9:11 Moreover, as for you, because of our covenant relationship secured with blood, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.
9:1 An oracle of the word of the Lord concerning the land of Hadrach, 3 with its focus on Damascus: 4
The eyes of all humanity, 5 especially of the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord,
1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, 6 whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.
1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together 7 in him.
1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn 8 from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. 9
1:19 For God 10 was pleased to have all his 11 fullness dwell 12 in the Son 13
1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, 14 whether things on earth or things in heaven.
1:21 And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your 15 minds 16 as expressed through 17 your evil deeds,
8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one. 25 8:8 But 26 showing its fault, 27 God 28 says to them, 29
“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
8:9 “It will not be like the covenant 30 that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.
8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put 31 my laws in their minds 32 and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. 33
8:11 “And there will be no need at all 34 for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. 35
8:12 “For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.” 36
8:13 When he speaks of a new covenant, 37 he makes the first obsolete. Now what is growing obsolete and aging is about to disappear. 38
13:20 Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).
2 sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.
3 sn The land of Hadrach was a northern region stretching from Aleppo in the north to Damascus in the south (cf. NLT “Aram”).
4 tn Heb “Damascus its resting place.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix on “resting place” (מְנֻחָתוֹ, mÿnukhato), however, precludes “land” or even “Hadrach,” both of which are feminine, from being the antecedent. Most likely “word” (masculine) is the antecedent, i.e., the “word of the
5 tc Though without manuscript and version support, many scholars suggest emendation here to clarify what, to them, is an unintelligible reading. Thus some propose עָדֵי אָרָם (’ade ’aram, “cities of Aram”; cf. NAB, NRSV) for עֵין אָדָם (’en ’adam, “eye of man”) or אֲדָמָה (’adamah, “ground”) for אָדָם (’adam, “man”), “(surface of) the earth.” It seems best, however, to see “eye” as collective and to understand the passage as saying that the attention of the whole earth will be upon the
6 tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.
7 tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.
8 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.
9 tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”
10 tn The noun “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but since God is the one who reconciles the world to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19), he is clearly the subject of εὐδόκησεν (eudokhsen).
11 tn The Greek article τό (to), insofar as it relates to God, may be translated as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “his.” BDAG 404 s.v. εὐδοκέω 1 translates the phrase as “all the fullness willed to dwell in him” thus leaving the referent as impersonal. Insofar as Paul is alluding to the so-called emanations from God this is acceptable. But the fact that “the fullness” dwells in a person (i.e., “in him”) seems to argue for the translation “his fullness” where “his” refers to God.
12 tn The aorist verb κατοικῆσαι (katoikhsai) could be taken as an ingressive, in which case it refers to the incarnation and may be translated as “begin to dwell, to take up residence.” It is perhaps better, though, to take it as a constative aorist and simply a reference to the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. This is a permanent dwelling, though, not a temporary one, as the present tense in 2:9 makes clear.
13 tn Grk “him”; the referent (the Son; see v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tc The presence or absence of the second occurrence of the phrase δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (di’ autou, “through him”) is a difficult textual problem to solve. External evidence is fairly evenly divided. Many ancient and excellent witnesses lack the phrase (B D* F G I 0278 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 al latt sa), but equally important witnesses have it (Ì46 א A C D1 Ψ 048vid 33 Ï). Both readings have strong Alexandrian support, which makes the problem difficult to decide on external evidence alone. Internal evidence points to the inclusion of the phrase as original. The word immediately preceding the phrase is the masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou); thus the possibility of omission through homoioteleuton in various witnesses is likely. Scribes might have deleted the phrase because of perceived redundancy or awkwardness in the sense: The shorter reading is smoother and more elegant, so scribes would be prone to correct the text in that direction. As far as style is concerned, repetition of key words and phrases for emphasis is not foreign to the corpus Paulinum (see, e.g., Rom 8:23, Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 12:7). In short, it is easier to account for the shorter reading arising from the longer reading than vice versa, so the longer reading is more likely original.
15 tn The article τῇ (th) has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
16 tn Although διανοία (dianoia) is singular in Greek, the previous plural noun ἐχθρούς (ecqrous) indicates that all those from Colossae are in view here.
17 tn The dative ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς (en toi" ergoi" toi" ponhroi") is taken as means, indicating the avenue through which hostility in the mind is revealed and made known.
18 tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”
19 tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.
20 sn The Greek text indicates a contrast between vv. 4-5 and v. 6 that is difficult to render in English: Jesus’ status in the old order of priests (vv. 4-5) versus his superior ministry (v. 6).
21 tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (Jesus) has been specified for clarity.
22 tn Grk “to the degree that.”
23 tn Grk “which is enacted.”
24 sn This linkage of the change in priesthood with a change in the law or the covenant goes back to Heb 7:12, 22 and is picked up again in Heb 9:6-15 and 10:1-18.
25 tn Grk “no occasion for a second one would have been sought.”
26 tn Grk “for,” but providing an explanation of the God-intended limitation of the first covenant from v. 7.
27 sn The “fault” or limitation in the first covenant was not in its inherent righteousness, but in its design from God himself. It was never intended to be his final revelation or provision for mankind; it was provisional, always pointing toward the fulfillment to come in Christ.
28 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
29 tc ‡ Several witnesses (א* A D* I K P Ψ 33 81 326 365 1505 2464 al latt co Cyr) have αὐτούς (autous) here, “[in finding fault with] them, [he says],” alluding to Israel’s failings mentioned in v. 9b. (The verb μέμφομαι [memfomai, “to find fault with”] can take an accusative or dative direct object.) The reading behind the text above (αὐτοίς, autoi"), supported by Ì46 א2 B D2 0278 1739 1881 Ï, is perhaps a harder reading theologically, and is more ambiguous in meaning. If αὐτοίς goes with μεμφόμενος (memfomeno", here translated “showing its fault”), the clause could be translated “in finding fault with them” or “in showing [its] faults to them.” If αὐτοίς goes with the following λέγει (legei, “he says”), the clause is best translated, “in finding/showing [its] faults, he says to them.” The accusative pronoun suffers no such ambiguity, for it must be the object of μεμφόμενος rather than λέγει. Although a decision is difficult, the dative form of the pronoun best explains the rise of the other reading and is thus more likely to be original.
30 tn Grk “not like the covenant,” continuing the description of v. 8b.
31 tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”
32 tn Grk “mind.”
33 tn Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.
34 tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”
35 tn Grk “from the small to the great.”
36 sn A quotation from Jer 31:31-34.
37 tn Grk “when he says, ‘new,’” (referring to the covenant).
38 tn Grk “near to disappearing.”
39 tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.
40 sn Abel’s shed blood cried out to the Lord for justice and judgment, but Jesus’ blood speaks of redemption and forgiveness, something better than Abel’s does (Gen 4:10; Heb 9:11-14; 11:4).