17:1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward 3 to heaven 4 and said, “Father, the time 5 has come. Glorify your Son, so that your 6 Son may glorify you –
1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship 7 from God – given to me for you – in order to complete 8 the word of God, 1:26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. 1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious 9 riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
3:2 Beware of the dogs, 16 beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 17
4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, 19 whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.
1 tn Or “by finishing” or “by accomplishing.” Jesus now states that he has glorified the Father on earth by finishing (τελειώσας [teleiwsas] is best understood as an adverbial participle of means) the work which the Father had given him to do.
2 tn Grk “the work that you gave to me so that I may do it.”
3 tn Grk “he raised his eyes” (an idiom).
4 tn Or “to the sky.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven” depending on the context.
5 tn Grk “the hour.”
6 tc The better witnesses (א B C* W 0109 0301) have “the Son” (ὁ υἱός, Jo Juios) here, while the majority (C3 L Ψ Ë13 33 Ï) read “your Son also” (καὶ ὁ υἱὸς σου, kai Jo Juio" sou), or “your Son” (ὁ υἱὸς σου; A D Θ 0250 1 579 pc lat sy); the second corrector of C has καὶ ὁ υἱός (“the Son also”). The longer readings appear to be predictable scribal expansions and as such should be considered secondary.
7 tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”
8 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.
9 tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”
10 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.
11 tn Grk “But this one thing (I do).”
12 tn Grk “according to the goal.”
13 tn Grk “prize, namely, the heavenly calling of God.”
14 tn Grk “those of us who are ‘perfect’ should think this,” or possibly “those of us who are mature should think this.”
15 tn Grk “reveal this to you.” The referent of the pronoun “this” is the fact that the person is thinking differently than Paul does. This has been specified in the translation with the phrase “the error of your ways”; Paul is stating that God will make it known to these believers when they are not in agreement with Paul.
16 sn Dogs is a figurative reference to false teachers whom Paul regards as just as filthy as dogs.
17 tn Grk “beware of the mutilation.”
18 tn Grk “will guard the hearts of you and the minds of you.” To improve the English style, the second occurrence of ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “of you”) has not been translated, since it is somewhat redundant in English.
19 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.