complete verse (Ephesians 5:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of Ephesians 5:9:

  • Uma: “Discern what character is appropriate in the sight of the Lord. For from the being-light/bright of your hearts appears all character that is good, straight and clear/aware/mature.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Because if a person is in the light, his conduct is good and straight and he can be trusted.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Because, for if God has illuminated your minds, you are able to perform everything that’s proper and righteous which the true doctrine teaches.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “and do all the kinds of good and righteous and true-things that are the result (lit. fulfillment) of an illuminated mind.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Because the outcome of this living in the light is wholly goodness, righteousness, and truth.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The person who has his heart opened by God now walks in all that is good. When he speaks, he speaks all that is true. That which God commands is what he does.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

righteous, righteousness

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The Greek, Hebrew, and Latin terms that are translated in English mostly as “righteous” as an adjective or personified noun or “righteousness” (also as “upright(ness)” and “just(ice)”) are most commonly expressed with concept of “straightness,” though this may be expressed in a number of ways. (Click or tap here to see the details)

Following is a list of (back-) translations of various languages:

  • Bambara, Southern Bobo Madaré, Chokwe (ululi), Amganad Ifugao, Chol, Eastern Maninkakan, Toraja-Sa’dan, Pamona, Batak Toba, Bilua, Tiv: “be straight”
  • Laka: “follow the straight way” or “to straight-straight” (a reduplicated form for emphasis)
  • Sayula Popoluca: “walk straight”
  • Highland Puebla Nahuatl, Kekchí, Muna: “have a straight heart”
  • Kipsigis: “do the truth”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “do according to the truth”
  • Huautla Mazatec: “have truth”
  • Yine: “fulfill what one should do”
  • Indonesian: “be true”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “do just so”
  • Anuak: “do as it should be”
  • Mossi: “have a white stomach” (see also happiness / joy)
  • Paasaal: “white heart” (source: Fabian N. Dapila in The Bible Translator 2024, p. 415ff.)
  • (San Mateo del Mar Huave: “completely good” (the translation does not imply sinless perfection)
  • Nuer: “way of right” (“there is a complex concept of “right” vs. ‘left’ in Nuer where ‘right’ indicates that which is masculine, strong, good, and moral, and ‘left’ denotes what is feminine, weak, and sinful (a strictly masculine viewpoint!) The ‘way of right’ is therefore righteousness, but of course women may also attain this way, for the opposition is more classificatory than descriptive.”) (This and all above from Bratcher / Nida except for Bilua: Carl Gross; Tiv: Rob Koops; Muna: René van den Berg)
  • Central Subanen: “wise-good” (source: Robert Brichoux in OPTAT 1988/2, p. 80ff. )
  • Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac: “live well”
  • Mezquital Otomi: “goodness before the face of God” (source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
  • Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl: “the result of heart-straightening” (source: Nida 1947, p. 224)
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “entirely good” (when referred to God), “do good” or “not be a debtor as God sees one” (when referred to people)
  • Carib: “level”
  • Tzotzil: “straight-hearted”
  • Ojitlán Chinantec: “right and straight”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “walk straight” (source for this and four previous: John Beekman in Notes on Translation November 1964, p. 1-22)
  • Makonde: “doing what God wants” (in a context of us doing) and “be good in God’s eyes” (in the context of being made righteous by God) (note that justify / justification is translated as “to be made good in the eyes of God.” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Aari: The Pauline word for “righteous” is generally rendered by “makes one without sin” in the Aari, sometimes “before God” is added for clarity. (Source: Loren Bliese)
  • North Alaskan Inupiatun: “having sin taken away” (Source: Nida 1952, p. 144)
  • Nyamwezi: wa lole: “just” or “someone who follows the law of God” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Venda: “nothing wrong, OK” (Source: J.A. van Roy in The Bible Translator 1972, p. 418ff. )
  • Ekari: maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (the same word that is also used for “truth“; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
  • Guhu-Samane: pobi or “right” (also: “right (side),” “(legal) right,” “straightness,” “correction,” “south,” “possession,” “pertinence,” “kingdom,” “fame,” “information,” or “speech” — “According to [Guhu-Samane] thinking there is a common core of meaning among all these glosses. Even from an English point of view the first five can be seen to be closely related, simply because of their similarity in English. However, from that point the nuances of meaning are not so apparent. They relate in some such a fashion as this: As one faces the morning sun, south lies to the right hand (as north lies to the left); then at one’s right hand are his possessions and whatever pertains to him; thus, a rich man’s many possessions and scope of power and influence is his kingdom; so, the rich and other important people encounter fame; and all of this spreads as information and forms most of the framework of the people’s speech.”) (Source: Ernest Richert in Notes on Translation 1964, p. 11ff.)
  • German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999): Gerechtheit, a neologism to differentiate it from the commonly-used Gerechtigkeit which can mean “righteousness” but is more often used in modern German as “fairness” (Berger / Nord especially use Gerechtheit in Letter to the Romans) or Gerechtestun, also a neologism, meaning “righteous deeds” (especially in Letter to the Ephesians)
  • “did what he should” (Eastern Highland Otomi)
  • “a clear man, good [man]” (Mairasi) (source: Enggavoter 2004)

See also respectable, righteous, righteous (person), devout, and She is more in the right(eous) than I.

Translation commentary on Ephesians 5:8 – 5:9

“At one time you were darkness, but now (you are) light in the Lord” is how the first part of verse 8 reads in Greek. The two metaphors darkness and light stand for spiritual and moral conditions: death versus life, lost versus saved, evil versus goodness (see 2.11, 13 for the same contrast in the past … but now). For darkness as a figure of life apart from God see 4.18; Colossians 1.13; and for the figure of light see 1.18.

In a number of languages the figurative expressions darkness and light do not readily carry the significance of the biblical contrast. But it is surprising how quickly the significance of these terms is understood and appreciated. It is for that reason that some psychologists have regarded such a contrast as being a symbolic universal. It may, however, be necessary in a context such as this to employ “the darkness of night” in contrast with “the light of day.” In this way one may avoid some misinterpretations which might arise from people thinking about the darkness of a cave or a hole, in contrast with light coming from a fire or a lamp.

Since you have become the Lord’s people translates the Greek prepositional phrase “in the Lord” (compare Translator’s New Testament “now that you belong to the Lord”). “Now that you are united to the Lord” is another way this phrase can be translated.

So you must live like people who belong to the light: the rest of verse 8 in Greek is the command “walk as children of light”; for the verb “to walk” see 2.2, 10; 4.1, 17; 5.2; and for the phrase “children of light,” meaning people who belong to the light, see the similar “children of anger” in 2.3.

It is not difficult for people to conceive of how persons may “live in the light” or “be in the light,” but it may be far more difficult to conceive of a relationship involved in “belonging to the light.” It may therefore be preferable to translate who belong to the light as “who habitually live in the light.”

Verse 9 is a parenthetical addition; the sentence that begins in verse 8 in Greek goes directly from verse 8 to verse 10: “Walk as children of the light, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” Revised Standard Version, New International Version place verse 9 within parentheses and join verse 8 directly to verse 10. In many languages, however, it is not natural to put the parenthetical statement that is in verse 9 in the middle of a sentence that begins in verse 8 and continues at verse 10. So what Good News Translation has done may be better for such languages: for it is the light that brings a rich harvest…. Verse 9 in Greek is literally “for the fruit of light (is) in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Light here is seen as a fertile field which produces fruit (see especially Gal 5.22 for similar figurative use of “fruit”).

As Good News Translation margin shows, there is a variant wording supported by some early Greek manuscripts, including (P46): “the fruit of the Spirit” (as in Gal 5.22) instead of “the fruit of light.” But this is clearly an inferior text.

Goodness, righteousness, and truth: the three qualities listed are all moral virtues, ethical qualities, which characterize people who “walk in the light” of God. See Barclay: “For light brings as its rich harvest everything that is good and right and true.”

There may be certain problems involved in the figurative language of verse 9, namely, it is the light that brings a rich harvest. The Greek implies that the result of the light is every kind of goodness, righteousness, and truth, something which people actually produce in their lives. It may therefore be best to translate verse 9 as “it is this light which causes people to do everything that is good and right and true,” or else “for everything that is good and right and true comes from the light.” The expression “true” must be understood in the sense of genuine and sincere, not true in the sense of being in accordance with fact.

The word translated goodness occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Romans 15.14; Galatians 5.22; 2 Thessalonians 1.11. Righteousness and truth both occur in 4.24.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .