13:1 Now there were these prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch: 7 Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, 8 Lucius the Cyrenian, 9 Manaen (a close friend of Herod 10 the tetrarch 11 from childhood 12 ) and Saul.
1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn 19 from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. 20
1 tn The participle ὑπηρετήσας (Juphrethsa") is taken temporally.
2 tn The verb κοιμάω (koimaw) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for the death of a believer.
3 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “was gathered to his fathers” (a Semitic idiom).
4 tn Grk “saw,” but the literal translation of the phrase “saw decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “looked at decay,” while here “saw decay” is really figurative for “experienced decay.” This remark explains why David cannot fulfill the promise.
5 sn The one whom God raised up refers to Jesus.
6 tn Grk “see,” but the literal translation of the phrase “did not see decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “did not look at decay,” while here “did not see decay” is really figurative for “did not experience decay.”
7 sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia).
8 sn Simeon may well have been from North Africa, since the Latin loanword Niger refers to someone as “dark-complexioned.”
9 sn The Cyrenian refers to a native of the city of Cyrene, on the coast of northern Africa west of Egypt.
10 sn Herod is generally taken as a reference to Herod Antipas, who governed Galilee from 4
11 tn Or “the governor.”
12 tn Or “(a foster brother of Herod the tetrarch).” The meaning “close friend from childhood” is given by L&N 34.15, but the word can also mean “foster brother” (L&N 10.51). BDAG 976 s.v. σύντροφας states, “pert. to being brought up with someone, either as a foster-brother or as a companion/friend,” which covers both alternatives. Context does not given enough information to be certain which is the case here, although many modern translations prefer the meaning “close friend from childhood.”
13 tn Grk “the members which are on the earth.” See BDAG 628 s.v. μέλος 1, “put to death whatever in you is worldly.”
14 tn Or “lust.”
15 tn Grk “you also walked.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is commonly used in the NT to refer to behavior or conduct of one’s life (L&N 41.11).
16 tn The Greek article with τὰ πάντα (ta panta) is anaphoric, referring to the previous list of vices, and has been translated here as “all such things.”
17 sn Put off all such things. The commands in vv. 8-9 are based on two reasons given in vv. 9-10 – reasons which are expressed in terms of a metaphor about clothing oneself. Paul says that they have put off the old man and have put on the new man. Two things need to be discussed in reference to Paul’s statement. (1) What is the meaning of the clothing imagery (i.e., the “have put off” and “have been clothed”)? (2) What is the meaning of the old man and the new man? Though some commentators understand the participles “have put off” (v. 9) and “have been clothed” (v. 10) as imperatives (i.e., “put off!” and “put on!”), this use of participles is extremely rare in the NT and thus unlikely here. It is better to take them as having the semantic force of indicatives, and thus they give an explanation of what had happened to the Colossians at the time of their conversion – they had taken off the old man and put on the new when they trusted in Christ (cf. 1:4). While it is difficult to say for certain what the background to Paul’s “clothing” metaphor might be (whether it is primarily Jewish and comes from the OT, or primarily Gentile and comes from some facet of the Greco-Roman religious milieu), it is nonetheless clear, on the basis of Paul’s usage of the expression, that the old man refers to man as he is in Adam and dominated by sin (cf. Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22), while the new man refers to the Christian whose new sphere of existence is in Christ. Though the metaphor of clothing oneself primarily reflects outward actions, there is a distinct inward aspect to it, as the rest of v. 10 indicates: being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. Paul’s point, then, is that Christians should take off their dirty clothing (inappropriate behavior) and put on clean clothing (behavior consistent with knowing Christ) because this has already been accomplished in a positional sense at the time of their conversion (cf. Gal 3:27 with Rom 13:14).
18 tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.
19 tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.
20 tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”
21 tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
22 tc ‡ The reading adopted by the translation follows a few early
23 tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
24 sn A quotation from Num 12:7.
25 sn The Greek makes the contrast between v. 5 and v. 6a more emphatic and explicit than is easily done in English.
26 tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
27 tn Grk “whose house we are,” continuing the previous sentence.
28 tc The reading adopted by the translation is found in Ì13,46 B sa, while the vast majority of
29 tn Grk “the pride of our hope.”