is his faithfulness to his covenant promises.

In a number of languages one cannot speak of righteousness as an abstract quality. Rather, one must employ some type of personal reference, for example, “your doing what is right” or “your being a just person” or “your being an upright person.” It may be possible to translate with righteousness as your breastplate as “your always doing what is right is like a protection for your chest.”

The breastplate was made of tough leather or metal, and it covered the soldier’s breast and sometimes the back, to protect him from the enemy’s attack. (It should be noticed that in 1 Thes 5.8 Paul defines the breastplate as “faith and love.”)

The writer speaks of the readiness to announce the Good News of peace as the shoes the Christian warrior is to wear. The Greek noun “preparation, readiness” occurs only here in the New Testament. It is difficult to know for sure in what sense the word is used here. The following are possible meanings:

(1) Abbott takes it to mean “readiness of mind,” the attitude that is required of a soldier as he advances into battle; so this would be equivalent to courage or determination or readiness to fight. The Good News of peace, in Abbott’s view, is what equips the Christian soldier with this attitude, this readiness of mind (also Goodspeed “the readiness the good news of peace brings”; see also Ellicott).
(2) Revised Standard Version translates “(having shod your feet) with the equipment of the gospel of peace,” which is not very clear.
(3) Others take the Greek word to mean firmness, stability, sure footing. So Barth “steadfast because the gospel of peace is strapped under your feet”; New English Bible “to give you firm footing”; Moffatt “stability.”
(4) Others, like Good News Translation, take the phrase to mean “the readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace”: Westcott, Robinson (who regards Isa 52.7 as a source of the figure), Beare; Translator’s New Testament, New International Version, Jerusalem Bible, and others.

It is impossible to be dogmatic; the translator will choose the interpretation that seems best to fit the context, and it would seem that either (3) or (4) would be the best choice.

In verse 15 it may be better to preserve the parallelism with the two preceding statements about protection and armor by translating “the fact that you are ready to announce the Good News of peace is like your shoes” or “… like the shoes that a soldier wears.”

Readiness to announce the Good News may also be expressed as “the fact that you always want to tell others about the Good News.”

In general one may best translate the Good News of peace as “the Good News about the peace that God provides” or “… causes” or “… makes possible.” Here peace is practically synonymous with “salvation” or “reconciliation” (see verse 23 below). It is the restoration of spiritual health or wholeness that the Good News proclaims and effects.

In some instances it may be better to use similes (or comparisons): “Take truth as if it were the belt you put on, righteousness as if it were the breastplate that protects you, and your readiness to announce the Good News of peace will be like the shoes you wear.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Ephesians 2:15

He abolished: this means that, so far as Christians are concerned, what Christ did and taught made the Law of no effect; he nullified it, and it is no longer binding. In the context, the primary effect of this annulment was the abolition of the distinction between Jews and Gentiles in the eyes of God.

The Jewish Law with its commandments and rules: “the law of commandments in rules” is another phrase in Ephesians which may be translated several ways: Revised Standard Version “the law of commandments and ordinances”; New English Bible “the law with its rules and regulations” (similarly New International Version, Good News Translation, and others). It is quite certain that “the law” is the Mosaic Law, the Torah, which was the basis for the whole Hebrew religious legal system; the plural “(of) the commandments” can be taken to mean the Ten Commandments specifically or the whole range of commandments in the Law. The Greek prepositional phrase “in decrees” refers to specific rules or regulations (see Luke 2.1 and Acts 17.7, which speak of imperial decrees; in Acts 16.4 the word is used of a ruling by the apostles; and see also Col 2.14).

In translating He abolished the Jewish Law, it is important to use an expression which will not seem completely contradictory to history, for Jews have continued to follow the commandments and rules of the Law to the present time. What is meant here is that “he made the Jewish Law of no validity” or “he made it so that the Jewish Law need not be obeyed any more.”

The phrase Jewish Law must be expressed in some languages as “the rules which Jews must follow” or “… must obey.” In fact, in many languages there is no term which is an inclusive designation for a body of laws.

In some languages it is necessary to describe commandments and rules in terms of “what people must do or must not do.”

If “in his flesh” (in verse 14) goes with “abolishing the law of commandments in rules” (in verse 13), it can be taken to indicate either the crucifixion of Christ (as in the similar Col 2.14) or to the incarnation (as Barclay and Goodspeed do); but it seems difficult, if not impossible, to say that “in his flesh” here refers to the incarnation, since the whole section points to Christ’s death on the cross as the means whereby the reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles was achieved (specifically in verses 13, 16). So “in his flesh” also refers to the crucifixion of Christ.

The purpose of Christ’s reconciling work is (see Hdb|fig:Table_EPH2-14.jpg) (1) “to create the two in himself into one new man” (verse 15b) and (2) “to reconcile both in one body to God” (verse 16a).

The “one new man” that Christ creates is, so to speak, the new Adam (the name “Adam” means “man, mankind”); New English Bible “a single new humanity”; Jerusalem Bible “a single New Man”; Twentieth Century New Testament “one New Man”; Translator’s New Testament is like Good News Translation one new people. It is to be noticed that this “new humanity” is achieved not by transforming Gentiles into Jews or vice versa; both are re-created into a new people, neither Jewish nor Gentile, but Christian.

Technically speaking, the Jews and the Gentiles did not consist of two races. They were simply “two different kinds of people,” and so it may be best to translate the purpose clause as “in order to make two different kinds of people into one new kind of people” or “… to make two different tribes of people into one new tribe.” This new tribe of people could then be characterized as those “who are closely linked with Christ.”

For the verb “to create,” see 2.10.

In union with himself translates the Greek phrase “in him.” The Greek manuscripts have no accents, and so this may be accented as a reflexive, hautō (so W&H, New English Bible), but Good News Bible, Nestle, BFBS have autō, which in Hellenistic Greek often stood for the reflexive.

The verse in Greek ends with the participial phrase “making peace.” The simplest way is to take it as the result: “and so he achieved peace” (New English Bible “thereby making peace”; New International Version “thus making peace”). Another way to represent the meaning is “in this way he made different peoples be at peace with one another.” If the phrase is understood as expressing result, one may say “and so he caused people to be at peace.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Ephesians 4:13

This verse in Greek continues from verse 12 with the conjunction “until” expressing the final goal, the ultimate result, of all that precedes. Good News Translation we shall all come together brings out the collective meaning of the text: not all, one by one, separately, but all together (see Beare). As Lightfoot says: “we Christians all as a body, not simply pantes [all of us].”

There is a subtle ambiguity in the statement we shall all come together, for this may be understood to mean merely “to gather together.” It may therefore be better to translate “all of us together shall come to….”

Come … to translates the Greek verb “arrive at, reach, attain to.” There are three goals to be reached, indicated in Greek by the threefold use of the preposition “into”:

(1) “The oneness of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God”: for oneness see 4.3; faith is here defined by Furnish as the “totality of Christian doctrines and practices.” For knowledge see 1.17. Only here in Ephesians is the title the Son of God used. Robinson takes both faith and knowledge to be governed by the genitive of the Son of God: “faith in and knowledge of the Son of God” (so Translator’s New Testament). But it is also possible to take faith absolutely (so Good News Translation).

A literal translation of the expression to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God might imply “to a point of agreeing about our faith and about our knowledge concerning the Son of God.” But this passage is not about diverse doctrines and heresies but about the unity of believers. Therefore it is better to translate to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God as “to that place of being like one in the way we trust Christ and in our experiencing the Son of God.” In this context knowledge implies much more than “knowing about.” Here the emphasis is upon “experiencing the presence of the Son of God” or “experiencing the power of the Son of God.” That is to say, experiencing his power in the life of the believer.

(2) We shall become mature people: the Greek phrase “the mature man” is a way of speaking of growth and maturity in the Christian life; the singular is used because the corporate nature of the experience is being emphasized. It is the church as a body, the “one new man” (Revised Standard Version) in 2.15. Murray, however, thinks each individual Christian is meant; in that case, however, one would expect the Greek to use the noun anthrōpos, more appropriate for the meaning “person,” and not the noun anēr, which is specifically a male. The figure is in contrast to the immature and indecisive children of verse 14.

The use of the phrase mature people suggests both growth and the completion of such a process. It may even be possible in some languages to say “we shall become like grown people in our faith” or “we shall completely grow up in our faith.”

(3) Reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature; “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”: this clause is closely parallel to the second one and serves to define what it means to be a “mature man.” For “measure” see 4.7; here it means “full measure,” that is, “the desired height.” The Greek noun translated stature can mean “age” (as in John 9.21), and some (see Abbott) prefer that meaning here. Of course both age and size are usually implied in the expression “a full-grown man,” “a mature man.”

Here the Greek phrase “the fullness of Christ” (for “fullness” see 1.10, 23; 3.19) is the standard set for the body, the church; see New English Bible “to mature manhood, measured by nothing less than the full stature of Christ”; Translator’s New Testament, somewhat differently, “that full maturity which comes from Christ”; Jerusalem Bible “fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.” So the “fullness” of Christ here is either to be indicated by stature, maturity, perfection, completeness, or whatever else best fits the context of the language.

It may be difficult to employ the figure of height and stature in speaking of Christ, since such a figure of speech may be interpreted as purely physical in the sense that people would grow up to be as tall as Christ was. Therefore reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature may be better rendered in some instances as “becoming as mature as Christ was” or “in our trust in God becoming completely like Christ.”

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 .

Translation commentary on Ephesians 5:22

In Greek this verse does not have a verb. But the Greek text without the verb is preferred by Good News Bible and the other modern editions of the text; the Textus Receptus has the verb, second person plural. In translation the verb must be supplied from the participle of “to submit” in the preceding verse. This verb is used in military contexts of a subordinate’s relationship to his superior in the army hierarchy. It is used of a wife’s relation to her husband in Colossians 3.18; Titus 2.5; 1 Peter 3.1; of servants to masters in Titus 2.9; 1 Peter 2.12; of people to state authorities in Romans 13.1. It means “to be subject to, obey, be ruled by.” It carries the implication of subordination, reflecting the standards of the time, which no amount of special pleading can disguise. Phillips “learn to adapt yourselves” is an unfortunate attempt to make the command more palatable in a different age.

In translating submit yourselves to your husbands, it is essential to use the same type of terminology with which submit yourselves to one another is rendered in verse 21. This means, for example, that the first part of verse 22 may be rendered as “you wives should be willing to obey your husbands,” or “you as a wife should obey your husband.”

The meaning of as to the Lord is slightly different from the phrase in Colossians 3.18. Here the figure of Christ as the husband and the church as the wife seems to have led the writer to write as to the Lord; this is not to be taken in the strictest sense, as Beare points out, but is to be understood to mean that the Christian wife’s attitude toward her husband reflects her (and his) relationship to Christ. The phrase should not be rendered in such a way as to suggest that a wife should treat her husband as her Lord, but she should be willing to obey her husband in the same way as she would obey the Lord.

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 .