Discovery Box1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Context4:11 to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you. 4:12 In this way you will live 1 a decent life before outsiders and not be in need. 2
Acts 20:27
Context20:27 For I did not hold back from 3 announcing 4 to you the whole purpose 5 of God.
Acts 20:1
Context20:1 After the disturbance had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging 6 them and saying farewell, 7 he left to go to Macedonia. 8
Colossians 1:23
Context1:23 if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, 9 without shifting 10 from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.
Colossians 1:1
Context1:1 From Paul, 11 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
Philippians 1:27
Context1:27 Only conduct yourselves 12 in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that – whether I come and see you or whether I remain absent – I should hear that 13 you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, by contending side by side for the faith of the gospel, 14
Colossians 2:6
Context2:6 Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, 15 continue to live your lives 16 in him,
Colossians 2:2
Context2:2 My goal is that 17 their hearts, having been knit together 18 in love, may be encouraged, and that 19 they may have all the riches that assurance brings in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 20
Colossians 3:10-12
Context3:10 and have been clothed with the new man 21 that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it. 3:11 Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave 22 or free, but Christ is all and in all.
3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, 23 kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
[4:12] 1 tn Grk “that you may live,” continuing the sentence of 4:10b-11.
[4:12] 2 tn Or “not be dependent on anyone”; Grk “and have need of nothing,” “of no one.”
[20:27] 3 tn Or “did not avoid.” BDAG 1041 s.v. ὑποστέλλω 2.b has “shrink from, avoid implying fear…οὐ γὰρ ὑπεστειλάμην τοῦ μὴ ἀναγγεῖλαι I did not shrink from proclaiming Ac 20:27”; L&N 13.160 has “to hold oneself back from doing something, with the implication of some fearful concern – ‘to hold back from, to shrink from, to avoid’…‘for I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God’ Ac 20:27.”
[20:27] 4 tn Or “proclaiming,” “declaring.”
[20:1] 7 tn Or “and taking leave of them.”
[20:1] 8 sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.
[1:23] 9 tn BDAG 276 s.v. ἑδραῖος suggests “firm, steadfast.”
[1:23] 10 tn BDAG 639 s.v. μετακινέω suggests “without shifting from the hope” here.
[1:1] 11 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
[1:27] 12 tn Grk “live as citizens.” The verb πολιτεύεσθε (politeuesqe) connotes the life of a freeman in a free Roman colony.
[1:27] 13 tn Grk “the things concerning you, [namely,] that.” The ὅτι (Joti) clause is appositional to τὰ περὶ ὑμῶν (ta peri Jumwn) and therefore “the things concerning you” was not translated.
[1:27] 14 tn The phrase “the faith of the gospel” could mean one of three things: “the faith that is the gospel” (genitive of apposition), “the faith that originates from the gospel” (genitive of source), or “faith in the gospel” (objective genitive).
[2:6] 15 tn Though the verb παρελάβετε (parelabete) does not often take a double accusative, here it seems to do so. Both τὸν Χριστὸν ᾿Ιησοῦν (ton Criston Ihsoun) and τὸν κύριον (ton kurion) are equally definite insofar as they both have an article, but both the word order and the use of “Christ Jesus” as a proper name suggest that it is the object (cf. Rom 10:9, 10). Thus Paul is affirming that the tradition that was delivered to the Colossians by Epaphras was Christ-centered and focused on him as Lord.
[2:6] 16 tn The present imperative περιπατεῖτε (peripateite) implies, in this context, a continuation of something already begun. This is evidenced by the fact that Paul has already referred to their faith as “orderly” and “firm” (2:5), despite the struggles of some of them with this deceptive heresy (cf. 2:16-23). The verb is used literally to refer to a person “walking” and is thus used metaphorically (i.e., ethically) to refer to the way a person lives his or her life.
[2:2] 17 tn Verse two begins a subordinate ἵνα (Jina) clause which was divided up into two sentences for the sake of clarity in English. Thus the phrase “My goal is that” is an attempt to reflect in the translation the purpose expressed through the ἵνα clauses.
[2:2] 18 tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβιβάζω 1.b reads “unite, knit together.” Some commentators take the verb as a reference to instruction, “instructed in love.” See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 93.
[2:2] 19 tn The phrase “and that” translates the first εἰς (eis) clause of v. 2 and reflects the second goal of Paul’s striving and struggle for the Colossians – the first is “encouragement” and the second is “full assurance.”
[2:2] 20 tc There are at least a dozen variants here, almost surely generated by the unusual wording τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ (tou qeou, Cristou, “of God, Christ”; so Ì46 B Hil). Scribes would be prone to conform this to more common Pauline expressions such as “of God, who is in Christ” (33), “of God, the Father of Christ” (א* A C 048vid 1175 bo), and “of the God and Father of Christ” (א2 Ψ 075 0278 365 1505 pc). Even though the external support for the wording τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ is hardly overwhelming, it clearly best explains the rise of the other readings and should thus be regarded as authentic.
[3:10] 21 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).
[3:11] 22 tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.
[3:12] 23 tn If the genitive construct σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ (splancna oiktirmou) is a hendiadys then it would be “compassion” or “tenderheartedness.” See M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 161.
