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.

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)

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 .