Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Ephesians
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, organized by the nine curriculum doctrines. Terms marked [Baseline reuse] carry forward the exact rendering, risk tier, and rationale recorded in the Romans baseline translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and MUST NOT be re-defined or re-leveled independently in this curriculum. Terms marked [NEW] are Ephesians-specific additions requiring registry entries in Phase 1 Step 2, scored using the same three-category risk framework (false-friend drift, denominational contest, obsolescence).
Risk tiers: Critical (human theologian review mandatory) · High (human theologian review) · Medium (native speaker review) · Low (automated review sufficient).
Doctrine 1: Salvation by Grace through Faith
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| grace | χάρις / charis | [Baseline reuse] | Critical | 1:2, 1:6-7, 2:5, 2:7-8, 4:7 | grace | Dominant secular senses (poise/elegance; a legal “grace period”) carry no theological content; denominational contest on grace-and-works persists. Mandatory explicit clarification on first substantive use. |
| faith | πίστις / pistis | [Baseline reuse] | High | 1:15, 2:8, 3:12, 3:17, 4:5, 4:13, 6:16 | faith | Contemporary “faith” is detached from a specific object (“faith in humanity”); object must be made explicit (trust in Christ specifically) every time. |
| salvation / saved | σωτηρία, σῴζω / sōtēria, sōzō | [Baseline reuse] | Critical | 2:5, 2:8, 6:17 | salvation, saved | Denominational contest (event vs. process); secular generic “rescue” dilution. Eph 2:8’s perfect tense (completed-with-ongoing-results) is a useful nuance to teach. |
| works / good works | ἔργον, ἔργα ἀγαθά / ergon, erga agatha | [NEW] | High | 2:9-10 | works, good works | Denominational contest (grace-alone vs. synergistic/sacramental traditions); secular NGO/charity usage of “good works” risks flattening Paul’s careful grace-then-fruit sequence in either legalistic or humanistic directions. |
| gift | δῶρον / dōron | [NEW] | Low-Medium | 2:8 | gift | Generally stable; note secular “gift” implies reciprocal social expectation, whereas Paul’s gift is wholly unreciprocated. |
| workmanship | ποίημα / poiēma | [NEW] | Medium | 2:10 | workmanship | Modern usage restricted to manufactured-goods quality; needs explicit transfer to personal/spiritual identity. |
| dead (in sin) | νεκρός / nekros | [NEW] | High | 2:1, 2:5 | dead | Therapeutic culture’s “struggling”/“on a journey” categories admit partial capacity; “dead” is categorical and must not be softened. |
| mercy | ἔλεος / eleos | [NEW] | Low-Medium | 2:4 | mercy | Reasonably stable; some secular drift toward impersonal circumstance (“at the mercy of…“). |
| redemption | ἀπολύτρωσις / apolytrōsis | [NEW] | Critical | 1:7, 1:14, 4:30 | redemption | FALSE-FRIEND: dominant contemporary usage is commercial (“redeem” reward points/coupons) or a secular comeback-narrative (“redemption story” in sports/entertainment); both drain the “ransomed by Christ’s blood at a cost” sense. |
| blood of Christ | αἷμα Χριστοῦ / haima Christou | [NEW] | Medium | 1:7, 2:13 | blood of Christ | Secular “blood” senses (genetic relation; violence) can obscure the sacrificial-covenantal referent. |
Doctrine 2: Election and Predestination in Christ
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| election / chose | ἐκλέγομαι, ἐκλογή / eklegomai, eklogē | [Baseline reuse] | Critical | 1:4 | election, chose | FALSE-FRIEND: near-total contemporary capture by the political-voting sense. Mandatory explicit clarification per baseline. |
| predestined | προορίζω / proorizō | [NEW] | Critical | 1:5, 1:11 | predestined, foreordained | DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST (Reformed/Calvinist vs. Arminian/conditional vs. corporate-election readings) at the same intensity as baseline’s “grace” note; also a secular fatalism/astrology false-friend (“it was destiny”). Curriculum must state its own reading and acknowledge others, per transparency rule. |
| will / purpose | θέλημα, πρόθεσις / thelēma, prothesis | [NEW] | Medium | 1:5, 1:9, 1:11 | will, purpose | Contemporary self-actualization “sense of purpose” language risks reversing agency (person discovers purpose vs. God determines it). |
| prepared beforehand | προετοιμάζω / proetoimazō | [NEW] | High | 2:10 | prepared beforehand | Shares predestination’s denominational-contest terrain, extended to post-salvation good works. |
| foreknew / called / justified / glorified (chain) | Romans-parallel vocabulary (cf. Rom 8:28-30) | [Baseline reuse — “calling,” concept parallel] | High | (conceptual echo; not a distinct Ephesians lexeme but doctrinally linked) | called | Same effectual-calling risk profile as baseline. |
| adoption | υἱοθεσία / huiothesia | [Baseline reuse] | Low | 1:5 | adoption | Positive secular drift (adoption-awareness culture) remains an asset; full-inheritance-rights dimension still needs stressing. |
Doctrine 3: The Church as the Body of Christ
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| church | ἐκκλησία / ekklēsia | [Baseline reuse] | Critical | 1:22, 3:10, 3:21, 5:23-32 | church | Post-Christian erosion (institutional decline, scandal associations); must actively restore the living, Spirit-indwelt sense. |
| body (of Christ) | σῶμα / sōma | [NEW] | High | 1:22-23, 4:4, 4:12, 4:16, 5:23, 5:30 | body, body of Christ | Generic organizational “corporate body/student body” secular usage flattens the organic, Spirit-animated metaphor Ephesians intensifies beyond Romans 12’s brief use. |
| head | κεφαλή / kephalē | [NEW] | Critical | 1:22, 4:15, 5:23 | head | Denominational contest peaks at 5:23 (see Doctrine 7); even the Christological use (1:22) pre-loads a ruling-authority default reading for modern readers that must be tracked consistently across all three occurrences. |
| fullness | πλήρωμα / plērōma | [NEW] | Medium | 1:23, 3:19, 4:13 | fullness | Obsolescence: rare outside set phrases; abstract, requires active teaching. |
| foundation / cornerstone | θεμέλιος, ἀκρογωνιαῖος / themelios, akrogōniaios | [NEW] | Medium | 2:20 | foundation, cornerstone | Secular “cornerstone of our strategy” business idiom drains the architectural-messianic specificity. |
| holy temple / dwelling place | ναός, κατοικητήριον / naos, katoikētērion | [NEW] | Medium | 2:21-22 | temple, dwelling place | ”Temple” is generic across religions in secular usage, or a bodybuilding idiom (“body is a temple”); the specifically corporate-church referent needs restating. |
| household of God | οἰκεῖοι τοῦ θεοῦ / oikeioi tou theou | [NEW] | Low | 2:19 | household of God | Stable, warm familial connotation in contemporary English. |
Doctrine 4: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gentiles | ἔθνη / ethnē | [Baseline reuse] | Medium | 2:11, 3:1, 3:6, 3:8 | Gentiles | Baseline warns against glossing as “non-believers”; here specifically means covenantal outsiders, not generically irreligious people. |
| dividing wall | μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ / mesotoichon tou phragmou | [NEW] | Medium | 2:14 | dividing wall | Obsolescence: unfamiliar temple-architecture referent risks flattening into a generic “social division” metaphor without Paul’s specific covenantal point. |
| reconcile / reconciliation | ἀποκαταλλάσσω, καταλλαγή / apokatallassō, katallagē | [NEW] | High | 2:16 | reconcile, reconciliation | Secular political/therapeutic “reconciliation” (truth-and-reconciliation commissions, restorative justice) is a partial asset but risks recasting God’s unilateral cross-work as mutual human negotiation. |
| fellow citizens | συμπολίτης / sympolitēs | [NEW] | Medium | 2:19 | fellow citizens | Contemporary immigration/citizenship discourse is a live political topic that can distract from, or usefully illustrate, Paul’s covenantal point; handle carefully. |
| one new man / one new humanity | εἷς καινὸς ἄνθρωπος / heis kainos anthrōpos | [NEW] | Medium | 2:15 | one new humanity, one new man | Archaic gendered phrasing risks being read as male-specific; also faint overlap with secular “new man” self-reinvention idiom. |
| peace | εἰρήνη / eirēnē | [Baseline reuse] | Medium | 2:14-17 | peace | Adds a horizontal (Jew-Gentile) dimension to the baseline’s vertical (with-God) sense; teach both together here. |
| mystery | μυστήριον / mystērion | [NEW] | High | 3:3-9 | mystery | See Doctrine 5 below; here specifically the mystery’s content is Gentile co-inheritance with Jews. |
Doctrine 5: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mystery | μυστήριον / mystērion | [NEW] | High | 1:9, 3:3-9, 5:32, 6:19 | mystery | FALSE-FRIEND: contemporary “mystery” = an unsolved puzzle/detective-fiction genre humans must investigate; Paul’s sense is the reverse — a previously hidden truth God graciously discloses. Explicit correction required on every substantive occurrence. |
| revelation | ἀποκάλυψις / apokalypsis | [NEW] | Medium | 1:17, 3:3, 3:5 | revelation | Secular “it was a revelation to me” (a surprising personal insight) dilutes the specifically God-disclosed sense. |
| stewardship | οἰκονομία / oikonomia | [NEW] | Medium | 3:2, 3:9 | stewardship | Descendant word “economy” has drifted entirely into finance/markets, obscuring the household-management root sense. |
| unsearchable riches of Christ | ἀνεξιχνίαστος πλοῦτος τοῦ Χριστοῦ | [NEW] | Low-Medium | 3:8 | unsearchable riches | Shares “riches” secularization risk (financial default sense) but otherwise stable. |
| manifold wisdom | πολυποίκιλος σοφία / polypoikilos sophia | [NEW] | Medium | 3:10 | manifold wisdom | Shares general “wisdom” secularization risk (folk-wisdom/life-skill sense vs. God-disclosed insight). |
Doctrine 6: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces | ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, κοσμοκράτορες, πνευματικά τῆς πονηρίας | [NEW] | Critical | 1:21, 2:2, 3:10, 6:12 | rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil | Contemporary secular materialism denies literal spiritual beings, reducing “powers that be” to a human-institutional idiom; fantasy/occult media supply a fictionalized substitute. DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: literal-personal-beings reading vs. social/structural-forces reading are both held among English-speaking Christians; state this curriculum’s position and acknowledge the other. |
| armor of God | πανοπλία τοῦ θεοῦ / panoplia tou theou | [NEW] | High | 6:11, 6:13 | armor of God, whole armor of God | Contemporary gaming/fantasy associations risk trivializing real spiritual conflict into a game mechanic; charismatic vs. non-charismatic traditions differ on how actively “spiritual warfare” is practiced. |
| devil / schemes of the devil | διάβολος, μεθοδεία / diabolos, methodeia | [NEW] | High | 6:11 | devil, schemes/wiles of the devil | Contemporary culture treats “the devil” as either cartoonish superstition or a metaphor for inner struggle; both erase the claim of a real, personal, strategizing adversary. |
| belt of truth / breastplate of righteousness / shoes of the gospel of peace / shield of faith / helmet of salvation / sword of the Spirit | ζώνη ἀληθείας, θώραξ δικαιοσύνης, ἑτοιμασία τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς εἰρήνης, θυρεὸς τῆς πίστεως, περικεφαλαία τοῦ σωτηρίου, μάχαιρα τοῦ Πνεύματος | [NEW] | Medium (composite) | 6:14-17 | belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit | Risk is largely inherited from paired doctrinal terms already registered (righteousness [Baseline High], faith [Baseline High], salvation [Baseline Critical], gospel [Baseline Medium]); each armor piece should be taught as a specific doctrine, not generic imagery. |
| praying in the Spirit | προσευχόμενοι ἐν Πνεύματι / proseuchomenoi en Pneumati | [NEW] | Medium | 6:18 | praying in the Spirit | DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: some charismatic traditions read this as praying in tongues specifically; others read it as any Spirit-enabled prayer. Note the range rather than assuming one reading. |
| flesh and blood | αἷμα καὶ σάρξ / haima kai sarx | [NEW] | Medium | 6:12 | flesh and blood | Contemporary idiom is literal/physical (“my own flesh and blood” = family); Paul’s specific contrast (human vs. spiritual opponents) needs restating. |
| heavenly places | ἐπουράνιος / epouranios | [NEW] | Medium | 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, 6:12 | heavenly places | Secular “heavenly” (used loosely for anything pleasant) drains its cosmic-conflict/enthronement content; materialism separately denies the unseen realm’s reality. |
Doctrine 7: Household Codes and Christ-Centered Relationships
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| submit / be subject | ὑποτάσσω / hypotassō | [NEW] | Critical | 5:21, 5:22, 5:24 | submit, be subject | Contemporary Western egalitarian and autonomy values make wife-directed submission language acutely fraught regardless of interpretive school; must be handled with the same explicit denominational transparency the baseline requires for “grace.” |
| head (of wife) | κεφαλή / kephalē | [NEW] | Critical | 5:23 | head | The sharpest denominational contest in this curriculum: complementarian (“head” = authority) vs. egalitarian (“head” = source/origin) readings are both well-represented among English-speaking Christians; state this curriculum’s reading and name the other explicitly. |
| love your wives | ἀγαπᾶτε τὰς γυναῖκας / agapate tas gynaikas | [NEW] | High | 5:25-33 | love your wives | Must always be taught together with, never detached from, the submission/head instructions — isolating either half distorts Paul’s balanced pastoral instruction. |
| one flesh | μία σάρξ / mia sarx | [NEW] | Medium | 5:31 | one flesh | Mostly encountered today only in wedding-liturgy contexts; risk of being heard as decorative poetry rather than a real covenantal-union claim and its typological function. |
| bondservants / slaves / masters | δοῦλος, κύριος / doulos, kyrios | [NEW] | Critical | 6:5-9 | bondservants, slaves; masters | POST-MODERN MORAL RUPTURE: contemporary readers universally regard institutional slavery as gravely wrong; requires careful historical contextualization (Greco-Roman household slavery) so the text is neither read as endorsement nor dismissed wholesale. Note the same root (kyrios) elsewhere renders “Lord” for Christ — a deliberate rhetorical echo in 6:9. |
| obey your parents / honor | ὑπακούω, τιμάω / hypakouō, timaō | [NEW] | Low | 6:1-2 | obey your parents, honor | Comparatively stable and uncontroversial; mild friction with contemporary child-autonomy parenting norms, worth a brief note only. |
| do not provoke to anger | μὴ παροργίζετε / mē parorgizete | [NEW] | Low | 6:4 | do not provoke, do not exasperate | Stable in contemporary English. |
| sincerity of heart / as to the Lord | ἁπλότης καρδίας, ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ | [NEW] | Low-Medium | 6:5-7 | sincerity of heart, as to the Lord | Carries the same “Lord” obsolescence risk flagged in baseline. |
Doctrine 8: Gifts for Building Up the Church
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| spiritual gifts / grace given | χαρίσματα, δωρεά, δόμα | [Baseline reuse, extended] | Medium | 4:7-8 | spiritual gifts, grace given | Baseline’s “gifted = innate talent” false-friend risk applies identically here to the offices listed in 4:11. |
| apostles | ἀπόστολος / apostolos | [Baseline reuse] | Medium | 2:20, 3:5, 4:11 | apostles | Unchanged from baseline. |
| prophets | προφήτης / prophētēs | [Baseline reuse] | Low | 2:20, 3:5, 4:11 | prophets | Unchanged from baseline. |
| evangelists | εὑαγγελιστής / euangelistēs | [NEW] | Medium | 4:11 | evangelists | Ties to baseline’s “evangelism” High-risk note: negative secular coding (door-to-door solicitation, televangelist-scandal associations) colors even this neutral office title. |
| pastors / shepherds | ποιμήν / poimēn | [NEW] | Medium | 4:11 | pastors, shepherds | Contemporary usage narrows “pastor” to a clergy job title, obscuring the shepherding/protective-care metaphor. |
| teachers | διδάσκαλος / didaskalos | [NEW] | Low | 4:11 | teachers | Stable in contemporary English. |
| equipping / ministry | καταρτισμός, διακονία / katartismos, diakonia | [NEW] | Medium | 4:12 | equipping; ministry | ”Ministry” is a government-department term in British/Commonwealth English (false-friend); American usage narrows it to clergy work, itself narrower than Paul’s every-believer sense. |
| mature manhood / fullness of Christ | τέλειος ἀνήρ, πλήρωμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ | [NEW] | Medium | 4:13 | maturity, fullness of Christ | Archaic gendered phrasing risks a male-specific misreading of a corporate/universal referent; needs an inclusive gloss or explicit generic-usage note. |
| speaking the truth in love | ἀληθεύοντες ἐν ἀγάπῃ | [NEW] | Low | 4:15 | speaking the truth in love | Already a well-known, largely intact English phrase — a genuine asset. |
| tossed by waves / craftiness | κλυδωνιζόμενοι, πανουργία | [NEW] | Low | 4:14 | tossed by waves, craftiness | Vivid, stable metaphor. |
Doctrine 9: Walking in Newness of Life
| Term | Greek / Transliteration | Status | Risk | Key Passages | Rendering | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| walk | περιπατέω / peripateō | [NEW — structural term] | Medium | 2:2, 2:10, 4:1, 4:17, 5:2, 5:8, 5:15 | walk | Obsolescence: modern English rarely uses “walk” for “conduct one’s life”; needs consistent glossing across every occurrence as the book’s major structural metaphor bridging chs. 1-3 (doctrine) and 4-6 (ethics). |
| old self / new self (put off / put on) | παλαιὸς/καινὸς ἄνθρωπος, ἀποτίθημι/ἐνδύω | [NEW] | High | 4:22-24 | old self, new self; put off, put on | Contemporary self-improvement/“authentic self” identity culture offers a competing, self-effort frame; Paul’s is a definitive, Spirit-wrought, union-with-Christ-grounded change. |
| likeness of God | κατὰ θεόν / kata theon | [NEW] | Medium | 4:24 | likeness of God | Risk of collapsing into generic “made in God’s image = inherent dignity” (true elsewhere, incomplete here); Paul’s point is ethical renewal patterned on God’s holiness. |
| grieve the Holy Spirit | λυπέω τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον / lypeō | [NEW] | Medium-High | 4:30 | grieve the Holy Spirit | Therapeutic culture’s clinical “grief” language may miss the relational, personal-offense sense; impersonal “spirit”/“energy” language may miss that a real Person is grieved at all. |
| sin (trespass) | ἁμαρτία, παράπτωμα | [Baseline reuse, extended] | High | 2:1, 4:26 | sin, trespass | Baseline risk applies; “trespass” additionally needs a plain modern gloss beyond its property-law survival sense. |
| flesh | σάρξ / sarx | [Baseline-adjacent, extended] | High | 2:3, 2:11, 5:29-31, 6:5, 6:12 | flesh | Modern idiom (“in the flesh,” “flesh and blood”) is almost entirely literal/physical, missing Paul’s moral-corruption sense; a recurring false-friend across the whole book. |
| children of light / darkness | τέκνα φωτός, σκότος | [NEW] | Medium | 5:8, 5:11 | children of light, darkness | Generally stable moral metaphor; “children of light” carries minor New Age/esoteric pop-spirituality overtones in some contemporary subcultures. |
| redeeming the time | ἐξαγοράζω τὸν καιρόν / exagorazō ton kairon | [NEW] | Medium | 5:16 | making the best use of time, redeeming the time | FALSE-FRIEND: modern idiom “buying time” (stalling) is nearly opposite Paul’s “seize the opportunity now” sense. |
| filled with the Spirit | πληρόω ἐν Πνεύματι / plēroō en Pneumati | [NEW] | Medium | 5:18 | be filled with the Spirit | Vague wellness-culture “spiritual” language dilutes the specific triune referent unless the built-in drunkenness contrast is kept explicit. |
| sexual immorality / impurity / covetousness / idolatry | πορνεία, ἀκαθαρσία, πλεονεξία, εἰδωλολατρία | [NEW] | Medium | 5:3-5 | sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, idolatry | Contemporary consent/autonomy-based sexual ethics differs from Paul’s categorical framework; must not be softened per doctrinal-preservation rule. |
| seal / sealed | σφραγίζω / sphragizō | [NEW] | Medium | 1:13, 4:30 | sealed | Obsolescence (wax/signet seals absent from modern experience); “sealed deal”/“seal of approval” idiom can bridge if ownership/security sense is made explicit. |
| guarantee / down payment | ἀρραβών / arrabōn | [NEW] | Medium | 1:14 | guarantee, down payment | Financial/legal analogy (deposit, engagement-ring pledge) is a genuine asset if explicitly tied to the Spirit’s guarantee role. |
| inheritance | κλῆρος, κληρονομία / klēros, klēronomia | [NEW] | Medium | 1:11, 1:14, 1:18 | inheritance | Positive family-estate analogy, but risks being heard as post-death-only rather than a present-and-future reality already partially possessed. |
| power / working / might / strength | δύναμις, ἐνέργεια, κράτος, ἰσχύς | [Baseline reuse “power_of_god,” extended] | High | 1:19, 3:16, 3:20, 6:10 | power, working, might, strength | Baseline’s negative political/abuse-of-power secular discourse risk applies, intensified by Ephesians’ dense stacking of four near-synonyms; risk of flattening into one generic English “power,” losing rhetorical structure. |
Cross-Reference: Terms Reused Verbatim from the Romans Baseline (No New Analysis Required)
grace · faith · salvation/saved · righteousness · saints · holy · church · called/calling · election · Gentiles · glory · Holy Spirit · Father · God · Jesus · Lord · apostle · prophet · peace · spiritual gifts · adoption · resurrection (extended sense: “raised with him”) · sin · power of God · sanctification · fellowship · thanksgiving · kingdom of God
These carry their baseline rendering, risk tier, and rationale forward unchanged into the Ephesians curriculum, per instruction.
New Terms Flagged for Registry Addition (Phase 1 Step 2)
predestined/predestination · mystery · redemption · body (of Christ) · head (kephalē) · fullness · foundation/cornerstone · dividing wall · reconcile/reconciliation · fellow citizens · one new man/humanity · stewardship · manifold wisdom · rulers/authorities/cosmic powers/spiritual forces · armor of God · devil/schemes of the devil · armor-piece set (belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit) · praying in the Spirit · flesh and blood · heavenly places · submit/submission · love your wives · one flesh · bondservants/slaves/masters · evangelists · pastors/shepherds · equipping/ministry · mature manhood/fullness of Christ · walk (peripateō) · old self/new self (put off/put on) · likeness of God · grieve the Holy Spirit · children of light/darkness · redeeming the time · filled with the Spirit · sexual immorality/impurity/covetousness/idolatry · seal/sealed · guarantee/down payment (arrabōn) · inheritance · power/working/might/strength (four-term cluster) · workmanship · gift · blood of Christ · unity of the Spirit · baptism (as unity marker) · will/purpose · prepared beforehand · unsearchable riches of Christ · sincerity of heart
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: grace
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: elegance/poise (the dominant secular sense), a grace period (the dominant legal/financial sense)
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] CRITICAL FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT and DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST per baseline. Ephesians 2:5,7,8 and 4:7 are this curriculum’s central grace texts; 2:9’s explicit ‘not a result of works’ makes the Reformed/Wesleyan-Arminian/Catholic denominational contest unavoidable in the core passage itself and must be stated plainly, per the transparency rule.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: righteousness
Transliteration: dikaiosynē
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: self-righteous / holier-than-thou (the dominant modern connotation of smug superiority)
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Appears in Ephesians 4:24 (‘the new self, created after the likeness of God in righteousness’) and as the ‘breastplate of righteousness’ (6:14). Must not collapse into moral achievement or performance; this is a right standing given, not earned.
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: dikaiōsis
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: justifying your answer / justifying an action (the near-universal everyday sense of giving a reason or excuse for something already done)
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Not a distinct Ephesians lexeme, but the doctrine it names (God’s forensic declaration of righteousness) is directly implied by Ephesians 2:8-9’s grace/faith/works argument; the same mandatory false-friend clarification required in Romans applies wherever this curriculum explains 2:8-9 in forensic terms.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvation
Transliteration: sōtēria
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: being saved (contested denominational shorthand), rescue (too generic a gloss on its own)
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 2:5,8’s perfect tense (‘you have been saved,’ a completed action with continuing results) is a useful, underused resource for teaching salvation as both a decisive past event AND a present abiding state, bridging the baseline’s documented denominational contest over ‘being saved’ as event vs. process. Also appears as ‘helmet of salvation’ (6:17).
Resurrection
Approved rendering: resurrection
Transliteration: anastasis / synegeirō
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Easter (the commercialized cultural holiday sense)
Original: ἀνάστασις / συνεγείρω
Category: Eschatology
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:20 anchors the historical resurrection; 2:6’s ‘raised us up with him’ extends the doctrine into believers’ own present union with that resurrection life, compounding the baseline’s resurrection-as-myth cultural-erosion risk with the additional, less intuitive claim that believers already share in it now.
Lord
Approved rendering: Lord
Transliteration: kyrios
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: boss / master (loses exclusivity and worship-worthiness), a British Lord (aristocratic title sense)
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:2-3, 4:1,5, 5:20, 6:1,4-9 (repeatedly, including the ironic echo at 6:9 where earthly ‘masters,’ kyrioi, are reminded they too have a Master, kyrios, in heaven). Must actively restore total, exclusive, personal allegiance.
Church
Approved rendering: church
Transliteration: ekklēsia
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:22, 3:10,21, 5:23-32 develops ‘church’ far more intensively as an organic body and as Christ’s bride than Romans does. The living, Spirit-indwelt sense must be actively restored, intensified here by the marital-union imagery of 5:25-32.
Election
Approved rendering: election
Transliteration: eklegomai / eklogē
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Rejected alternatives: an election (the near-total dominant sense: a political vote)
Original: ἐκλέγομαι / ἐκλογή
Category: Salvation
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:4 (‘he chose us in him before the foundation of the world’) is this doctrine’s core Ephesians proof text. FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT at near-total contemporary capture by the political-voting sense; mandatory explicit clarification required exactly as in the Romans baseline.
Providence
Approved rendering: providence
Transliteration: pronoia
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Rejected alternatives: everything happens for a reason (impersonal folk-spiritual idiom), Providence (the Rhode Island proper noun)
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Underlies Ephesians 1:11’s ‘according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,’ now further specified in this curriculum by the new terms ‘purpose,’ ‘will,’ and ‘prepared beforehand’ below; retained for cross-curriculum consistency with the Romans doctrine of the same name.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Iēsous
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Jesus (as a casual interjection/expletive)
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Use the target language’s established Christian Bible-translation form throughout Ephesians; avoid casual-interjection register.
God
Approved rendering: God
Transliteration: theos
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Rejected alternatives: a higher power (deliberately vague contemporary substitute), the universe (New-Age-influenced impersonal substitute)
Original: θεός
Category: God
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Avoid deliberately vague substitutes; Ephesians’ God is the specific ‘Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1:3, 1:17), not a placeholder concept.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Holy Spirit
Transliteration: pneuma hagion
Doctrine: Being Filled with the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: good vibes / positive energy (vague contemporary spiritual substitutes)
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:13, 4:30, 5:18 develop this term intensively; Ephesians 2:2’s ‘the spirit… of disobedience’ (lowercase, an evil animating influence) must be kept visually and contextually distinct from every Holy Spirit occurrence.
Predestined
Approved rendering: predestined, foreordained
Transliteration: proorizō
Doctrine: Predestination
Rejected alternatives: it was destiny / written in the stars (fatalistic, impersonal astrological sense)
Original: προορίζω
Category: Election
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:5, 1:11. DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST at the same intensity as the baseline’s ‘grace’ note: Reformed/Calvinist unconditional-individual-predestination readings, corporate-election readings, and Arminian conditional-foreknowledge readings are all live, well-represented positions among English-speaking Christians. This curriculum must state its own reading plainly while explicitly naming the others, per the transparency rule. SECULAR FALSE-FRIEND: ‘predestined’/‘destiny’ also carry a fatalistic, impersonal sense quite different from a personal God’s purposeful choice.
Redemption
Approved rendering: redemption
Transliteration: apolytrōsis
Doctrine: Redemption and Forgiveness
Rejected alternatives: redeeming reward points/a coupon (commercial sense), a redemption story (secular comeback-narrative sense)
Original: ἀπολύτρωσις
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:7, 1:14, 4:30. FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT: dominant contemporary usage is commercial or a secular comeback-narrative meaning restored reputation through personal effort; both drain out the specific sense of a costly ransom paid by Christ’s blood on the believer’s behalf. Must be explicitly distinguished on first substantive use.
Head
Approved rendering: head
Transliteration: kephalē
Doctrine: Headship of Christ / Household Codes: Marriage
Rejected alternatives: head office / CEO (modern org-chart ruling-authority default, accurate for 1:22 but doctrinally fraught once applied to marriage at 5:23)
Original: κεφαλή
Category: Christology
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:22, 4:15, 5:23. DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST at maximum intensity once applied to marriage: complementarian readings (‘head’ = authority) vs. egalitarian/mutualist readings (‘head’ = source/origin, with 5:21 governing the whole passage) are both well-represented among English-speaking Christians. Must be tracked consistently across all three occurrences; this curriculum must state its own reading plainly and acknowledge the other major reading.
Cosmic Powers
Approved rendering: rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil
Transliteration: archai, exousiai, kosmokratores, pneumatika tēs ponērias
Doctrine: Rulers, Authorities, and Cosmic Powers
Rejected alternatives: the powers that be (secular human-institutional idiom), fantasy/occult media’s fictionalized cosmic-conflict frame
Original: ἄρχων, ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, κοσμοκράτορες, πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:21, 2:2, 3:10, 6:12 — Ephesians’ fullest New Testament cataloguing of this vocabulary. DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: some traditions read these as literal personal spiritual beings; others read them as human systems of oppression. Both readings have real advocates; state this curriculum’s position plainly and acknowledge the other.
Submission
Approved rendering: submit, be subject
Transliteration: hypotassō
Doctrine: Household Codes: Marriage (Submission and Headship)
Rejected alternatives: just following orders / servility (contemporary autonomy-and-egalitarian default association)
Original: ὑποτάσσω
Category: Household
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:21, 5:22, 5:24. Contemporary Western egalitarian and personal-autonomy values make wife-directed submission language acutely fraught regardless of interpretive school. This curriculum must state plainly which reading it presents and explicitly acknowledge the other major reading, applying the transparency rule with the same rigor required for ‘grace.‘
Bondservants And Masters
Approved rendering: bondservants, slaves; masters
Transliteration: douloi / kyrioi
Doctrine: Household Codes: Bondservants and Masters
Rejected alternatives: direct equation with transatlantic chattel slavery (anachronistic), wholesale dismissal as a discardable relic
Original: δοῦλοι / κύριοι
Category: Household
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:5-9. POST-MODERN MORAL RUPTURE: requires careful historical contextualization (Greco-Roman household slavery, distinct from though historically entangled with transatlantic chattel slavery). The same root word (kyrios) rendered ‘masters’ here is elsewhere rendered ‘Lord’ for Christ — the deliberate rhetorical echo at 6:9 must be surfaced explicitly, not lost.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: faith
Transliteration: pistis
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: faith in humanity / a leap of faith (secularized idioms meaning generic optimism or an unsupported gamble)
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Contemporary English detaches ‘faith’ from any specific object. Ephesians 2:8 ties faith syntactically tight to grace and salvation and to the ‘shield of faith’ (6:16) — an ideal teaching point for restoring faith’s specific, personal, Christ-directed object every time it recurs.
Called
Approved rendering: called
Transliteration: klētos
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: κλητός
Category: Salvation
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Context-sensitive across Ephesians as elsewhere; see ‘calling’ below for the noun form used at 1:18, 4:1, 4:4.
Calling
Approved rendering: calling
Transliteration: klēsis
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Rejected alternatives: finding your calling (the dominant contemporary secular sense: career vocation or personal passion, discovered through self-reflection)
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:18 (‘the hope to which he has called you’) and 4:1, 4:4. Modern self-actualization usage must be explicitly reversed: God calls; the person does not self-select a calling through introspection.
Holy
Approved rendering: holy
Transliteration: hagios
Doctrine: Sanctification and Holy Living
Rejected alternatives: holier-than-thou (negative idiom), holy cow / holy moly (content-free exclamations)
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:4 (‘holy and blameless’), 5:27. Must be actively re-taught as moral and relational set-apartness, not ritual purity alone or a negative idiom of sanctimony.
Saints
Approved rendering: saints
Transliteration: hagioi
Doctrine: Sainthood / Church as God’s People
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:1, 1:15, 1:18, 3:8, 3:18, 4:12, 5:3, 6:18 — an unusually frequent Ephesians term. Catholic/Orthodox ‘canonized figure’ usage vs. corporate ‘all believers’ usage remains a live denominational contest requiring explicit statement.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: sanctification
Transliteration: hagiasmos / hagiazō
Doctrine: Sanctification and Holy Living
Original: ἁγιασμός / ἁγιάζω
Category: Sanctification
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians uses the cognate verb at 5:26 (‘that he might sanctify her’), applying the concept to the church as Christ’s bride. Obsolescence risk rather than false-friend risk, per baseline.
Adoption
Approved rendering: adoption
Transliteration: huiothesia
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: υἱοθεσία
Category: Salvation
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:5, tied directly to predestination (‘he predestined us for adoption’). Positive secular drift (adoption-awareness culture) remains an asset; the full-inheritance-rights dimension should still be stressed given 1:11,14,18’s inheritance language.
Sin
Approved rendering: sin
Transliteration: hamartia / paraptōma
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability (Dead in Sin)
Rejected alternatives: sinfully delicious / my one sin (trivialized marketing usage)
Original: ἁμαρτία / παράπτωμα
Category: Sin
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 2:1 pairs both nouns (‘dead in the trespasses and sins’). Marketing trivialization and non-judgmental therapeutic-culture resistance both apply per baseline.
Glory
Approved rendering: glory
Transliteration: doxa
Doctrine: Thanksgiving and Praise
Rejected alternatives: glory days (nostalgic secular usage), a glory hound (pejorative usage)
Original: δόξα
Category: God
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:6,12,14,17,18; 3:13,16,21. The refrain ‘to the praise of his glory’ (1:6,12,14) is a structural feature; nostalgic and pejorative secular usage must be actively distinguished.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: power of God
Transliteration: dynamis theou
Doctrine: The Power of God at Work in Believers
Original: δύναμις θεοῦ
Category: God
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:19 stacks four near-synonymous power words in a single verse (see ‘power_might_strength_cluster’ below), echoed at 3:16,20 and 6:10. Contemporary secular ‘power’ discourse is dominantly negative per baseline.
Covenant
Approved rendering: covenant
Transliteration: diathēkē
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Rejected alternatives: a restrictive covenant (the dominant contemporary legal sense)
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 2:12 describes Gentiles as formerly ‘strangers to the covenants of promise’ — the plural underscores the accumulated Old Testament promises Gentiles were excluded from. Most contemporary readers now encounter ‘covenant’ chiefly in real-estate/contract law, obscuring the relational, promissory bond Paul intends.
Father
Approved rendering: Father
Transliteration: patēr
Doctrine: Election and Predestination in Christ
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:2,3,17; 2:18; 3:14; 4:6; 5:20; 6:23. Catholic ‘Father’ = priest ambiguity and painful-human-father-figure pastoral sensitivity both apply per baseline.
Prepared Beforehand
Approved rendering: prepared beforehand
Transliteration: proetoimazō
Doctrine: Predestination
Original: προετοιμάζω
Category: Election
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:10. Shares ‘predestined’s’ denominational-contest terrain — readers from libertarian-free-will traditions and readers from meticulous-divine-sovereignty traditions will hear this clause differently — extended here specifically to the believer’s good works, not merely their initial rescue.
Dead In Sin
Approved rendering: dead
Transliteration: nekros
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability (Dead in Sin)
Rejected alternatives: spiritually weak / far from God (softened readings implying latent self-revival capacity)
Original: νεκρός
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:1, 2:5. Contemporary self-help and therapeutic culture frames spiritual condition as ‘struggling’ or ‘on a journey’ — categories admitting partial capacity. ‘Dead’ is categorical and is the doctrinal anchor of the core passage’s opening claim.
Works And Good Works
Approved rendering: works, good works
Transliteration: erga / erga agatha
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: good works as generic humanitarian/NGO service (secular flattening)
Original: ἔργα / ἔργα ἀγαθά
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:9-10. DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: directly engages the baseline’s grace-and-works note. This curriculum must state plainly that 2:9 excludes works as the ground of salvation while 2:10 immediately affirms works as its fruit — the sequence, not either half alone, must be taught.
Body Of Christ
Approved rendering: body of Christ
Transliteration: sōma
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Rejected alternatives: corporate body / student body (generic organizational usage)
Original: σῶμα
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:4,12,16, 5:23,30. Generic organizational secular usage flattens the organic, Spirit-animated metaphor Ephesians intensifies well beyond Romans 12’s brief use; use ‘body of Christ’ in full, never bare ‘body’ alone, to pre-empt the corporate-institution default.
Reconciliation
Approved rendering: reconcile, reconciliation
Transliteration: apokatallassō / katallagē
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Rejected alternatives: truth and reconciliation commission / restorative justice (secular partial-asset usage risking a mutual-negotiation reading)
Original: ἀποκαταλλάσσω / καταλλαγή
Category: Unity
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:16. Contemporary secular usage is a genuine partial asset for the relational-restoration sense but risks flattening Paul’s unilateral divine-initiative act, achieved once at the cross, into a mutual, ongoing human negotiation process.
Mystery
Approved rendering: mystery
Transliteration: mystērion
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Rejected alternatives: a detective-fiction/genre mystery (an unsolved puzzle humans must investigate), ‘secret’ unqualified (NLT’s rendering, risks implying ongoing concealment rather than gracious disclosure)
Original: μυστήριον
Category: Mystery
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:9, 3:3-9, 5:32, 6:19 — a key structural word across four chapters. FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT: contemporary English ‘mystery’ overwhelmingly means an unsolved puzzle; Paul’s sense is the reverse — a previously hidden truth God graciously discloses. Requires explicit correction on every substantive occurrence, including its most counter-intuitive application to marriage at 5:32.
Armor Of God
Approved rendering: armor of God, whole armor of God
Transliteration: panoplia tou theou
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Rejected alternatives: game armor / cosplay gear (gaming/fantasy trivializing frame)
Original: πανοπλία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:11, 6:13. Contemporary gaming/fantasy media supply a vivid but potentially trivializing frame; register this vocabulary in plain, serious, non-genre prose. Charismatic and non-charismatic traditions differ on how literally/actively spiritual warfare is practiced today.
Devil
Approved rendering: devil, schemes/wiles of the devil
Transliteration: diabolos / methodeia
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Rejected alternatives: cartoon superstition (red suit, pitchfork imagery), a metaphor for inner psychological struggle
Original: διάβολος / μεθοδεία
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:27, 6:11. Contemporary secular culture is broadly skeptical of a literal personal devil; both cartoonish and purely-metaphorical framings risk erasing Paul’s claim of a real, external, strategizing personal adversary. Also relevant to the Christian Science non-literal-evil caution documented in the translation landscape survey.
Love Your Wives
Approved rendering: love your wives
Transliteration: agapate tas gynaikas
Doctrine: Household Codes: Marriage (Submission and Headship)
Original: ἀγαπᾶτε τὰς γυναῖκας
Category: Household
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:25-33. Must always be taught together with, never detached from, the submission/head instructions of 5:21-24 — isolating either half distorts Paul’s balanced pastoral instruction.
Old Self New Self
Approved rendering: old self, new self; put off, put on
Transliteration: palaios anthrōpos / kainos anthrōpos / apothesthai / endysasthai
Doctrine: Putting Off the Old Self, Putting On the New Self
Rejected alternatives: generic self-reinvention / personal rebranding (self-improvement/authentic-self identity culture)
Original: παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος / καινὸς ἄνθρωπος / ἀποτίθημι / ἐνδύω
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:22-24. Contemporary secular self-improvement culture offers a directly competing frame: readers may hear ‘put on your new self’ as generic self-reinvention rather than a definitive, once-for-all, Spirit-given transformation rooted in union with Christ rather than self-effort.
Grieve The Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: grieve the Holy Spirit
Transliteration: lypeite to Pneuma to Hagion
Doctrine: Sealed and Guaranteed by the Spirit
Original: λυπεῖτε τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:30. Risk runs two directions: clinical ‘grief/grieving’ language may miss the relational, personal-offense sense; impersonal ‘spirit/energy’ language may not register that a real Person can be genuinely grieved at all.
Flesh
Approved rendering: flesh, sinful nature
Transliteration: sarx
Doctrine: Sin and Spiritual Deadness
Rejected alternatives: flesh and blood / in the flesh / a flesh wound (literal/physical idioms)
Original: σάρξ
Category: Sin
NEW TERM (extends baseline Romans usage, not itself a baseline entry). Ephesians 2:3, 2:11, 2:14-15, 5:29-31, 6:5, 6:12. Modern idiom is almost entirely literal/physical, missing Paul’s moral-theological sense entirely; a genuine, recurring false-friend requiring active correction at each substantive occurrence.
Power Might Strength Cluster
Approved rendering: power, working, might, strength
Transliteration: dynamis, energeia, kratos, ischys
Doctrine: The Power of God at Work in Believers
Rejected alternatives: collapsing all four into one generic ‘power’ (loses the rhetorical stacking)
Original: δύναμις, ἐνέργεια, κράτος, ἰσχύς
Category: God
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:19 (all four stacked in one verse), echoed at 3:16,20 and 6:10. Contemporary secular ‘power’ discourse is dominantly negative; retain all four distinct English glosses as a fixed rendering rather than collapsing to one word.
By Nature
Approved rendering: by nature
Transliteration: physis
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability (Dead in Sin)
Rejected alternatives: born this way (identity-affirming rhetoric for innate traits to be celebrated)
Original: φύσις
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:3. Contemporary ‘nature vs. nurture’ discourse and ‘born this way’ rhetoric use ‘nature’ for innate traits to be accepted and celebrated — the reverse of Paul’s sense of an inherited condition needing redemption, not affirmation.
Raised And Seated With Christ
Approved rendering: raised up with him, seated with him
Transliteration: synegeirō / synkathizō
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a postponed, future-only reading (missing the ‘already’ present-tense positional claim)
Original: συνεγείρω / συγκαθίζω
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:6. Compounds the baseline’s resurrection-as-myth cultural-erosion risk with a further, less intuitive claim: believers already share, positionally, in Christ’s own resurrection and enthronement, not merely at death.
Medium Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: gospel
Transliteration: euangelion
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: good news (acceptable as an explanatory gloss, but should not fully replace ‘gospel’ since it loses the term’s proclamatory weight)
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Comparatively stable. In Ephesians appears as ‘gospel of peace’ (6:15), ‘gospel of your salvation’ (1:13), and ‘mystery of the gospel’ (6:19); each occurrence should carry the same authoritative weight established in the baseline, and the ‘gospel of peace’ pairing should be taught alongside the armor-of-God doctrine.
Apostle
Approved rendering: apostle
Transliteration: apostolos
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 2:20 places apostles (with prophets) as the church’s foundation; 4:11 lists apostle as a gift-office. Distinguish from a generic messenger or a loose ‘leading advocate’ usage; this is a non-repeatable, foundational New Testament office (cf. LDS ‘restored apostleship’ caution flagged in the translation landscape doc).
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: spiritual gifts
Transliteration: charismata / dōrea / doma
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Rejected alternatives: gifted (the dominant secular sense: innate talent or high academic ability)
Original: χαρίσματα / δωρεά / δόμα
Category: Church
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 4:7-8,11 applies this to the specific offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. ‘Gifted’ overwhelmingly means innate talent in contemporary English, a merit/aptitude framework the opposite of Christ’s sovereign, grace-based distribution.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: kingdom of God
Transliteration: basileia tou Christou kai theou
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: a fantasy kingdom (contemporary media associations)
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 5:5 renders it specifically ‘the kingdom of Christ and God,’ a distinctive dual formula; fantasy-fiction associations remain the primary contemporary risk per baseline.
Law
Approved rendering: law
Transliteration: nomos
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 2:15 (‘abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances’) uses law language specifically in service of the Jew-Gentile unity argument, distinct from Romans’ extended law-vs-grace treatment; care should be taken not to import the full Romans law argument uncritically.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: Gentiles
Transliteration: ethnē
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Rejected alternatives: non-believers (a common but incorrect modern gloss)
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 2:11-12, 3:1,6,8 uses ‘Gentiles’ specifically to denote covenantal outsiders excluded from Israel’s promises — not generically irreligious people. Must not be glossed as ‘non-believers,’ with added force here since 2:11-22 is the curriculum’s central Unity text.
Intercession
Approved rendering: intercession
Transliteration: enteuxis
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Underlies Ephesians 1:16-19, 3:14-19, 6:18-20’s prayer reports and exhortations. A relatively rare, formal word in ordinary speech (obsolescence risk); ‘intercessory prayer’ as its most common surviving usage is a mild asset.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israel
Transliteration: Yisra’el
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 2:12 (‘excluded from citizenship in Israel’). Note the modern nation-state of Israel is a live, politically contested contemporary topic; context should clarify the covenant people, not contemporary geopolitics, is meant.
Divine Will
Approved rendering: will
Transliteration: thelēma
Doctrine: Predestination
Rejected alternatives: willpower / self-determination (a personal-effort virtue)
Original: θέλημα
Category: Election
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:1,5,9,11; 5:17; 6:6. Ties into the predestination denominational-contest risk; contemporary ‘willpower’ usage can subtly recast divine sovereignty as one option among competing human wills rather than the determining reality.
Purpose
Approved rendering: purpose
Transliteration: prothesis
Doctrine: Predestination
Rejected alternatives: finding your purpose (self-actualization language)
Original: πρόθεσις
Category: Election
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:11; 3:11. Contemporary secular ‘sense of purpose’ self-actualization language risks reversing agency — treating purpose as something a person discovers or creates for themselves rather than God’s prior determination worked out for them.
Gift
Approved rendering: gift
Transliteration: dōron
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Original: δῶρον
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:8. Generally stable and positive, but also used for natural talent (cf. ‘spiritual_gifts’) and for reciprocal social gift-giving, which implies an unspoken expectation of return; Paul’s sense is a wholly unreciprocated, undeserved gift.
Workmanship
Approved rendering: workmanship
Transliteration: poiēma
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: masterpiece unqualified (NLT’s dynamic-equivalence choice, risks importing a secular self-esteem connotation if left unexplained)
Original: ποίημα
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:10. Modern usage is almost exclusively for manufactured-goods quality; the transfer to personal identity and spiritual formation is a fitting analogy once made explicit but is not automatically supplied by readers without guidance. Where NLT’s ‘masterpiece’ is quoted, pair it with ‘God is the maker, and good works are what the workmanship is for’ to prevent a self-esteem-only reading.
Blood Of Christ
Approved rendering: blood of Christ
Transliteration: haima Christou
Doctrine: Redemption and Forgiveness
Original: αἷμα Χριστοῦ
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:7, 2:13. Contemporary secular usage of ‘blood’ (genetic/family relation, or generic violence) can obscure the specifically sacrificial-covenantal sense; needs explicit connection to Christ’s atoning death.
Fullness
Approved rendering: fullness
Transliteration: plērōma
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Original: πλήρωμα
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:23, 3:19, 4:13. OBSOLESCENCE: rare in ordinary speech outside set phrases (‘the fullness of time’); abstract enough to require active teaching. Paraphrase alongside retention: ‘fullness — that which completes him.‘
Foundation And Cornerstone
Approved rendering: foundation, cornerstone
Transliteration: themelios / akrogōniaios
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a cornerstone of our strategy (generic business/politics idiom)
Original: θεμέλιος / ἀκρογωνιαῖος
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:20. Secular usage drains the specific architectural-messianic imagery of its Christological specificity; needs the apostles-and-prophets/Christ distinction restated.
Temple Dwelling Place
Approved rendering: temple, dwelling place
Transliteration: naos hagios / katoikētērion
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Rejected alternatives: the body is a temple (bodybuilding-culture idiom, individual not corporate)
Original: ναὸς ἅγιος / κατοικητήριον
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:21-22. Contemporary usage is generic across religions or an individual-body fitness idiom; the specific claim that the church corporately — not an individual body, nor a building — is God’s dwelling place needs active restatement.
Dividing Wall
Approved rendering: dividing wall
Transliteration: mesotoichon tou phragmou
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Original: μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ
Category: Unity
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:14. OBSOLESCENCE: the specific historical referent (likely the Jerusalem temple’s Court of the Gentiles barrier) is unfamiliar to most contemporary readers; supply the temple background explicitly rather than assuming the image is self-interpreting.
Fellow Citizens
Approved rendering: fellow citizens
Transliteration: sympolitēs
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Original: συμπολίτης
Category: Unity
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:19. Contemporary immigration/citizenship-status discourse is a live, politically charged topic; can function either as a helpful contemporary bridge or as a distraction from Paul’s covenantal point — requires careful handling.
One New Humanity
Approved rendering: one new humanity, one new man
Transliteration: heis kainos anthrōpos
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Rejected alternatives: new-man self-reinvention idiom (a faint, unhelpful secular overlap)
Original: εἷς καινὸς ἄνθρωπος
Category: Unity
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:15. Archaic, gendered ‘one new man’ phrasing risks a male-specific misreading of a corporate, universal referent. Use ‘one new humanity’ as primary rendering with ‘one new man’ retained parenthetically, matching the baseline’s ‘seed of David’ archaism-with-gloss convention.
Revelation
Approved rendering: revelation
Transliteration: apokalypsis
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Rejected alternatives: it was a revelation to me (secular surprising-insight sense)
Original: ἀποκάλυψις
Category: Mystery
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:17, 3:3, 3:5. Secular usage dilutes the specifically God-disclosed sense into generic human insight.
Stewardship
Approved rendering: stewardship
Transliteration: oikonomia
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Rejected alternatives: church-finance campaign / environmental stewardship (narrower modern senses)
Original: οἰκονομία
Category: Mystery
NEW TERM. Ephesians 3:2, 3:9. The descendant word ‘economy’ has drifted entirely into finance and markets; ‘stewardship’ survives mainly in church-finance and environmental contexts, both narrower than Paul’s apostolic-commission sense. Paraphrase preferred as primary rendering (‘the responsibility entrusted to me’).
Manifold Wisdom
Approved rendering: manifold wisdom
Transliteration: polypoikilos sophia
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Rejected alternatives: wisdom of crowds / folk wisdom (secular life-skill sense)
Original: πολυποίκιλος σοφία
Category: Mystery
NEW TERM. Ephesians 3:10. Shares the general ‘wisdom’ secularization risk; additional risk that the church’s cosmic audience (‘to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places’) is easily spiritualized away by readers who do not take the powers cluster as real.
Belt Of Truth
Approved rendering: belt of truth
Transliteration: zōnē alētheias
Doctrine: The Armor of God
Original: ζώνη ἀληθείας
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:14. Inherits the general armor-trivialization risk; teach as the specific doctrine of truth, not generic imagery.
Breastplate Of Righteousness
Approved rendering: breastplate of righteousness
Transliteration: thōrax dikaiosynēs
Doctrine: The Armor of God
Original: θώραξ δικαιοσύνης
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:14. Inherits both the baseline’s ‘righteousness’ High-risk profile and the general armor-trivialization risk.
Shoes Of The Gospel Of Peace
Approved rendering: shoes of the gospel of peace
Transliteration: hetoimasia tou euangeliou tēs eirēnēs
Doctrine: The Armor of God
Original: ἑτοιμασία τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς εἰρήνης
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:15. Combines ‘gospel’ (Medium) and ‘peace’ (Medium) risk profiles with the general armor-trivialization risk.
Shield Of Faith
Approved rendering: shield of faith
Transliteration: thyreos tēs pisteōs
Doctrine: The Armor of God
Original: θυρεὸς τῆς πίστεως
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:16. Inherits the baseline’s ‘faith’ High-risk profile plus the general armor-trivialization risk.
Helmet Of Salvation
Approved rendering: helmet of salvation
Transliteration: perikephalaia tou sōtēriou
Doctrine: The Armor of God
Original: περικεφαλαία τοῦ σωτηρίου
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:17. Inherits the baseline’s ‘salvation’ Critical-risk profile plus the general armor-trivialization risk.
Sword Of The Spirit
Approved rendering: sword of the Spirit
Transliteration: machaira tou Pneumatos
Doctrine: The Armor of God
Original: μάχαιρα τοῦ Πνεύματος
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:17 (‘the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God’). Inherits the Holy Spirit’s Critical baseline risk profile plus the general armor-trivialization risk; the only offensive, rather than defensive, piece in the set.
Praying In The Spirit
Approved rendering: praying in the Spirit
Transliteration: proseuchomenoi en Pneumati
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Original: προσευχόμενοι ἐν Πνεύματι
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:18. DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: some charismatic traditions specifically associate this with praying in tongues; others read it as any Spirit-enabled prayer. Note the range rather than assuming one reading.
Flesh And Blood
Approved rendering: flesh and blood
Transliteration: haima kai sarx
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Rejected alternatives: my own flesh and blood (contemporary familial idiom)
Original: αἷμα καὶ σάρξ
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:12. Contemporary idiom is almost entirely literal/familial; Paul’s specific contrast (human vs. spiritual opponents) needs active restating.
Heavenly Places
Approved rendering: heavenly places, heavenly realms
Transliteration: epouranios
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Rejected alternatives: this cake is heavenly (secular usage for anything pleasant)
Original: ἐπουράνιος
Category: Spiritual Warfare
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:20, 2:6, 3:10, 6:12. Secular usage drains cosmic-conflict/enthronement content; materialism separately denies the unseen realm’s reality altogether.
One Flesh
Approved rendering: one flesh
Transliteration: mia sarx
Doctrine: Household Codes: Marriage (Submission and Headship)
Original: μία σάρξ
Category: Household
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:31. Contemporary readers mostly encounter ‘one flesh’ only in wedding-liturgy contexts; risk of hearing it as decorative poetry rather than a real covenantal-union claim and its typological function pointing to Christ and the church (5:32).
Sincerity Of Heart
Approved rendering: sincerity of heart, as to the Lord
Transliteration: haplotēs kardias / hōs tō Kyriō
Doctrine: Household Codes: Bondservants and Masters
Original: ἁπλότης καρδίας / ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ
Category: Household
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:5-7. Carries the same ‘Lord’ obsolescence risk flagged in the baseline, requiring the same active restoration of felt weight.
Evangelists
Approved rendering: evangelists
Transliteration: euangelistēs
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Rejected alternatives: a tech evangelist (marketing jargon), door-to-door solicitation / televangelist-scandal associations
Original: εὑαγγελιστής
Category: Ministry
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:11. Ties to the baseline’s ‘evangelism’ High-risk note: contemporary secular culture codes ‘evangelist/evangelize’ negatively, which colors even this neutral office title.
Pastors And Shepherds
Approved rendering: pastors, shepherds
Transliteration: poimēn
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: ποιμήν
Category: Ministry
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:11 — the only New Testament occurrence of this noun applied to a church office. Contemporary usage has narrowed ‘pastor’ almost exclusively to a salaried clergy job title, obscuring the vivid shepherding/protective-care metaphor.
Equipping And Ministry
Approved rendering: equipping; ministry
Transliteration: katartismos / diakonia
Doctrine: Church Offices and Every-Member Ministry
Rejected alternatives: Ministry of Health (British/Commonwealth government-department false-friend), clergy-only work (American narrowing)
Original: καταρτισμός / διακονία
Category: Ministry
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:12. BRITISH/COMMONWEALTH FALSE-FRIEND: ‘ministry’ names a government department in British/Commonwealth English; American usage narrows it to ordained clergy work, itself narrower than Paul’s every-believer sense. A key corrective to a clergy-does-ministry-for-you model.
Mature Manhood
Approved rendering: maturity, mature manhood; fullness of Christ
Transliteration: teleios anēr / plērōma tou Christou
Doctrine: Church Offices and Every-Member Ministry
Original: τέλειος ἀνήρ / πλήρωμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Ministry
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:13. The archaic, gendered ‘mature manhood’ phrasing risks being read as male-specific rather than the corporate, universal referent intended; retain parenthetically with ‘maturity’/‘fullness of Christ’ as primary rendering.
Walk
Approved rendering: walk
Transliteration: peripateō
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM — Ephesians’ major structural metaphor, recurring at 2:2, 2:10, 4:1, 4:17, 5:2, 5:8, 5:15. Modern English rarely uses ‘walk’ for ‘conduct one’s life’ outside biblical idiom; note the deliberate literary bracketing Paul creates: ‘walked’ in sin and death (2:2) is reversed by ‘walk’ in good works (2:10) and again structures the ethical section (chs. 4-6) opening at 4:1.
Likeness Of God
Approved rendering: the likeness of God, in God’s image
Transliteration: kata theon
Doctrine: Putting Off the Old Self, Putting On the New Self
Rejected alternatives: generic ‘made in God’s image = inherent human dignity’ (true elsewhere, incomplete here)
Original: κατὰ θεόν
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:24. Risk of collapsing into the more familiar humanistic reading, missing Paul’s specific point about ethical renewal patterned after God’s holy character.
Children Of Light
Approved rendering: children of light; darkness
Transliteration: tekna phōtos / skotos
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: τέκνα φωτός / σκότος
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:8, 5:11. Generally stable moral metaphor; ‘children of light’ carries minor New Age/esoteric pop-spirituality overtones in some contemporary subcultures, worth a brief disambiguating note.
Redeeming The Time
Approved rendering: making the best use of time, redeeming the time
Transliteration: exagorazō ton kairon
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Rejected alternatives: buying time (modern idiom for stalling/delaying — nearly the opposite of Paul’s sense)
Original: ἐξαγοράζω τὸν καιρόν
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:16. FALSE-FRIEND RISK: ‘buying time’ is nearly opposite Paul’s ‘seize/exploit the opportunity now’ sense; must be actively flagged, not just glossed.
Filled With The Spirit
Approved rendering: be filled with the Spirit
Transliteration: plērousthe en Pneumati
Doctrine: Being Filled with the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: good vibes / positive energy (vague wellness-culture substitutes)
Original: πληροῦσθε ἐν Πνεύματι
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:18. The verse’s own drunkenness/Spirit contrast is a built-in teaching asset, but vague ‘spiritual’ self-help language risks diluting the specific triune referent unless kept explicit.
Sexual Immorality Vice List
Approved rendering: sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, idolatry
Transliteration: porneia, akatharsia, pleonexia, eidōlolatria
Doctrine: Sanctification and Holy Living
Original: πορνεία, ἀκαθαρσία, πλεονεξία, εἰδωλολατρία
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:3, 5:5. Contemporary consent/autonomy-based sexual-ethics discourse differs substantially from Paul’s categorical moral framework; must not be softened per the doctrinal-preservation rule, while avoiding reductionistic caricature.
Sealed
Approved rendering: sealed
Transliteration: sphragizō
Doctrine: Sealed and Guaranteed by the Spirit
Original: σφραγίζω
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:13, 4:30. OBSOLESCENCE: wax/signet seals are absent from ordinary contemporary experience; ‘sealed deal’/‘seal of approval’ idiom can bridge if the ownership/security dimension is made explicit.
Guarantee Down Payment
Approved rendering: guarantee, down payment
Transliteration: arrabōn
Doctrine: Sealed and Guaranteed by the Spirit
Original: ἀρραβών
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:14. Contemporary financial/legal usage (a deposit, an engagement-ring pledge) is a strong, largely intact analogy — a genuine asset — once explicitly connected to the Spirit’s guarantee role.
Inheritance
Approved rendering: inheritance
Transliteration: klēros / klēronomia
Doctrine: Inheritance in Christ
Original: κλῆρος / κληρονομία
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 1:11, 1:14, 1:18. Positive family-estate analogy risks being heard as post-death-only, missing the present-partial-possession reality secured now by the Spirit.
Baptism
Approved rendering: baptism
Transliteration: baptisma
Doctrine: Unity of the Spirit
Original: βάπτισμα
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:5. DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: English-speaking traditions disagree substantially on baptism’s mode, timing, and sacramental efficacy; flagged as carrying live denominational weight beyond its unity-marker function here.
Unity Of The Spirit
Approved rendering: unity of the Spirit
Transliteration: henotēs tou pneumatos
Doctrine: Unity of the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: generic diversity-and-inclusion tolerance (secular social value)
Original: ἑνότης τοῦ πνεύματος
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:3-6. Contemporary secular diversity discourse uses ‘unity’ as a humanly-achieved social value; risk of flattening Paul’s Spirit-given, doctrinally-grounded oneness, missing the triune basis spelled out in the sevenfold ‘one’ formula.
Passions And Desires
Approved rendering: passions, desires, cravings
Transliteration: epithymia
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability (Dead in Sin)
Rejected alternatives: follow your passion (overwhelmingly positive contemporary usage)
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:3. Contemporary usage of ‘passion’ is overwhelmingly positive; Paul’s negative, enslaving sense is nearly inverted from the dominant modern connotation and must be explicitly distinguished.
Wrath
Approved rendering: wrath
Transliteration: orgē
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability (Dead in Sin)
Rejected alternatives: mere disappointment / impersonal cause-and-effect (softened readings)
Original: ὀργή
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:3, 5:6. Contemporary non-judgmental therapeutic culture resists divine-wrath language; risk of softening ‘wrath’ into an impersonal consequence rather than a personal, righteous, judicial response.
Made Alive Together
Approved rendering: made alive together
Transliteration: synzōopoieō
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Rejected alternatives: turned my life around (generic self-improvement/recovery narrative)
Original: συζωοποιέω
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:5. English has no single natural equivalent for this compound verb; retain the phrase ‘made alive together with Christ’ as a fixed unit so the union-with-Christ referent cannot be dropped.
Trespass
Approved rendering: trespass
Transliteration: paraptōma
Doctrine: Sin and Spiritual Deadness
Rejected alternatives: No Trespassing (property-law survival sense)
Original: παράπτωμα
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:1, 2:5. Now survives mainly in the legal/property sense and in the Lord’s Prayer’s archaic wording; use ‘sin’ as the primary modern-register term and retain ‘trespass’ only with a plain gloss attached.
Sacrifice And Offering
Approved rendering: sacrifice, offering, fragrant offering
Transliteration: thysia, prosphora, osmē euōdias
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: θυσία, προσφορά, ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:2. OBSOLESCENCE: contemporary readers have no lived referent for ancient temple sacrifice; risk of aestheticizing ‘fragrant offering’ as merely pleasant poetry rather than grasping the costly sacrificial-substitution background.
World And Age
Approved rendering: world, course of this world; age
Transliteration: kosmos / aiōn
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability (Dead in Sin)
Rejected alternatives: world news / world travel (geographic-neutral), New Age (occult-adjacent)
Original: κόσμος / αἰών
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:2. Contemporary usage is either neutral/geographic or occult-adjacent, missing Paul’s specific two-age eschatological contrast and morally-loaded sense of an organized system hostile to God.
Low Risk Terms
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: thanksgiving
Transliteration: eucharistia
Doctrine: Thanksgiving and Praise
Original: εὐχαριστία
Category: Faith
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 1:16, 5:4, 5:20. Minor risk: the capitalized national holiday could crowd out the general theological sense; context usually disambiguates.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: fellowship
Transliteration: koinōnia
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a fellowship (the dominant contemporary secular sense: an academic or professional grant/appointment)
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Not a frequent distinct lexeme in Ephesians but underlies the book’s whole body-of-Christ and one-new-humanity vocabulary; retained for cross-curriculum consistency.
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophet
Transliteration: prophētēs
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Rejected alternatives: a tech prophet / prophet of doom (secular usage)
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 2:20 (foundation of the church, with apostles), 3:5, 4:11 (gift-office). Do not confuse with a secular confident forecaster.
Exhort
Approved rendering: exhort / urge
Transliteration: parakaleō
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
[Inherited from Romans package, unchanged] Ephesians 4:1 (‘I urge you to walk worthy…’) and 6:22 (Tychicus sent to ‘encourage/comfort’ the church). OBSOLESCENCE RISK: rare, formal, almost archaic-sounding, but has no competing secular meaning to interfere.
Mercy
Approved rendering: mercy
Transliteration: eleos
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace through Faith
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:4. Reasonably stable in contemporary English, though secular usage (‘mercy killing,’ ‘at the mercy of the weather’) can drift toward impersonal circumstance rather than a personal moral choice not to punish.
Household Of God
Approved rendering: household of God
Transliteration: oikeioi tou theou
Doctrine: Church as the Body of Christ
Original: οἰκεῖοι τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Ephesians 2:19. Reasonably stable and warm in contemporary English family-language usage; low risk, a genuine asset alongside the more contested ‘fellow citizens’ pairing in the same verse.
Unsearchable Riches
Approved rendering: unsearchable riches
Transliteration: anexichniastos ploutos tou Christou
Doctrine: The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Original: ἀνεξιχνίαστος πλοῦτος τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Mystery
NEW TERM. Ephesians 3:8. Shares the general ‘riches’ secularization risk (financial default sense) but is otherwise reasonably stable once the spiritual referent is stated; retain ‘unsearchable’ with a brief image-restoring gloss (a trail that never runs out).
Obey Your Parents
Approved rendering: obey your parents, honor
Transliteration: hypakouete tois goneusin / timaō
Doctrine: Household Codes: Parents and Children
Original: ὑπακούετε τοῖς γονεῖσιν / τιμάω
Category: Household
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:1-2. Comparatively stable and largely uncontested; mild friction only from contemporary child-autonomy parenting norms.
Do Not Provoke To Anger
Approved rendering: do not provoke, do not exasperate
Transliteration: mē parorgizete
Doctrine: Household Codes: Parents and Children
Original: μὴ παροργίζετε
Category: Household
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:4. Reasonably stable in contemporary English; a restraining, corrective instruction to fathers balancing the instruction to children.
Teachers
Approved rendering: teachers
Transliteration: didaskalos
Doctrine: Gifts for Building Up the Church
Original: διδάσκαλος
Category: Ministry
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:11. Stable in contemporary English; low risk.
Speaking Truth In Love
Approved rendering: speaking the truth in love
Transliteration: alētheuontes en agapē
Doctrine: Church Offices and Every-Member Ministry
Original: ἀληθεύοντες ἐν ἀγάπῃ
Category: Ministry
NEW TERM. Ephesians 4:15. Already a well-known, largely intact English phrase — a genuine asset needing little correction.
Ambassador
Approved rendering: ambassador
Transliteration: presbeuō
Doctrine: Christ-Centered Ministry
Original: πρεσβεύω
Category: Ministry
NEW TERM. Ephesians 6:20. Reasonably stable diplomatic metaphor; minor risk that the purely secular political-diplomat association could crowd out the paradoxical ‘in chains’ costly context unless kept together.
Imitators Of God
Approved rendering: imitators of God
Transliteration: mimētai tou theou
Doctrine: Walking in Newness of Life
Original: μιμηταὶ τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christian Living
NEW TERM. Ephesians 5:1. Generally stable; contemporary usage skews toward imitation of celebrities/role models, a lower-stakes frame than imitating God, worth a light note.
Referenced passages