Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Ephesians | English → Dutch
Purpose
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md across all six chapters of Ephesians into a single per-term reference table for Phase 2 translation memory seeding. Terms already present in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json reuse the recorded Dutch rendering exactly and are marked “Reuse (Romans TM)” in the Source column. New terms proposed for this curriculum are marked “New (Ephesians)” and must be added to translation memory before Phase 2 processing begins, per the 12_ai_translation_requirements.md enforcement instructions.
Risk tiers (Critical/High/Medium/Low) follow the baseline’s exact definitions. Doctrine abbreviations: SGF = Salvation by Grace through Faith · EPC = Election and Predestination in Christ · CBC = Church as Body of Christ · UJG = Unity of Jews and Gentiles · MCR = Mystery of Christ Revealed · SWA = Spiritual Warfare/Armor of God · HCR = Household Codes · GBC = Gifts for Building Up the Church · WNL = Walking in Newness of Life.
Reused Terms (Romans Translation Memory — Rendering Locked)
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Dutch Rendering | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Source | Dutch-Specific Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | εὐαγγέλιον / euangelion | evangelie | Low | SGF, GBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Stable across Reformed and Catholic Dutch tradition. |
| grace | χάρις / charis | genade | High | SGF, EPC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Must always convey unearned favor apart from human cooperation (Synod of Dordrecht). |
| faith | πίστις / pistis | geloof | Medium | SGF | Reuse (Romans TM) | Object of faith (Christ) must stay recoverable from context; secularization risk. |
| righteousness | δικαιοσύνη / dikaiosynē | gerechtigheid | Critical | SGF, SWA (armor) | Reuse (Romans TM) | Forensic standing, not “deugd” (moral virtue). |
| salvation (noun) | σωτηρία / sōtēria | behoud | High | SGF, SWA (armor) | Reuse (Romans TM) | Three-way register split (behoud/verlossing/zaligheid); this curriculum uses “behoud.” |
| salvation (verb, “saved”) | σῴζω / sōzō | behouden (zijn) | Critical | SGF | Reuse + verb form of Romans TM noun | Eph. 2:5, 2:8: must render as settled, completed state (“behouden zijn”), not “gered”/“zalig.” |
| apostle | ἀπόστολος / apostolos | apostel | Low | CBC, GBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Stable term. |
| called / calling | κλητός/κλῆσις / klētos/klēsis | geroepen / roeping | Medium | EPC, GBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Career-vocation homonym risk persists (Eph. 1:18, 4:1, 4:4). |
| holy | ἅγιος / hagios | heilig | Medium | CBC, WNL | Reuse (Romans TM) | Set apart and morally pure. |
| saints | ἅγιοι / hagioi | heiligen | High | CBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Catholic canonized-saint collision persists (Eph. 1:1, 1:15, 1:18, 3:8, 3:18, 5:3, 6:18). |
| sanctification | ἁγιασμός / hagiasmos (cf. ἁγιάζω, Eph. 5:26) | heiliging | Medium | WNL, HCR | Reuse (Romans TM) | Christ sanctifying the church (5:26). |
| adoption | υἱοθεσία / huiothesia | aanneming tot kinderen | Medium | EPC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 1:5; full son-status, not provisional. |
| lord | κύριος / kyrios (of Christ) | Heer | High | CBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Must be visually/contextually distinguished from earthly “heer/meester” (ch. 6). |
| son of God | υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ / huios tou theou | Zoon van God | Critical | CBC, GBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 4:13 — the church’s growth toward “knowledge of the Son of God.” |
| peace | εἰρήνη / eirēnē | vrede | Low/Medium | UJG, SWA (armor) | Reuse (Romans TM) | Now also horizontal Jew-Gentile peace (2:14-17), not only vertical peace with God. |
| spiritual gifts | χάρισμα / charisma (cf. δωρεά, δόματα) | genadegaven | Medium | GBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 4:7-11 ministry-gifts are a specific application; keep grace-given, not natural-talent framing. |
| thanksgiving | εὐχαριστία / eucharistia | dankzegging | Low | WNL | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 5:4, 5:20. |
| church | ἐκκλησία / ekklēsia | gemeente | High | CBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | NT gathered-people sense; distinct from institutional “kerk.” |
| law | νόμος / nomos | wet | High | UJG | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 2:15, “law of commandments” abolished as the dividing wall. |
| sin | ἁμαρτία / hamartia | zonde | High | SGF | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 2:1; colloquial “a pity/waste” drift risk. |
| gentiles | ἔθνη / ethnē | heidenen | Medium | UJG | Reuse (Romans TM) | Central to Ephesians 2-3’s UJG argument. |
| glory | δόξα / doxa | heerlijkheid | Medium | EPC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 1:6, 1:12, 1:14, 1:17, 3:16, 3:21. |
| power of God | δύναμις (θεοῦ) / dynamis (theou) | kracht van God | Medium | EPC, SWA | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 1:19, 3:7, 3:16, 3:20, 6:10. |
| covenant | διαθήκη / diathēkē | verbond | High | UJG | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 2:12, “covenants of promise.” |
| election | ἐκλογή/ἐκλέγομαι / eklogē/eklegomai | verkiezing / verkoren | Critical | EPC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 1:4; direct link to Canons of Dort; democratic-vote homonym risk. |
| israel | Ἰσραήλ / Israēl | Israël | Medium | UJG | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 2:12, “commonwealth of Israel”; modern-nation-state conflation risk persists. |
| jesus | Ἰησοῦς / Iēsous | Jezus | Low | (all) | Reuse (Romans TM) | Stable. |
| god | Θεός / Theos | God | Medium | (all) | Reuse (Romans TM) | Secularization risk persists. |
| holy spirit | Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον / Pneuma Hagion | Heilige Geest | Medium/Critical | EPC, WNL, SWA | Reuse (Romans TM) | Personhood emphasized strongly in Eph. 1:13-14, 4:30 (“grieve the Spirit”). |
| father | Πατήρ / Patēr | Vader | Medium/High | EPC, CBC | Reuse (Romans TM) | Eph. 1:2-3, 3:14-15 (wordplay with πατριά), 4:6, 6:23. |
| exhort/urge | παρακαλέω / parakaleō | aansporen | Low | WNL | Reuse (Romans TM, encouragement sense per baseline note) | Eph. 4:1; baseline flags “aansporen” (not “vermanen”) for the building-up sense. |
New Terms Introduced by Ephesians (To Be Added to Translation Memory)
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Dutch Rendering | Risk | Doctrine(s) | First Occurrence | Dutch-Specific Notes / Alternatives Rejected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mystery | μυστήριον / mystērion | verborgenheid | Critical | MCR, UJG | 1:9 | Alternatives rejected: bare “geheim” (risks conspiracy/hidden-agenda reading in secular Dutch). Must signal a truth now disclosed, not an ongoing secret. |
| predestined | προορίζω / proorizō | voorbestemd / voorbestemming | Critical | EPC | 1:5 | Direct counterpart to “verkiezing”; must align with Canons of Dort’s unconditional election, never foreseen-choice framing. |
| redemption | ἀπολύτρωσις / apolytrōsis | verlossing | High | SGF, EPC | 1:7 | CAUTION: baseline explicitly rejected “verlossing” as an alternative for σωτηρία/“behoud.” Here a distinct Greek term legitimately takes “verlossing” — must not be confused with, or seen as contradicting, the “behoud” register decision elsewhere. |
| forgiveness | ἄφεσις / aphesis | vergeving | Medium | SGF | 1:7 | Standard term. |
| inheritance | κληρονομία / klēronomia | erfenis | Medium | EPC | 1:11 | Modern rendering preferred over archaic “erfdeel.” |
| sealed (by the Spirit) | σφραγίζω / sphragizō | verzegeld | High | EPC, WNL | 1:13 | Positive link to Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 66 sacrament-as-seal language; risk of a merely bureaucratic “official stamp” reading for secular audiences. |
| guarantee / down payment | ἀρραβών / arrabōn | onderpand | Medium | EPC | 1:14 | Classic Statenvertaling term; modern financial/legal “collateral” sense risks a purely transactional reading. |
| fullness | πλήρωμα / plērōma | volheid | Medium | CBC, MCR | 1:10 | Keep concretely tied to Christ and the church; avoid vague mysticism. |
| head (of Christ/church; of husband/wife) | κεφαλή / kephalē | hoofd | High | CBC, HCR | 1:22 | Acute flashpoint at 5:23 given modern Dutch gender egalitarianism; requires careful, non-flattening handling. |
| body (of Christ) | σῶμα / sōma | lichaam | High | CBC | 1:23 | Must retain organic corporate unity, not a loose institutional metaphor. |
| new humanity / new man (corporate) | καινὸς ἄνθρωπος / kainos anthropos | nieuwe mens(heid) | High | UJG | 2:15 | Corporate Jew-Gentile sense here; distinguish from individual sense at 4:24 (same Dutch phrase, context-dependent referent). |
| dividing wall | μεσότοιχον / mesotoichon | scheidingsmuur | High | UJG | 2:14 | Collides with the contemporary Dutch media term for the Israeli West Bank barrier; context must anchor the ancient Temple/Torah referent. |
| enmity | ἔχθρα / echthra | vijandschap | Medium | UJG | 2:14 | Both Godward and Jew-Gentile hostility. |
| reconcile / reconciliation | καταλλάσσω, ἀποκαταλλάσσω / katallassō, apokatallassō | verzoenen / verzoening | Critical | SGF, UJG | 2:16 | Direct counterpart to the baseline’s flagged atonement/propitiation risk (Rom. 3:25); must not reduce to generic conflict-resolution. |
| access | προσαγωγή / prosagōgē | toegang | Low | SGF, UJG | 2:18 | Court-audience imagery. |
| household of God | οἰκεῖοι τοῦ Θεοῦ / oikeioi tou theou | huisgenoten van God | Medium | CBC, UJG | 2:19 | Full family-belonging, not guest status. |
| foundation / cornerstone | θεμέλιος, ἀκρογωνιαῖος / themelios, akrogōniaios | fundament / hoeksteen | Low | CBC | 2:20 | Standard building metaphor. |
| temple | ναός / naos | tempel | Medium | CBC | 2:21 | Risk of literal-Jerusalem-temple or generic-pluralistic-religion reading rather than the church-as-God’s-dwelling metaphor. |
| building / building up | οἰκοδομή / oikodomē | gebouw / opbouw | Low | CBC, GBC | 2:21, 4:12 | Dual sense: structure (ch. 2) and edification (ch. 4). |
| dwelling place | κατοικητήριον / katoikētērion | woonplaats | Low | CBC | 2:22 | Standard. |
| new humanity/new man (individual) | καινὸς/νέος ἄνθρωπος / kainos/neos anthropos | nieuwe mens | Medium | WNL | 4:24 | Individual counterpart to 2:15; note deliberate terminological link. |
| stewardship / administration | οἰκονομία / oikonomia | rentmeesterschap | Medium | MCR, GBC | 3:2 | Avoid confusion with modern church-fundraising “stewardship” language. |
| fellow heirs | συγκληρονόμος / synklēronomos | medeerfgenamen | Medium | UJG, EPC | 3:6 | Equal-share inheritance language. |
| manifold wisdom | πολυποίκιλος σοφία / polypoikilos sophia | veelkleurige wijsheid | Low | MCR | 3:10 | Weaving-pattern metaphor. |
| boldness / confidence | παρρησία / parrhēsia | vrijmoedigheid | Low | SGF | 3:12 | Standard. |
| unsearchable riches | ἀνεξιχνίαστος πλοῦτος / anexichniastos ploutos | onnaspeurlijke rijkdom | Low | MCR | 3:8 | Standard. |
| unity | ἑνότης / henotēs | eenheid | Medium | UJG, CBC | 4:3 | Practical outworking of UJG/CBC. |
| baptism | βάπτισμα / baptisma | doop | High | CBC | 4:5 | Infant-baptism vs. believer’s-baptism denominational divide risks a partisan reading of “one baptism.” |
| evangelist | εὐαγγελιστής / euangelistēs | evangelist | Low | GBC | 4:11 | Standard. |
| pastor / shepherd | ποιμήν / poimēn | herder | Medium | GBC | 4:11 | Retain biblical pastoral-care image; do not substitute modern office-title “dominee/voorganger.” |
| teacher | διδάσκαλος / didaskalos | leraar | Low | GBC | 4:11 | Standard. |
| equipping | καταρτισμός / katartismos | toerusting | Low | GBC | 4:12 | Standard. |
| mature / complete | τέλειος / teleios | volwassen | Medium | GBC, CBC | 4:13 | Prefer “volwassen” over “volmaakt” (avoid sinless-perfection misreading). |
| old self | παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος / palaios anthropos | oude mens | Medium | WNL | 4:22 | Standard. |
| renewed | ἀνακαινοῦσθε / anakainousthe | vernieuwd (worden) | Low | WNL | 4:23 | Ongoing process. |
| put off / put on | ἀποτίθεμαι, ἐνδύομαι / apotithemai, endyomai | afleggen / aandoen | Low | WNL | 4:22, 4:24 | Clothing-change metaphor. |
| grieve the Spirit | λυπέω τὸ Πνεῦμα / lypeō to pneuma | de Geest bedroeven | Medium | WNL | 4:30 | Retain personal-relational sense, not mere functional disruption. |
| imitators of God | μιμηταὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ / mimētai tou theou | navolgers van God | Low | WNL | 5:1 | Standard. |
| sexual immorality | πορνεία / porneia | ontucht | Medium | HCR, WNL | 5:3 | Register choice (modern “ontucht” vs. archaic “hoererij”); ensure full biblical scope retained. |
| covetousness | πλεονεξία / pleonexia | begerigheid | Low | WNL | 5:3 | Standard. |
| idolater | εἰδωλολάτρης / eidōlolatrēs | afgodendienaar | Low | WNL | 5:5 | Standard. |
| children of light | τέκνα φωτός / tekna phōtos | kinderen van het licht | Low | WNL | 5:8 | Standard idiom. |
| filled with the Spirit | πληροῦσθε ἐν Πνεύματι / plērousthe en pneumati | vervuld worden met de Geest | Medium | WNL, GBC | 5:18 | Ongoing/repeated filling, not a single dramatic event; Reformed/Pentecostal reading divergence. |
| submit / be subject to | ὑποτάσσω / hypotassō | zich onderschikken | High | HCR | 5:21 | Major flashpoint in egalitarian Dutch society; hold mutual-submission (5:21) and wife-husband instruction (5:22-24) together without collapsing either. |
| mystery (of marriage) | μυστήριον / mystērion | verborgenheid | High | MCR, HCR | 5:32 | Reuse ch.1/3 term; retain revealed-truth (Christ-and-church) sense, not vague “marriage is hard to understand.” |
| one flesh | μία σάρξ / mia sarx | één vlees | Low | HCR | 5:31 | Standard. |
| slave / bondservant | δοῦλος / doulos | slaaf | High | HCR | 6:5 | Netherlands’ VOC/WIC slave-trade history makes this emotionally fraught; distinguish ancient Greco-Roman household slavery from Dutch colonial chattel slavery without minimizing either. |
| master (earthly) | κύριος, δεσπότης / kyrios, despotēs | heer / meester | Medium | HCR | 6:5, 6:9 | Distinguish visually/contextually from capitalized “Heer” (Christ). |
| whole armor of God | πανοπλία τοῦ Θεοῦ / panoplia tou theou | wapenrusting van God | Low | SWA | 6:11 | Well-established idiomatic Dutch phrase; risk is under-appreciating supernatural seriousness, not mistranslation. |
| schemes / wiles | μεθοδεία / methodeia | listen | Medium | SWA | 6:11 | Standard. |
| devil | διάβολος / diabolos | duivel | Medium | SWA | 6:11 | Guard against folkloric-metaphor flattening in secular culture. |
| rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil | ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, κοσμοκράτορες, πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας | overheden, machten, wereldbeheersers, geestelijke machten van het kwaad | High | SWA | 6:12 | ”Overheden” is the ordinary Dutch word for civil government; strong risk of conflating cosmic spiritual powers with earthly political authority (cf. Romans 13 sensitivity already flagged in baseline). Must be marked as supra-human. |
| stand firm | ἵστημι, στῆτε / histēmi, stēte | standhouden | Low | SWA | 6:11, 6:13, 6:14 | Standard. |
| truth (belt of) | ἀλήθεια / alētheia | waarheid | Medium | SWA | 6:14 | Low lexically, but flagged given Dutch pluralistic “post-truth” discourse; do not dilute the exclusive-truth claim. |
| word of God (sword of the Spirit) | ῥῆμα Θεοῦ / rhēma theou | woord van God | Low/Medium | SWA | 6:17 | No separate Dutch lexeme distinguishes rhēma from logos; do not invent an artificial distinction. |
| prayer | προσευχή / proseuchē | gebed | Low | SWA | 6:18 | Standard. |
| ambassador | πρεσβεύω / presbeuō | gezant | Low | GBC | 6:20 | Echoes baseline “zending”/mission entry. |
Risk Summary
| Risk Tier | Count (this glossary) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 7 | Human theologian review required for every occurrence |
| High | 15 | Human theologian review required |
| Medium | 27 | Native speaker review recommended |
| Low | 22 | Automated review sufficient |
Terms requiring immediate human theologian review priority (Critical/High, new to this curriculum): mystery, predestined, redemption (register-collision caution), sealed, head, body, new humanity (corporate and individual senses), dividing wall, reconcile/reconciliation, baptism, submit/be subject to, slave/bondservant, rulers/authorities/cosmic powers.
Cross-document consistency requirement: All terms marked “Reuse (Romans TM)” above must render identically to their locked baseline entries in every Ephesians document. All new terms above must be written into translation_memory.json (version incremented) before any Phase 2 segment translation begins, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §“Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions.”
Critical Risk Terms
Righteousness
Approved rendering: gerechtigheid
Transliteration: gerechtigheid
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: deugd
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL: forensic standing, never ‘deugd’ (moral virtue) or achieved moral performance. Occurs in Ephesians 4:24 (the new self created in righteousness) and 6:14 (‘borstplaat van de gerechtigheid’).
Salvation
Approved rendering: behoud
Transliteration: behoud
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: verlossing (reserved in this curriculum for apolytrosis/redemption), zaligheid (archaic/pietistic register)
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. This curriculum retains ‘behoud’ as the primary register. Appears as ‘helm van het behoud’ (6:17). Must not silently shift to ‘verlossing’, which this letter legitimately uses for the distinct Greek term apolytrosis (see ‘redemption’ below) — the two Dutch words correctly map to two different Greek concepts within Ephesians, not a contradiction of the Romans register decision.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: opstanding
Transliteration: opstanding
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Original: ἀνάστασις (cf. ἐγείρω, Ephesians 1:20)
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 1:20 grounds Christ’s cosmic enthronement; the same resurrection-power word family (‘opstanding’/‘opwekken’) must be reused for the compound verb synegeirō at 2:6 (see ‘raised_together’).
Lord
Approved rendering: Heer
Transliteration: Heer
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: meester
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians uses ‘Heer’ extensively of Christ (1:2-3, 1:15, 1:17, 2:21, 3:11, 4:1, 4:5, 5:8, 5:10, 5:17, 5:19-20, 6:1, 6:4, 6:7-8, 6:10, 6:21, 6:23-24). Must be typographically/contextually distinguished from lower-case earthly ‘heer/meester’ at 6:5, 6:9 — never conflated with Christ’s exclusive Lordship.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Zoon van God
Transliteration: Zoon van God
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 4:13 names the church’s corporate growth-goal as ‘de kennis van de Zoon van God’; the full phrase must be preserved, never abbreviated to a bare pronoun or ‘Gods kind’, which would flatten unique eternal Sonship into shared adoptive sonship.
Election
Approved rendering: verkiezing
Transliteration: verkiezing
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: ἐκλογή / ἐκλέγομαι
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 1:4’s ‘Hij heeft ons uitgekozen’ (before the foundation of the world) is this curriculum’s clearest EPC statement, running directly through the Canons of Dort’s condemnation of the Dutch Remonstrant position. The everyday political-election homonym risk fully applies.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jezus
Transliteration: Jezus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Extremely frequent throughout Ephesians, almost always paired with ‘Christus’ in the letter’s ‘in Christus Jezus’ formula.
God
Approved rendering: God
Transliteration: God
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / God the Father
Original: Θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. The Netherlands’ secularization risk applies equally throughout Ephesians’ extended doxological and Trinitarian passages (1:3-14, 4:4-6).
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Heilige Geest
Transliteration: Heilige Geest
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit’s Personhood
Original: Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians intensifies the personhood emphasis considerably: the Spirit seals believers (1:13-14), can be grieved (4:30), and indwells the church-temple (2:22) — the fully personal, relational sense must be preserved without exception. See also ‘grieve_the_spirit’, ‘sealed’, ‘filled_with_spirit’ below.
Christ
Approved rendering: Christus
Transliteration: Christus
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ / Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Messias (reserved for contexts foregrounding the Jewish messianic-title sense, as in Romans; not the dominant Ephesians usage)
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
New term for this curriculum, though drawing on the baseline’s Christos-family entries. Ephesians overwhelmingly uses Christos as a proper name fused with Jezus or standalone in the letter’s signature ‘in Christus’ formula; established Dutch Bible convention renders this ‘Christus’, not ‘Messias’. This is a legitimate context-sensitive divergence from the baseline’s Romans-specific ‘messias’ entry, not a contradiction of it — flag for reviewers as such, never as an inconsistency.
Saved
Approved rendering: behouden (zijn)
Transliteration: behouden
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith / Assurance of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: gered worden (colloquial/secular register), zalig worden (archaic/pietistic register)
Original: σῴζω
Category: Salvation
New term — verb form of the inherited ‘salvation’ noun (sōzō). Ephesians 2:5 and 2:8 use a perfect passive periphrastic construction (‘you have been and remain saved’) that must be rendered as a settled, completed state — ‘behouden zijn’ — not an ongoing/anxious process, reinforcing Assurance of Salvation against the introspective tendencies the baseline already flags in Dutch ‘bevindelijk gereformeerd’ piety.
Mystery
Approved rendering: verborgenheid
Transliteration: verborgenheid
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Rejected alternatives: geheim (conspiracy/hidden-agenda connotation), mysterie (Gnostic mystery-religion academic connotation)
Original: μυστήριον
Category: Mystery
New term, central to this curriculum. Occurs at 1:9, 3:3-6, 3:9, 5:32, 6:19. Must clearly signal a truth NOW disclosed to Jew and Gentile alike, never an ongoing secret or esoteric knowledge reserved for an initiated elite. Never render as ‘geheim’.
Predestined
Approved rendering: voorbestemd / voorbestemming
Transliteration: voorbestemd
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Rejected alternatives: het lot (impersonal fate)
Original: προορίζω
Category: Salvation
New term, direct doctrinal counterpart to ‘election’. Ephesians 1:5, 1:11. Must align with the Canons of Dort’s unconditional-election emphasis and must never be softened toward foreseen human choice — the historic Remonstrant position the Synod of Dordrecht rejected. The divine Subject (‘God heeft ons voorbestemd’) must remain grammatically explicit, never a bare passive suggesting an impersonal mechanism.
Reconciliation
Approved rendering: verzoening
Transliteration: verzoening
Doctrine: Reconciliation through the Cross
Rejected alternatives: generic conflict-resolution vocabulary
Original: καταλλάσσω / ἀποκαταλλάσσω
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:16. Direct counterpart to the baseline’s flagged atonement/propitiation risk at Romans 3:25. Must not be reduced to a generic peace-making sense, and must not import Catholic sacrament-of-reconciliation (confession) connotations; holds both vertical (Godward) and horizontal (Jew-Gentile) dimensions together.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: genade
Transliteration: genade
Doctrine: Grace / Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: gunst
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Must always convey grace as unearned and apart from human cooperation, per the Synod of Dordrecht. Ephesians 2:5-9 is this curriculum’s single most concentrated grace-versus-works passage (1:6-7, 2:5, 2:7-8, 3:2, 3:7, 4:7, 6:24) and governs the Critical-tier Salvation by Grace through Faith doctrine.
Faith
Approved rendering: geloof
Transliteration: geloof
Doctrine: Faith / Salvation by Grace through Faith
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Object of faith (Christ) must remain recoverable from context against secularized, pluralistic default readings. Ephesians 2:8 (‘door het geloof’) and 6:16 (‘schild van het geloof’) both require this.
Called
Approved rendering: geroepen
Transliteration: geroepen
Doctrine: Divine Calling / Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: κλητός
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Career-vocation homonym risk persists in Ephesians 1:18, 4:1, 4:4.
Calling
Approved rendering: roeping
Transliteration: roeping
Doctrine: Divine Calling / Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 1:18 (‘de hoop van uw roeping’) and 4:1, 4:4 anchor this to EPC and CBC doctrines; ordinary career-vocation sense must be excluded by context at each occurrence.
Holy
Approved rendering: heilig
Transliteration: heilig
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: rein
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 1:4, 5:27 (‘heilig en zonder gebrek’); retain set-apart-and-morally-pure sense together.
Saints
Approved rendering: heiligen
Transliteration: heiligen
Doctrine: Sainthood
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians opens (1:1) and closes (6:18) with this term, recurring at 1:15, 1:18, 2:19, 3:8, 3:18, 4:12, 5:3 — unusually dense for this letter’s length. Gloss as ‘alle gelovigen’ for general audiences at EVERY occurrence, not only the letter’s opening, per the Catholic canonized-saints collision the baseline already flags.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: heiliging
Transliteration: heiliging
Doctrine: Sanctification and Holy Living
Original: ἁγιασμός / ἁγιάζω
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 5:26 uniquely applies the verb form to Christ sanctifying the church through the word (‘om haar te heiligen’), reinforcing CBC and HCR together.
Adoption
Approved rendering: aanneming tot kinderen
Transliteration: aanneming tot kinderen
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: adoptie (bare, legal-procedural)
Original: υἱοθεσία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 1:5 (‘tot aanneming tot kinderen’) links adoption directly to predestination (v.5’s proorizo); must remain distinct from Christ’s own unique, eternal Sonship.
Church
Approved rendering: gemeente
Transliteration: gemeente
Doctrine: Church as God’s People / Church as the Body of Christ
Rejected alternatives: kerk (institution-default)
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians is unusually ‘church-dense’ (1:22, 3:10, 3:21, 5:23-25, 5:27, 5:29, 5:32); ‘gemeente’ remains preferred over institutional ‘kerk’, especially in the 5:23-32 marriage analogy where Christ’s relation to his gathered people (not building or denomination) is in view.
Law
Approved rendering: wet
Transliteration: wet
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 2:15 identifies ‘de wet der geboden’ (the law of commandments) as the abolished basis of the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile — a direct UJG application distinct from, but consistent with, Romans’ law-and-grace argument.
Sin
Approved rendering: zonde
Transliteration: zonde
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability / Total Depravity
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 2:1 pairs this with ‘overtredingen’ (trespasses) to describe humanity’s total spiritual deadness prior to grace; the colloquial ‘a pity/waste’ drift is especially dangerous here because it would soften total depravity into mere moral imperfection rather than deadness before God.
Glory
Approved rendering: heerlijkheid
Transliteration: heerlijkheid
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Used with unusual density as a refrain in Ephesians (1:6, 1:12, 1:14, 1:17, 3:16, 3:21), climaxing the doxology of 3:20-21.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: kracht van God
Transliteration: kracht van God
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ / Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Original: δύναμις (θεοῦ)
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 1:19, 3:7, 3:16, 3:20, 6:10 apply this power both to believers’ inner strengthening and to spiritual warfare (6:10, ‘in de kracht van Zijn sterkte’) — a distinctly Ephesians extension into SWA.
Covenant
Approved rendering: verbond
Transliteration: verbond
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 2:12 names Gentiles’ former exclusion from ‘de verbonden der belofte’ (the covenants of promise) as the precise problem UJG’s reconciliation solves.
Father
Approved rendering: Vader
Transliteration: Vader
Doctrine: The Fatherhood of God
Original: Πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 3:14-15 uniquely plays on the Greek wordplay between patēr (Father) and patria (family/lineage), largely unrecoverable in Dutch and requiring translator awareness even where it cannot be reproduced.
In Christ
Approved rendering: in Christus
Transliteration: in Christus
Doctrine: Christian Identity in Christ / Church as the Body of Christ
Rejected alternatives: door Christus (looser causal sense), vanwege Christus (looser causal sense)
Original: ἐν Χριστῷ / ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ
Category: Christology
New term. This prepositional formula is the theological anchor-phrase of the whole letter (1:3, 1:4, 1:6-7, 1:9-13, 1:20, 2:6-7, 2:10, 2:13, 3:6, 3:11, 3:21, 4:32). Must be rendered consistently and literally, never paraphrased into a causal sense, which would flatten Paul’s participatory, positional union-with-Christ theology.
Redemption
Approved rendering: verlossing
Transliteration: verlossing
Doctrine: Redemption and Forgiveness
Original: ἀπολύτρωσις
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 1:7, 1:14, 4:30. CAUTION: the Romans baseline explicitly rejected ‘verlossing’ as an alternative rendering for sōtēria/‘behoud’. Here a genuinely distinct Greek term (apolytrōsis) legitimately takes ‘verlossing’ — this must not be flagged as contradicting the ‘behoud’ register decision; the two Dutch words correctly map onto two distinct Greek concepts within the same letter.
Sealed
Approved rendering: verzegeld
Transliteration: verzegeld
Doctrine: Sealing and Guarantee of the Holy Spirit
Original: σφραγίζω
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 1:13, 4:30. Positively connects to the Heidelberg Catechism’s sacramental seal-language (Q&A 66), but risks a merely bureaucratic ‘official stamp’ reading for secularized readers, losing the devotional, relational sense of God’s personal ownership.
Head
Approved rendering: hoofd
Transliteration: hoofd
Doctrine: Christ’s Headship over the Church / Wives, Husbands, and Headship in Marriage
Rejected alternatives: oorsprong/bron (softened paraphrase that would pre-resolve an exegetical debate)
Original: κεφαλή
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 1:22, 4:15, 5:23. Render literally, without softening. The gender-role controversy in one of the world’s most gender-egalitarian societies makes every occurrence a live flashpoint, most acute at 5:23. Interpretive tension must be addressed at the curriculum-commentary level, not suppressed at the translation level.
Body Of Christ
Approved rendering: lichaam
Transliteration: lichaam
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Original: σῶμα (τοῦ Χριστοῦ)
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 1:23, 4:4, 4:12, 4:16, 5:23, 5:30. Must retain organic, corporate-unity sense, always with ‘van Christus’ retained in full, not a loose institutional metaphor. Distinct from Catholic Eucharistic ‘Corpus Christi’ resonance, which must not bleed in.
New Humanity
Approved rendering: nieuwe mens(heid)
Transliteration: nieuwe mensheid
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Original: καινὸς ἄνθρωπος
Category: Unity
New term. Ephesians 2:15 (corporate sense: one new humanity from Jew and Gentile). Must not be flattened into only the individual ‘new self’ sense the identical Dutch phrase carries at 4:24 (see ‘new_self’); mark corporate vs. individual sense per occurrence.
Dividing Wall
Approved rendering: scheidingsmuur
Transliteration: scheidingsmuur
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Original: μεσότοιχον
Category: Unity
New term. Ephesians 2:14. ‘De scheidingsmuur’ is also the standard contemporary Dutch media term for the Israeli West Bank separation barrier — the single highest anachronism-risk term in the curriculum. Must always be co-located with Temple/Torah/circumcision vocabulary in the same sentence to anchor the ancient historical referent.
Baptism
Approved rendering: doop
Transliteration: doop
Doctrine: Unity of the Spirit and One Baptism
Original: βάπτισμα
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 4:5. Dutch Christianity’s real denominational division between infant baptism (‘kinderdoop’) and believer’s baptism (‘volwassendoop’/‘geloofsdoop’) creates a genuine risk that ‘one baptism’ is read through the lens of one’s own tradition’s practice rather than Paul’s underlying unity claim. Frame around unity, never adjudicating the practice debate.
Grieve The Spirit
Approved rendering: de Geest bedroeven
Transliteration: de Geest bedroeven
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit’s Personhood
Rejected alternatives: de Geest storen/hinderen (merely functional ‘disrupt’, loses relational grief)
Original: λυπέω τὸ Πνεῦμα
Category: God
New term. Ephesians 4:30. Must retain the personal-relational sense — grieving a Person who loves the believer — not a merely functional ‘annoy/disrupt’.
Submit
Approved rendering: zich onderschikken
Transliteration: onderschikken
Doctrine: Household Codes and Christ-Centered Relationships / Wives, Husbands, and Headship in Marriage
Rejected alternatives: onderdanig zijn (older register), zich richten naar (softened, mutuality-flattening paraphrase)
Original: ὑποτάσσω
Category: Household
New term. Ephesians 5:21-24. Major flashpoint in one of the world’s most gender-egalitarian societies. Render literally; hold 5:21’s mutual-submission framing together with 5:22-24’s wife-specific instruction in the same discussion unit, never presenting one without the other.
Slave
Approved rendering: slaaf
Transliteration: slaaf
Doctrine: Masters and Slaves
Rejected alternatives: dienstknecht (euphemism that would erase the historical institution Paul addresses), werknemer (anachronistic euphemism)
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Household
New term. Ephesians 6:5-8. The Netherlands’ own VOC/WIC Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave-trade history makes this emotionally weighted and historically fraught; render without euphemism, and pair with curriculum-level (not translation-level) historical framing distinguishing ancient Greco-Roman household slavery from Dutch colonial chattel slavery.
Cosmic Powers
Approved rendering: overheden, machten, wereldbeheersers, geestelijke machten van het kwaad
Transliteration: overheden, machten, wereldbeheersers
Doctrine: The Reality of Cosmic Evil Powers
Rejected alternatives: a compressed single-term rendering (loses the deliberately stacked, escalating rhetorical effect and strips the mandatory supra-human qualifier)
Original: ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, κοσμοκράτορες, πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 6:12, escalating the 2:2 ‘ruler of the power of the air’. ‘Overheden’ is the ordinary Dutch word for civil government; never let this list stand without closing on ‘geestelijke machten van het kwaad’ or an equivalent supra-human qualifier in the same clause, given the baseline’s already-flagged Romans 13 government-authority sensitivity.
Ruler Of The Power Of The Air
Approved rendering: de overste van de macht der lucht
Transliteration: de overste van de macht der lucht
Doctrine: The Reality of Cosmic Evil Powers
Original: ἄρχων τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 2:2. Foundational to SWA and the precursor to the 6:12 cosmic-powers list; ‘macht’ again risks conflation with ordinary Dutch civil-government/societal-power-structure vocabulary, requiring the same contextual anchoring as ‘cosmic_powers’.
Nature Sinful
Approved rendering: van nature
Transliteration: van nature
Doctrine: Total Depravity and Spiritual Deadness
Original: φύσις
Category: Sin
New term. Ephesians 2:3, ‘van nature kinderen des toorns’. Dutch Reformed dogmatics’ developed doctrine of ‘erfzonde’ (inherited sin) must be reinforced here, not softened into a nature one could outgrow, which would weaken the grace-not-merit doctrine of 2:4-8.
Made Alive Together
Approved rendering: met Christus levend gemaakt
Transliteration: met Christus levend gemaakt
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: nieuw leven gegeven (drops the union-with-Christ half of the compound)
Original: συζωοποιέω
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:5. Dutch has no single native compound matching this rare Greek coinage (syzōopoieō); the ‘together with Christ’ union-dimension must be preserved by phrase construction.
Raised Together
Approved rendering: mede opgewekt
Transliteration: mede opgewekt
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Original: συνεγείρω
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:6. Must reuse the ‘opstanding’/‘opwekken’ word family from the inherited resurrection entry, retaining the ‘met Hem’/‘mede’ union-dimension.
Gift
Approved rendering: gave
Transliteration: gave
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: geschenk (acceptable synonym but ‘gave’ preferred for register consistency)
Original: δῶρον
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:8. Dutch syntax must clearly attach ‘gave’ to the ENTIRE preceding grace-through-faith clause (salvation as a totality, not faith alone as a human contribution alongside grace), consistent with the historic Reformed position against Arminian/Remonstrant synergism. This is the single highest-priority clause-attachment check in the curriculum.
Works
Approved rendering: werken
Transliteration: werken
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Original: ἔργον
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:9. The sharp antithesis with ‘genade’ must never be softened toward works as a partial contributing cause, echoing the Romans 4:4-5 grace-works antithesis. Every occurrence contrasted with ‘genade’ requires mandatory human theologian review.
Good Works
Approved rendering: goede werken
Transliteration: goede werken
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Original: ἔργα ἀγαθά
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:10. Dutch connective syntax must not be misread as making good works a precondition rather than the FRUIT of behoud — the necessary companion truth to sola gratia, contrasted directly with v.9’s ‘werken’.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: apostel
Transliteration: apostel
Doctrine: Apostleship / Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 1:1 (Paul’s self-designation), 2:20 (apostles as the church’s foundation), 3:5, 4:11 (one of the fivefold gifts).
Peace
Approved rendering: vrede
Transliteration: vrede
Doctrine: Peace with God / Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians adds a horizontal Jew-Gentile dimension (2:14-17) alongside the vertical peace-with-God sense (6:15 ‘evangelie van de vrede’, 6:23).
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: genadegaven
Transliteration: genadegaven
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Rejected alternatives: geestelijke gaven (looser)
Original: χάρισμα (cf. δωρεά, δόματα)
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 4:7-11 specifies the fivefold ministry-gifts as a concrete application; keep grace-given, distinct from natural talent, given Dutch Reformed/Pentecostal reading divergence.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Koninkrijk van God
Transliteration: Koninkrijk van God
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: Koninkrijk Gods (archaic genitive)
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ Θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package exactly. See also the new Ephesians-specific variant entry ‘kingdom_of_christ_and_god’ below for Ephesians 5:5’s unique joint phrasing, which does not replace this baseline entry.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: heidenen
Transliteration: heidenen
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Central to Ephesians 2-3’s UJG argument (2:11, 3:1, 3:6, 3:8); retains a pejorative ‘uncivilized/irreligious’ secular-Dutch connotation cutting against the passage’s insistence on full equal status.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: Ἰσραήλ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 2:12’s ‘burgerschap van Israël’ (commonwealth of Israel) names Gentiles’ former exclusion; modern-nation-state conflation risk persists, intensified by Dutch Reformed Christian Zionism.
Forgiveness
Approved rendering: vergeving
Transliteration: vergeving
Doctrine: Redemption and Forgiveness
Original: ἄφεσις
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 1:7. Standard, low-ambiguity Dutch theological vocabulary.
Inheritance
Approved rendering: erfenis
Transliteration: erfenis
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Rejected alternatives: erfdeel (archaic)
Original: κληρονομία
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 1:11, 1:14, 1:18, 5:5. Modern ‘erfenis’ preferred for the newspaper-feature reading-level target.
Guarantee
Approved rendering: onderpand
Transliteration: onderpand
Doctrine: Sealing and Guarantee of the Holy Spirit
Original: ἀρραβών
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 1:14. Classic Statenvertaling term; modern financial/legal collateral sense risks a purely transactional reading rather than the Spirit as a living, personal guarantee.
Fullness
Approved rendering: volheid
Transliteration: volheid
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Original: πλήρωμα
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 1:10, 1:23, 3:19, 4:13. Must be kept concretely tied to Christ’s person and the church, avoiding a vague, generalized mystical reading.
New Self
Approved rendering: nieuwe mens
Transliteration: nieuwe mens
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: καινὸς / νέος ἄνθρωπος
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 4:24. Individual counterpart to the corporate ‘new_humanity’ at 2:15; note the deliberate terminological link so readers perceive individual renewal as flowing from, and expressing, the church’s corporate new-humanity identity.
Old Self
Approved rendering: oude mens
Transliteration: oude mens
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 4:22. Standard vocabulary; pairs with ‘new_self’.
Enmity
Approved rendering: vijandschap
Transliteration: vijandschap
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Original: ἔχθρα
Category: Unity
New term. Ephesians 2:14, 2:16. Both the horizontal (Jew-Gentile) and vertical (Godward) dimensions must remain visible.
Household Of God
Approved rendering: huisgenoten van God
Transliteration: huisgenoten van God
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Original: οἰκεῖοι τοῦ Θεοῦ
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 2:19. Must retain full family-membership status, not guest/stranger status, reinforcing UJG’s claim of equal Gentile belonging.
Temple
Approved rendering: tempel
Transliteration: tempel
Doctrine: Church as Temple and Dwelling Place of God
Original: ναός
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 2:21. Risk of readers picturing the literal historic Jerusalem Temple or a generic non-Christian ‘tempel’ (Hindu, Buddhist) rather than the corporate-people-as-God’s-dwelling metaphor, given rising Dutch religious pluralism. Anchor via surrounding ‘gebouw/gemeente’ vocabulary.
Stewardship
Approved rendering: rentmeesterschap
Transliteration: rentmeesterschap
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Rejected alternatives: bediening/taak (looser, loses the household-management image)
Original: οἰκονομία
Category: Mystery
New term. Ephesians 3:2, 3:9. Risks confusion with modern church-fundraising ‘stewardship’ language; must be anchored contextually to Paul’s apostolic commission each time it occurs.
Fellow Heirs
Approved rendering: medeerfgenamen
Transliteration: medeerfgenamen
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Original: συγκληρονόμος
Category: Unity
New term. Ephesians 3:6. Equal-share inheritance language; must not be read as Gentiles merely tolerated within a still-primary Jewish inheritance, nor as displacing Jewish inheritance.
Unity
Approved rendering: eenheid
Transliteration: eenheid
Doctrine: Unity of the Spirit and One Baptism / Church as the Body of Christ
Original: ἑνότης
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 4:3, 4:13. Practical outworking of both UJG and CBC; must be read as a Spirit-given, already-real unity to be actively preserved, not mere organizational harmony.
Pastor
Approved rendering: herder
Transliteration: herder
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Rejected alternatives: dominee/voorganger (modern functional office-title, not the text’s own metaphor)
Original: ποιμήν
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 4:11. Retain the biblical pastoral-care image; do not substitute a modern clergy office-title, consistent with established HSV/NBV convention.
Mature
Approved rendering: volwassen
Transliteration: volwassen
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church / Church as the Body of Christ
Rejected alternatives: volmaakt (risks implying sinless moral perfection)
Original: τέλειος
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 4:13. ‘Volwassen’ preferred over ‘volmaakt’ without exception, to avoid a sinless-perfection misreading of a corporate/spiritual-maturity statement.
Sexual Immorality
Approved rendering: ontucht
Transliteration: ontucht
Doctrine: Sanctification and Holy Living
Rejected alternatives: hoererij (archaic Statenvertaling-era register)
Original: πορνεία
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 5:3, 5:5. Register choice between modern ‘ontucht’ and archaic ‘hoererij’; must not let the narrower modern legal-criminal connotation of ‘ontucht’ restrict the term’s broader biblical scope, given how sharply Dutch contemporary sexual ethics diverge from the text’s own.
Filled With Spirit
Approved rendering: vervuld worden met de Geest
Transliteration: vervuld met de Geest
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit’s Personhood / Sanctification and Holy Living
Original: πληροῦσθε ἐν Πνεύματι
Category: God
New term. Ephesians 5:18. Ongoing, repeated filling, not a single dramatic event; Reformed/Pentecostal reading divergence requires the iterative verb aspect to be preserved rather than silently favoring either tradition’s theology of Spirit-filling.
Master Earthly
Approved rendering: heer / meester
Transliteration: heer / meester
Doctrine: Masters and Slaves
Original: κύριος / δεσπότης
Category: Household
New term. Ephesians 6:5, 6:9. Must be typographically/contextually distinguished (lower-case) from the capitalized ‘Heer’ reserved for Christ’s Lordship — a distinction easily lost in oral/audio delivery, so surrounding context must also disambiguate.
Schemes
Approved rendering: listen
Transliteration: listen
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Original: μεθοδεία
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 6:11. Must retain the sense of deliberate cunning strategy, not vague misfortune.
Devil
Approved rendering: duivel
Transliteration: duivel
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Original: διάβολος
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 6:11. Secularized Dutch readers may reduce ‘duivel’ to folkloric/cartoonish imagery rather than a real personal spiritual enemy; the text’s matter-of-fact treatment must not be softened into metaphor.
Truth
Approved rendering: waarheid
Transliteration: waarheid
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Rejected alternatives: een waarheid / uw waarheid (relativizing hedge)
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 6:14 (‘gordel van de waarheid’). Low as a standalone lexical item, but flagged given the Netherlands’ pluralistic, ‘post-truth’-aware public discourse; the armor metaphor’s implicit claim to a single, objective, defensible truth must not be diluted.
Dead In Sin
Approved rendering: dood
Transliteration: dood
Doctrine: Total Depravity and Spiritual Deadness
Original: νεκρός
Category: Sin
New term. Ephesians 2:1, 2:5. Without clear syntactic anchoring (‘dood… in uw overtredingen en zonden’), secular readers may read this as rhetorical exaggeration for moral weakness rather than the total-inability doctrine underlying Reformed monergism (Canons of Dort).
Trespass
Approved rendering: overtredingen
Transliteration: overtredingen
Doctrine: Total Depravity and Spiritual Deadness
Original: παράπτωμα
Category: Sin
New term. Ephesians 2:1, 2:5. Must remain visibly distinct from ‘zonden’ rather than collapsing into a single repeated Dutch word, preserving Paul’s pairing of concrete acts with the general condition of sin.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: wandelen
Transliteration: wandelen
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 2:2, 2:10, 4:1, 4:17, 5:2, 5:8, 5:15. The established idiomatic Dutch Bible rendering, but secular readers may hear only the literal leisure-walk sense without contextual anchoring at each of its seven occurrences — the verbal backbone of WNL throughout the letter.
Age Of This World
Approved rendering: de tijdgeest van deze wereld
Transliteration: de tijdgeest van deze wereld
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Rejected alternatives: eeuw (false friend, misleads toward ‘century’)
Original: αἰών
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 2:2. Descriptive paraphrase required; flagged explicitly as a deliberate decision, not a translation-memory deviation, per the Linguistic Gap Analysis.
Sons Of Disobedience
Approved rendering: kinderen van de ongehoorzaamheid
Transliteration: kinderen van de ongehoorzaamheid
Doctrine: Total Depravity and Spiritual Deadness
Original: υἱοὶ τῆς ἀπειθείας
Category: Sin
New term. Ephesians 2:2. The ‘sons/children of X’ idiom must be recognized as character-description, not literal parentage.
Desire Flesh
Approved rendering: begeerten
Transliteration: begeerten
Doctrine: Total Depravity and Spiritual Deadness
Rejected alternatives: lusten (skews narrowly sexual)
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Sin
New term. Ephesians 2:3. ‘Begeerten’ preferred over narrower ‘lusten’.
Flesh
Approved rendering: vlees
Transliteration: vlees
Doctrine: Total Depravity and Spiritual Deadness
Original: σάρξ
Category: Sin
New term. Ephesians 2:3. Also ordinary Dutch for butcher’s meat; Paul’s technical anthropological sense requires contextual signaling.
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: toorn
Transliteration: toorn
Doctrine: Total Depravity and Spiritual Deadness
Rejected alternatives: woede/boosheid (ordinary register, insufficiently elevated)
Original: ὀργή
Category: God
New term. Ephesians 2:3. Elevated register distinct from ordinary anger-words; the backdrop against which grace in vv.4-8 is displayed as unearned rescue.
Seated Together
Approved rendering: met Hem gezet [in de hemelse gewesten]
Transliteration: met Hem gezet
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: is dichtbij God (loses the enthronement/authority sense)
Original: συγκαθίζω
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:6. No single Dutch verb captures ‘co-enthroned’; the descriptive phrase must not lose the enthronement/authority sense that later underwrites the believer’s spiritual-warfare standing in chapter 6.
Heavenly Places
Approved rendering: hemelse gewesten
Transliteration: hemelse gewesten
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ / Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Rejected alternatives: hemel (suggests only the future afterlife-destination)
Original: ἐπουράνιος
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 1:3, 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, 6:12. A distinctive Ephesians term denoting a present spiritual reality believers already occupy in Christ; render consistently across all five occurrences so readers perceive one continuous concept.
Boast
Approved rendering: roemen
Transliteration: roemen
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: opscheppen (colloquial register)
Original: καυχάομαι
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:9. Dignified biblical register required.
Workmanship
Approved rendering: maaksel
Transliteration: maaksel
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: schepping (too general, loses the craftsmanship image)
Original: ποίημα
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:10. Must preserve the craftsmanship image.
Created
Approved rendering: geschapen
Transliteration: geschapen
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith / Walking in Newness of Life
Original: κτίζω
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:10, 2:15, 4:24. Terminological consistency across the letter matters since this ‘new creation’ language recurs for both the ‘new_humanity’ and ‘new_self’.
Prepared Beforehand
Approved rendering: van tevoren bereid
Transliteration: van tevoren bereid
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith / Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: προετοιμάζω
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:10. Should echo the ‘voorbestemming’ vocabulary family from chapter 1 so readers perceive the doctrinal link between EPC and ordinary Christian life.
Kingdom Of Christ And God
Approved rendering: Koninkrijk van Christus en van God
Transliteration: Koninkrijk van Christus en van God
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
New Ephesians-specific variant of the inherited ‘kingdom_of_god’ entry. Ephesians 5:5 uniquely joins Christ’s and God’s kingdom in a single phrase; does not replace the baseline ‘Koninkrijk van God’ rendering used elsewhere, but is required verbatim at 5:5. Must not be read as a political or nationalist kingdom.
Low Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: evangelie
Transliteration: evangelie
Doctrine: Gospel
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Shared, stable term across Reformed and Catholic Dutch Bibles. NOTE: assets/bible_term_registry.json for Ephesians upgrades this term’s risk to High for this curriculum because Ephesians 6:15’s ‘evangelie van de vrede’ and 6:19’s proclamation sense both actively load this term; the Ephesians-specific risk tier (High) governs Phase 2 routing for this book, superseding the Romans-baseline Low tier without altering the rendering itself.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: dankzegging
Transliteration: dankzegging
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστία
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 1:16, 5:4, 5:20. No significant Ephesians-specific risk.
Prophet
Approved rendering: profeet
Transliteration: profeet
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture / Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Ephesians 2:20 (NT apostles and prophets as foundation), 3:5 (recipients of the revealed mystery), 4:11 (fivefold gift).
Exhort
Approved rendering: aansporen
Transliteration: aansporen
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Rejected alternatives: vermanen (admonish/warn sense, not the building-up sense active here)
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package, using the baseline’s flagged building-up sense specifically. Ephesians 4:1 (‘ik spoor u aan’).
Mission
Approved rendering: zending
Transliteration: zending
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: missie (broader/secular)
Inherited from Romans package. Echoed by the new Ephesians term ‘ambassador’ (gezant, 6:20) rather than directly repeated as a lexical item in this letter; retained here for cross-document consistency.
Access
Approved rendering: toegang
Transliteration: toegang
Doctrine: Access to the Father in Prayer
Original: προσαγωγή
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:18, 3:12. Court-audience imagery; low ambiguity risk.
Foundation
Approved rendering: fundament
Transliteration: fundament
Doctrine: Church as Temple and Dwelling Place of God
Original: θεμέλιος
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 2:20. Standard building metaphor.
Cornerstone
Approved rendering: hoeksteen
Transliteration: hoeksteen
Doctrine: Church as Temple and Dwelling Place of God
Original: ἀκρογωνιαῖος
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 2:20. Standard building metaphor.
Building Up
Approved rendering: gebouw / opbouw
Transliteration: opbouw
Doctrine: Church as Temple and Dwelling Place of God / Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: οἰκοδομή
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 2:21 (structure sense: gebouw) and 4:12, 4:16, 4:29 (edification sense: opbouw). Dutch requires two related but distinct renderings depending on which sense is active.
Dwelling Place
Approved rendering: woonplaats
Transliteration: woonplaats
Doctrine: Church as Temple and Dwelling Place of God
Original: κατοικητήριον
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 2:22. Standard vocabulary.
Manifold Wisdom
Approved rendering: veelkleurige wijsheid
Transliteration: veelkleurige wijsheid
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Original: πολυποίκιλος σοφία
Category: Mystery
New term. Ephesians 3:10. Weaving-pattern metaphor; low ambiguity risk.
Boldness
Approved rendering: vrijmoedigheid
Transliteration: vrijmoedigheid
Doctrine: Access to the Father in Prayer
Original: παρρησία
Category: Faith
New term. Ephesians 3:12. Standard vocabulary.
Unsearchable Riches
Approved rendering: onnaspeurlijke rijkdom
Transliteration: onnaspeurlijke rijkdom
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Original: ἀνεξιχνίαστος πλοῦτος
Category: Mystery
New term. Ephesians 3:8. Standard elevated vocabulary.
Evangelist
Approved rendering: evangelist
Transliteration: evangelist
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: εὐαγγελιστής
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 4:11. Standard vocabulary.
Teacher
Approved rendering: leraar
Transliteration: leraar
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: διδάσκαλος
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 4:11. Standard vocabulary.
Equipping
Approved rendering: toerusting
Transliteration: toerusting
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: καταρτισμός
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 4:12. Standard vocabulary.
Renewed
Approved rendering: vernieuwd worden
Transliteration: vernieuwd
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: ἀνακαινοῦσθε
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 4:23. Ongoing/continuous process; standard vocabulary.
Put Off Put On
Approved rendering: afleggen / aandoen
Transliteration: afleggen / aandoen
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: ἀποτίθεμαι / ἐνδύομαι
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 4:22, 4:24-25. Clothing-change metaphor, well-established in Dutch devotional usage.
Imitators Of God
Approved rendering: navolgers van God
Transliteration: navolgers van God
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: μιμηταὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 5:1. Standard vocabulary.
Covetousness
Approved rendering: begerigheid
Transliteration: begerigheid
Doctrine: Sanctification and Holy Living
Rejected alternatives: inhaligheid
Original: πλεονεξία
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 5:3, 5:5. Standard vocabulary.
Idolater
Approved rendering: afgodendienaar
Transliteration: afgodendienaar
Doctrine: Sanctification and Holy Living
Original: εἰδωλολάτρης
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 5:5. Standard vocabulary.
Children Of Light
Approved rendering: kinderen van het licht
Transliteration: kinderen van het licht
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: τέκνα φωτός
Category: Sanctification
New term. Ephesians 5:8. Standard Hebraic idiom, transparent in Dutch.
One Flesh
Approved rendering: één vlees
Transliteration: één vlees
Doctrine: Wives, Husbands, and Headship in Marriage
Original: μία σάρξ
Category: Household
New term. Ephesians 5:31 (Genesis 2:24 citation). Standard vocabulary.
Whole Armor Of God
Approved rendering: wapenrusting van God
Transliteration: wapenrusting van God
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Original: πανοπλία τοῦ Θεοῦ
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 6:11, 6:13. A well-established, widely recognized idiomatic phrase in Dutch Bible tradition and devotional culture; primary risk is under-appreciating supernatural seriousness in a highly secularized culture, not lexical mistranslation.
Stand Firm
Approved rendering: standhouden
Transliteration: standhouden
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Original: ἵστημι / στῆτε
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 6:11, 6:13-14. Standard vocabulary.
Word Of God
Approved rendering: woord van God
Transliteration: woord van God
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Original: ῥῆμα Θεοῦ
Category: Warfare
New term. Ephesians 6:17. Dutch, like English, renders both logos and rhēma as ‘woord’; do not invent an artificial distinction not clearly load-bearing here.
Prayer
Approved rendering: gebed
Transliteration: gebed
Doctrine: Access to the Father in Prayer
Original: προσευχή
Category: Faith
New term. Ephesians 6:18. Standard vocabulary.
Ambassador
Approved rendering: gezant
Transliteration: gezant
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: πρεσβεύω
Category: Church
New term. Ephesians 6:20. Echoes the inherited baseline ‘mission’/‘zending’ entry; Paul’s imprisoned apostolic ministry as an exercise of a building-up gift.
Mercy
Approved rendering: barmhartigheid
Transliteration: barmhartigheid
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 2:4. Relational counterpart to grace’s gift-dimension.
Love Of God
Approved rendering: liefde
Transliteration: liefde
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith / Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: God
New term. Ephesians 2:4. Grounds election (1:4-5), redemption, and grace throughout the letter.
Riches Of Grace
Approved rendering: rijkdom
Transliteration: rijkdom
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Original: πλοῦτος
Category: Salvation
New term. Ephesians 1:7, 1:18, 2:7, 3:8, 3:16. A favorite Ephesians image; God’s lavish, inexhaustible abundance.
Kindness Of God
Approved rendering: goedertierenheid
Transliteration: goedertierenheid
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: vriendelijkheid (plainer register)
Original: χρηστότης
Category: God
New term. Ephesians 2:7. Elevated covenantal register preferred.
Referenced passages