Colossians 4:7-18

Personal Greetings and Instructions

4:7 Tychicus, a dear brother, faithful minister, and fellow slave ¹  in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. ²  4:8 I sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are doing ³  and that he may encourage your hearts. 4:9 I sent him ⁴  with Onesimus, the faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. ⁵  They will tell ⁶  you about everything here.

4:10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him). 4:11 And Jesus who is called Justus also sends greetings. In terms of Jewish converts, ⁷  these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a slave ⁸  of Christ, ⁹  greets you. He is always struggling in prayer on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured ¹⁰  in all the will of God. 4:13 For I can testify that he has worked hard ¹¹  for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis. 4:14 Our dear friend Luke the physician and Demas greet you. 4:15 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters ¹²  who are in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets in her ¹³  house. ¹⁴  4:16 And after ¹⁵  you have read this letter, have it read ¹⁶  to the church of Laodicea. In turn, read the letter from Laodicea ¹⁷  as well. 4:17 And tell Archippus, “See to it that you complete the ministry you received in the Lord.”

4:18 I, Paul, write this greeting by my own hand. ¹⁸  Remember my chains. ¹⁹  Grace be with you. ²⁰ 

[4:7]  ¹ tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

[4:7]  ² tn Grk “all things according to me.”

[4:8]  ³ tn Grk “the things concerning us.”

[4:9]  ⁴ tn The Greek sentence continues v. 9 with the phrase “with Onesimus,” but this is awkward in English, so the verb “I sent” was inserted and a new sentence started at the beginning of v. 9 in the translation.

[4:9]  ⁵ tn Grk “is of you.”

[4:9]  ⁶ tn Grk “will make known to you.” This has been simplified in the translation to “will tell.”

[4:11]  ⁷ tn Grk “those of the circumcision.” The verse as a whole is difficult to translate because it is unclear whether Paul is saying (1) that the only people working with him are Jewish converts at the time the letter is being written or previously, or (2) that Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus Justus were the only Jewish Christians who ever worked with him. Verses 12-14 appear to indicate that Luke and Demas, who were Gentiles, were also working currently with Paul. This is the view adopted in the translation. See M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 207-8.

[4:12]  ⁸ tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

[4:12]  ⁹ tc ‡ Strong Alexandrian testimony, along with some other witnesses, suggests that ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou, “Jesus”) follows Χριστοῦ (Cristou, “Christ”; so א A B C I L 0278 33 81 365 629 1175 2464 al lat), but the evidence for the shorter reading is diverse (Ì⁴⁶ D F G Ψ 075 1739 1881 Ï it sy Hier), cutting across all major texttypes. There can be little motivation for omitting the name of Jesus; hence, the shorter reading is judged to be original. NA²⁷ has ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[4:12]  ¹⁰ tn Or “filled.”

[4:13]  ¹¹ tn Grk “pain.” This word appears only three times in the NT outside of this verse (Rev 16:10, 11; 21:4) where the translation “pain” makes sense. For the present verse it has been translated “worked hard.” See BDAG 852 s.v. πόνος 1.

[4:15]  ¹² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[4:15]  ¹³ 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 mss (א A C P 075 33 81 104 326 1175 2464 bo) have αὐτῶν (autwn, “their”), perhaps because of indecisiveness on the gender of Nympha, perhaps because they included ἀδελφούς (adelfou", here translated “brothers and sisters”) as part of the referent. (Perhaps because accents were not part of the original text, scribes were particularly confused here.) The harder reading is certainly αὐτῆς, and thus Nympha should be considered a woman.

[4:15]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “the church in her house.” The meaning is that Paul sends greetings to the church that meets at Nympha’s house.

[4:16]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “when.”

[4:16]  ¹⁶ tn The construction beginning with the imperative ποιήσατε ἵνα…ἀναγνωσθῇ (poihsate Jina…anagnwsqh) should be translated as “have it read” where the conjunction ἵνα functions to mark off its clause as the direct object of the imperative ποιήσατε. The content of the clause (“reading the letter”) is what Paul commands with the imperative ποιήσατε. Thus the translation “have it read” has been used here.

[4:16]  ¹⁷ sn This letter is otherwise unknown, but some have suggested that it is the letter known today as Ephesians.

[4:18]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the greeting by my hand, of Paul.”

[4:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “my imprisonment.”

[4:18]  ²⁰ tc Most witnesses, including a few important ones (א² D Ψ 075 0278 Ï lat sy), conclude this letter with ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”). Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, the external evidence for the omission is quite compelling (א* A B C F G 048 6 33 81 1739* 1881 sa). The strongly preferred reading is therefore the omission of ἀμήν.