The Hebrew, Ge’ez, and Greek that is usually translated into English as “peace,” when referring to one’s inner peace, is (back-) translated with a variety of idioms and phrases:
“rest the heart” (Central Mazahua) / “rest within” (Lacandon) (source: Nida 1952, p. 40 and 128ff.) / “wait well in your heart” (Yatzachi Zapotec) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
2:1-3 I am Paul. To the people of the church in Ephesus. Remember when you were not yet Christians, when you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world. You were dead. You were controlled by the unseen spirit of the Devil- that same spirit now working in the people who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate and selfish desires of our sinful nature. We should have faced God’s anger because of our sinful ways.
2:4-5 But God is merciful and he loves us very much, even though we were dead because we were detached from Him and lived in sin just like the rest of the world. He has given us a new life and has united us with Him through Jesus Christ. It is only by God’s grace that we have been saved.
2:6-7 Just as God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him in heaven, so will He raise us from the dead and seat us in heaven because we are united with Jesus Christ. God did this so He can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
2:8-10 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. You can’t take credit for this because it is a gift from God. We are saved only by His grace through Jesus Christ. We are God’s precious creations, His masterpiece, made new in Jesus Christ so that we can live the right way according to the plan that He had for us long ago.
2:11-13 Remember that you non-Jew used to be outsiders. You were called uncircumcised by Jews who were circumcised. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
2:14-16 Jesus united Jews and non-Jews into one people when, in his own body on the cross he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and non-Jews by creating in himself one new people from the two groups, united in peace and harmony with each other and God.
2:17-18 The non- Jews [who were called outsiders] and the Jews [who were called Christians] were now united in peace. Now all of us can come to God the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
2:19-22 So now you non-Jews are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are now members of God’s family. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. Just like a house is built on a solid foundation, we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles who spread the word of God. The cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. In him, we become a holy temple for the Lord. In Christ we are built together [Jews and non-Jews] and are made into a holy place where God lives through the Spirit.
Back-translation by Amakedia Wallen, coordinated by Tashi Widmer
Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 2:17:
Uma: “That is why Kristus came here to spread the news of peace to you who are far from God, and to them who were already close.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Therefore Almasi came here to tell that it is possible for us (incl.) all to be reconciled to/with God. You have been told the non Yahudi, the ones who were far from God and we (excl.) the Yahudi also, the ones who were close to God.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Christ came here to the earth and He explained to us the Good News about peace so that we might become one with God. As for you who were not Jews whose minds were very far away from the true God, and for us Jews who were always thinking about Him, He explained to us the way that (incl.) we might become one with Him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Yes, Cristo came to preach to you who were far from God and to us (excl.) of-course who were close to him the good news that it was possible for us to be joined to God.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “He came down here to the world because he taught the people how true peace of mind/inner-being might be theirs, you who are not Jews who are those referred to as being far from God, and we (excl.) who are Jews who were close to him.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Christ came to tell the good news to people in order to fix things up. He told the word to the people who didn’t know God, and also to the Jews who already knew God.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morpheme rare (られ) is affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, tsutae-rare-ru (伝えられる) or “convey” is used.
God transcends gender, but most languages are limited to grammatical gender expressed in pronouns. In the case of English, this is traditionally confined to “he” (or in the forms “his,” “him,” and “himself”), “she” (and “her,” “hers,” and “herself”), and “it” (and “its” and “itself”).
Modern Mandarin Chinese, however, offers another possibility. Here, the third-person singular pronoun is always pronounced the same (tā), but it is written differently according to its gender (他 is “he,” 她 is “she,” and 它/牠 is “it” and their respective derivative forms). In each of these characters, the first (or upper) part defines the gender (man, woman, or thing/animal), while the second element gives the clue to its pronunciation.
In 1930, after a full century with dozens of Chinese translations, Bible translator Wang Yuande (王元德) coined a new “godly” pronoun: 祂. Chinese readers immediately knew how to pronounce it: tā. But they also recognized that the first part of that character, signifying something spiritual, clarified that each person of the Trinity has no gender aside from being God.
While the most important Protestant and Catholic Chinese versions respectively have opted not to use 祂, some Bible translations do and it is widely used in hymnals and other Christian materials. Among the translations that use 祂 to refer to “God” were early versions of Lü Zhenzhong’s (呂振中) version (New Testament: 1946, complete Bible: 1970). R.P. Kramers (in The Bible Translator 1956, p. 152ff. ) explains why later versions of Lü’s translation did not continue with this practice: “This new way of writing ‘He,’ however, has created a minor problem of its own: must this polite form be used whenever Jesus is referred to? Lü follows the rule that, wherever Jesus is referred to as a human being, the normal tā (他) is written; where he is referred to as divine, especially after the ascension, the reverential tā (祂) is used.”
In that system, one kind of pronoun is used for humans (male and female alike) and others for natural elements, non-liquid masses, and some spiritual entities (one other is used for large animals and another one for miscellaneous items). While in these languages the pronoun for spiritual entities used to be employed when referring to God, this has changed into the use of the human pronoun.
Lynell Zogbo (in The Bible Translator 1989, p. 401ff. ) explains: “From informal discussions with young Christians especially, it would appear that, at least for some people, the experience and/or concepts of Christianity are affecting the choice of pronoun for God. Some people explain that God is no longer ‘far away,’ but is somehow tangible and personal. For these speakers God has shifted over into the human category.”
In Kouya, God (the Father) and Jesus are referred to with the human pronoun ɔ, whereas the Holy Spirit is referred to with a non-human pronoun. (Northern Grebo and Western Krahn make a similar distinction.)
Eddie Arthur, a former Kouya Bible translation consultant, says the following: “We tried to insist that this shouldn’t happen, but the Kouya team members were insistent that the human pronoun for the Spirit would not work.”
In Burmese, the pronoun ko taw (ကိုယ်တော်) is used either as 2nd person (you) or 3rd person (he, him, his) reference. “This term clearly has its root in the religious language in Burmese. No ordinary persons are addressed or known by this pronoun because it is reserved for Buddhist monks, famous religious teachers, and in the case of Christianity, the Trinity.” (Source: Gam Seng Shae in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 202ff. )
In Thai, the pronoun phra`ong (พระองค์) is used, a gender-neutral pronoun which must refer to a previously introduced royal or divine being. Similarly, in Northern Khmer, which is spoken in Thailand, “an honorific divine pronoun” is used for the pronoun referring to the persons of the Trinity (source: David Thomas in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 445 ). In Urak Lawoi’, another language spoken in Thailand, the translation often uses tuhat (ตูฮัด) — “God” — ”as a divine pronoun where Thai has phra’ong even though it’s actually a noun.” (Source for Thai and Urak Lawoi’: Stephen Pattemore)
The English “Contemporary Torah” addresses the question of God and gendered pronouns by mostly avoiding pronouns in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (unless God is referred to as “lord,” “father,” “king,” or “warrior”). It does that by either using passive constructs (“He gave us” vs. “we were given”), by using the adjective “divine” or by using “God” rather than a pronoun.
Some Protestant and Orthodox English Bibles use a referential capitalized spelling when referring to the persons of the Trinity with “He,” “His,” “Him,” or “Himself.” This includes for instance the New American Standard Bible or The Orthodox New Testament, but most translations do not. Other languages where this is also done (in most Bible translations) are Twents as well as Indonesian and Malay. In the latter two languages this follows the language usage according to the Qur’an, which in turn predicts that usage (see Soesilo in The Bible Translator 1991, p. 442ff. and The Bible Translator 1997, p. 433ff. ).
In the Greek text verses 17-18 are one sentence, with a minor break (semicolon) at the end of verse 17.
As the Greek stands, “and coming he preached peace” represents action that follows the crucifixion and death of Christ (of verses 14-16). This is somewhat strange and must be taken to refer, as Abbott says, to “Christ preaching by His Spirit in the apostles and other messengers of His” (so Robinson, Salmond, Westcott). Murray restricts it to Christ’s post-resurrection appearances, but this seems quite impossible. At no time is Christ reported to have preached to Gentiles as a group; his ministry was restricted to the homeland Jews. The best way to handle this seems to be as New English Bible and Good News Translation have done it: “So he came and proclaimed,” So Christ came and preached; Jerusalem Bible “Later he came” is not to be recommended.
Preached the Good News translates the Greek verb “to proclaim good news”; the direct object of the verb is “peace,” which means in this whole section “reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles.”
The Good News of peace may be expressed as “the Good News that tells about peace” or “the Good News that is the means of people becoming reconciled.”
“Peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Revised Standard Version): this takes up the language of verse 13 and more closely reflects the words of Isaiah 57.19, “Peace, peace, to the far and to the near, says the Lord” (Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation has made explicit that those “who were far off” are Gentiles and “those who were near” are Jews.
In some instances there may be a problem involved in the figurative use of far away and near to. Sometimes the distinction may be expressed in terms of the degree of failure or lack in association, for example, “to you Gentiles who lacked so much in relation to God and to the Jews who lacked very little in relationship to God.”
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 .
preached peace: The word preached means publicly told or announced a message.
peace: The word peace here has a more general meaning than in 2:14–15. In this context it refers to the message of salvation. Christ came into the world and preached that there is now peace between man and God. Some English versions make this association with the message of salvation explicit.
Here are some other ways to translate the phrase “preached peace”:
So Christ came and preached the Good News of peace to all (Good News Translation)
-or-
He brought this Good News of peace to you (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
He announced that his death would do away with that hostility/hatred between the two
you who were far away: The pronoun you refers to the Ephesians who were Gentiles. This is stating their condition before they believed in Christ.
far away: As in 2:13a–b, the phrase far away is a figure of speech that means that they were “far away ⌊from God⌋.” They did not have a close relationship with God.
If this figure of speech is not clear in your language, you may want to use different words, such as:
you who had no relationship with God
-or-
you who were spiritually separated from God
See how you translated far away in 2:13a–b.
2:17b
peace: The Greek text repeats the word peace in 2:17a and 2:17b. If it is not natural to repeat this word in your language, here is a way you can translate this:
Christ came and preached peace to you who were far away from God, and to those who were near to God. (New Century Version)
to those who were near: The phrase those who were near refers to the Jews. Since Paul was also a Jew, it is possible to translate this clause using a first person plural pronoun (us). For example:
to us ⌊Jews⌋ who were near
near: The word near (like the expression “far away” in 2:17a) is a figure of speech here. The Jews were near to God because they had a special relationship with him. He had chosen them to be his special people. It does not mean that they were physically near or close to God.
If this figure of speech is not clear in your language, you may want to use different words, such as:
those people who had a close relationship with him
-or-
the ⌊Jews⌋ who are his chosen/special people
Here is another way to translate 2:17:
To you non-Jews who are far and to you Jews who are near, he came and said this, “Live in peace ⌊together⌋.”
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