12:2 Many of those who sleep
in the dusty ground will awake –
some to everlasting life,
and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence. 9
7:1 Then the high priest said, “Are these things true?” 15
1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn 16 from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. 17
1:1 From Paul, 18 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1:1 From Paul, 19 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1 tn Or “speaking about.”
2 tn Grk “these.”
3 tn Grk “the sleep of slumber”; this is a redundant expression to emphasize physical sleep as opposed to death.
4 tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”
5 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.
6 tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
7 tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).
8 tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.
9 sn This verse is the only undisputed reference to a literal resurrection found in the Hebrew Bible.
10 tn Grk “They were laughing at him.” The imperfect verb has been taken ingressively.
11 tn Grk “Then falling to his knees he cried out.” The participle θείς (qeis) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
12 sn The remarks Lord Jesus, receive my spirit and Lord, do not hold this sin against them recall statements Jesus made on the cross (Luke 23:34, 46).
13 tn Grk “And when.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences, καί (kai) has not been translated here; a new sentence is begun instead.
14 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.
15 tn Grk “If it is so concerning these things” (see BDAG 422 s.v. ἔχω 10.a for this use).
16 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.
17 tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”
18 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
19 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
20 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.
21 tc If the name Nympha is accented with a circumflex on the ultima (Νυμφᾶν, Numfan), then it refers to a man; if it receives an acute accent on the penult (Νύμφαν), the reference is to a woman. Scribes that considered Nympha to be a man’s name had the corresponding masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ here (autou, “his”; so D [F G] Ψ Ï), while those who saw Nympha as a woman read the feminine αὐτῆς here (auth", “her”; B 0278 6 1739[*] 1881 sa). Several
22 tn Grk “the church in her house.” The meaning is that Paul sends greetings to the church that meets at Nympha’s house.
23 tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”
24 tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”