Semantic Analysis

07 Semantic Analysis — Ephesians 1–6 (English → Burmese)

Purpose and Method

This document analyzes the full text of Ephesians in Koine Greek, chapter by chapter, to surface every load-bearing theological term the Burmese translation must handle with care. The core passage, Ephesians 2:1–10, receives full verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter receives a chapter-level term study using the same analytical fields: original word, transliteration, literal meaning, semantic range, English variants, contextual theological meaning in Ephesians, and destination-language (Burmese) rendering risk.

Governing rule: Any term already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json is reused exactly as recorded there. Such terms are marked [REUSED — Romans TM] below. Terms new to this curriculum are marked [NEW] and given a proposed Burmese rendering for confirmation in Step 2 (Linguistic Gap Analysis) and formal entry into an updated translation memory in later steps.

Doctrines in scope per the curriculum parameters: Salvation by Grace through Faith; Election and Predestination in Christ; The Church as the Body of Christ; Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity; The Mystery of Christ Revealed; Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God; Household Codes and Christ-Centered Relationships; Gifts for Building Up the Church; Walking in Newness of Life.

PART 1 — CORE PASSAGE: Ephesians 2:1–10 (Verse-by-Verse)

Ephesians 2:1

Greek: Καὶ ὑμᾶς ὄντας νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασιν καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν

Load-bearing terms:

νεκρούς (nekrous) — “dead”
- Transliteration: nekrous
- Literal meaning: without life; a corpse
- Semantic range: physical death; spiritual/relational deadness toward God; figurative deadness of a city or cause
- English variants: dead, deadened, lifeless
- Contextual theological meaning: total spiritual incapacity before regeneration — not sickness or weakness but complete absence of spiritual life toward God, the precondition Ephesians 2 exists to overturn
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: သေလျက်ရှိသော (thei-lyet-shi-thaw). Risk: Medium. Burmese “death” vocabulary carries strong Buddhist funerary and impermanence (အနိစ္စ) associations; must be taught as relational deadness toward God, not the natural cycle of death/rebirth that Buddhist teaching treats as expected and cyclical. Must not be softened to “weak” or “asleep.”
παραπτώμασιν (paraptōmasin) — “trespasses”
- Transliteration: paraptōmasin
- Literal meaning: a false step, a fall beside the mark
- Semantic range: transgression, misstep, sin as a specific act
- English variants: trespasses, transgressions, offenses
- Contextual theological meaning: paired with ἁμαρτίαις to give a comprehensive picture of sin as both specific acts and settled condition
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ပြစ်မှားမှုများ (pyit-hmah-hmu myar). Risk: Medium. Distinguish from generic wrongdoing; ensure it is read as offense against a personal God, echoing the baseline’s treatment of “sin” (အပြစ်).
ἁμαρτίαις (hamartiais) — “sins”
- [REUSED — Romans TM: sin → အပြစ်, doctrine_risk: High]
- Contextual theological meaning: here plural, denoting the totality of sinful acts flowing from the dead condition. Must retain the baseline’s distinction from အကုသိုလ် (demerit) — this is moral transgression against a personal God, not a negative entry on a karmic ledger.

Ephesians 2:2

Greek: ἐν αἷς ποτὲ περιεπατήσατε κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, κατὰ τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας

Load-bearing terms:

περιεπατήσατε (periepatēsate) — “you walked”
- Transliteration: periepatēsate
- Literal meaning: to walk around, to conduct one’s life
- Semantic range: literal walking; habitual conduct, lifestyle, way of life
- English variants: walked, lived, conducted yourselves
- Contextual theological meaning: the Ephesians theme-verb for lived pattern of life; used repeatedly through the letter (4:1, 4:17, 5:2, 5:8, 5:15) to mark contrast between old and new life
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ကျင့်နေခြင်း/ကျင့်ကြံနေခြင်း (kyin-nay-chin). Risk: Low-Medium. Must be kept consistent across all six chapters as the “walk” motif; avoid collapsing into a term suggesting ritual religious observance (comparable caution to law-vs-grace distinctions already flagged for ပညတ်တရား in Romans).
αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου (aiōna tou kosmou toutou) — “age of this world”
- Transliteration: aiōna tou kosmou toutou
- Literal meaning: the present age/era of this ordered system
- Semantic range: a temporal epoch; the present fallen order of human society opposed to God
- English variants: course of this world, ways of this world, present age
- Contextual theological meaning: a system of values and powers hostile to God, not simply “the world” as physical creation
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ဤလောက၏ခေတ်ကာလ (thi lawka i khit-kala). Risk: Medium. Care needed that “လောက” (loka — the Buddhist cosmological term for the conditioned world of samsara) is understood here as the present fallen moral-social order under evil influence, not the Buddhist cosmological loka-system of realms.
ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος (archonta tēs exousias tou aeros) — “the ruler of the power of the air”
- Transliteration: archonta tēs exousias tou aeros
- Literal meaning: the ruling one/prince of the authority of the air
- Semantic range: a title for a personal, malevolent spiritual power over an unseen realm
- English variants: prince of the power of the air, ruler of the kingdom of the air
- Contextual theological meaning: refers to Satan, understood as a personal spiritual being exercising real but limited authority in the present order — foundational to the letter’s spiritual-warfare doctrine (developed fully in 6:10-12)
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: လေထုအာဏာစက်ကိုအုပ်စိုးသောမင်း (lay-htu ar-nar-set ko oat-soe-thaw min). Risk: High. Burmese folk cosmology is dense with nat spirits, guardian spirits of place, and astrological powers governing the sky/air; this term must be taught explicitly as identifying Satan personally, a defeated but still-active enemy under Christ’s supremacy (cf. Eph 1:21-22), not one nat among the pantheon to be placated or negotiated with.
υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας (huiois tēs apeitheias) — “sons of disobedience”
- Transliteration: huiois tēs apeitheias
- Literal meaning: sons characterized by disobedience/unpersuadability
- Semantic range: a Hebraic idiom denoting people whose defining nature is disobedience
- English variants: sons of disobedience, disobedient people, those who are disobedient
- Contextual theological meaning: describes humanity’s condition apart from Christ — a nature, not an occasional lapse
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: နာခံမှုမရှိသောသားများ (na-khan-hmu ma-shi-thaw thar myar). Risk: Medium. The “sons of X” Hebraic idiom does not exist natively in Burmese; must render as a descriptive clause rather than a literal “sons,” or readers may take it as a genealogical claim.

Ephesians 2:3

Greek: ἐν οἷς καὶ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἀνεστράφημέν ποτε ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς σαρκὸς ἡμῶν, ποιοῦντες τὰ θελήματα τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν διανοιῶν, καὶ ἤμεθα τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί

Load-bearing terms:

ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς σαρκός (epithymiais tēs sarkos) — “lusts/desires of the flesh”
- Transliteration: epithymiais tēs sarkos
- Literal meaning: strong cravings of the flesh
- Semantic range: any strong desire, neutral or sinful depending on context; here always sinful, self-centered appetite
- English variants: lusts of the flesh, cravings of our flesh, desires of the flesh
- Contextual theological meaning: the flesh (σάρξ) as the corrupted human nature in rebellion against God, source of sinful appetite
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ဇာတိပကတိ၏တပ်မက်မှုများ (zar-ti-pa-ka-ti i tat-met-hmu myar). Risk: Medium-High. “ဇာတိပကတိ” (natural/inherited nature) must be taught as morally corrupted human nature in rebellion against a personal God, not as a neutral or karmically-inherited disposition to be gradually purified through discipline; the term risks collapsing into a self-improvement framework absent explicit teaching.
τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς (tekna physei orgēs) — “children of wrath by nature”
- Transliteration: tekna physei orgēs
- Literal meaning: children by nature belonging to wrath
- Semantic range: an inherited condition, not merely an acquired habit
- English variants: by nature children of wrath, by nature deserving of wrath, objects of wrath
- Contextual theological meaning: humanity’s condition of inherited guilt and liability to God’s righteous judgment prior to grace — a key text for original sin
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ဇာတိအားဖြင့် ဒေါသအမျက်တော်ခံထိုက်သောသားများ (zar-ti ar-hpyin daw-tha a-myet-taw khan-htaik-thaw thar myar). Risk: Critical. “ဒေါသအမျက်တော်” (God’s wrath) must be presented as the personal, righteous judicial anger of a holy Creator against sin — never softened into an impersonal karmic consequence (ကံ) automatically ripening from past deeds, and never diluted into mere divine displeasure that can be appeased through merit (ကုသိုလ်). This directly parallels the Critical-risk grace/merit distinction already established for Romans and must be handled with the same rigor.

Ephesians 2:4

Greek: ὁ δὲ Θεὸς πλούσιος ὢν ἐν ἐλέει, διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ ἣν ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς

Load-bearing terms:

δὲ (de) — “but” — the pivotal conjunction of the whole passage; marks the turn from human deadness (vv.1-3) to divine action (vv.4-10). Not itself a glossary term but a structural marker translators must preserve with equal rhetorical force in Burmese (ceremonial “သို့ရာတွင်” or “သို့သော်လည်း” rather than a weak connective).
πλούσιος … ἐν ἐλέει (plousios … en eleei) — “rich in mercy”
- Transliteration: plousios en eleei
- Literal meaning: wealthy/abundant in mercy
- Semantic range: ἔλεος = compassion shown toward the miserable or those under just judgment
- English variants: rich in mercy, abounding in mercy
- Contextual theological meaning: God’s mercy is the ground of his saving initiative toward those under wrath (v.3) — mercy withholds deserved judgment
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: သနားခြင်းကရုဏာနှင့်ကြွယ်ဝတော်မူသော (tha-nar-chin ka-yu-na nhint kwe-wa-taw-mu-thaw). Risk: High. ကရုဏာ (karuna) is a major Buddhist virtue term (compassion, one of the four brahmavihara). Must be taught as the personal mercy of a sovereign, offended God freely choosing to spare and save, not an impersonal or self-generated compassionate disposition cultivated through meditation. Pair explicitly with ကျေးဇူးတော် (grace) in v.5-8 to keep the personal, unmerited-favor sense clear.
ἀγάπην (agapēn) — “love”
- Transliteration: agapēn
- Literal meaning: love, selfless devotion
- Semantic range: the highest NT love-term, denoting God’s self-giving, covenantal love; distinct from ἔρως (romantic) or φιλία (friendship)
- English variants: love, great love
- Contextual theological meaning: the motive behind God’s mercy and grace; grounds election (1:4-5) and the cross (5:2, 5:25)
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ချစ်ခြင်းမေတ္တာ (chit-chin met-ta) — note: “မေတ္တာ” is a loaded Buddhist term (loving-kindness, one of the brahmavihara). Risk: High. Must be distinguished from Buddhist မေတ္တာ, which is a cultivated mental state radiated impartially toward all beings without necessarily entailing self-sacrificial action toward a particular covenant people. Agapē in Ephesians is personal, chosen, self-sacrificial, and covenantal (culminating in the cross, 5:25). Consistent qualification is required wherever this term recurs (1:4-5, 2:4, 3:17-19, 5:2, 5:25, 5:28, 5:33, 6:23-24).

Ephesians 2:5

Greek: καὶ ὄντας ἡμᾶς νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασιν συνεζωοποίησεν τῷ Χριστῷ — χάριτί ἐστε σεσωσμένοι

Load-bearing terms:

συνεζωοποίησεν (synezōopoiēsen) — “made alive together with”
- Transliteration: synezōopoiēsen
- Literal meaning: to make alive together, jointly to give life
- Semantic range: a rare compound verb (also 2:6 συνήγειρεν, συνεκάθισεν) built to stress union — believers do not merely receive new life parallel to Christ’s; they receive it in him, as one event
- English variants: made us alive together with Christ, made alive with, gave life together with
- Contextual theological meaning: regeneration is inseparable from union with the risen Christ — the same act that raised Christ raises the believer; foundational for the “in Christ” identity theme running through Ephesians
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ခရစ်တော်နှင့်အတူ အသက်ရှင်စေတော်မူသည် (Khayitto-taw nhint a-tu a-thet-shin-say-taw-mu-thi). Risk: Critical. The compound “with Christ” must not be lost through simplification to a plain “gave life”; the entire doctrine of union with Christ (already flagged in Romans as “Christian Identity in Christ,” High risk) intensifies here to a shared resurrection-life. Must not be rendered in a way that could suggest a repeatable cycle of dying and reviving (compare the baseline’s Critical prohibition on ပဋိသန္ဓေတည်ခြင်း for “resurrection”).
χάριτί ἐστε σεσωσμένοι (chariti este sesōsmenoi) — “by grace you have been saved”
- [REUSED — Romans TM: grace → ကျေးဇူးတော် (Critical), salvation → ကယ်တင်ခြင်း (Critical)]
- Grammatical note: σεσωσμένοι is a perfect passive participle — a completed past action with continuing present result (“you have been and remain saved”), reinforced again in v.8. Burmese must render this as a completed, received state, not an ongoing process of self-purification: e.g., ကျေးဇူးတော်အားဖြင့် ကယ်တင်ခြင်းကို ရရှိထားပြီးဖြစ်၏ (kyayzu-taw ar-hpyin kaetin-chin ko ya-shi-htar-pyi-hphyit-i). Risk: Critical — this is the verse most vulnerable to being read through a merit-accumulation lens (works constantly adding up toward eventual salvation) rather than a single decisive divine act already completed and secure.

Ephesians 2:6

Greek: καὶ συνήγειρεν καὶ συνεκάθισεν ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ

Load-bearing terms:

συνήγειρεν (synēgeiren) — “raised up together with”
- Related to [REUSED — Romans TM: resurrection → ထမြောက်ခြင်း, Critical] but here the compound stresses shared, not merely parallel, resurrection.
- Burmese rendering risk: Critical, same forbidden-term guardrail as baseline resurrection entry: never render with ပဋိသန္ဓေတည်ခြင်း (rebirth) or ပြန်လည်မွေးဖွားခြင်း. Proposed compound: ခရစ်တော်နှင့်အတူ ထမြောက်စေတော်မူသည်.
συνεκάθισεν (synekathisen) — “seated together with”
- Transliteration: synekathisen
- Literal meaning: to seat together, to enthrone jointly
- Semantic range: royal/judicial enthronement imagery; recalls 1:20-21 where Christ is seated at God’s right hand above all rule and authority
- English variants: seated us with him, made us sit with him
- Contextual theological meaning: believers share, by union with Christ, in his present exalted authority over the very “rulers and authorities” named in 2:2 and developed in 6:10-12 — present positional victory, not merely future hope
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ခရစ်တော်နှင့်အတူ ကောင်းကင်ဘုံအရပ်၌ ထိုင်ခုံပေါ်တင်တော်မူသည် (Khayitto-taw nhint a-tu kaung-kin-bon a-yat hti nay-htaing-pon tin-taw-mu-thi). Risk: High. Must not be diluted to a vague future hope; convey present, secure positional authority in Christ, distinct from any Buddhist notion of merit-based ascent through celestial planes (deva/Brahma realms) attained progressively through one’s own accumulated kutho.
ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις (en tois epouraniois) — “in the heavenly places”
- Transliteration: en tois epouraniois
- Literal meaning: in the heavenly/above-heaven regions
- Semantic range: a distinctly Ephesians phrase (1:3, 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, 6:12) denoting the unseen spiritual realm where both Christ reigns and hostile powers operate
- English variants: heavenly places, heavenly realms, in heaven
- Contextual theological meaning: the arena of the letter’s spiritual-warfare theology; both blessing (1:3) and conflict (6:12) occur here
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ကောင်းကင်ဘုံအရပ်များ (kaung-kin-bon a-yat myar). Risk: High. Must be kept terminologically consistent across all five Ephesians occurrences; risk of conflation with the tiered Buddhist cosmology of multiple heavenly deva-realms (kama-loka, rupa-loka) attainable by merit. Teaching note required distinguishing this as the unseen spiritual dimension of God’s reign and conflict, not a hierarchy of merit-earned abodes.

Ephesians 2:7

Greek: ἵνα ἐνδείξηται ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσιν τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις τὸ ὑπερβάλλον πλοῦτος τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ ἐν χρηστότητι ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ

Load-bearing terms:

ὑπερβάλλον πλοῦτος τῆς χάριτος (hyperballon ploutos tēs charitos) — “surpassing/immeasurable riches of his grace”
- Transliteration: hyperballon ploutos tēs charitos
- Literal meaning: wealth that throws itself beyond, exceeding riches, of grace/favor
- Semantic range: ὑπερβάλλον = exceeding all normal bounds; πλοῦτος = abundant wealth, used repeatedly in Ephesians (1:7, 1:18, 2:7, 3:8, 3:16) as a favorite descriptor of God’s generosity
- English variants: immeasurable riches of his grace, surpassing riches of his grace, incomparable riches
- Contextual theological meaning: God’s eternal purpose in salvation is to put his own grace permanently on display — salvation is not only for the sinner’s benefit but for God’s everlasting self-revelation
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ကျေးဇူးတော်၏ လွန်စွာကြွယ်ဝသောစည်းစိမ် (kyayzu-taw i lun-swa kywe-wa-thaw si-zein), keeping ကျေးဇူးတော် fixed per [REUSED — Romans TM: grace]. Risk: High. The imagery of “riches/wealth” must not evoke Buddhist notions of prosperity as fruit of past merit; it is God’s own inexhaustible, freely-given favor, displayed forever, not a merit-store believers draw upon.
χρηστότητι (chrēstotēti) — “kindness”
- Transliteration: chrēstotēti
- Literal meaning: goodness, kindness, benevolent usefulness
- Semantic range: moral goodness expressed in benevolent action toward others; distinct from mere pleasantness
- English variants: kindness, goodness
- Contextual theological meaning: the manner in which grace is expressed toward believers — grace is not cold legal transaction but warm personal kindness
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: သနားညှာတာမှု (tha-nar-hnyar-tar-hmu). Risk: Low-Medium. Minimal syncretism risk; ensure distinguished from ကရုဏာ (already flagged for “mercy” in v.4) to avoid collapsing two distinct terms into one Burmese word.

Ephesians 2:8

Greek: τῇ γὰρ χάριτί ἐστε σεσωσμένοι διὰ πίστεως· καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν, Θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον

Load-bearing terms:

χάριτι … διὰ πίστεως (chariti … dia pisteōs) — “by grace … through faith”
- [REUSED — Romans TM: grace → ကျေးဇူးတော် (Critical); faith → ယုံကြည်ခြင်း (Medium)]
- Contextual theological meaning: this verse is the single most quoted verse in Christian history for the grace-through-faith mechanism of salvation; grace is the source/means, faith is the human instrument that receives (not a meritorious contribution).
- Burmese rendering risk: Critical. This clause is the doctrinal center of the entire curriculum (“Salvation by Grace through Faith”) and must be rendered with total consistency wherever it recurs in teaching materials. The preposition διὰ (through/by means of) must be rendered to show faith as the channel of reception, not a co-cause alongside grace — risk of readers hearing “grace AND faith” as two contributing causes analogous to two merit-generating practices (e.g., ဒါန + သီလ, giving and precept-keeping) that together improve one’s standing.
δῶρον (dōron) — “gift”
- Transliteration: dōron
- Literal meaning: a gift, a present
- Semantic range: something given freely, without payment or earning; used of both offerings to God and gifts from God
- English variants: gift, present
- Contextual theological meaning: reinforces that salvation itself — including the faith that receives it — originates in God’s giving, not human achievement
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: လက်ဆောင်ကျေးဇူး (let-hsaung kyayzu) or simply ကျေးဇူးတော်၏ဆုကျေးဇူးအဖြစ် (as a gift of grace) to keep continuity with grace vocabulary. Risk: High. Must be clearly a unilateral gift from a personal giver (God), not a reward disbursed for spiritual practice, nor to be confused with ဒါန (dana, the meritorious act of giving practiced by the giver, which is precisely the reverse direction of this verse’s logic — here God is the giver, the sinner the recipient).
οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν (ouk ex hymōn) — “not of yourselves”
- Structural/negation phrase; not a lexical term but a doctrinally load-bearing clause. Must be preserved as an emphatic, unambiguous denial that salvation originates in the human party. Any softening (e.g., “not only from yourselves,” “not mainly from yourselves”) is a Critical-tier translation error.

Ephesians 2:9

Greek: οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων, ἵνα μή τις καυχήσηται

Load-bearing terms:

ἔργων (ergōn) — “works”
- Transliteration: ergōn
- Literal meaning: deeds, works, labor
- Semantic range: any human action; in Paul’s soteriology specifically denotes meritorious deeds offered as the basis for a right standing with God
- English variants: works, good deeds, human effort
- Contextual theological meaning: explicitly excluded as the ground of salvation, in direct contrast to grace (v.8) — the same works/grace antithesis structuring Romans 3-4 and 11:5-6
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ကောင်းမှုအကျင့် (kaung-hmu a-kyin) or လုပ်ဆောင်ချက်များ. Risk: Critical. This is the single highest-stakes term-collision point in the entire letter for a Myanmar Buddhist-background audience: ကောင်းမှု (good deeds/merit) is the operative word for the daily practice of ကုသိုလ်ပြုခြင်း (merit-making) that structures lay Buddhist religious life. This verse must be taught with the same rigor as the baseline’s Critical grace-doctrine notes for Romans 4:4-5 and 11:5-6 — salvation is explicitly and emphatically NOT secured by any accumulation of good deeds, however framed.
καυχήσηται (kauchēsētai) — “should boast”
- Transliteration: kauchēsētai
- Literal meaning: to boast, to glory in, to take pride in
- Semantic range: taking pride in an achievement, status, or possession, usually before others or before God
- English variants: boast, take pride, glory
- Contextual theological meaning: the purpose clause explaining WHY works are excluded — so that no one can claim personal credit for salvation, preserving grace’s exclusivity and God’s sole glory
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ကိုယ်ကိုယ်ဂုဏ်ယူဝါကြွားခြင်း (ko-ko gun-yu wah-kywar-chin). Risk: High. Directly undercuts any residual sense that a believer’s assurance rests on their own spiritual attainment or status; must be rendered strongly enough to close the door theologically opened by v.8’s grace-not-works logic.

Ephesians 2:10

Greek: αὐτοῦ γάρ ἐσμεν ποίημα, κτισθέντες ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ἐπὶ ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς, οἷς προητοίμασεν ὁ Θεός, ἵνα ἐν αὐτοῖς περιπατήσωμεν

Load-bearing terms:

ποίημα (poiēma) — “workmanship”
- Transliteration: poiēma
- Literal meaning: a thing made, a work of craftsmanship (root of English “poem”)
- Semantic range: any crafted product; here a metaphor for the believer as God’s own artistic creation
- English variants: workmanship, handiwork, masterpiece, work of art
- Contextual theological meaning: the believer’s new identity is itself something God has made, not something the believer manufactured — continuing the grace-not-works logic of vv.8-9 into positive new-creation identity
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ဘုရားသခင်၏လက်ရာ (Phayarthakhin i let-yar). Risk: High. Must be clearly God’s own handiwork/craftsmanship produced in the believer, not the believer’s self-fashioned moral achievement — otherwise this verse could be misread as reintroducing self-effort exactly where the passage has just excluded it.
κτισθέντες (ktisthentes) — “created”
- Transliteration: ktisthentes
- Literal meaning: created, made from nothing or radically transformed
- Semantic range: the verb used for God’s original creative acts (Genesis creation language); here applied to spiritual new creation in Christ
- English variants: created, made
- Contextual theological meaning: salvation is a creative act of God parallel to the original creation — an entirely new spiritual existence “in Christ Jesus,” not a renovation of the old self by self-effort
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ဖန်ဆင်းတော်မူထားသော (phan-hsin-taw-mu-htar-thaw). Risk: High. Should echo the same creation-vocabulary Myanmar Bible tradition uses for Genesis creation (ဖန်ဆင်းတော်မူ), reinforcing that this is a divine creative act, not human self-transformation through discipline.
ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς (ergois agathois) — “good works”
- Transliteration: ergois agathois
- Literal meaning: good deeds/works
- Semantic range: same ἔργον as v.9, now positively deployed — the FRUIT of salvation, not its ROOT
- English variants: good works, good deeds
- Contextual theological meaning: the sequence is critical: created FOR good works, not BY good works. Good works are the intended result and pathway of the new creation, never its cause. This precise ordering must be unmistakable in the Burmese rendering.
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Same base rendering as v.9’s “works” (ကောင်းမှုအကျင့်), but Risk here is Critical for a different reason: the translation must make the causal direction airtight — good works FLOW FROM salvation already secured by grace through faith (vv.8-9), and are NEVER the means by which salvation was obtained. A translator note distinguishing vv.9 and v.10’s uses of the same underlying word is mandatory (same “works” word, opposite argumentative role — excluded as cause in v.9, affirmed as fruit in v.10).
προητοίμασεν (proētoimasen) — “prepared beforehand”
- Transliteration: proētoimasen
- Literal meaning: to make ready in advance
- Semantic range: prior planning and preparation; here connects to the letter’s predestination language in 1:4-5, 1:11
- English variants: prepared beforehand, prepared in advance
- Contextual theological meaning: even the good works believers will do were foreordained by God as part of his eternal plan — extends the doctrine of election/predestination (Ephesians 1) into the domain of sanctified living (Ephesians 2), tying “Election and Predestination in Christ” directly to “Walking in Newness of Life”
- Burmese rendering risk: [NEW] Proposed: ကြိုတင်၍ ပြင်ဆင်ထားတော်မူသော (kyo-tin-yi pyin-sin-htar-taw-mu-thaw). Risk: High. Must convey a personal, sovereign, gracious divine plan, not an impersonal predetermined karmic fate (ကံဇာတာ) — the same distinction already established for “election” and “calling” in the Romans baseline must be extended here.
περιπατήσωμεν (peripatēsōmen) — “we should walk”
- Same root as v.2’s περιεπατήσατε; the passage’s opening (“you walked” in death, v.2) and closing (“we should walk” in good works, v.10) form a deliberate literary frame around the whole unit — a total reversal of life-direction accomplished by grace alone. Translators must preserve this bookend structure by using one consistent Burmese “walk” term (ကျင့်နေခြင်း/သွားလာကျင့်ကြံခြင်း) at both ends of the passage.

PART 2 — CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER STUDY OF THE WHOLE BOOK

Chapter 1 — Election, Redemption, and the Mystery of God’s Will

Term	Original	Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering Risk
Grace	χάρις	charis	unmerited favor	favor, gift, kindness shown without merit	grace, favor	Opens and closes the letter (1:2, 6:24); the ground of every blessing that follows	[REUSED — Romans TM: ကျေးဇူးတော်, Critical]
Blessed us	εὐλογήσας	eulogēsas	spoke well of, conferred benefit	to bless, to confer favor/well-being	blessed, has blessed	God as the source and agent of every spiritual blessing (1:3)	[NEW] Proposed: ကောင်းချီးမင်္ဂလာချီးမြှင့်တော်မူသော. Risk: Low-Medium; must not collapse into transactional “good fortune” (ကံကောင်းမှု, already forbidden for “grace” in the baseline).
Predestined	προορίσας	proorisas	determined beforehand	to decide/mark out in advance; a legal/sovereign decision made prior to an event	predestined, foreordained, chosen beforehand	Central to Election and Predestination doctrine (1:5, 1:11); God’s sovereign, personal, gracious choice in eternity past	[NEW] Proposed: ကြိုတင်ခန့်ထားတော်မူသော (kyo-tin khan-htar-taw-mu-thaw). Risk: Critical. Must be sharply distinguished from ကံဇာတာ/ကံကြမ္မာ (karma-fixed destiny) already flagged in the baseline for “election” (ရွေးကောက်ခြင်း) — this is the intensified predestination vocabulary of Ephesians 1 and requires the same guardrail applied with even greater explicitness, since προορίζω appears twice in this chapter (1:5, 1:11) as the letter’s signature election term.
Chosen/elected	ἐξελέξατο	exelexato	selected, picked out	to choose from among options	chose, elected	God’s choice of believers “before the foundation of the world” (1:4)	[REUSED — Romans TM: election → ရွေးကောက်ခြင်း, High] — retain rendering; note intensification here to a pre-creation timeframe requiring explicit teaching.
Adoption	υἱοθεσία	huiothesia	placement as a son	full legal son-status with inheritance rights	adoption, sonship	God’s predetermined purpose to adopt believers as sons (1:5)	[REUSED — Romans TM: adoption → သားအဖြစ်လက်ခံခြင်း, Medium]
Redemption	ἀπολύτρωσις	apolytrōsis	buying back, ransoming	releasing a captive/slave through payment of a price	redemption, ransom	Redemption “through his blood” (1:7) — a price-paid deliverance from sin’s bondage	[NEW] Proposed: ရွေးနှင်းခြင်း (ywe-nhin-chin). Risk: High. Must convey a costly transaction paid by another (Christ’s blood) on the sinner’s behalf, not a self-achieved liberation comparable to escaping the cycle of samsara through one’s own effort (compare the baseline’s Critical caution on “salvation” vs. နိဗ္ဗာန်ရောက်ခြင်း).
Forgiveness of trespasses	ἄφεσις τῶν παραπτωμάτων	aphesis tōn paraptōmatōn	release/pardon of missteps	legal or debt release; cancellation of a charge	forgiveness of sins/trespasses	The immediate content of redemption (1:7)	[NEW] Proposed: ပြစ်မှားမှုများ လွှတ်ငြိမ်းခွင့် (pyit-hmah-hmu myar hlwat-nyein-khwin). Risk: Medium; keep distinct from a moral debt one can gradually pay down through merit.
Mystery	μυστήριον	mystērion	a secret disclosed	that which was hidden but is now revealed to the initiated/chosen; in Paul, God’s previously concealed redemptive plan now revealed in the gospel	mystery, secret	”The mystery of his will” (1:9); developed fully in ch.3 as the specific content of Jew-Gentile unity in Christ	[NEW] Proposed: နက်နဲသောအမှုအရာ (nak-nae-thaw a-hmu a-yar) or လျှို့ဝှက်ချက်တော်. Risk: High. Must be taught as a plan now openly and fully revealed in the gospel to all who believe — not an esoteric teaching reserved for advanced initiates, which risks resonance with esoteric weizza (occult adept) traditions or restricted higher teachings reserved for monastics in Burmese religious culture.
Inheritance	κληρονομία	klēronomia	an allotted portion, inheritance	property passed to an heir; used of Israel’s land inheritance in the LXX, and figuratively of believers’ future inheritance in Christ	inheritance, portion, heritage	Believers “obtained an inheritance” (1:11) and have a “guarantee” of a future inheritance (1:14)	[NEW] Proposed: အမွေ (a-mway). Risk: Medium. Burmese inheritance customs are well understood culturally (as already noted for “adoption” in the baseline); the task is emphasizing this inheritance is secured by grace and guaranteed by the Spirit, not distributed by merit-based family standing.
Sealed	ἐσφραγίσθητε	esphragisthēte	marked with a seal	an official mark of ownership, authentication, or security (used of seals on documents, property, or slaves)	sealed, marked, stamped	Believers “sealed” with the Holy Spirit (1:13) as a mark of God’s ownership and security	[NEW] Proposed: တံဆိပ်ခတ်တော်မူသည် (tan-zeik khat-taw-mu-thi). Risk: High. Must convey secure divine ownership and guarantee, not a magical protective mark or amulet-seal (ban zat/in seiktha) common in Burmese folk-Buddhist protective practice — an important distinction given the cultural prevalence of protective seals/tattoos (in-saq) believed to confer supernatural protection.
Guarantee/pledge	ἀρραβών	arrabōn	down payment, first installment	a partial payment guaranteeing the rest will follow; a commercial/legal term	guarantee, pledge, down payment, deposit	The Holy Spirit as the “guarantee” of the believer’s future inheritance (1:14)	[NEW] Proposed: အာမခံချက် (a-ma-khan-chet) or စရံ (down payment idiom). Risk: Medium. Should be rendered with a term conveying certainty of a future, already-guaranteed completion, not a probationary or revocable pledge.
Power/might	δύναμις / ἐνέργεια / κράτος / ἰσχύς	dynamis / energeia / kratos / ischys	power, active working, dominion, strength	Paul stacks four near-synonyms in 1:19-21 for maximal emphasis on the greatness of God’s power	exceeding greatness of his power, working of his mighty power	The same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him above all rule and authority (1:19-21) is at work in believers — directly anticipates 2:5-6’s “made alive/raised/seated with Christ”	[REUSED — Romans TM: power_of_god → ဘုရားသခင်၏တန်ခိုးတော်, High] for the core sense; the additional near-synonyms (ကြီးမြတ်သောတန်ခိုး, အစွမ်းအာနုဘော်, အုပ်စိုးမှုတန်ခိုး) should be rendered with escalating intensity in Burmese without collapsing into အနုဘော်တန်ခိုး (amulet/relic potency), per the baseline’s existing prohibition.
Head over all things	κεφαλή	kephalē	head (body part); by extension, source, authority, ruler	literal anatomical head; metaphorically, one who has authority over a body or the source/origin of something	head, authority, ruler	Christ as “head over all things” for the church (1:22), introducing the head/body metaphor foundational to the Church-as-Body-of-Christ doctrine, expanded in chs. 4-5	[NEW] Proposed: ဦးခေါင်း (u-gaung) in the metaphorical-authority sense, or ခေါင်းဆောင် (leader/head) contextually. Risk: High. Must be consistently rendered across 1:22, 4:15, 5:23 so the head/body ecclesiology remains coherent; avoid a term suggesting Christ is merely a senior elder/abbot figure rather than the singular, cosmic, authoritative Head.
Body	σῶμα	sōma	body	physical body; corporate/organic unity metaphor for the church	body, his body	The church as Christ’s body, “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (1:23)	[NEW] Proposed: ကိုယ်ခန္ဓာ (ko-yi khan-da). Risk: High. Foundational term for the Church-as-Body-of-Christ doctrine; must be kept identical across 1:23, 2:16, 3:6, 4:4, 4:12, 4:16, 5:23, 5:30.
Fullness	πλήρωμα	plērōma	that which fills, completeness	fullness, completion, that which fills up a container or role	fullness, the fullness of him	Christ “fills all in all” through the church, his fullness (1:23); recurs in 3:19, 4:13	[NEW] Proposed: ပြည့်စုံခြင်း (pyi-son-chin). Risk: Medium-High. Should be taught as Christ’s own completeness overflowing into and being expressed through the church, not a Gnostic-style hierarchy of spiritual emanations (a historic misreading this term has attracted) nor a state of individual meritorious completeness attained through practice.

Chapter 2 (verses 11–22) — One New Humanity: Jews and Gentiles Reconciled

(Verses 1–10 are the core passage, fully treated above. This section covers the remainder of the chapter, which introduces the letter’s central unity doctrine.)

Term	Original	Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering Risk
Gentiles	ἔθνη	ethnē	nations, peoples	non-Jewish peoples	Gentiles, nations	Ephesian Gentile believers, “in the flesh,” formerly excluded (2:11)	[REUSED — Romans TM: gentiles → တစ်ပါးအမျိုးသား, Medium]
Uncircumcision / Circumcision	ἀκροβυστία / περιτομή	akrobystia / peritomē	foreskin (i.e., uncircumcised) / the cutting (circumcision)	ethnic-religious identity markers under the Mosaic covenant	”the Uncircumcision” / “the Circumcision”	Physical, ethnic identity markers now rendered irrelevant to covenant status in Christ (2:11)	[NEW] Proposed: အရေဖျားလှီးမင်္ဂလာမခံသူ / အရေဖျားလှီးမင်္ဂလာခံသူ. Risk: Medium. Requires OT covenant-sign background teaching (parallel to the baseline’s note on “seed_of_David” requiring OT background); Burmese readers need explanation that this was the covenant identity marker being relativized, not a general hygienic practice.
Strangers/aliens to the covenants	ξένοι τῶν διαθηκῶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας	xenoi tōn diathēkōn tēs epangelias	foreigners to the covenants of promise	outsiders excluded from a covenant relationship and its promises	strangers to the covenants of promise, excluded from citizenship in Israel	Gentiles’ former exclusion from Israel’s covenant promises (2:12)	Builds on [REUSED — Romans TM: covenant → ပဋိညာဉ်, High]. Risk remains High: must convey former real exclusion now definitively overcome, not merely lesser status.
Without hope, without God	ἄθεοι … ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες	atheoi … elpida mē echontes	godless … having no hope	a description of the pre-Christ Gentile condition: without the true God, without a secured hope	”having no hope and without God in the world”	The desperate condition unity in Christ resolves (2:12)	[NEW] Proposed: မျှော်လင့်ချက်မရှိ၊ ဘုရားသခင်နှင့် ကင်းကွဲသော. Risk: Medium; theological point (universal need, resolved only in Christ) must remain unqualified, per the baseline’s “Universal Scope of the Gospel” High-risk doctrine note.
Blood of Christ	τὸ αἷμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ	to haima tou Christou	the blood of Christ	Christ’s sacrificial death, the price/means of reconciliation	the blood of Christ	The means by which far-off Gentiles are brought near (2:13)	[NEW] Proposed: ခရစ်တော်၏ အသွေးတော် (Khayitto-taw i a-thway-taw). Risk: High. Sacrificial-blood atonement imagery has no native equivalent in Buddhist practice (which has no blood sacrifice system) and needs explicit teaching that this is a once-for-all, substitutionary, historical sacrifice — not to be confused with any notion of merit transferred through ritual offering.
Peace (he himself is our peace)	εἰρήνη	eirēnē	peace	relational peace between formerly hostile parties, and peace with God	peace, our peace	Christ himself, not merely a peace treaty, is the peace uniting Jew and Gentile and reconciling both to God (2:14-15)	[REUSED — Romans TM: peace → ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်း, Medium]; here intensified to describe Christ’s person, not only an experiential state — flag for High-tier attention where “peace” is a title for Christ himself.
Dividing wall of hostility	τὸ μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ	to mesotoichon tou phragmou	the middle wall of the fence/partition	a literal architectural partition (likely alluding to the Jerusalem temple’s barrier separating the Court of the Gentiles); figuratively, the Law-based ethnic-religious barrier between Jew and Gentile	dividing wall, barrier, wall of hostility	Torn down by Christ’s death — the abolition of the ethnic-religious barrier (2:14)	[NEW] Proposed: ခွဲခြားထားသော အကာအရံနှင့် ရန်လိုမှု (khwe-hkyar-htar-thaw a-ka-a-yan nhint yan-lo-hmu). Risk: High. This is a key term for the Unity of Jews and Gentiles doctrine; must be taught with the historical temple-barrier background, and by clear implication extended to any analogous ethnic/religious barrier a Myanmar audience might import — including sensitivities around Bamar-Buddhist majority identity versus ethnic-minority Christian communities, echoing the baseline’s caution on “Unity of Jews and Gentiles” (High risk) and “Universal Scope of the Gospel.”
Law of commandments	νόμος τῶν ἐντολῶν	nomos tōn entolōn	the law of commandments	the Mosaic Law’s ceremonial and civil requirements that functioned as a boundary marker	law of commandments contained in ordinances	Abolished in Christ’s flesh as the basis of division (2:15)	[REUSED — Romans TM: law → ပညတ်တရား, High]
One new man	εἷς καινὸς ἄνθρωπος	heis kainos anthrōpos	one new man/humanity	a genuinely new corporate humanity, not a synthesis or compromise of the two old groups	one new man, new humanity, new people	The two former groups (Jew, Gentile) are not merged into a modified version of one or the other, but created into an entirely new corporate humanity in Christ (2:15)	[NEW] Proposed: တစ်ဦးတည်းသောလူသစ် (ta-u-tae-thaw lu-thit). Risk: High. Foundational term for “Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity” doctrine; must not be rendered as a mere alliance or coalition of two groups but as a genuinely new single people — parallels the “new creation” theme of 2:10 and 4:24.
Reconcile	ἀποκαταλλάξῃ	apokatallaxē	to reconcile fully, to restore to former relationship	bringing two estranged parties (here: God and humanity; Jew and Gentile) back into right relationship	reconcile, reconciled	Christ reconciles both groups to God “in one body” through the cross (2:16)	[NEW] Proposed: ပြန်လည်သင့်မြတ်စေခြင်း (pyan-le thin-myat-say-chin). Risk: High. Must convey a decisive act accomplished once by Christ’s cross, addressing both horizontal (Jew-Gentile) and vertical (God-humanity) estrangement simultaneously.
The cross	ὁ σταυρός	ho stauros	the stake/cross	the Roman instrument of execution; in Paul, shorthand for Christ’s atoning death	the cross	The means of reconciliation and the killing of hostility (2:16)	[NEW] Proposed: လက်ဝါးကပ်တိုင် (let-war kat-taing), the established Myanmar Christian term for the cross. Risk: Low-Medium (already well-established in Myanmar Christian usage); ensure consistency with existing Myanmar Bible convention.
Access	προσαγωγή	prosagōgē	a bringing near, introduction	formal access into the presence of a superior, as through a court official who grants audience	access, we have access	Both Jew and Gentile now have equal, direct access to the Father by one Spirit (2:18)	[NEW] Proposed: ချဉ်းကပ်ခွင့် (chin-kat-khwin). Risk: Medium-High; must convey direct, unmediated access to God through Christ, distinct from any notion of needing an intermediary (nat, monk, or other religious intercessor) to gain audience with the divine — a live concern given Burmese intercessory religious practice already flagged in the baseline under “intercession.”
Fellow citizens / household of God	συμπολῖται … οἰκεῖοι τοῦ Θεοῦ	sympolitai … oikeioi tou Theou	fellow citizens … members of God’s household	full civic and familial belonging, not resident-alien or guest status	fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God	The Gentiles’ new, complete status — full belonging, not second-class inclusion (2:19)	[NEW] Proposed: သန့်ရှင်းသူများနှင့်အတူ နိုင်ငံသားချင်းများ ဖြစ်ခြင်းနှင့် ဘုရားသခင်၏ အိမ်ထောင်စုသား ဖြစ်ခြင်း, building on [REUSED — Romans TM: saints → သန့်ရှင်းသူများ]. Risk: Medium-High. Must emphasize full, equal belonging — not a lesser or provisional membership status — directly reinforcing the Unity doctrine.
Cornerstone / Foundation	ἀκρογωνιαῖος / θεμέλιος	akrogōniaios / themelios	the extreme-corner [stone] / foundation	the key structural stone that aligns and supports an entire building, here Christ; the foundation laid by apostles and prophets	cornerstone, chief cornerstone / foundation	The church’s structural unity and stability rests on Christ as cornerstone, built upon the apostolic-prophetic foundation (2:20)	[NEW] Proposed: ထောင့်ချုပ်ကျောက် (htaung-choat kyauk) / အုတ်မြစ် (oat-myit). Risk: Medium; standard architectural-theological metaphor, low syncretism risk but must be kept consistent with ch.3-4 body/building imagery.
Holy temple / dwelling place of God	ναὸν ἅγιον ἐν Κυρίῳ … κατοικητήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ	naon hagion en Kyriō … katoikētērion tou Theou	holy sanctuary in the Lord … dwelling place of God	the OT temple as God’s localized dwelling; here reapplied to the church corporately, built up “in the Spirit”	holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place for God	The church, Jew and Gentile together, is now the place where God himself dwells by the Spirit (2:21-22)	[NEW] Proposed: သခင်ဘုရား၌ သန့်ရှင်းသောဗိမာန်တော် (thakhin-phayar hnaint thangyin-thaw beiman-taw). Risk: High. Must not be confused with a physical pagoda/monastery building (ဘုရားကျောင်း/ဘုရားရိပ်သာ — already forbidden for “church” in the baseline). This is the corporate people of God as God’s living dwelling, continuing and intensifying the baseline’s existing high-risk note on “church.”

Chapter 3 — The Mystery of Christ and the Church’s Cosmic Purpose

Term	Original	Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering Risk
Stewardship/administration of grace	οἰκονομία τῆς χάριτος	oikonomia tēs charitos	management/administration of a household, applied to grace	a household-management term (root of English “economy”) describing Paul’s God-given administrative role in dispensing the gospel	stewardship of God’s grace, administration of grace	Paul’s apostolic commission to administer/dispense the revealed mystery of grace to the Gentiles (3:2)	[NEW] Proposed: ကျေးဇူးတော်ကို လုပ်ကိုင်စီမံရသော တာဝန် (kyayzu-taw ko lote-kaing si-man ya-thaw ta-won), keeping ကျေးဇူးတော် fixed. Risk: Medium; low syncretism risk, mainly a clarity issue.
Mystery of Christ	τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ Χριστοῦ	to mystērion tou Christou	the secret [now revealed] of Christ	See ch.1 entry; here specifically defined (3:6) as Gentiles being “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise” with Israel, through the gospel	mystery of Christ, the mystery	The specific content of “The Mystery of Christ Revealed” doctrine — previously hidden, now fully disclosed: Gentile inclusion as full co-heirs with Israel	Same rendering as ch.1’s mystery, carried forward. Risk: High. The definition Paul gives (3:6) must be preserved intact — the “mystery” is specifically Jew-Gentile unity in one body, not a vague spiritual secret; this content must not be lost in translation notes.
Fellow heirs	συγκληρονόμα	sygklēronoma	joint-heirs, co-heirs	sharing equally in an inheritance	fellow heirs, joint heirs	Gentiles inherit fully alongside Jewish believers, with no lesser share (3:6)	[NEW] Proposed: အတူတကွ အမွေခံသူများ, built on [REUSED — Romans TM inheritance concept]. Risk: Medium-High; must convey equal, not partial, inheritance share.
Manifold wisdom of God	ἡ πολυποίκιλος σοφία τοῦ Θεοῦ	hē polypoikilos sophia tou Theou	the many-colored/many-patterned wisdom of God	rich, multi-faceted divine wisdom displayed through a specific historical outworking	manifold wisdom, many-colored wisdom	God’s wisdom is displayed to the cosmic “rulers and authorities” through the church’s existence as a unified Jew-Gentile body (3:10)	[NEW] Proposed: ဘုရားသခင်၏ ကွဲပြားစွာသော ဉာဏ်ပညာတော် (Phayarthakhin i kwe-pyar-swa-thaw nyan-pyinnya-taw). Risk: Medium; ensure “ပညာ” here is understood as God’s own attribute displayed in redemptive history, not a Buddhist path-wisdom (paññā) attained through meditative insight.
Rulers and authorities (heavenly)	αἱ ἀρχαὶ καὶ αἱ ἐξουσίαι ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις	hai archai kai hai exousiai en tois epouraniois	the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places	spiritual powers, angelic or demonic, operating in the unseen realm	rulers and authorities, principalities and powers	The church’s unity is displayed as a testimony even to hostile/observing spiritual powers (3:10); anticipates 6:12’s spiritual warfare vocabulary	[NEW] Same base rendering as developed fully in ch.6 below (အထွဋ်အမြတ်များနှင့် အာဏာပိုင်များ). Risk: High; consistent treatment required across 1:21, 3:10, 6:12.
Boldness and access	παρρησία καὶ προσαγωγή	parrēsia kai prosagōgē	freedom of speech/confidence, and access	frank, confident, unafraid approach into the presence of a superior	boldness and access, confident access	Believers’ confident approach to God through faith in Christ (3:12)	Builds on ch.2’s “access” (ချဉ်းကပ်ခွင့်) plus ရဲရင့်စွာ (boldly). Risk: Medium-High; same access-to-God concern as ch.2.
Riches of his glory	τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ	to ploutos tēs doxēs autou	the wealth of his glory	God’s abundant, glorious resources	riches of his glory	The measure by which God strengthens believers (3:16)	[REUSED — Romans TM: glory → ဘုန်းတော်, High] combined with riches-vocabulary (see ch.1). Risk remains High per baseline’s existing caution against ဘုန်းကံ (merit-power).
Strengthened with power through his Spirit	κραταιωθῆναι διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος αὐτοῦ	krataiōthēnai dia tou Pneumatos autou	to be made strong/mighty through the Spirit	inner empowerment for spiritual endurance, given by the Holy Spirit	strengthened with power through his Spirit	The Spirit’s inner-strengthening ministry (3:16), preparing for the armor-of-God theology of ch.6	Builds on [REUSED — Romans TM: holy_spirit → သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော်, Critical]. Risk: High; must retain the Spirit as a personal divine strengthener, not an impersonal energy or life-force.
Rooted and grounded in love	ἐρριζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι ἐν ἀγάπῃ	errizōmenoi kai tethemeliōmenoi en agapē	having been rooted [like a tree] and founded [like a building] in love	horticultural and architectural metaphors combined for stability	rooted and grounded in love, rooted and established in love	The stable foundation from which believers come to know Christ’s love (3:17)	[NEW] Proposed: မေတ္တာ၌ အမြစ်စွဲ၍ တည်ထောင်ထားသော, using the qualified agapē-love rendering flagged in the core passage. Risk: High, same caution as core-passage “love” entry — must be distinguished from cultivated Buddhist မေတ္တာ.
Surpassing knowledge / fullness of God	ἡ ὑπερβάλλουσα γνῶσις … πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ	hē hyperballousa gnōsis … pan to plērōma tou Theou	knowledge that surpasses … all the fullness of God	knowledge exceeding normal comprehension; complete filling with the very fullness of God’s own presence and character	surpassing knowledge, filled with all the fullness of God	The prayer’s climax — believers filled with God’s own fullness through knowing Christ’s love (3:18-19)	Builds on ch.1’s πλήρωμα entry. Risk: High; must not be read as attainment of a superior gnosis reserved for spiritual elites (echoing the baseline’s caution on “saints” vs. an ascetic/enlightened elite), nor as self-generated mystical absorption into an impersonal ultimate reality.

Chapter 4 — Unity, Gifts, and the New Self

Term	Original	Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering Risk
Calling (worthy of the calling)	κλῆσις	klēsis	summons	See Romans baseline	calling, vocation	Believers urged to live worthy of their divine calling (4:1)	[REUSED — Romans TM: calling → ခေါ်တော်မူခြင်း, High]
Unity of the Spirit / bond of peace	ἑνότης τοῦ Πνεύματος … σύνδεσμος τῆς εἰρήνης	henotēs tou Pneumatos … syndesmos tēs eirēnēs	oneness of the Spirit … the binding-together of peace	organic unity created and maintained by the Holy Spirit, held together by peace as a binding ligament	unity of the Spirit, bond of peace	The practical outworking of the doctrinal unity established in ch.2 — believers must actively maintain, not create, this Spirit-given oneness (4:3)	[NEW] Proposed: ဝိညာဉ်တော်၏ စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်မှု၊ ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်း၏ ချည်နှောင်မှု. Risk: High; central to Unity doctrine — must convey a unity already given by the Spirit to be preserved, not achieved through human negotiation or compromise.
Seven “ones” (one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father)	ἓν σῶμα, ἓν Πνεῦμα … εἷς Κύριος, μία πίστις, ἓν βάπτισμα, εἷς Θεὸς καὶ Πατήρ	hen sōma, hen Pneuma … heis Kyrios, mia pistis, hen baptisma, heis Theos kai Patēr	one body, one Spirit … one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father	a sevenfold creedal-style list affirming singular, non-negotiable unity across every dimension of Christian existence	the sevenfold unity, the seven ones	The theological basis for church unity, echoing and consolidating “Church as Body of Christ” and “Unity of Jews and Gentiles” doctrines (4:4-6)	Draws on multiple [REUSED — Romans TM terms: lord → သခင်, faith → ယုံကြည်ခြင်း, god → ဘုရားသခင်, father → အဖ] plus [NEW] “body” (ကိုယ်ခန္ဓာ), “baptism” (Myanmar Christian standard: နှစ်ခြင်းဗတ္တိဇံ). Risk: High as a set; this creedal list must retain its emphatic numerical singularity (“one… one… one…”) in Burmese syntax, not soften into “a” or generic plural.
Measure of the gift of Christ	τὸ μέτρον τῆς δωρεᾶς τοῦ Χριστοῦ	to metron tēs dōreas tou Christou	the measure of the gift of Christ	a specifically apportioned share of grace given to each believer for ministry	according to the measure of Christ’s gift	Introduces the spiritual-gifts discussion — each believer’s ministry capacity is itself a gift, sovereignly measured out by Christ (4:7)	Builds on [REUSED — Romans TM: spiritual_gifts → ဝိညာဉ်ဆုကျေးဇူး, Medium] and “grace” (ကျေးဇူးတော်). Risk: Medium; must not be read as differing merit-levels among believers.
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers	ἀποστόλους … προφήτας … εὐαγγελιστάς … ποιμένας καὶ διδασκάλους	apostolous … prophētas … euangelistas … poimenas kai didaskalous	apostles … prophets … evangelists … shepherds and teachers	the specific gift-offices Christ gives the church for its equipping (the “fivefold ministry”)	apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers	The gift-offices given “for the equipping of the saints” (4:11-12), central to “Gifts for Building Up the Church” doctrine	[REUSED — Romans TM: apostle → တမန်တော်, Medium] for the first term. [NEW] for the remainder: ပရောဖက် [REUSED — Romans TM: prophet → ပရောဖက်, Low]; သတင်းကောင်းဟောပြောသူ (evangelist, building on [REUSED — Romans TM: gospel → သတင်းကောင်း]); သိုးထိန်း (pastor/shepherd, ostheim, standard Myanmar Christian usage); ဆရာ (teacher). Risk: Medium overall; the pastor/shepherd term သိုးထိန်း must not be confused with monastic teacher-roles (ဆရာတော်), echoing the baseline’s existing caution on “apostle.”
Equipping	καταρτισμός	katartismos	complete outfitting, preparation for a task	making fully fit/ready for a specific function, medically also “setting” a broken bone	equipping, perfecting	The purpose of the gift-offices — to fully equip the whole body of believers for ministry, not to do all ministry themselves (4:12)	[NEW] Proposed: အသင့်ပြင်ဆင်ပေးခြင်း (a-thin pyin-sin pay-chin). Risk: Medium; conceptually straightforward, low syncretism risk.
Building up the body of Christ	οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ	oikodomēn tou sōmatos tou Christou	construction/building of the body of Christ	architectural metaphor applied to corporate spiritual growth	building up the body of Christ, edifying the church	The goal of gift-based ministry: the church’s growth into maturity as one unified body (4:12, 4:16)	[NEW] Proposed: ခရစ်တော်၏ကိုယ်ခန္ဓာကို တည်ဆောက်ခြင်း. Risk: Medium; keep consistent with “body” term from ch.1.
Unity of the faith / knowledge of the Son of God / mature manhood / measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ	ἑνότητα τῆς πίστεως … ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ … ἄνδρα τέλειον … μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ	henotēta tēs pisteōs … epignōsin tou Huiou tou Theou … andra teleion … metron hēlikias tou plērōmatos tou Christou	unity of the faith … full knowledge of the Son of God … a complete/mature man … the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ	the goal-state of corporate spiritual maturity, described via unity, knowledge, manhood/completeness, and Christ’s own full stature	mature manhood, full stature of Christ, unity of faith and knowledge	The maturity goal for the whole church, contrasted with spiritual infancy in v.14 (4:13)	Builds on [REUSED — Romans TM: son_of_god] plus ch.1’s πλήρωμα entry. [NEW] for τέλειος (maturity): ပြည့်စုံရင့်ကျက်ခြင်း (pyi-son yin-kyet-chin). Risk: High; maturity must be measured against Christ’s own fullness corporately, not individual meritorious spiritual attainment on a private ladder toward perfection (a risk given cultural resonance with graduated spiritual-attainment frameworks).
Tossed by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine	κλυδωνιζόμενοι … περιφερόμενοι παντὶ ἀνέμῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας	klydōnizomenoi … peripheromenoi panti anemō tēs didaskalias	tossed by waves … carried about by every wind of teaching	a nautical metaphor for doctrinal instability	tossed by the waves, blown about by every wind of teaching	The spiritual immaturity/instability corporate maturity is meant to overcome (4:14)	[NEW] Proposed: လှိုင်းလုံးများဖြင့်လှုပ်ရှားလွှင့်စင်ခြင်း၊ သွန်သင်ချက်တိုင်းလေတိုက်၍ ပါသွားခြင်း. Risk: Low; vivid metaphor, minimal doctrinal collision risk.
Speaking truth in love	ἀληθεύοντες ἐν ἀγάπῃ	alētheuontes en agapē	truthing in love	practicing truthfulness within a relationship of love	speaking the truth in love	The manner of corporate growth toward maturity (4:15)	Builds on qualified agapē-love rendering from core passage. Risk: Medium; ensure ချစ်ခြင်းမေတ္တာ qualification applies consistently.
Put off the old man / put on the new man	ἀποθέσθαι τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον … ἐνδύσασθαι τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον	apothesthai ton palaion anthrōpon … endysasthai ton kainon anthrōpon	to take off the old man … to put on the new man	clothing metaphor for decisive identity change — removing a former self-identity, putting on a new one	put off your old self, put on the new self	Core “Walking in Newness of Life” doctrine — decisive, once-for-all identity transformation, continuing 2:10’s new-creation theme and 2:15’s “one new man” (4:22-24)	[NEW] Proposed: ဓလေ့ဟောင်းလူကို ချွတ်ပယ်ခြင်း / လူသစ်ကို ဝတ်ဆင်ခြင်း (dale-haung lu ko chwat-pe-chin / lu-thit ko wat-sin-chin). Risk: High. Must convey a decisive, complete change of identity accomplished in union with Christ (echoing 2:10’s ဖန်ဆင်း/created language), not a gradual moral self-improvement project akin to progressively purifying one’s mind through discipline — the same causal-direction caution flagged for “good works” in the core passage applies here: the new self is given, then lived out, not self-manufactured.
Renewed in the spirit of your mind	ἀνανεοῦσθαι τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν	ananeousthai tō pneumati tou noos hymōn	to be renewed in the spirit of the mind	ongoing inner renewal of one’s mode of thinking	be renewed in the spirit of your minds	The ongoing dimension of putting on the new self — continual mental/spiritual renewal (4:23)	[NEW] Proposed: စိတ်နှလုံး၏ဝိညာဉ်ကို အသစ်ပြုပြင်ခြင်း. Risk: Medium; distinguish from mind-training as a self-directed meditative technique for purifying consciousness — this renewal is Spirit-enabled, in the context of union with Christ.
Grieve the Holy Spirit	μὴ λυπεῖτε τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον	mē lypeite to Pneuma to Hagion	do not grieve the Holy Spirit	causing sorrow to a person through sin	do not grieve the Holy Spirit	Sin’s effect on the personal, indwelling Holy Spirit (4:30)	Builds on [REUSED — Romans TM: holy_spirit → သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော်, Critical]. Risk: Critical; the verb “grieve” requires that the Spirit be understood as a personal divine being capable of relational sorrow, not an impersonal force or life-energy — reinforcing the baseline’s existing Critical guardrail against ဝိညာဉ်/နတ်ဝိညာဉ်.

Chapter 5 — Walking in Love and Light; Christ-Centered Marriage

Term	Original	Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering Risk
Imitators of God	μιμηταὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ	mimētai tou Theou	mimics/imitators of God	modeling one’s conduct directly on another’s example	imitators of God, followers of God	The basis for the ethical instruction of ch.4-5 — believers imitate God’s own character, especially his self-giving love (5:1)	[NEW] Proposed: ဘုရားသခင်ကို အတုယူသူများ (Phayarthakhin ko a-tu-yu thu myar). Risk: Medium; must be clear this is Spirit-enabled Christ-like character, not self-effort attainment of divine-like status through practice (a risk given some folk framings of advanced practitioners attaining god-like/deva status).
Christ gave himself as an offering and sacrifice	παρέδωκεν ἑαυτὸν … προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν	paredōken heauton … prosphoran kai thysian	he handed himself over … an offering and sacrifice	OT sacrificial-system vocabulary (both grain/general offering and slaughtered sacrifice terms) applied to Christ’s self-giving death	gave himself up … offering and sacrifice	Christ’s death as the ultimate self-giving love, the model for 5:25’s husband-love command (5:2)	[NEW] Proposed: ကိုယ်ကိုယ် ဆက်ကပ်လှူဒါန်း၍ ပူဇော်ရာယဇ်အဖြစ် ဆက်ကပ်တော်မူသော. Risk: High; needs care that “ပူဇော်” (offer/venerate) is understood as OT-pattern atoning sacrifice fulfilled once by Christ, not as an act analogous to Buddhist ritual offerings (ပူဇော်ခြင်း) made to images or spirits for merit or favor.
Fornication, impurity, covetousness	πορνεία, ἀκαθαρσία, πλεονεξία	porneia, akatharsia, pleonexia	sexual immorality, uncleanness, greed	a vice list describing behavior “not even named” among believers	sexual immorality, impurity, greed/covetousness	Behaviors incompatible with inheritance in the kingdom of God (5:3-5)	[NEW] Standard Myanmar Christian vocabulary already exists for these (ကာမဂုណ်လွန်ကျူးမှု, မစင်ကြယ်မှု, လောဘကြီးမှု). Risk: Low-Medium; mainly consistency, not conceptual collision.
Sons of disobedience / wrath of God	υἱοὶ τῆς ἀπειθείας … ὀργὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ	huioi tēs apeitheias … orgē tou Theou	See ch.2 entries; recurs at 5:6	Reinforces the accountability doctrine already central to 2:2-3	sons of disobedience, wrath of God	Warning against being deceived about the seriousness of these sins (5:6)	Same rendering and same Critical risk as ch.2 core-passage entries — reinforce that God’s wrath is personal, righteous, judicial, and reserved for real moral guilt.
Children of light / fruit of light	τέκνα φωτός … ὁ καρπὸς τοῦ φωτός	tekna phōtos … ho karpos tou phōtos	children of light … the fruit of light	a light/darkness ethical-identity contrast; the “fruit” is goodness, righteousness, and truth (5:9)	children of light, fruit of the light	Believers’ new identity and its natural moral fruit, contrasted with former “darkness” (5:8-9)	[NEW] Proposed: အလင်း၏သားများ / အလင်း၏အသီးအနှံ (a-lin i thar myar / a-lin i a-thi-a-hnan). Risk: Medium; light/darkness dualism is broadly cross-culturally intelligible, but ensure it is tied to moral transformation in Christ rather than an impersonal cosmic light-principle.
Filled with the Spirit	πληροῦσθε ἐν Πνεύματι	plērousthe en Pneumati	be filled in/with the Spirit	ongoing, repeated filling (present imperative) with the Holy Spirit’s influence and control	be filled with the Spirit	The positive counterpart to drunkenness (5:18) — Spirit-empowered life as the source of worship, thanksgiving, and household virtue that follows	Builds on [REUSED — Romans TM: holy_spirit]. Risk: High; must be a continual yielding to the personal Spirit’s influence, not the induction of an altered consciousness state achieved through technique (as might be assumed by analogy to trance or meditative absorption states).
Submitting to one another	ὑποτασσόμενοι ἀλλήλοις	hypotassomenoi allēlois	submitting/arranging oneself under one another	voluntary ordering of oneself under another, out of reverence for Christ	submitting to one another, submit to each other	The general principle (5:21) introducing the household-code section; mutual, Christ-reverent submission as the frame for what follows	[NEW] Proposed: ခရစ်တော်ကို ရိုသေသောကြောင့် အချင်းချင်း နာခံခြင်း. Risk: High; the mutuality of this verse must not be lost when the specific wife-husband instruction follows in 5:22 — both are grounded in reverence for Christ, not an arbitrary hierarchy of worth.
Wives submit to husbands as to the Lord / husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church	αἱ γυναῖκες τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν … ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ … ὁ ἀνήρ ἐστιν κεφαλὴ τῆς γυναικός, ὡς καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς κεφαλὴ τῆς ἐκκλησίας	hai gynaikes tois idiois andrasin … hōs tō Kyriō … ho anēr estin kephalē tēs gynaikos, hōs kai ho Christos kephalē tēs ekklēsias	wives to their own husbands … as to the Lord … the husband is head of the wife as Christ also is head of the church	the central Household Codes text; the marriage relationship modeled directly on Christ’s headship of the church	wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord; the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is head of the church	The Christ-Centered Relationships doctrine’s key text — headship modeled on Christ’s self-sacrificial headship (5:22-23), not on cultural patriarchal privilege	Builds on ch.1’s “head” (ဦးခေါင်း/ခေါင်းဆောင်) and [REUSED — Romans TM: lord, church]. Risk: High. Requires careful teaching alongside 5:25 (husbands must love/give themselves up sacrificially) so headship is not detached from Christ’s self-sacrificial pattern and misapplied as unilateral authority; also sensitive given existing patriarchal norms in Myanmar culture that could either overread or underread this text without the full Christ-pattern context.
Christ loved the church and gave himself for her; sanctify by washing of water with the word	ἠγάπησεν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ ἑαυτὸν παρέδωκεν … ἁγιάσῃ καθαρίσας τῷ λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος ἐν ῥήματι	ēgapēsen tēn ekklēsian kai heauton paredōken … hagiasē katharisas tō loutrō tou hydatos en rhēmati	he loved the church and gave himself … to sanctify, cleansing her by the washing of water with the word	baptismal/cleansing imagery combined with the marriage metaphor; Christ’s self-sacrificial love sanctifies and cleanses the church	Christ loved the church and gave himself for her … cleansing her by the washing of water with the word	The pattern husbands are to imitate: sacrificial, purifying, sanctifying love (5:25-26)	Builds on [REUSED — Romans TM: church, sanctification, holy] plus qualified agapē. Risk: High; “washing of water with the word” should not be read as a ritual purification independent of the gospel word — it is Spirit-and-word-effected sanctification, not a mechanical rite.
One flesh	μία σάρξ	mia sarx	one flesh	Genesis 2:24 marital-union language, quoted directly (5:31)	one flesh	The creation-ordinance basis for marriage, now applied typologically to Christ and the church	[NEW] Proposed: တစ်သား တစ်ကိုယ်တည်း (ta-thar ta-ko-tae). Risk: Medium; standard marriage-union language; ensure the Genesis citation is flagged for cross-reference consistency with any Genesis translation materials.
Mystery (of marriage as picture of Christ and the church)	τὸ μυστήριον τοῦτο μέγα ἐστίν	to mystērion touto mega estin	this mystery is great	See ch.1, ch.3 entries — here applied specifically to marriage as a living picture of Christ’s relationship to the church (5:32)	this is a great mystery, this is a profound mystery	The convergence point of the “Mystery of Christ Revealed” and “Household Codes” doctrines: marriage itself is revelatory of gospel truth	Same rendering as ch.1/ch.3 mystery entries. Risk: High; must retain the same term across all three occurrences (1:9, 3:4-6, 5:32) so the reader recognizes the thematic connection Paul is deliberately drawing.

Chapter 6 — Household Codes Continued; Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God

Term	Original	Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering Risk
Children obey your parents in the Lord / honor father and mother	τὰ τέκνα, ὑπακούετε τοῖς γονεῦσιν ὑμῶν ἐν Κυρίῳ … τίμα τὸν πατέρα σου καὶ τὴν μητέρα	ta tekna, hypakouete tois goneusin hymōn en Kyriō … tima ton patera sou kai tēn mētera	children, obey your parents in the Lord … honor your father and mother	citing the fifth commandment (Ex 20:12) as abiding household ethics “in the Lord”	children, obey your parents in the Lord; honor your father and mother	Household Codes extended to parent-child relationships, grounded in Christ (“in the Lord”) and OT law (6:1-3)	[NEW] Standard Myanmar vocabulary exists (နာခံခြင်း, ဂုဏ်ပြုရိုသေခြင်း). Risk: Low-Medium; culturally resonant with existing strong Burmese filial-piety norms — the key nuance is “in the Lord,” i.e., Christ-centered obedience, not generic Confucian-style filial duty or Buddhist parental-merit veneration.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord	οἱ πατέρες, μὴ παροργίζετε τὰ τέκνα ὑμῶν, ἀλλὰ ἐκτρέφετε αὐτὰ ἐν παιδείᾳ καὶ νουθεσίᾳ Κυρίου	hoi pateres, mē parorgizete ta tekna hymōn, alla ektrephete auta en paideia kai nouthesia Kyriou	fathers, do not provoke your children … but nurture them in the training/discipline and instruction of the Lord	balancing correction with nurture, and grounding child-rearing in the Lord’s own instruction, not arbitrary authority	fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord	The corrective to patriarchal household codes — paternal authority is bounded by Christ-centered nurture, not unilateral domination (6:4)	[NEW] Proposed: ခရစ်တော်၏ စည်းကမ်းသွန်သင်မှုဖြင့် ပြုစုပျိုးထောင်ခြင်း. Risk: Medium; important corrective balance to the headship teaching of 5:22-33 — must not be lost or softened.
Bondservants/slaves and masters	δοῦλοι … κύριοι	douloi … kyrioi	slaves/servants … masters/lords	first-century household slavery, addressed with mutual accountability before Christ	slaves, bondservants … masters	Household Codes’ most historically and ethically complex section (6:5-9): obedience “as to Christ,” and masters warned they too have a Master in heaven with no partiality	[NEW] Standard Myanmar rendering: ကျွန်များ / သခင်များ. Risk: Medium-High; requires careful contextual teaching that Paul relativizes and undermines the institution’s absolute claims (masters have a heavenly Master who shows no partiality, 6:9) rather than endorsing the social structure as such; avoid any rendering suggesting divine sanction of caste-like servitude. Reuses [REUSED — Romans TM: lord → သခင်] for κύριος where it denotes an earthly master, requiring a translator note distinguishing this human-master sense from the divine-Lord sense used elsewhere in the letter.
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might	ἐνδυναμοῦσθε ἐν Κυρίῳ καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ	endynamousthe en Kyriō kai en tō kratei tēs ischyos autou	be empowered in the Lord and in the might of his strength	a call to draw strength from an external, divine source, not self-generated resolve	be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power	Opens the spiritual-warfare section; strength for battle comes from union with Christ, not personal willpower (6:10)	Builds on ch.1’s power-vocabulary. Risk: High; must not collapse into self-help resolve-building language — the source of strength is explicitly relational and external (in the Lord).
Whole armor of God	πανοπλία τοῦ Θεοῦ	panoplia tou Theou	full/complete armor	the entire set of a Roman soldier’s equipment	whole armor of God, full armor of God	The central image of “Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God” doctrine (6:11, 6:13)	[NEW] Proposed: ဘုရားသခင်၏ စစ်တန်ဆာအစုံ (Phayarthakhin i sit-tan-zar a-son). Risk: High. Must be understood as protective/defensive equipment given by God for a real but already-decided spiritual conflict (Christ has already triumphed, 1:20-22), not as weaponry for magical self-protection comparable to protective tattoos, amulets, or charms (in-saq/ban) widely used in Burmese folk-Buddhist practice for warding off spirits — an important distinguishing note given the martial/protective imagery’s surface resemblance to such practices.
Wiles/schemes of the devil	τὰς μεθοδείας τοῦ διαβόλου	tas methodeias tou diabolou	the methods/schemes of the devil	crafty, systematic strategies of deception	the wiles of the devil, the schemes of the devil	The armor is needed specifically against a personal, strategic enemy (6:11)	[NEW] Proposed: မာရ်နတ်၏ပရိယာယ်များ (mayar-nat i pa-ri-yar myar). Risk: High. “မာရ်နတ်” (Mara) is the established Myanmar Christian term for the devil/Satan, though “Mara” is also the tempter-figure in Buddhist tradition who assailed the Buddha at his enlightenment; must be taught as the personal, defeated-but-active biblical Satan of Ephesians 2:2, not conflated with the distinct Buddhist Mara figure or treated as a symbolic personification of inner mental defilement rather than a real personal being.
Not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil	οὐ πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰς ἀρχάς, πρὸς τὰς ἐξουσίας, πρὸς τοὺς κοσμοκράτορας τοῦ σκότους τούτου, πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις	ou pros haima kai sarka, alla pros tas archas, pros tas exousias, pros tous kosmokratoras tou skotous toutou, pros ta pneumatika tēs ponērias en tois epouraniois	not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [things] of evil in the heavenly places	Paul’s most explicit statement of the spiritual (not merely human/social) nature of the conflict believers face	not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places	The doctrinal heart of the Spiritual Warfare doctrine (6:12) — real personal spiritual beings, hierarchically organized, opposing believers	[NEW] Proposed: အသွေးအသားကို ရန်ဘက်ပြုသည်မဟုတ်၊ အထွဋ်အမြတ်များ၊ အာဏာပိုင်များ၊ ဤမှောင်မိုက်ကမ္ဘာကို အုပ်စိုးသူများ၊ ကောင်းကင်ဘုံအရပ်၌ရှိသော မကောင်းမှု၏ဝိညာဉ်ဓာတ်များကို ရန်ဘက်ပြု၏. Risk: Critical. This is the single densest concentration of spiritual-power vocabulary in the letter and the passage most vulnerable to syncretistic reinterpretation in a culture with an elaborate, populated spirit-world (37 nats, territorial guardian spirits, astrological powers, weizza occult forces). Must be taught with explicit clarification: (1) these are real personal evil spiritual beings under a defeated commander (already positionally subdued under Christ, 1:20-22), not impersonal cosmic forces or a pantheon to be negotiated with or placated; (2) believers do not need — and must not seek — protective mediation from nats, astrologers, or weizza practitioners, since the “armor of God” and prayer in Christ’s name are the sole prescribed defenses; (3) “cosmic powers of this present darkness” must not be softened into merely psychological or social evil, losing the passage’s insistence on a real spiritual battle. Requires Human theologian review at every occurrence, consistent with the baseline’s escalation rule for spiritual/authority-power language and the existing Critical-tier treatment of comparable terms (e.g., “power_of_god,” “father” vs. Brahma).
Belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes/readiness of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit (word of God)	ζωσάμενοι … τὴν ζώνην τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ ἐνδυσάμενοι τὸν θώρακα τῆς δικαιοσύνης … τὸν θυρεὸν τῆς πίστεως … τὴν περικεφαλαίαν τοῦ σωτηρίου, καὶ τὴν μάχαιραν τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστιν ῥῆμα Θεοῦ	zōsamenoi … tēn zōnēn tēs alētheias, kai endysamenoi ton thōraka tēs dikaiosynēs … ton thyreon tēs pisteōs … tēn perikephalaian tou sōtēriou, kai tēn machairan tou Pneumatos, ho estin rhēma Theou	having girded … the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness … the shield of faith … the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (spoken utterance) of God	six pieces of Roman legionary equipment, each allegorized to a specific spiritual reality (6:14-17)	belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit/word of God	The concrete outworking of the armor-of-God doctrine, integrating multiple already-established Romans-baseline terms (righteousness, faith, salvation) into the warfare metaphor	[REUSED — Romans TM: righteousness → ဖြောင့်မတ်ခြင်း (Critical), faith → ယုံကြည်ခြင်း (Medium), salvation → ကယ်တင်ခြင်း (Critical), holy_spirit → သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော် (Critical)]. [NEW] for the armor-piece nouns themselves: ခါးပန်း/ခါးစည်း (belt), ရင်အုပ်သံချပ် (breastplate), ဒိုင်း (shield), သံခေါင်းအုပ် (helmet), ဓား (sword). Risk: High as a set — each piece must retain its allegorized doctrinal referent (truth/righteousness/faith/salvation/Spirit-word) intact rather than being treated as generic martial imagery, and the Critical-tier terms embedded here (righteousness, salvation, Spirit) must never be swapped for a lower-risk synonym even inside this vivid metaphor.
Word of God (rhema)	ῥῆμα Θεοῦ	rhēma Theou	a spoken utterance of God	a specific spoken word/utterance, distinct from λόγος (the more general “word/message”); here God’s spoken, wielded word as offensive weapon	word of God, the spoken word of God	The sword of the Spirit is identified specifically with God’s active, spoken word (6:17)	[NEW] Proposed: ဘုရားသခင်၏ နှုတ်ကပတ်တော် (Phayarthakhin i hnok-ka-pat-taw), the established Myanmar Christian term for God’s Word. Risk: Medium; standard usage, low collision risk, but ensure distinct from generic “teaching” (didaskalia) vocabulary elsewhere.
Praying always in the Spirit; perseverance	προσευχόμενοι ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ ἐν Πνεύματι … προσκαρτέρησις	proseuchomenoi en panti kairō en Pneumati … proskarterēsis	praying at every season in the Spirit … steadfast persistence	continual, Spirit-enabled, watchful prayer as the sustaining practice of spiritual warfare	praying always in the Spirit, with all perseverance	The posture that accompanies and sustains the wearing of the armor (6:18)	Builds on [REUSED — Romans TM: holy_spirit] and existing baseline entries on “intercession” (အသနားခံခြင်း) and “prayer” doctrine (Prayer and Intercession, Medium risk). Risk: Medium-High; must be direct address to God through the Spirit, not ritual formula recitation or petition to intermediary spirits.
Ambassador in chains	πρεσβεύω ἐν ἁλύσει	presbeuō en halysei	I act as ambassador in a chain	a diplomatic representative, here paradoxically imprisoned	ambassador in chains, ambassador though in chains	Paul’s self-description as Christ’s authorized representative despite physical imprisonment (6:20)	[NEW] Proposed: သံကြိုးများနှင့်ချည်နှောင်ခံရသော သံအမတ် (than-kyo myar nhint chi-hnaung-khan-ya-thaw than-a-mat). Risk: Low; biographical/rhetorical rather than doctrinally load-bearing, though it reinforces the authenticity of apostolic authority already flagged under “apostle.”
Grace, peace, love, faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (closing benediction)	χάρις … εἰρήνη … ἀγάπη μετὰ πίστεως ἀπὸ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ	charis … eirēnē … agapē meta pisteōs apo Theou Patros kai Kyriou Iēsou Christou	grace … peace … love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ	closing epistolary benediction gathering the letter’s major terms	grace, peace, love with faith	The letter’s final compression of its own key vocabulary (6:23-24)	All [REUSED — Romans TM: grace, peace, faith, god, father, lord, jesus], plus the qualified agapē-love rendering established in this analysis. Risk: High as a compressed summary — every term here has already been flagged individually above; the closing benediction is a natural checkpoint to verify consistency across the whole letter.

Summary of New Doctrinal-Vocabulary Clusters Introduced by Ephesians (Beyond the Romans Baseline)

Predestination intensifiers — προορίζω (predestined), κληρονομία (inheritance), ἀρραβών (guarantee/pledge), σφραγίζω (sealed) — Chapter 1.
Union-with-Christ compounds — συζωοποιέω, συνεγείρω, συγκαθίζω (made alive/raised/seated together with Christ) — Chapter 2 (core passage).
Mystery vocabulary — μυστήριον, applied successively to Jew-Gentile unity (ch.2-3) and to marriage (ch.5).
Body/Head ecclesiology — σῶμα, κεφαλή, πλήρωμα — Chapters 1, 4, 5.
Unity-of-humanity vocabulary — μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ (dividing wall), εἷς καινὸς ἄνθρωπος (one new man), συμπολῖται/οἰκεῖοι (fellow citizens/household) — Chapter 2.
Gift-office and equipping vocabulary — ἀπόστολος, προφήτης, εὐαγγελιστής, ποιμήν, διδάσκαλος, καταρτισμός — Chapter 4.
Old-self/new-self vocabulary — παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος / καινὸς ἄνθρωπος, ἀνανεόω — Chapter 4.
Household code vocabulary — ὑποτάσσω, κεφαλή (marital sense), δοῦλος/κύριος (master sense) — Chapters 5-6.
Spiritual warfare and armor vocabulary — πανοπλία, μεθοδεία, ἀρχαί/ἐξουσίαι/κοσμοκράτορες/πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας, ζώνη/θώραξ/θυρεός/περικεφαλαία/μάχαιρα, ῥῆμα — Chapter 6.

Every chapter of Ephesians has now been reviewed. No chapter was found to introduce zero new theological vocabulary; each of the six chapters contributes at least one load-bearing term cluster central to the curriculum’s nine designated doctrines.

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