Ephesians 2 in Jamaican Sign Language and Jamaican Country Sign Language

Following is the translation of Ephesians 2 into Jamaican Sign Language, intermixed with Jamaican Country Sign Language (see here for Country Sign ):


Source: Jamaican Sign Language Bible Translation

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

inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Eph. 2:18)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the inclusive form (including the addressee).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (Ephesians 2:18)

Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 2:18:

  • Uma: “For because of the mediating [middle-manning] of Kristus, we all may come close to God the Father, both we (excl.) who are Yahudi people, and you who are not Yahudi people. We may come close to him with/through the power of the Holy Spirit that is just the same [lit., just one-kind] to us all.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “All of us (incl.), Yahudi and non Yahudi we (incl.) have been equally helped by God’s Spirit so that we (incl.) could come to our (incl.) Father God through/passing-by Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Because of our (incl.) relationship with Christ, as for us Jews and as for you who are not Jews, we (incl.) are able to come close to our Father God by means of the help of the Holy Spirit.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Therefore by-means-of Cristo, we are all able-to-approach/come-close to God our Father, because the Spirit of God who is in us is only-one.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For because of this Cristo, we are now the same in being accepted by God the Father when we approach him by the help of the Espiritu Santo who indwells the bodies of us all.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “By means of Christ, concerning the Jews and the people who are not Jews, the Holy Spirit helps us now so that we can be good friends with the Father.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

pronoun for "God"

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 Kouya, Godié, Northern Grebo, Eastern Krahn, Western Krahn, and Guiberoua Béte, all languages of the Kru family in Western Africa, a different kind of system of pronouns is used (click or tap here to read more):

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. Two 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. ).

See also first person pronoun referring to God.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Gender of God .

Translation: Chinese

在现代汉语中，第三人称单数代词的读音都是一样的（tā），但是写法并不一样，取决于性别以及是否有生命，即男性为“他”，女性为“她”，动物、植物和无生命事物为“它”（在香港和台湾的汉语使用，动物则为“牠”）。这些字的部首偏旁表明了性别（男人、女人、动物、无生命事物），而另一偏旁通常旁提示发音。

到1930年为止，基督教新教《圣经》经过整整一百年的翻译已经拥有了十几个译本，当时的一位圣经翻译者王元德新造了一个“神圣的”代词“祂”，偏旁“礻”表示神明。一般汉语读者会立即知道这字的发音是tā，而这个偏旁表示属灵的事物，因此他们明白这个字指出，三位一体的所有位格都没有性别之分，而单单是上帝。

然而，最重要的新教圣经译本（1919年的《和合本》）和天主教圣经译本（1968年的《思高圣经》）都没有采用“祂”；虽然如此，许多其他的圣经译本采用了这个字，另外还广泛出现在赞美诗和其他基督信仰的书刊中。（资料来源：Zetzsche）

《吕振中译本》的几个早期版本也使用“祂”来指称“上帝”；这个译本的《新约》于1946年译成，整部《圣经》于1970年完成。克拉默斯（Kramers）指出：“‘他’的这种新写法（即‘祂’）产生了一个小问题，就是在指称耶稣的时候，是否一律使用这个敬语代词？《吕振中译本》遵循的原则是，在称呼耶稣这个人的时候，用一般的‘他’，而在称呼耶稣神性的时候，特别是升天之后的耶稣，则用尊称‘祂’。”

Translator: Simon Wong

Father (address for God)

The Greek that is translated with the capitalized “Father” in English when referring to God is translated in Highland Totonac with the regular word for (biological) father to which a suffix is added to indicate respect. The same also is used for “Lord” when referring to Jesus. (Source: Hermann Aschmann in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 171ff. )

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. In the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017, God the Father is addressed with mi-chichi (御父). This form has the “divine” honorific prefix mi– preceding the archaic honorific form chichi for “father.”

If, however, Jesus addresses his Father, he is using chichi-o (父を) which is also highly respectful but does not have the “divine” honorific. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also Lord and my / our Father.

Translation commentary on Ephesians 2:18

It is through Christ may be expressed as “because of what Christ has done.”

The emphasis in the verse is that oneness which the writer has been stressing: all of us, Jews and Gentiles translates the Greek “the two of us” (as in verses 14, 16); this oneness is the demonstration of the fact that Christ came and preached the Good News of peace, that is, the news of the complete reconciliation between the two groups, Gentiles and Jews (verse 17).

Are able to come … into the presence translates the Greek “have access, entrance”; the Greek noun “entrance” occurs also in 3.12 (and see its use in Rom 5.2). The language portrays God as a king into whose presence can come only those who are properly qualified (see Beare). The meaning here is our right to enter God’s presence in prayer and worship, confident that he will receive us and answer us (see 3.12); it does not mean to enter his presence in heaven after death.

Since a literal translation of are able to come … into the presence of the Father may be taken only in a literal sense, it may be important to specify what is involved in “coming into the Father’s presence,” for example, “are able to come to the Father by means of prayer.”

The one Spirit corresponds here to one body in verse 16 and further stresses the oneness of Jews and Gentiles in the church. Christ provides the means for the access of humanity to God, and the Holy Spirit is the manner, or the circumstances, in which the right of access is exercised.

The phrase in the one Spirit may be best translated in some languages as “by the one Spirit” or “by the one Holy Spirit” or even “by the Spirit of God.” In some instances the function of the Spirit in relationship to the presence of the Father must be expressed as one of helping, for example, “we are able by the one Spirit’s help to come into the presence of the Father.”

As already noted in connection with the phrase the glorious Father (1.17), there may be certain problems involved in rendering Father, since in a number of languages a term for “father” must be possessed. In this context it may be best to speak of “our Father” or even “our Father in heaven.”

Commentators call attention to the reference in this verse to be three persons of the Trinity: “through him … in one Spirit to the Father” (Revised Standard Version).

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Ephesians 2:18

2:18

For through Him: The phrase For through Him refers to Christ dying on the cross for people. The New Living Translation (2004) makes this explicit:

because of what Christ has done for us (New Living Translation (2004))

we both: The phrase we both refers to the Jews and the Gentiles. If it is not clear to whom this phrase refers you may want to make it clearer in the translation.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

both we ⌊Jews⌋ and you ⌊Gentiles⌋
-or-
we ⌊who are Jews⌋ and you ⌊who are not Jews⌋
-or-
we (incl.) all, both ⌊Jews and Gentiles⌋

have access to the Father: The word access means we have the right to enter God’s presence here on earth. Paul meant that believers can talk with God in this life because they have a good relationship with him. Paul was not talking here about believers going to heaven after they died.

If there is a special word in your language that indicates entering the presence of a chief/ruler, you may want to use it here.

It is possible to translate the word access as a verb. For example:

all of us can come to the Father (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
all of us…are able to come…into the presence of the Father (Good News Translation)
-or-
Jewish and non-Jewish people can go to the Father (God’s Word)

by one Spirit: The phrase by one Spirit in this context means “the same Holy Spirit.” It is the same Holy Spirit who leads both Jews and Gentiles to God.

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

we all can approach God by ⌊the power of⌋ the same Holy Spirit
-or-
both ⌊Jews and Gentiles⌋ can approach ⌊God our⌋ Father with the help of the same Holy Spirit

Paragraph 2:19–22

In this next paragraph, Paul used three comparisons to describe the unity of Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ. He said that they are like:

(a) citizens of the same country (19a–b)

(b) members of the same family (19c)

(c) bricks of one building (20–21)

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