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

complete verse (Ephesians 2:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 2:9:

  • Uma: “not from our behavior. That is why there is not one person who can say: "It is because of the goodness of my behavior that God lifted me from the punishment of our sins."” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “You cannot boast, because the reason that you are saved is not because of your good works.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “but rather life forever was just given to us. Therefore, there is no person who can boast about His being freed from punishment, because it’s really not His good doing that set Him free.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Therefore there is no reason for us to boast about ourselves, because our being saved, it was not due to the good that we have done.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Therefore no-one can boast that his salvation is because of the good-quality of his own deeds.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Concerning a person, there is not a bit of good he can do in order that he be saved.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Ephesians 2:1-10 as a bullet list

In Nicholas King’s English translation of the New Testament (2004), the translator decided to use bullet point lists in some case in the Ephesians, Colossians, and Titus. “There are elaborate groups of nouns strung together, and the sentences are rather long. I have tried, not entirely successfully, to make these long sentences more manageable by the use of bullet points.” One such list is Ephesians 2:1-10:

 

And you, who were dead because of your transgressions and sins,

  • in which once you walked in keeping with the age of this world, in keeping with the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among the children, of disobedience
  • among whom we all once lived because of the desires of our flesh, doing the wills of the flesh and of the intellects, and we were by nature children of anger, just like the rest,
  • but since God is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
  • and us who were dead because of transgressions

he made alive together with Christ
(It is by God s gift that you have been saved)

and raised you with him
and made you sit in the heavenly regions in Christ Jesus

in order that in the coming ages he might demonstrate the surpassing value of his free gift in kindness to you in Christ Jesus.

Translation commentary on Ephesians 2:8 – 2:9

The basic truth is repeated: For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. The verbal phrase in Greek has the auxiliary verb “to be” plus the perfect passive participle of the verb “to save,” a construction that emphasizes the completed aspect of the action: “you were saved and you continue saved.” Grace is the divine source of salvation, and human faith is the means whereby salvation takes place.

It is not easy to distinguish between the cause of salvation, that is, by God’s grace, and the means, namely, through faith. It is God’s grace which produces the salvation, but it is the faith of people which makes this possible. Faith therefore may be described technically as “contributing circumstances,” for without faith on man’s part God will not impose his grace and salvation. The statement it is by God’s grace that you have been saved may be expressed as “because God is so kind, you have been saved” or “because God is so kind, he has saved you.” The final phrase through faith may be expressed as “this was possible because you trusted.” In this way one can state the necessary circumstances which involve faith, but one can avoid making faith the ultimate means for salvation. If it is necessary to supply an object for the verb “trusted” or “had faith,” here it probably is better to have God as the object: “you trusted him” or “you had faith in him.”

The words that follow, “and this is not your doing, it is the gift of God” (Revised Standard Version), emphasize the divine initiative and activity. Some take “and this” (in verse 8) to refer to the preceding “faith,” but it seems more likely that the Greek neuter pronoun refers to the whole preceding event, that is, salvation by God’s grace through faith, and not just to faith (which in Greek is a feminine noun). It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift may be expressed as “you didn’t earn your salvation; God gave it to you” or “you did not save yourselves; God saved you” or “it was not because of what you did that God saved you, but what he did was a gift.”

Verse 9 (see Revised Standard Version) continues, “not from works,” that is, not the result of human activity, “in order that no one boast (or, as a result no one can boast).” The event of salvation is all God’s doing, resulting completely from his grace, his power, his love. All a person can do is trust, believe, accept, so all possibility of human pride and boasting is done away with.

“Not from works” is a restatement of the phrase in verse 8 “and this (is) not from you.” Good News Translation has restructured this passage in such a way that these two phrases have been combined: It is not the result of your own efforts. Similarly, translators will restructure the ideas of these two verses according to the requirements of good style in their language. They will only be assured of a smooth, natural translation when they have written out all the ideas in these two verses in a series of short sentences and then put them together in a way that is natural for their language.

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 2:9

2:9

not by works: The phrase not by works means almost the same thing as “this not from yourselves” (2:8b). Here, Paul is more specific and mentions works. God does not save you because of any good deeds or behavior you have done.

Here are some other ways this phrase has been translated:

your own efforts (Good News Translation)
-or-
anything you’ve done (God’s Word)
-or-
the good things we have done (New Living Translation (2004))

so that no one can boast: The word boast means “to talk or to brag about what you have done.”

Here is another way to translate this clause:

It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no one can brag about it. (God’s Word)

General Comment on 2:9

In some languages, 2:9 may be more clearly expressed as a direct quote. For example:

So no one can boast and say, “God saved me because of my good behavior.”

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