The Greek that is translated in English as “old self” or similar is translated in Enlhet as “old innermost.” “Innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind (for other examples see here). (Source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 4:22:
Uma: “You were taught like this: you must stop your previous behavior that you followed before you believed in the Lord. All the desires that you followed at that time caused you to fall and destroyed your lives.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Therefore give-up/leave now your former customs. Because those customs of yours are deceiving you therefore you indulge the cravings/desires of your bodies and this is what destroys you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Because of this, you must abandon the thinking of your former humanity, because this is subject to the former evil behavior. This can destroy you by means of its deceitful desires.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Therefore you must throw-away your former thoughts and behavior/customs, because that’s the source of the bad desires or cravings that deceive you and that’s what destroys you.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore, like was taught to you concerning your disgusting way of life, drop it now. Like dirty clothing, take it off now. Because if you are still following this disgusting life of yours, you are just being deceived. For you mistakenly-thought that happiness is the outcome of your indulging your disgusting desires, whereas your life is like just rotting.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Therefore, concerning whatever evil you walked in before, separate from it now. Because that evil which you liked to do deceived your thoughts.” (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).
Illustration by Horst Lemke (1922-1985) for the GermanGute Nachricht für Sie – NT68, one of the first editions of the Good News Bible in German of 1968. Lemke was a well-known illustrator who illustrated books by Erich Kästner , Astrid Lindgren and many others.
The infinitive “to get rid of,” with which the verse begins, goes syntactically with “you were taught” in verse 21. Most translations, like Good News Translation, begin a new sentence with verse 22. Get rid of: see the use of the verb in Colossians 3.8, and for your old self see the same expression in Colossians 3.9; it means the readers’ character, way of life, before becoming Christians. Here get rid of stands in contrast with put on in verse 24; the figure is that of a change of clothes.
A literal translation of get rid of your old self can be seriously misunderstood, even to the point of committing suicide. It may be necessary to abandon completely the underlying figure of speech in the statement get rid of your old self. But one can say “live no longer the way you used to.” One can sometimes introduce a figure of speech so as to make the meaning of verse 24 more significant by translating get rid of by a phrase which is normally used in a context involving getting rid of old clothing, or else the more general terms for “give up,” “put aside,” or “leave behind.”
Which made you live as you used to translates a clause, “according to the former way of life”; this clause comes between the infinitive “to get rid of” and the direct object “the old man,” and may be related to the object as follows: “Get rid of the old self which manifested itself in your former way of life” (see Revised Standard Version “your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life”). The Greek noun “manner of life” is related to the verb translated lived in 2.3.
There may be some problems involved in finding an appropriate reference for the pronoun which, since a complete restructuring of the first clause of verse 22 may require some change in the second clause. It is always possible to introduce a completely new statement, for example, “it was because of that old way of life that you lived as you did” or “… did the things that you did” or “… behaved as you did.”
Destroyed translates a verb meaning “to corrupt” (see its use in 1 Cor 3.17). Some translations try to keep the image of the Greek by using an expression such as “was rotting away.”
Desires translates the same word used in 2.3; and deceitful characterizes those desires as misleading and corrupting those who yield to them.
Because of the necessary changes in the first part of verse 22, it may be difficult to render the second part without some considerable restructuring. In fact, it may be best to translate the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires as “the old way in which you lived was destroying you by causing you to have desires which were deceitful” or “… desires which led you astray.”
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 .
In these verses, Paul listed some of the things that the Ephesians were taught. Some English versions repeat the verb “You were taught…” (from 4:21a) at the beginning of 4:22. The Berean Standard Bible does not do this, but continues the sentence on from 4:21b. If, in your translation, you follow the example of those English versions that begin a new sentence here (like the New International Version), you may also want to repeat “You were taught…” at the beginning of 4:23.
Here is another way to translate 4:22–24 is as a direct command:
(4:22a) Stop behaving like you used to…
-or-
(4:24a) Let God make you a new person
4:22a–b
to put off your former way of life, your old self: The phrase your former way of life means “the way you used to live” or “the way you previously behaved ⌊when you did not yet know Christ⌋.” The clause your old self is a figure of speech. It means “your former character” or “the behavior you used to do.” This is contrasted with “your new self” in 4:24.
The words put off in 4:22a and “put on” in 4:24 are words usually used to mean take off and put on clothes. A person can take off old, dirty clothes and put on new, clean clothes. In the same way, the Ephesian Christians should “take off” (stop doing) the dirty behavior they used to do, and “put on” (start doing) clean, Christian behavior.
your old self: The phrase your old self refers to “your former/previous character” or “the way you used to behave.” Paul was telling the Ephesians to no longer live the way they did before they became Christians. When a person becomes a Christian, it is as if he becomes a new person (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).
In translating this clause, it may be necessary to translate this figure of speech directly. For example:
change the way you were living (God’s Word)
-or-
give up your old way of life (Contemporary English Version)
4:22c
which is being corrupted: The word which refers back to “old self” in 4:22b.
is being corrupted: The word corrupted can mean to “rot away,” “decay,” “ruin” or “destroy.” To say that a person is being corrupted means he is becoming controlled by evil, until finally he is destroyed. He is like a tree that gets more and more rotten on the inside until it dies and is destroyed.
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
being destroyed (Good News Translation)
-or-
being ruined
by its deceitful desires: The phrase deceitful desires refers to evil things the Ephesians wanted to do that led them away from the truth/Christ. In many languages it will probably be clearer to translate deceitful and desires as verbs, for example:
You desired to do evil things, and these things deceived you.
Paul meant that the evil desires in people’s hearts caused them to believe the wrong things and follow their own way instead of following God’s way. 4:22c can be translated:
The things you wanted to do were wrong and deceived you, and so they ruined/spoiled your hearts.
General Comment on 4:22a–c
You may want to translate 4:22c as a new sentence. For example:
The way you used to live at that time was ruining your life…
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
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