complete verse (Ephesians 4:20)

Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 4:20:

  • Uma: “But you, it is not that sort of behavior that Kristus taught you.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But you, you have not learned such/like that from Almasi.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But as for you, by contrast, when you believed Christ, this was not what was taught to you.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But as for you, what you have been learning concerning Jesu Cristo is not like those-things,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But you, on your believing/obeying Cristo, you became sure that the life which is acceptable to him is not like that.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “But that word you heard that Christ taught is not like that.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Christ, Messiah

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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 German Gute 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 Greek Septuagint‘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.”

Translation commentary on Ephesians 4:20 – 4:21

These verses in Greek are not easy to understand. “You did not thus learn Christ” (compare Revised Standard Version) involves a most unusual use of the Greek verb “to learn” with a direct object of a person, “Christ, the Messiah.” And verse 21 continues without a break from verse 20, beginning “if indeed” (as in 3.2).

The sense of “learned Christ” seems clear: it means learning about Christ in the gospel which was preached to them; and the moral content of the message they heard was completely contrary to the sins described in the preceding verses. Goodspeed translates “that is not the way you have been taught what Christ means” (Jerusalem Bible “learnt from Christ” could be misunderstood to mean that they had actually heard Christ teach). It is possible that this statement of the writer was caused by the fact that there were people who taught that the new life in Christ allowed such sexual sins as are listed in the preceding verses.

Most translations will want to use an expression more or less equivalent to learned about Christ rather than simply “learned Christ,” which may not make much sense in many languages. The important thing in this verse will be for the translation to make sure that the emphasis is on that, the thing that was learned. Some languages will use a construction very much like what Good News Translation has done. Others will have to say something like “What you learned about Christ was not that thing,” or “What they taught you about Christ, it was not like that,” or “What you learned about Christ, was it that thing?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “You know that such a life does not agree with what you learned about Christ.”

The first part of verse 21 could be understood as King James Version translates it: “If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him.” The “if indeed” with which the Greek begins does not put in doubt what follows; it is a way of reminding the readers about the facts of their Christian experience. But a translation should not imply (as King James Version clearly states) that the writer is reminding his readers that they themselves had seen and heard Christ preach (so Translator’s New Testament “You certainly did hear him”). As Barth says, the language here “makes sense when it is assumed (as indeed is the case, for example, in 2 Cor 13.3) that ‘Christ’ himself ‘speaks in’ those proclaiming him.” In some languages the best way to represent the meaning will be to do what Barclay has done: “I have no doubt that you have been told about him.”

The Greek continues, “and in him you were taught” (compare Revised Standard Version), which Good News Translation represents by and as his followers you were taught; compare Translator’s New Testament “and as Christians you were taught” (similarly New English Bible).

In a number of languages it is difficult, if not impossible, to speak of believers as being followers, since the term meaning “to follow” implies primarily “to track down” rather than “to accompany” or “to be associated with.” Therefore, in some languages his followers must be rendered as “those who put their trust in him.” In other languages his followers is best rendered as “his people” or “those who belong to him.”

The clause that follows is literally “as is truth in Jesus,” which most, like Good News Translation, translate “the truth as it is in Jesus,” an expression which is generally understood to mean that the content of Christian truth is to be found in the person of Jesus.

In order to represent Jesus as the content of the truth, it may be necessary to translate the truth that is in Jesus as “the true words of the Good News which is about Jesus.” In this way the person of Jesus becomes the content of the Good News. In a number of languages one must add to any term for truth an indication of the content, and thus it seems appropriate here to introduce “the Good News.”

The unusual form of the Greek, however, allows for another understanding of the text. The clause is parenthetical, the infinitives of verses 22, 23, 24 being the objects of the verb “you were taught” in verse 21: “you were taught (as the truth is in Jesus) to put away … to be renewed … and to put on….” The lack of the definite article with the noun “truth” makes it difficult to take it as the subject of the clause, and Beare understands the clause to mean “as he (that is, Christ) is truth in Jesus,” by which is meant that the person and office of the Messiah were manifested in Jesus. Barth and others stress the moral and ethical dimensions of “truth”: right conduct, Christian behavior. This, of course, fits nicely into the context. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “and you have been truly taught therein, what the union with Jesus means for 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 .