Liz Cooledge Jenkins

Category: Ephesians

  • Empowerment and authoritarianism and the armor of God, with shout-out to the Black Panthers

    Here is one way I might translate Ephesians 6:10-17 (emphasis added): (10) Henceforth, (y’all) be empowered in (the) Lord and in the strength of his ability. (11) (Y’all) put on the whole armor of God for the purpose of y’all being powerful to stand up to the schemes of the devil; (12) because the wrestling,…

  • To the people with power

    In Ephesians 6:5-9, Paul gives a series of instructions to δοῦλοι (slaves or servants―people in a position of subservience or subjection), and then to κυρίοις (masters or lords―people in a position of power).  Here is the passage in the NRSV translation: 5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart,…

  • Wives and participles and Bible and I’m done defending Paul

    I thought I might write a post exploring how the original Greek of Ephesians 5:21-33 comes across a little less patriarchal―or at least a little more ambiguous in some ways―than our English translations suggest.  And there are plenty of things that could be said to this effect.  I could write about how Paul’s call to…

  • Y’all, be angry!

    As someone who has spent a fair amount of time reading the NIV translation of the Bible, I was surprised when I translated Ephesians 4:26 from the Greek to find that it does not really say “in your anger do not sin” (NIV). It actually says, “be angry and do not sin.” (This is all…

  • Each one with their neighbor

    Here is a literal translation of Ephesians 4:25:  “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, (y’all) speak truth, each one with his/her/their neighbor, because we are members of one another.” I’m interested in the part about speaking truth, each one with their neighbor. Some translations try to make this part sound more natural in English, which is nice,…

  • Enduring one another

    At the beginning of the fourth chapter of Ephesians, Paul writes this: “Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the…

  • Utterly spiritless

    In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul writes about the mystery of Christ that has been made known to him (v. 3). He writes about how God has given him grace to speak about the boundless riches of Christ (v. 8). And he writes that, in Christ, we have boldness and confidence to approach God (v. 12). …

  • Gendered titles & getters-of-stuff-done

    While reading the biblical books of Ephesians and Colossians in Greek, I have been struck by Paul’s repeated references to himself and others as διάκονος (pronounced de-ä’-ko-nos; it’s where we get the English word “deacon”): Paul says that he has become a διάκονος of the good news of God’s promise in Jesus, according to the…

  • Grace overflows into us

    In a lot of translations, Ephesians 1:7-8 reads something like this: “In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us” (NIV, emphasis added).  When I was translating, I came up with this: “In [Christ] we have redemption through his…

  • Predestination is not that interesting

    Over the last couple years of studying Greek―three quarters at Fuller and then studying on my own since then―my vocabulary has reached the point where I know every word that is used at least ten times in the New Testament.  So, when I translate, I tend to plug along until I come across a word…