Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 6:1:
Uma: “Children, follow the commands of your parents like your following the Lord, because that is what is fitting for you to do.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “You children, you ought to follow/obey the commands of your parents. This is fitting to do for those trusting in Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for your children, you must always obey the commands of your parents because if we (incl.) are believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, this is the proper thing to do.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “You children, obey your father and your mother because of your being-united-with the Lord Jesus, because that is the correct-thing that you should do.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well now you children, follow/obey your parents, for this is the correct thing to do for those who are believing/obeying the Lord Jesus.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Listen you children, when your father or mother calls you, obey what they tell you. Because this is what children who believe in Christ must do.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Hebrew adonai in the Old Testament typically refers to God. The shorter adon (and in two cases in the book of Daniel the Aramaic mare [מָרֵא]) is also used to refer to God but more often for concepts like “master,” “owner,” etc. In English Bible translations all of those are translated with “Lord” if they refer to God.
In English Old Testament translations, as in Old Testament translations in many other languages, the use of Lord (or an equivalent term in other languages) is not to be confused with Lord (or the equivalent term with a different typographical display for other languages). While the former translates adonai, adon and mare, the latter is a translation for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) or the Name of God. See tetragrammaton (YHWH) and the article by Andy Warren-Rothlin in Noss / Houser, p. 618ff. for more information.
In the New Testament, the Greek term kurios has at least four different kinds of use:
referring to “God,” especially in Old Testament quotations,
meaning “master” or “owner,” especially in parables, etc.,
as a form of address (see for instance John 4:11: “Sir, you have no bucket”),
or, most often, referring to Jesus
In the first and fourth case, it is also translated as “Lord” in English.
Most languages naturally don’t have one word that covers all these meanings. According to Bratcher / Nida, “the alternatives are usually (1) a term which is an honorific title of respect for a high-ranking person and (2) a word meaning ‘boss’, ‘master’, or ‘chief.’ (…) and on the whole it has generally seemed better to employ a word of the second category, in order to emphasize the immediate personal relationship, and then by context to build into the word the prestigeful character, since its very association with Jesus Christ will tend to accomplish this purpose.”
When looking at the following list of back-translations of the terms that translators in the different languages have used for both kurios and adonai to refer to God and Jesus respectively, it might be helpful for English readers to recall the etymology of the English “Lord.” While this term might have gained an exalted meaning in the understanding of many, it actually comes from hlaford or “loaf-ward,” referring to the lord of the castle who was the keeper of the bread (source: Rosin 1956, p. 121).
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Following are some of the solutions that don’t rely on a different typographical display (see above):
Iyansi: Mwol. Mwol is traditionally used for the “chief of a group of communities and villages” with legal, temporal, and spiritual authority (versus the “mfum [the term used in other Bantu languages] which is used for the chief of one community of people in one village”). Mwol is also used for twins who are “treated as special children, highly honored, and taken care of like kings and queens.” (Source: Kividi Kikama in Greed / Kruger, p. 396ff.)
Binumarien: Karaambaia: “fight-leader” (Source: Oates 1995, p. 255)
Warlpiri: Warlaljamarri (owner or possessor of something — for more information tap or click here)
We have come to rely on another term which emphasizes God’s essential nature as YHWH, namely jukurrarnu (see tetragrammaton (YHWH)). This word is built on the same root jukurr– as is jukurrpa, ‘dreaming.’ Its basic meaning is ‘timelessness’ and it is used to describe physical features of the land which are viewed as always being there. Some speakers view jukurrarnu in terms of ‘history.’ In all Genesis references to YHWH we have used Kaatu Jukurrarnu. In all Mark passages where kurios refers to God and not specifically to Christ we have also used Kaatu Jukurrarnu.
New Testament references to Christ as kurios are handled differently. At one stage we experimented with the term Watirirririrri which refers to a ceremonial boss of highest rank who has the authority to instigate ceremonies. While adequately conveying the sense of Christ’s authority, there remained potential negative connotations relating to Warlpiri ceremonial life of which we might be unaware.
Here it is that the Holy Spirit led us to make a chance discovery. Transcribing the personal testimony of the local Warlpiri pastor, I noticed that he described how ‘my Warlaljamarri called and embraced me (to the faith)’. Warlaljamarri is based on the root warlalja which means variously ‘family, possessions, belongingness’. A warlaljamarri is the ‘owner’ or ‘possessor’ of something. While previously being aware of the ‘ownership’ aspect of warlaljamarri, this was the first time I had heard it applied spontaneously and naturally in a fashion which did justice to the entire concept of ‘Lordship’. Thus references to Christ as kurios are now being handled by Warlaljamarri.” (Source: Stephen Swartz, The Bible Translator 1985, p. 415ff. )
Mairasi: Onggoao Nem (“Throated One” — “Leader,” “Elder”) or Enggavot Nan (“Above-One”) (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Obolo: Okaan̄-ene (“Owner of person(s)”) (source: Enene Enene)
Lotha Naga: Opvui (“owner of house / field / cattle”) — since both “Lord” and YHWH are translated as Opvui there is an understanding that “Opvui Jesus is the same as the Opvui of the Old Testament”
Seediq: Tholang, loan word from Min Nan Chinese (the majority language in Taiwan) thâu-lâng (頭儂): “Master” (source: Covell 1998, p. 248)
Thai: phra’ phu pen cao (พระผู้เป็นเจ้า) (divine person who is lord) or ong(kh) cao nay (องค์เจ้านาย) (<divine classifier>-lord-boss) (source: Stephen Pattemore)
Arabic often uses different terms for adonai or kurios referring to God (al-rabb الرب) and kurios referring to Jesus (al-sayyid الـسـيـد). Al-rabb is also the term traditionally used in Arabic Christian-idiom translations for YHWH, and al-sayyid is an honorary term, similar to English “lord” or “sir” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin).
Tamil also uses different terms for adonai/kurios when referring to God and kurios when referring to Jesus. The former is Karttar கர்த்தர், a Sanskrit-derived term with the original meaning of “creator,” and the latter in Āṇṭavar ஆண்டவர், a Tamil term originally meaning “govern” or “reign” (source: Natarajan Subramani).
Burunge: Looimoo: “owner who owns everything” (in the Burunge Bible translation, this term is only used as a reference to Jesus and was originally used to refer to the traditional highest deity — source: Michael Endl in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 48)
Yagaria: Souve, originally “war lord” (source: Renck, p. 94)
Aguacateco: Ajcaw ske’j: “the one to whom we belong and who is above us” (source: Rita Peterson in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 49)
Konkomba: Tidindaan: “He who is the owner of the land and reigns over the people” (source: Lidorio 2007, p. 66)
Chichewa: AmbuyeAmbuye comes from the singular form Mbuye which is used to refer to: (1) someone who is a guardian or protector of someone or group of people — a grandparent who has founded a community or village; (2) someone who is a boss or master over a group of people or servants and has absolute control over them; (3) owner of something, be it a property, animals and people who are bound under his/her rule — for people this was mostly commonly used in the context of slaves and their owner. In short, Mbuye is someone who has some authorities over those who call him/her their “Mbuye.” Now, when the form Ambuye is used it will either be for honorific when used for singular or plural when referring to more than one person. When this term is used in reference to God, it is for respect to God as he is acknowledged as a guardian, protector, and ruler of everything. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation).
Hdi uses rveri (“lion”) as a title of respect and as such it regularly translates adon in the Old Testament. As an address, it’s most often with a possessive pronoun as in rvera ɗa (“my lion” = “my lord” or “sir”). So, for example, Genesis 15:2 (“O Lord God”) is Rvera ɗa Yawe (“My lion Yahweh”) or Ruth to Boaz in Ruth 2:13: “May I find your grace [lit. good-stomach] my lion.” This ties in nicely with the imagery of the Lord roaring like a lion (Hosea 11:10; Amos 3:8; Joel 3:16). Better still, this makes passages like Revelation 5:5 even richer when we read about rveri ma taba məndəra la Yuda, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Revelation 19:16, Jesus is rveri ta ghəŋa rveriha “the lion above lions” (“lord of lords”). (Source: Drew Maust)
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew adonai was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments: “Another case is the use of kurios referring to Jesus. For Yahweh (in English Bibles: ‘the Lord‘), the Septuagint uses kurios. Although the term kurios usually has to do with one’s authority over others, when the New Testament authors use this word from the Septuagint to refer to Jesus, they are making an extraordinary claim: Jesus of Nazareth is to be identified with Yahweh.”
Good News Translationit is your Christian duty to represents the prepositional phrase “in the Lord” (see Col 3.18). There are some important Greek manuscripts that omit the phrase, and New English Bible omits it; all other editions of the Greek New Testament include it (Good News Bible has it within brackets). The manuscript evidence is strongly in favor of the phrase, but it does seem rather redundant with the additional for this is the right thing to do. For other occurrences of the phrase in Ephesians see 2.21; 4.1, l7; 5.8; 6.10, 21.
It may be difficult in some languages to speak of Christian duty, but the sense of obligation which is involved in this statement, to obey your parents, may be expressed in some languages as “as believers you should obey your parents” or “as followers of the Lord you should obey your parents” or “because you belong to the Lord you should obey your parents.”
The clause for this is the right thing to do may simply reinforce the concept of obligation by saying “for this is what you should do” or “for you are doing what is right if you do this.”
The writer, in support of his instruction, quotes the commandment about respecting parents (Exo 20.12; Deut 5.16) almost precisely as it is found in the Septuagint, except that the quotation here does not include the final clause “that the Lord your God is giving you.”
The Greek verb translated respect is used of the attitude Christians should have toward the Roman Emperor (1 Peter 2.17) and toward Jesus Christ and his Father (John 5.23). It means to consider worthy of honor, respect, obedience.
In a number of languages respect is expressed as “to regard as being important.” In other instances it may be necessary to employ a rather extended phrase, for example, “think of them as deserving to be honored.” Sometimes respect is expressed in terms of the extent of attention which is paid to a person, for example, “you should pay attention to everything your father and mother say.”
At the end of verse 2 the writer adds a comment, “which is the first commandment with a promise,” to show that it is in the interests of children to respect their parents.
Rather than employing a relative clause such as “which is the first commandment,” it may be better to introduce a completely new statement, but only at the end of verse 3, for example, “this is the first commandment that promises a benefit” or “… promises that something good will come to one who obeys” or “… to those who obey.”
In verse 3 the writer quotes the promise: so that all may go well with you, and you may live a long time in the land. In Exodus 20.12 the land is, of course, the land of Canaan, which Yahweh gave to the Israelites, as the following relative clause makes clear, “which the Lord your God gives you” ( Revised Standard Version). Here, however, the land is not the Promised Land; as Robinson points out, here it probably means “the earth” (so Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, and others). In translation, however, it is not necessary to say explicitly “and live a long time on earth”; all that is needed (in English, at least) is “and live a long time.” Salmond takes it in the restricted sense of the land in which one lives, that is, one’s country, but this seems rather improbable.
It is important that the translation not sound as if the commandment quoted in verse 2 is the first commandment. The translation must emphasize that it is the first commandment that has a promise with it. In some languages it is necessary to begin with a statement of this fact, “The first commandment that has a promise added is the one that says, ‘Respect your father and mother.’ The promise that is added to it is, ‘So that all may go well with you and you may live a long time in the land.’ ” Sometimes commandment needs to be expanded to something like “commandment that God gave.”
So that all may go well with you may be rendered by “so that you will prosper in everything” or “so that everything that is good will happen to you.”
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 .
The first relationship that Paul talked about was the marriage relationship (5:21–33). In this section, Paul talked about another relationship: that of children and parents. Children should obey their parents, and parents should train their children with love and Christian discipline.
Here are some other examples for a heading for this section:
Paul’s advice to children and parents (God’s Word)
-or-
Children should obey their parents
Paragraph 6:1–4
6:1–2
In 5:21–24 Paul told Christians to “submit” to one another and told wives to “submit” to their husbands. In 5:33 he told wives to “respect” their husbands. Now in 6:1, he tells children to “obey” and “honor” their parents. These words are similar in meaning. To respect or honor someone means to recognize/consider that person is worthy to love and obey. To submit to a person means to be willing to be under that person’s authority, to yield our rights to that person. To obey a person means to do what that person says.
6:1a
Children: Here the word Children refers to children whose parents are still taking care of them.
obey your parents in the Lord: There are differing views as to the meaning of the phrase in the Lord. Here are two of these views:
(1) It means that children should obey their parents “because they (the children) are united to the Lord” or “because they belong to the Lord.” For example:
because you belong to the Lord (New Living Translation (2004))
(New Living Translation (2004), Contemporary English VersionGod’s Word)
(2) It means that children should obey their parents because it is the will of the Lord. For example:
as the Lord wants (New Century Version)
(New Century Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). Most English versions translate this phrase literally, and it is not possible to tell which interpretation they follow.
Lord: Here, the word Lord refers to Jesus.
6:1b
for: In the Greek 1b begins with a conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as for. This conjunction introduces the basis for his command in 1a.
Here are some other possible ways to introduce this basis:
Because
-or-
My reason ⌊for this command⌋ is that
this is right: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as right in this context means “conforming to God’s standard, just, right, proper.” The clause “for this is right” may need to be expanded. Some examples are:
for this is the right thing to do
-or-
because this is the correct thing that you should do
-or-
because this is what you should do
-or-
Because this is the right behavior to do
See righteous in the Glossary for more information.
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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