Executive Summary — Ephesians — English → Hindi

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Why it matters

Ephesians is being added to an already-established Hindi Bible Study translation pipeline (Romans + Galatians). Its core passage, Ephesians 2:1-10, is the New Testament’s single most concentrated statement of salvation by grace apart from works — and Hindi carries two catastrophic legacy mistranslation traps at exactly this passage (rendering “gift” as दान, a merit-generating religious donation, and “works” as कर्म, a merit-accumulation cosmology) that historic Hindi Bible editions have used and that this pipeline must actively override. Beyond the core passage, Ephesians is the most doctrinally dense and highest collision-risk book processed by this pipeline to date: it activates every major Hindu-cosmology fault line documented in the baseline (karma/grace, mokṣa/salvation, guru-paramparā/mystery, devas-asuras/spiritual warfare, caste/unity, patriarchy/headship) simultaneously, across all six chapters.

Key findings

• 168 total terms now governed by this curriculum’s assets/translation_memory.json: 77 inherited directly from the Romans/Galatians baseline (unchanged), 91 newly introduced by Ephesians itself.
• 33 total doctrines catalogued in assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json, spanning all six chapters with full coverage confirmed — no chapter contributed doctrinally inert content.
• Term-level risk: 21 Critical-risk and 75 High-risk terms (96 combined) require mandatory human theologian review on every occurrence.
• Doctrine-level risk: 5 Critical-risk and 22 High-risk doctrines (27 combined) require mandatory human theologian review; a further 4 Medium-risk doctrines require native speaker review. Zero doctrines are Low-risk — Ephesians is doctrinally dense throughout.
• The single highest-density collision zone is Ephesians 6:10-20 (armor of God / cosmic powers), where the natural Hindi word for “armor” (कवच) is itself a live Hindu protective-mantra/amulet term — this is not a subtle drift risk but a default-reading risk for Hindu-background audiences.
• प्रेम (ἀγάπη, “love”) has no prior baseline anchor despite saturating Ephesians 2-6; it has been promoted to a standalone High-risk translation memory entry in this run.
• The historic Bible Society of India Old Version itself contains two Critical-tier legacy errors at Ephesians 2:8-9 (दान, कर्मों) that must be corrected, not inherited, per analysis/05_translation_landscape.md.
• A documented cult-translation risk exists: the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Hindi New World Translation renders the Holy Spirit as an impersonal “पवित्र शक्ति” — this pipeline must never echo that substitution, especially given Ephesians 4:30’s personhood-dependent “grieve the Holy Spirit.”

Risks

• Critical: Rendering “gift” (2:8) as दान or “works” (2:9-10) as कर्म would invert the core passage’s entire argument, making salvation sound like a merit-generating religious transaction rather than God’s unmerited gift.
• Critical: Rendering “armor of God” (6:11,13) as कवच would assimilate Ephesians 6 to Hindu ritual-protection practice (mantra-amulets), directly undermining the passage’s insistence that spiritual conflict is engaged only through gospel truth, never ritual.
• Critical: The cosmic powers cluster (1:21; 2:2; 3:10; 6:12) maps with unusual precision onto deva/asura, graha-doṣa, and bhūt-pret folk cosmology and their appeasement rituals (pūjā, tantra-mantra, jyotiṣa); omitting the mandatory “already defeated, engaged only through gospel resources” framing risks re-enchanting the text into exactly the system it excludes.
• High: Household code passages (5:21-6:9) risk being read, in the Indian patriarchal social context, as licensing one-directional domination (husband headship) or caste-based servitude (bondservants/masters) if 5:21’s mutuality and 6:9’s impartiality are not kept structurally attached to their applications.
• High: “Heavenly places” (ἐπουράνιος) and “fullness” (πλήρωμα) both risk silent collapse into karma-merited-afterlife (स्वर्ग) and self-attained-completeness (पूर्णता) readings respectively if the fenced Hindi renderings (स्वर्गीय स्थान, भरपूरी) are not enforced on every occurrence.

Opportunities

• Ephesians 2:11-22’s “one new humanity” and the sevenfold “one” formula (4:4-6) are among the most direct anti-caste, anti-pluralism texts available in this entire curriculum family — rendered with full unqualified force, they offer unusually powerful discipleship material for Hindi-speaking, caste-aware congregations.
• The dividing-wall metaphor (2:14) naturally and helpfully resonates with lived caste/community boundary experience in India — a rare case where cultural resonance can be leveraged rather than merely fenced.
• The agrarian yoke and building/foundation metaphors translate with unusual ease into Hindi without adaptation, reducing translation burden relative to other passages.
• This run’s systematic promotion of प्रेम (love) to a fixed translation-memory entry closes a real gap in the existing baseline and will benefit all future Ephesians-adjacent lesson content.

Recommended actions

1. Load assets/translation_memory.json (this curriculum) alongside the baseline TM for every Phase 2 segment; treat the 96 combined Critical+High terms as non-negotiable, zero-deviation enforcement targets.
2. Route all 27 Critical+High doctrines to mandatory human theologian review per assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json; route the 4 Medium doctrines to native speaker review.
3. Apply the mandatory translator-note requirements specified in analysis/12_ai_translation_requirements.md on every occurrence of: armor of God, cosmic powers cluster, heavenly places, holy temple, raised/seated with Christ, gift/works (2:8-10), mutual submission/headship, and bondservants/masters.
4. Never consult or structurally echo the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Hindi New World Translation or Hindu-inclusivist “insider movement” paraphrase editions documented in analysis/05_translation_landscape.md.
5. Confirm the YouVersion version_id (working value 1710/HOVBSI) against the Romans/Galatians Phase 1 artifact before Phase 2 kickoff, per analysis/05_translation_landscape.md §5.

See assets/translation_memory.json, analysis/12_ai_translation_requirements.md, assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json, and analysis/11_doctrine_analysis.md for full supporting detail.