Linguistic Gap Analysis: Ephesians (English → Marathi)

0. Method and Scope

This analysis extends the Romans-baseline Marathi Language Package to the nine assigned Ephesians doctrines, across all six chapters, anchored theologically (not scoped) by the core passage Ephesians 2:1-10. For each doctrine it asks three questions:

1. What Marathi vocabulary is available — and what does it cost us (borrowed connotation, flattening, or collision)?
2. Where is there no existing vocabulary at all (a true gap requiring compounding/paraphrase), versus where there is too much existing vocabulary competing for the same word (a crowded semantic neighborhood requiring a “fence” — an explicit rule restricting or expanding a term’s use)?
3. Where should we transliterate rather than translate?

The two dominant reader backgrounds that shape every judgment below are carried forward unchanged from the Romans baseline: (a) Warkari/bhakti Hindu devotional tradition centered on Vitthal of Pandharpur, and (b) Navayana (Ambedkarite) Buddhist tradition, which explicitly and deliberately renounced caste-Hindu vocabulary (dharma, karma-as-birth-status) in its 1956 conversion. Ephesians 2:1-10 and the household/social codes of chs. 5-6 bring these collisions into sharper relief than Romans did, because Ephesians stages the grace-vs-works contrast explicitly (2:8-9) and addresses social hierarchy (master/slave, husband/wife) directly.

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1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix

Doctrine	Available Marathi Term(s)	Weaknesses of Available Term(s)	Recommended Strategy
Salvation by Grace through Faith	कृपा (grace, baseline Critical), विश्वास (faith, baseline High), तारण (salvation, baseline Critical), देणगी/दान (gift), कामे/कर्म (works)	कृपा already names Vitthal’s devotional favor in bhakti; दान is itself a meritorious act generating puṇya for the giver, which undercuts “not of works”; कर्म is the technical karma-doctrine term for moral cause-effect across lives — the single most dangerous available word in this doctrine’s field.	Reuse कृपा/विश्वास/तारण exactly per baseline. Render “gift” as देणगी (not दान) by default. Absolutely forbid कर्म/कर्मे for ἔργα (“works”) — mandate कामे. Every occurrence where grace is contrasted with works (2:8-9, echoing Rom 4:4-5, 11:5-6) must carry a translator note reinforcing the contrast against both the Hindu karma-merit economy and Buddhist self-effort ethics.
Election and Predestination in Christ	देवाची निवड (election, baseline High), पूर्वनियोजन (predestination, new Critical), नशीब/दैव/कर्मफळ (fate/destiny/karmic result — all forbidden)	No natural Marathi word names “a personal being’s prior loving determination of another’s relational destiny” without drifting toward fate-vocabulary (नशीब, दैव) which read as impersonal, or toward कर्मफळ which reads as karma-earned outcome. This is a true vocabulary gap, not merely a crowded neighborhood.	Coin/retain the compound पूर्वनियोजन (prior-arrangement) rather than a single existing word; pair consistently with देवाची निवड so predestination is read as an extension of election, not a separate, colder concept. Every occurrence requires theologian review per baseline election-doctrine routing, with explicit guard against echoing birth-karma social-status reasoning.
The Church as the Body of Christ	मंडळी (church/assembly, baseline Medium), शरीर (body), मस्तक (head), परिपूर्णता (fullness)	मंडळी alone names only the gathered assembly and can silently absorb the organic “body” metaphor if शरीर is dropped; मस्तक/डोके risk collapsing to the physical skull and losing the authority-source sense; परिपूर्णता risks resonance with Vedantic “all-pervading fullness of Brahman” monism.	Always pair मंडळी + (ख्रिस्ताचे) शरीर explicitly at first use per unit (“मंडळी, जी ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर आहे”). Reserve मस्तक (never डोके) for κεφαλή throughout chs. 1, 4, 5. Anchor परिपूर्णता relationally/christologically every time (Christ’s fullness given to/displayed in the church), never as an abstract cosmic plenitude the church itself generates.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity	अन्यजातीय (Gentiles, baseline Medium), इस्राएल (Israel, baseline Medium), मधली वैराची भिंत (dividing wall), एक नवा मनुष्य (one new man), समेट करणे (reconcile)	Low risk of collision, but real risk of under-translation: this doctrine has unusually strong, positive real-world resonance (breaking of caste-linked social dividing walls, 1956 mass conversion) that a flat literal rendering could waste rather than harness.	Render with full rhetorical force, not softened — the “dividing wall” and “one new man/one new humanity” images should be taught and translated so the caste-barrier resonance is made explicit in teaching notes, not left merely implicit. Keep एक नवा मनुष्य corporate (a Christ-created new humanity), explicitly distinguished from individual Buddhist Eightfold-Path self-transformation.
The Mystery of Christ Revealed	रहस्य (mystery), गूढ ज्ञान (esoteric/hidden knowledge — available but risky)	रहस्य risks reading as an initiatory secret reserved for a spiritual elite (tantric/occult “hidden knowledge” traditions are a live cultural category in Maharashtra); गूढ ज्ञान would be worse, since गूढ specifically signals occult/mystical concealment.	Use रहस्य consistently (chs. 1, 3, 5, 6) but require an explicit qualifying clause at first use in each unit — “आता उघड झालेले रहस्य” (the mystery now revealed/disclosed) — so the “formerly hidden, now openly disclosed to all believers” sense is never left to the bare noun alone.
Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God	देवाचे संपूर्ण शस्त्रसामग्री (armor of God), सैतान (Satan), सत्ता/अधिकार/जगाधिपती/आत्मिक शक्ती (rulers/authorities/cosmic powers)	Maharashtra folk-religious frameworks (ग्रामदेवता territorial spirits, भूतबाधा affliction, करणी/जादूटोणा black-magic counter-ritual, mantrik/bhagat exorcist mediation) supply a ready-made — and doctrinally false — grid for reading this entire chapter as a manual for ritual counter-magic.	Render the armor pieces literally and consistently (each compounding its own baseline Critical/High term — नीतिमत्त्व, विश्वास, तारण, शुभवर्तमान, पवित्र आत्मा) but require a standing translator/teaching note at Eph 6:10-18 clarifying that the prescribed response is exclusively truth, righteousness, gospel-readiness, faith, salvation, Scripture, and prayer — never ritual objects, charms, or a human exorcist-mediator.
Household Codes and Christ-Centered Relationships	अधीन राहणे (submit), प्रीती करणे (love), दास/सेवक व धनी/मालक (slaves/masters)	दास is not neutral in Marathi: it carries the historical weight of caste-linked servitude (दास्यत्व) that Ambedkarite Buddhist communities explicitly renounced by converting in 1956. अधीन राहणे risks being read as one-directional cultural patriarchal hierarchy if 5:21’s mutual-submission frame is dropped from the surrounding translation.	Render दास/सेवक + धनी/मालक as the established, literal terms (there is no less-loaded alternative that preserves the historical household-slave referent), but mandate a translator/teaching note at every occurrence (6:5-9) explaining Paul’s pastoral redirection of an existing institution and its climax in explicit impartiality (6:9). For 5:21-33, always translate and present एकमेकांच्या अधीन राहणे (5:21) immediately before and governing the wife/husband instructions, never detached from them.
Gifts for Building Up the Church	आत्मिक कृपादान (spiritual gifts, baseline Medium), सुसज्ज करणे (equipping), पूर्णता/प्रौढता (maturity)	पूर्णता/प्रौढता risk assimilation to the Buddhist self-attained pāramitā ideal (perfection through disciplined individual practice) if presented without its corporate, Spirit-given frame.	Reuse आत्मिक कृपादान exactly. Consistently qualify पूर्णता/प्रौढता as Spirit-given and corporate (“ख्रिस्ताच्या पूर्णतेचे माप”, “मंडळीची प्रौढता”) rather than individual attainment language.
Walking in Newness of Life	आचरण करणे (walk/conduct), जुना मनुष्य (old self), नवा मनुष्य (new self), मनाच्या आत्म्यात नवे होणे (renewed mind)	जुना/नवा मनुष्य risk being read either through Hindu successive-rebirth categories (an enduring self reincarnated) or through Buddhist anatta categories (no fixed self persists to be “put off” or “put on” at all) — two opposite but equally distorting frameworks.	Render आचरण करणे consistently across every occurrence (2:2,10; 4:1,17; 5:2,8,15) so the book’s controlling “old walk / new walk” contrast stays visible in translation, not merely in the source. Teach जुना/नवा मनुष्य explicitly as the same continuous person’s identity being decisively transformed by the Spirit — neither a rebirth into a new life-cycle nor the dissolution of a fixed self — requiring a standing translator note wherever the phrase occurs.

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2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods

Ephesians presents two distinct kinds of lexical risk, and they require opposite remedies. Missing vocabulary needs new compounds or paraphrase because Marathi (like the source languages of the destination culture’s dominant traditions) simply has no native term for the concept. Crowded semantic neighborhoods need “fencing” — an explicit rule narrowing or reserving an existing, already-occupied word — because the available Marathi term is doctrinally dangerous precisely because it already means something specific and different.

2a. Missing Vocabulary (requires compounding/paraphrase; no ready-made native term exists)

Concept	Why No Native Term Exists	Strategy Adopted
Predestination (προορίζω) as personal, loving prior determination	Marathi’s existing prior-determination vocabulary (नशीब, दैव) is uniformly impersonal/fatalistic; no bhakti or Buddhist category names a personal being’s loving predetermination of another’s relational status.	Compound पूर्वनियोजन/पूर्वनियोजित केले, always paired with देवाची निवड for relational warmth.
Redemption (ἀπολύτρωσις) as ransom-price paid by another on the believer’s behalf	Warkari/bhakti liberation (मोक्ष/मुक्ती) and Buddhist liberation (निर्वाण) are both self-attained end-states, not purchases made by a substitute; Marathi has no single existing religious term for vicarious ransom-payment.	Compound उद्धार/खंडणी, glossed and taught alongside तारण (resulting state) so the payment/result distinction is visible.
Fullness (πλήρωμα) as a relational, christological completeness	The nearest available register (Vedantic पूर्णता/सर्वव्यापी पूर्णता, “all-pervading fullness of Brahman”) is explicitly monistic/impersonal — a different metaphysics entirely.	Render परिपूर्णता but require relational/christological anchoring at every occurrence (never used absolutely, always “ख्रिस्ताची परिपूर्णता” or equivalent).
Headship (κεφαλή) as authority-plus-source, applied to both Christ/church and husband/wife	Marathi डोके is purely anatomical; no existing word carries the Greek metaphor’s double sense of organic source and governing authority together.	Reserve मस्तक exclusively for this technical sense; forbid डोके.
One new man / one new humanity (εἷς καινὸς ἄνθρωπος) as corporate new-creation identity	Both dominant traditions locate transformation at the individual level (bhakti’s personal devotion, the Eightfold Path’s personal cultivation); Marathi has no ready corporate-identity term for “a wholly new group-person created out of two formerly hostile peoples.”	Compound एक नवा मनुष्य / एक नवी मानवता, taught explicitly as corporate and Christ-created, never individual.
Sevenfold unity formula (Eph 4:4-6) as a fixed liturgical unit	Not a missing single word, but a missing fixed-formula convention — Marathi has no precedent requiring seven doctrinal nouns to be memorized as one recited unit.	Fix the exact seven-clause Marathi wording once and require verbatim reuse everywhere it is cited, per the same consistency principle as Romans 8:28/10:9-10.
Armor of God (πανοπλία) as a complete, coordinated metaphorical panoply	Marathi has individual words for each named object (belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, sword) but no existing fixed idiom for “full armor” as a single spiritual-equipment concept distinct from literal military gear.	Compound देवाचे संपूर्ण शस्त्रसामग्री, always glossed as metaphorical equipment, never literal weaponry.

2b. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (require fencing of an existing, doctrinally risky term)

Marathi Term	What It Already Means in the Destination Culture	Doctrinal Risk if Unfenced	Fencing Rule
कृपा (grace)	Vitthal’s devotional favor toward a bhakta in Warkari practice	Reads as familiar devotional favor rather than Christ-specific, unmerited, gift status	Baseline rule retained: every occurrence must make the unearned, Christ-exclusive nature explicit; never left to stand alone as generic favor.
कर्म / कर्मे (deeds)	The technical Hindu/Buddhist doctrine of moral cause-and-effect across this life and past lives	Rendering ἔργα (“works,” Eph 2:9-10) as कर्म would import the entire karma-merit economy Paul is excluding	Hard fence: कर्म/कर्मे is forbidden for ἔργα in every context. Use कामे exclusively. Extend this to the Critical Forbidden Substitution list.
दान (gift/religious giving)	A meritorious act of religious giving that itself generates puṇya for the giver	Rendering δῶρον (“gift,” Eph 2:8) as दान risks making salvation sound like a pious transaction the believer performs	Fence: prefer देणगी (a plain gift, no merit-generating connotation) as default; if दान is ever used, it must be immediately anchored to “not of yourselves… not a result of works.”
मोक्ष / मुक्ती / निर्वाण	Hindu bhakti-attained liberation / Buddhist extinguishing of craving — both self-attained or devotion-attained end-states	Would collapse तारण (salvation, given by a personal God) and उद्धार/खंडणी (redemption, ransom paid by Christ) into self-attained liberation	Baseline fence retained and extended to redemption vocabulary: these three words are absolutely forbidden for both salvation and redemption terms.
वासना	Technical Hindu Vedantic / Buddhist Abhidharma term for latent karmic tendencies/impressions carried across experiences or lives	Rendering ἐπιθυμίαι τῆς σαρκός (“passions of the flesh,” Eph 2:3) as वासना imports a karma-residue framework into what is a present, universal moral condition	Fence: use देहाच्या (पापी) इच्छा; वासना is disallowed for this phrase.
दास (slave/servant)	Carries the historical weight of caste-linked servitude (दास्यत्व), explicitly renounced by Ambedkarite Buddhist converts	Could make Eph 6:5-9 sound like a scriptural endorsement of caste-servitude structures rather than a pastoral redirection of an existing first-century institution	Fence: retain दास/सेवक as the literal, necessary rendering (no adequate substitute exists), but mandate a standing translator/teaching note at every occurrence clarifying Paul’s redirection and the impartiality climax (6:9).
मंदिर / देऊळ (temple)	Reserved by the Romans baseline exclusively for Hindu temple buildings; forbidden as a rendering of “church”	Eph 2:21’s ναὸς ἅγιος intentionally invokes OT Temple imagery, creating deliberate internal tension with the baseline’s general rule	Fence (narrow exception, not a reversal): मंदिर is permitted only in this one metaphorical construction, पवित्र मंदिर, and must carry an explicit translator note distinguishing this OT-Temple image both from a literal shrine-building and from any Hindu-temple ritual association. मंडळी remains the only rendering of “church” as institution/assembly everywhere else.
यज्ञ / बलिदान (sacrifice)	Vedic fire-sacrifice and goddess-temple animal sacrifice, both carrying live ritual-merit/cosmic-balance weight	Eph 5:2’s “offering and sacrifice” could read as one more ritual sacrifice among many rather than Christ’s unrepeatable self-offering	Fence: always pair with अर्पण and an explicit “once-for-all” qualifier; never presented as an ongoing or repeatable ritual act.
शक्ती (power)	Names Maharashtra’s prominent Shakti/mother-goddess tradition (Tuljapur’s Tuljabhavani) — a specific divine-feminine power	Would make δύναμις θεοῦ (“power of God,” Eph 1:19-20, 3:16, 3:20, 6:10) read as one deity’s power among several	Baseline fence retained: सामर्थ्य only, never शक्ती.
संत (saint)	Names the revered Warkari poet-saints (Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdev, Eknath, Chokhamela) — an elite spiritual-literary class	Would make ἅγιοι (“saints,” used throughout Eph 1, 3-6) sound like an exclusive honored elite rather than every believer	Baseline fence retained: पवित्र जन only, never संत.
अवतार (avatar)	Central Vaishnav category for Vitthal/Krishna’s periodic divine descent	Would assimilate the Incarnation (implicit throughout Eph 1-2 Christology) to a repeatable divine-descent pattern	Baseline fence retained: देहधारण only, never अवतार; extend explicitly to any Christological passage in Ephesians describing Christ’s coming “in flesh.”
गूढ ज्ञान (esoteric/hidden knowledge)	Names occult/tantric initiatory-secret traditions	Would make μυστήριον (“mystery”) sound like knowledge reserved for spiritual initiates rather than openly disclosed to all believers	Fence: रहस्य only, always with an explicit “now revealed/disclosed” qualifying clause; गूढ ज्ञान is disallowed entirely.
अंगात येणे (folk trance/possession phenomenon)	A recognized folk-deity worship and bhagat-mediated ritual phenomenon in Maharashtra devotional practice	Could be conflated with πληρόω ἐν πνεύματι (“filled with the Spirit,” Eph 5:18) if the passage’s sober, ongoing, communal sense is not made explicit	Fence: पवित्र आत्म्याने भरून जा must always be taught/glossed as sober, ongoing, Scripture-shaped communal life, explicitly distinguished from trance/possession phenomena.
करणी / जादूटोणा (black magic / counter-magic) and भूतबाधा (spirit affliction)	Recognized folk-religious categories for malevolent affliction and its ritual remedy, with bhagat/mantrik ritual specialists	Could reframe Eph 6:10-18’s spiritual warfare entirely as a manual for ritual counter-magic against a folk-taxonomy of local spirits	Fence: standing translator note required at 6:10-18 distinguishing the biblical response (truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, Scripture, prayer) from folk exorcism/counter-magic practice.

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3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions

Decision Type	Terms	Rationale
Transliterate (proper names/established liturgical forms)	येशू, ख्रिस्त, पौल, इस्राएल, आमेन, हालेलूया, अब्बा (baseline forms, reused exactly); एफिस (Ephesus, place name, if referenced in introductions/headings)	Established Marathi Christian Bible-translation convention per baseline; changing these would break cross-document consistency with the Romans package and confuse learners moving between curricula.
Transliterate (technical Greek term retained for teaching precision)	None newly recommended for Ephesians beyond baseline (मसीहा already covers Χριστός/Messiah; Ephesians uses ख्रिस्त as a name/title, not a fresh transliteration decision)	Ephesians does not introduce a term requiring a new transliteration decision beyond what Romans already settled; consistency is preferred over introducing parallel transliterated forms.
Compound/paraphrase (native compound preferred over single loanword or borrowed Sanskrit term)	पूर्वनियोजन (predestination), उद्धार/खंडणी (redemption), आत्म्याचा शिक्का (seal of the Spirit), बयाणा/जामीन (guarantee/down payment), जुना मनुष्य / नवा मनुष्य (old self/new self), पवित्र आत्म्याने भरून जा (filled with the Spirit), देवाचे संपूर्ण शस्त्रसामग्री (armor of God)	These concepts have no single existing Marathi religious-vocabulary word that is both accurate and free of collision; a transparent compound allows the concept to be taught from the ground up rather than borrowing an already-occupied word.
Paraphrase over single-word translation (compound phrase mandatory, one word insufficient)	नीतिमान ठरवणे (justification, baseline precedent extended), आत्म्याचे ऐक्य (unity of the Spirit), शांतीच्या शुभवर्तमानाची सिद्धता (shoes of the gospel of peace), वचनाद्वारे जलस्नानाने शुद्ध करणे (washing of water with the word), हे रहस्य… ख्रिस्त आणि मंडळीविषयी (mystery of Christ and the church)	Single Marathi words for these concepts either do not exist or would strip away load-bearing theological qualifiers (e.g., “with the word,” “of peace,” “of the Spirit”) that the doctrine depends on.
Deliberate narrow exception to a general avoidance rule	पवित्र मंदिर (holy temple, Eph 2:21) using मंदिर despite the general church≠मंदिर rule	Paul’s own OT-Temple allusion requires the OT-Temple word; the exception is narrow (one fixed phrase only) and must carry a standing translator note.

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4. Ranked List of Ephesians’ Highest-Risk Ambiguities

Ranked by combined severity (doctrinal centrality × collision potential with Warkari-bhakti or Navayana-Buddhist frameworks), for priority in Phase 2 theologian review and back-translation QA:

1. “By nature children of wrath” (τέκνα ὀργῆς, Eph 2:3) — the single highest-risk phrase in the entire curriculum’s core passage. Left unguarded, it can be heard as an echo of the caste-Hindu birth-karma doctrine that Ambedkarite Buddhist communities explicitly and painfully renounced. Requires mandatory teaching note at every occurrence: this is a universal condition equally true of every person regardless of birth, answered only by God’s initiative (v.4), never by better birth or self-effort.

2. ἔργα → कामे, never कर्म (“works,” Eph 2:9-10) — the sharpest single-word collision risk in the book. Ephesians 2:8-9 stages the grace-vs-works contrast more explicitly and more compactly than any Romans passage, making this the highest-stakes single lexical choice for the whole curriculum’s core doctrine (Salvation by Grace through Faith). Recommend immediate promotion to the Critical Forbidden Substitution list in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.

3. ἀπολύτρωσις (“redemption,” Eph 1:7, 1:14, 4:30) vs. मोक्ष/मुक्ती — redemption’s “ransom paid by another” logic is structurally opposite to bhakti/Buddhist self- or devotion-attained liberation; the risk is compounded because उद्धार/खंडणी are themselves less familiar/less fixed in lay Marathi Christian usage than तारण, raising back-translation drift risk.

4. προορίζω (“predestination,” Eph 1:5, 1:11) vs. नशीब/दैव/कर्मफळ — predestination is doctrinally adjacent to but distinct from election; the risk is that translators, lacking an established single word, may reach for fate-vocabulary under time pressure. Requires the same rigor as baseline election-doctrine routing.

5. μυστήριον (“mystery,” Eph 1:9, 3:3-9, 5:32, 6:19) vs. गूढ ज्ञान / tantric-occult “hidden knowledge” — recurs across four chapters and is structurally central to the book’s argument (a formerly hidden plan now fully disclosed); repeated exposure across the curriculum multiplies the risk of the esoteric-knowledge misreading taking root if the “now revealed” qualifier is ever dropped for brevity.

6. δοῦλοι/κύριοι (“bondservants and masters,” Eph 6:5-9) vs. दास्यत्व (caste-servitude) — the highest social/political sensitivity in the book, given the 1956 Ambedkarite conversion’s explicit rejection of caste-servitude vocabulary; requires the heaviest teaching-note apparatus of any single passage.

7. ναὸς ἅγιος (“holy temple,” Eph 2:21) — the deliberate मंदिर exception — the one place in the entire Language Package where a baseline avoidance rule (church ≠ मंदिर) is deliberately suspended; high risk of Phase 2 translators over-correcting back to मंडळी (losing Paul’s intended OT-Temple allusion) or under-correcting toward literal Hindu-temple association if the exception’s scope is not clearly bounded.

8. πλήρωμα (“fullness,” Eph 1:23, 3:19, 4:13) vs. Vedantic सर्वव्यापी पूर्णता (all-pervading fullness of Brahman) — a recurring, multi-chapter term whose closest available Marathi philosophical register is explicitly monistic, risking quiet doctrinal drift toward an impersonal-fullness reading if not anchored relationally at every occurrence.

9. κεφαλή (“head/headship,” Eph 1:22, 4:15, 5:23) — flattening to डोके, or collapsing to patriarchal authority alone — a single term compounding two distinct risks (loss of the authority-source double sense; and, in ch. 5, being read as endorsing unqualified patriarchal hierarchy if separated from 5:21’s mutual-submission frame and 5:25’s sacrificial-love command).

10. ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, κοσμοκράτορες… τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας (“cosmic powers of evil,” Eph 6:12) vs. Maharashtra folk-exorcism taxonomy (ग्रामदेवता, भूतबाधा, करणी) — high risk of the entire spiritual-warfare passage being assimilated to a folk-magic remedial framework (ritual counter-magic, bhagat/mantrik mediation) rather than the text’s own prescribed response of truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, Scripture, and prayer.

11. λουτρὸν τοῦ ὕδατος ἐν ῥήματι (“washing of water with the word,” Eph 5:26) vs. Godavari/Kumbh ritual bathing — risk of assimilation to repeated ritual purification-bathing practice, obscuring the once-for-all, word-effected nature of Christ’s cleansing action.

12. προσφορὰ καὶ θυσία (“offering and sacrifice,” Eph 5:2) vs. यज्ञ/बलिदान ritual weight — risk of Christ’s self-offering being read as one more instance of an ongoing ritual-sacrifice system rather than an unrepeatable historical act.

13. πλεονεξία = εἰδωλολατρία (“covetousness is idolatry,” Eph 5:5) vs. मूर्तिपूजा as comparative-religion critique — risk that Paul’s rhetorical equation lands as a swipe at neighboring devotional practice rather than a universal claim about the human heart; requires careful framing in any teaching material.

14. ὑποτάσσω applied to wives (“wives submit,” Eph 5:22-24) — structural detachment risk — risk that the instruction is translated or taught correctly at the sentence level but detached in practice from its governing 5:21 (mutual submission) and 5:25 (husband’s sacrificial love) frame, effectively reproducing an unqualified patriarchal reading the text itself does not teach.

15. δῶρον (“gift,” Eph 2:8) vs. दान’s meritorious-giving connotation — lower severity than #2-3 above because देणगी is available as a safer default, but flagged because दान remains the more colloquially natural word and may recur through translator habit unless actively fenced.

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5. Chapter Coverage Confirmation

All six chapters of Ephesians have been reviewed for this gap analysis:

• Ch. 1 — election/predestination, calling, mystery, fullness, power of God, sealing/guarantee, inheritance: reviewed above.
• Ch. 2 — the core passage (2:1-10): grace/faith/works/salvation cluster, dead-in-trespasses, children of wrath, passions of the flesh; plus 2:11-22: dividing wall, one new man, reconciliation, holy temple: reviewed above.
• Ch. 3 — mystery of Christ and the church, fellow heirs, boldness/access, fullness (3:19): reviewed above.
• Ch. 4 — unity of the Spirit, sevenfold unity formula, gift-offices, equipping, maturity, old self/new self, renewed mind, grieving the Spirit: reviewed above.
• Ch. 5 — offering and sacrifice, covetousness/idolatry, children of light, filled with the Spirit, household codes (submission, husbands/wives, washing of water, one flesh, mystery of Christ and the church): reviewed above.
• Ch. 6 — bondservants/masters, partiality, armor of God, cosmic powers of evil, praying in the Spirit: reviewed above.

No chapter contributes only reused, risk-free vocabulary; every chapter carries at least one High or Critical risk item requiring the fencing or paraphrase strategies documented above.