The Greek term that is translated as a form of “save” in English is translated in Shipibo-Conibo with a phrase that means literally “make to live,” which combines the meaning of “to rescue” and “to deliver from danger,” but also the concept of “to heal” or “restore to health.”
In San Blas Kuna it is rendered as “help the heart,” in Laka, it is “take by the hand” in the meaning of “rescue” or “deliver,” in Huautla Mazatec the back-translation of the employed term is “lift out on behalf of,” in Anuak, it is “have life because of,” in Central Mazahua “be healed in the heart,” in Baoulé “save one’s head” (meaning to rescue a person in the fullest sense), in Guerrero Amuzgo “come out well,” in Northwestern Dinka “be helped as to his breath” (or “life”) (source: Bratcher / Nida), and in Noongarbarrang-ngandabat or “hold life” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).
The Greek that is often translated as “trespass” or “transgression” in English is translated as “missing the commandment” in Kipsigis and “to step beyond the law” in Navajo. (Source: Bratcher / Nida 1961)
In Tepeuxila Cuicatec it is translated as “thing not reached.” Marjorie Davis (in The Bible Translator 1952, p. 34ff. ) explains: “[This] implies that the goal was not reached, the task was not finished, or of finished, it was not satisfactorily done. According to the Cuicateco way of thinking of one does not what is expected of him, he offends [or: trespasses] and is an offence.”
The Greek that is translated in English as “by grace you have been saved” or similar is translated in Yatzachi Zapotec as “because God loves us he has saved us.” The change from the second person plural pronoun to the first person plural pronoun had to be made to include the writer in this verse, who in Yatzachi Zapotec would have otherwise been excluded. (Source: Inez Butler in Notes on Translation 16, 1965, p. 4-5)
“The Greek word charis, usually translated by English ‘grace,’ is one of the desperations of translators. The area of meaning is exceptionally extensive. Note the following possible meanings for this word in various contexts of the New Testament: ‘sweetness,’ ‘charm,’ ‘loveliness,’ ‘good-will,’ ‘loving-kindness,’ ‘favor,’ ‘merciful kindness,’ ‘benefit,’ ‘gift,’ ‘benefaction,’ ‘bounty,’ and ‘thanks.’ The theological definition of ‘unmerited favor’ (some translators have attempted to employ this throughout) is applicable to only certain contexts. Moreover, it is quite a task to find some native expression which will represent the meaning of ‘unmerited favor.’ In some languages it is impossible to differentiate between ‘grace’ and ‘kindness.’ In fact, the translation ‘kindness’ is in some cases quite applicable. In other languages, a translation of ‘grace’ is inseparable from ‘goodness.’ In San Miguel El Grande Mixtec a very remarkable word has been used for ‘grace.’ It is made up of three elements. The first of these is a prefixial abstractor. The second is the stem for ‘beauty.’ The third is a suffix which indicates that the preceding elements are psychologically significant. The resultant word may be approximately defined as ‘the abstract quality of beauty of personality.’” (Source: Nida 1947, p. 223)
Other translations include (click or tap here to see more):
Inuktitut: “God’s kindness that enables us” (source: Andrew Atagotaaluk)
Nukna: “God gave his insides to one.” (“The ‘insides’ are the seat of emotion in Nukna, like the heart in the English language. To give your insides to someone is to feel love toward them, to want what is best for them, and to do good things for them.” (Source: Matt Taylor in The PNG Experience )
Uma: “(God’s) white insides” (source: Uma Back Translation)
the Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) uses a large variety of translations, including “undeserved friendliness,” “wonderful work of God,” “loving attention,” “generous,” but also “undeserved grace” (using the traditional German term Gnade)
In Latvian the term žēlastība is used both for “grace” and “mercy.” (Source: Katie Roth)
For Muna, René van den Berg explains the process how the translation team arrived at a satisfactory solution: “Initial translation drafts in Muna tended to (…) use the single word kadawu ‘part, (given) share, gift,’ but this word is really too generic. It lacks the meaning component of mercy and kindness and also seems to imply that the gift is part of a larger whole. Consequently we now [translate] according to context. In wishes and prayers such as ‘Grace to you and peace from God’ we translate ‘grace’ as kabarakati ‘blessing’ (e.g. Gal 1:3). In many places we use kataano lalo ‘goodness of heart’ (e.g. Gal 1:15 ‘because of the goodness of his heart God chose me’) as well as the loan rahamati ‘mercy’ (e.g. ‘you have-turned-your-backs-on the mercy of God’ for ‘you have fallen away from grace’; Gal 5:4). In one case where the unmerited nature of ‘grace’ is in focus, we have also employed katohai ‘a free gift’ (typically food offered to one’s neighbo-1urs) in the same verse. ‘The reason-you-have-been-saved is because of the goodness of God’s heart (Greek charis, Muna kataano lalo), going-through your belief in Kristus. That salvation is not the result of your own work, but really a free-gift (Greek dooron ‘gift’; Muna katohai) of God.’ (Eph 2:8).
In Burmese, it is translated with the Buddhist term kyeh’jooh’tau (ကျေးဇူးတော်). LaSeng Dingrin (in Missiology 37/4, 2009, p. 485ff.) explains: “As regards the Christian term ‘grace,’ Judson [the first translator of the Bible into Burmese] could not have brought the Burmese Buddhists the good news about the redeeming work of Jesus Christ and its benefits (i.e., forgiveness and salvation), without employing the Burmese Buddhist term kyeh’jooh’tau (‘grace’). Deriving from Palikataññuta (“gratefulness”), kyeh’jooh’tau denotes ‘good deeds for others or benefits,’ which occur among humans. (…) When Christianized, kyeh’jooh’tau also refers to the atoning work of Jesus and its benefits, and can occur between humans and God. The word kyeh’jooh’tau looks very Burmese Buddhist, but it is Christian, too, and conveys the core of the Christian proclamation. Furthermore, kyeh’jooh’tau itself shows that translatability of Christianity cannot be imagined without reliance on Buddhism.” (See also the Burmese entry for God)
In American Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines “compassion” and “giving out.” (Source: RuthAnna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Grace” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
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.
Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 2:5:
Uma: “While we were still like dead people because of our transgressions, he gave us new life together with [lit., at one time with] Kristus. So, only because-of the grace of God we were lifted from the punishment of our sins.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “therefore, even though we (incl.) were like dead people because of our (incl.) bad doings, we (incl.) are caused-to-be-alive together with Christ. You are saved because of his love and his mercy/pity for you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “In spite of the fact that we (incl.) were like dead people because we did not obey His commands, when He raised Christ from the dead He included us also so that we (incl.) might come to own life which has no end. He freed us (incl.) from punishment only because of His kindness to us.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Even though it was as though we were dead on account of our sins, he gave us new life on account of our being joined-to/belonging-to Cristo. Therefore the mercy/grace of God is the reason that we were saved.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Because even though it’s like we were absolutely dead because of our sin, he like included us with Cristo whom he made to live again, in that he will give us life which has no end. Really only because of this grace/mercy of God can we be saved from his punishment of our former way-of-life.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “And now because we walk with Christ, he has given us the new life. Because we had been dead because of our sins. But God did us the favor that he saved us.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
The Greek Christos (Χρηστός) is typically transliterated when it appears together with Iésous (Ἰησοῦς) (Jesus). In English the transliteration is the Anglicized “Christ,” whereas in many other languages it is based on the Greek or Latin as “Kristus,” “Cristo,” or similar.
When used as a descriptive term in the New Testament — as it’s typically done in the gospels (with the possible exceptions of for instance John 1:17 and 17:3) — Christos is seen as the Greek translation of the Hebrew mashiaḥ (המשיח) (“anointed”). Accordingly, a transliteration of mashiaḥ is used, either as “Messiah” or based on the Greek or Latin as a form of “Messias.”
This transliteration is also used in the two instances where the Greek term Μεσσίας (Messias) is used in John 1:41 and 4:25.
In some languages and some translations, the term “Messiah” is supplemented with an explanation. Such as in the GermanGute Nachricht with “the Messiah, the promised savior” (Wir haben den Messias gefunden, den versprochenen Retter) or in Muna with “Messiah, the Saving King” (Mesias, Omputo Fosalamatino) (source: René van den Berg).
In predominantly Muslim areas or for Bible translations for a Muslim target group, Christos is usually transliterated from the Arabic al-Masih (ٱلْمَسِيحِ) — “Messiah.” In most cases, this practice corresponds with languages that also use a form of the Arabic Isa (عيسى) for Jesus (see Jesus). There are some exceptions, though, including modern translations in Arabic which use Yasua (يَسُوعَ) (coming from the Aramaic Yēšūa’) alongside a transliteration of al-Masih, Hausa which uses Yesu but Almahisu, and some Fula languages (Adamawa Fulfulde, Nigerian Fulfulde, and Central-Eastern Niger Fulfulde) which also use a form of Iésous (Yeesu) but Almasiihu (or Almasiifu) for Christos.
In Indonesian, while most Bible translations had already used Yesus Kristus rather than Isa al Masih, three public holidays used to be described using the term Isa Al Masih. From 2024 the government will use Yesus Kristus in those holiday names instead (see this article in Christianity Today ).
Other solutions that are used by a number of languages include these:
Dobel: “The important one that God had appointed to come” (source: Jock Hughes)
Noongar: Keny Mammarap or “The One Man” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Mairasi: “King of not dying for life all mashed out infinitely” (for “mashed out,” see salvation; source: Lloyd Peckham)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “One chosen by God to rule mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Bacama: Ma Pwa a Ngɨltən: “The one God has chosen” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
Binumarien: Anutuna: originally a term that was used for a man that was blessed by elders for a task by the laying on of hands (source: Desmond Oatridges, Holzhausen 1991, p. 49f.)
Noongar: Keny Boolanga-Yira Waangki-Koorliny: “One God is Sending” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uab Meto: Neno Anan: “Son of heaven” P. Middelkoop explains: “The idea of heavenly power bestowed on a Timorese king is rendered in the title Neno Anan. It is based on the historical fact that chiefs in general came from overseas and they who come thence are believed to have come down from heaven, from the land beyond the sea, that means the sphere of God and the ghosts of the dead. The symbolical act of anointing has been made subservient to the revelation of an eternal truth and when the term Neno Anan is used as a translation thereof, it also is made subservient to a new revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The very fact that Jesus came from heaven makes this translation hit the mark.” (Source: P. Middelkoop in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 183ff. )
In Finnish Sign Language both “Christ” and “Messiah” are translated with sign signifying “king.” (Source: Tarja Sandholm)
“Christ / Messiah” in Finnish Sign Language (source )
Law (2013, p. 97) writes about how the Ancient GreekSeptuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew mashiah was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments (click or tap here to read more):
“Another important word in the New Testament that comes from the Septuagint is christos, ‘Christ.’ Christ is not part of the name of the man from Nazareth, as if ‘the Christs’ were written above the door of his family home. Rather, ‘Christ’ is an explicitly messianic title used by the writers of the New Testament who have learned this word from the Septuagint’s translation of the Hebrew mashiach, ‘anointed,’ which itself is often rendered in English as ‘Messiah.’ To be sure, one detects a messianic intent on the part of the Septuagint translator in some places. Amos 4:13 may have been one of these. In the Hebrew Bible, God ‘reveals his thoughts to mortals,’ but the Septuagint has ‘announcing his anointed to humans.’ A fine distinction must be made, however, between theology that was intended by the Septuagint translators and that developed by later Christian writers. In Amos 4:13 it is merely possible we have a messianic reading, but it is unquestionably the case that the New Testament writers exploit the Septuagint’s use of christos, in Amos and elsewhere, to messianic ends.”
Now the writer turns away from a description of the sinful condition of mankind to a fresh statement of what God has done for all people. “God” in verse 4 is the subject of the main verb “made alive” in verse 5, and between the subject and the verb come two participial clauses: (1) “(God) being rich in mercy” and (2) “we being dead in our trespasses.”
The first participial clause gives the circumstance or reason why God brought us to life with Christ: it was because he is “rich in mercy” (But God’s mercy is so abundant), which mercy is based on “his great love with which he loved us” (and his love for us is so great). The adjective “rich” means here “great, abundant”: “God’s mercy was abundant.” The Greek noun translated “mercy” means “pity, compassion, feeling of sympathy.” The writer says, “God is very merciful because of his great love for us.” The noun “love” is used of the readers in 1.15; of God in 1.4. The Greek “his great love with which he loved us” is emphatic, the writer using both the noun and the verb. The pronoun “us” is here inclusive, referring to Jews and Gentiles alike.
For languages in which expressions for mercy and love must be expressed as verbs or verb phrases, it may be necessary to restructure the two statements in verse 4, for example, “but God is very, very kind and he loves us very, very much.” The result clause introduced by that at the beginning of verse 5 may then be rendered in some languages as “and so.”
In some translations the relation here between God’s mercy and his love is expressed by a cause and effect construction, for example, “God loved us so much and because of that he had great mercy on us.”
The statement while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience (verse 5) should be rendered in essentially the same way as in the corresponding expression in 2.1, for example, “while we were, as it were, dead as far as the Spirit of God was concerned, because we refused to obey him.”
The main verb (verse 5) is a compound “to make alive together with”; it is followed by two other compound verbs in verse 6, “to raise together with” and “to seat together with.” In all three verbs the Greek preposition means “together with Christ,” and the thought of the whole passage is that Christians share with Christ his experience of being raised from death, being made alive, and being seated at God’s right side. The verb “make alive with” is also used in Colossians 2.13, and “to raise with” is used in Colossians 2.12; here only is the transitive use of “to seat with” found in the New Testament (and only once is the intransitive “to sit with” used, in Luke 22.55).
The relation between the first verb, “he made us alive with Christ” (verse 5), and the two following verbs, “he raised us with Christ” and “he seated us with Christ” (verse 6), is probably intended to be progressive: “he made us alive … and he raised us … and he seated us.”
In verse 5 “he made us alive with” is followed by the simple dative “with Christ,” which parallels very closely the passage in Colossians 2.23 very closely. It should be noticed that some very good manuscripts, including Chester Beatty and Vaticanus, have en tō christō which would mean “in our union with Christ”; despite its strong manuscript support, however, it seems secondary. There are problems involved in any literal rendering of he brought us to life with Christ, for this might imply that believers came back to life in the same way that Christ was raised from the dead. The relationship is a kind of figurative analogy, and therefore it may be useful to introduce this as a simile for example, “it is just as though God brought us back to life together with Christ.” It is important that the translation not have an expression which means “he (God) made us live with Christ.”
Between the first verb and the other two verbs comes the statement “By grace you have been saved” (It is by God’s grace that you have been saved). It is as though the writer anticipates himself and must at once state the basic fact, which he will come to in verse 8 and following. For “grace” see 1.2. The verb “to save” is the one most used in the Bible to describe the central event of humanity’s experience with God, namely, God’s intervention in human history to rescue people from a situation with which they themselves are not able to deal. In biblical history it is God’s intervention on behalf of the Hebrew people in Egypt, freeing them from slavery and taking them to the Promised Land, that provides the paradigm for the verb “to save.” Its perfect, final expression comes in God’s intervention in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who is called the Savior of mankind. Always the point is made and stressed: what human beings could not do for themselves, God, out of pure love, has done for them through Christ.
The idea of means expressed in the phrase by God’s grace must be rendered in some languages as cause, for example, “it is because God is so kind that you have been saved” or “God has saved you because he is so kind.”
It may be difficult to obtain a fully satisfactory word for “save,” since in so many instances one must select (1) a term with a very general meaning, such as “to help” or (2) terms with very specific meanings, such as “to rescue from death,” “to save from drowning,” or “to cause to escape.” The biblical term involves two important elements: (1) the removal of a person from a dangerous situation and (2) the restoring of a person to wholeness and health. If at all possible it is important to obtain some term which will mean more than mere rescuing from danger, for it is the positive aspect of restoration to health and well-being which is important in communicating the fuller range of meaning.
In verse 6 the two compound verbs are followed by the prepositional phrase “in Christ Jesus” (see Revised Standard Version). This seems to mean more than the simple dative “in Christ” in verse 5, and so is translated by Good News TranslationIn our union with Christ Jesus (similarly Barclay, New English Bible); Translator’s New Testament has “Because we belong to Christ Jesus.”
There are certain problems involved in a literal rendering of he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world, since this might imply that people had already died, were raised from the dead, and had already gone to heaven to rule with Christ Jesus. It may be necessary to recognize the figurative sense of this passage and therefore to translate he raised us up with him as “he raised us up, as it were, with Christ.” It may be necessary to represent he raised us up by “he raised us from spiritual death” or “he raised us to spiritual life.” The purpose to rule with him in the heavenly world may then be related to a future function, for example, “in order that we would then rule with him in the heavenly world” or simply “… in heaven.”
For in the heavenly world see 1.3. In a number of languages it is quite impossible to speak of “the heavenly world,” since heaven is one thing and the world (as the earth) is something quite different. Sometimes, however, an expression such as “heavenly realm” or “heavenly region” may be satisfactory.
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 .
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