Colossians 3:1-2

Exhortations to Seek the Things Above

3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,

Romans 6:8-11

6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 6:9 We know ¹  that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die ²  again; death no longer has mastery over him. 6:10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 6:11 So you too consider yourselves ³  dead to sin, but ⁴  alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 7:4

7:4 So, my brothers and sisters, ⁵  you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. ⁶ 

Romans 7:1

The Believer’s Relationship to the Law

7:1 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters ⁷  (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person ⁸  as long as he lives?

Colossians 1:20

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, ⁹  whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Ephesians 1:20

1:20 This power ¹⁰  he exercised ¹¹  in Christ when he raised him ¹²  from the dead and seated him ¹³  at his right hand in the heavenly realms ¹⁴ 

Ephesians 2:4-6

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! ¹⁵  – 2:6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 5:14

5:14 For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ¹⁶ 

“Awake, ¹⁷  O sleeper! ¹⁸ 

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!” ¹⁹ 

Ephesians 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ²⁰  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Ephesians 4:1-3

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²¹  urge you to live ²²  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ²³  4:2 with all humility and gentleness, ²⁴  with patience, bearing with ²⁵  one another in love, 4:3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

[6:9]  ¹ tn Grk “knowing.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[6:9]  ² tn The present tense here has been translated as a futuristic present (see ExSyn 536, where this verse is listed as an example).

[6:11]  ³ tc ‡ Some Alexandrian and Byzantine mss (Ì^94vid א* B C 81 365 1506 1739 1881 pc) have the infinitive “to be” (εἶναι, einai) following “yourselves”. The infinitive is lacking from some mss of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes (Ì^46vid A D*^,c F G 33^vid pc). The infinitive is found elsewhere in the majority of Byzantine mss, suggesting a scribal tendency toward clarification. The lack of infinitive best explains the rise of the other readings. The meaning of the passage is not significantly altered by inclusion or omission, but on internal grounds omission is more likely. NA²⁷ includes the infinitive in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[6:11]  ⁴ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[7:4]  ⁶ tn Grk “that we might bear fruit to God.”

[7:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[7:1]  ⁸ sn Here person refers to a human being.

[1:20]  ⁹ 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 048^vid 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.

[1:20]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “which” (v. 20 is a subordinate clause to v. 19).

[1:20]  ¹¹ tn The verb “exercised” (the aorist of ἐνεργέω, energew) has its nominal cognate in “exercise” in v. 19 (ἐνέργεια, energeia).

[1:20]  ¹² tn Or “This power he exercised in Christ by raising him”; Grk “raising him.” The adverbial participle ἐγείρας (egeiras) could be understood as temporal (“when he raised [him]”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “he exercised” earlier in the verse, or as means (“by raising [him]”). The participle has been translated here with the temporal nuance to allow for means to also be a possible interpretation. If the translation focused instead upon means, the temporal nuance would be lost as the time frame for the action of the participle would become indistinct.

[1:20]  ¹³ tc The majority of mss, especially the Western and Byzantine mss (D F G Ψ Ï b r Ambst), have the indicative ἐκάθισεν (ekaqisen, “he seated”) for καθίσας (kaqisa", “when he seated, by seating”). The indicative is thus coordinate with ἐνήργησεν (enhrghsen, “he exercised”) and provides an additional statement to “he exercised his power.” The participle (found in Ì^92vid א A B 0278 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 2464 al), on the other hand, is coordinate with ἐγείρας (egeiras) and as such provides evidence of God’s power: He exercised his power by raising Christ from the dead and by seating him at his right hand. As intriguing as the indicative reading is, it is most likely an intentional alteration of the original wording, accomplished by an early “Western” scribe, which made its way in the Byzantine text.

[1:20]  ¹⁴ sn Eph 1:19-20. The point made in these verses is that the power required to live a life pleasing to God is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. For a similar thought, cf. John 15:1-11.

[2:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).

[5:14]  ¹⁶ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[5:14]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Rise up.”

[5:14]  ¹⁸ tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (Jo kaqeudwn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. Thus, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”

[5:14]  ¹⁹ sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, and 60:1.

[5:1]  ²⁰ tn Or “become.”

[4:1]  ²¹ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ²² tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ²³ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[4:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “meekness.” The word is often used in Hellenistic Greek of the merciful execution of justice on behalf of those who have no voice by those who are in a position of authority (Matt 11:29; 21:5).

[4:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “putting up with”; or “forbearing.”