Galatians 2:6

2:6 But from those who were influential ¹  (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism between people ² ) – those influential leaders ³  added ⁴  nothing to my message. ⁵ 

Galatians 2:2

2:2 I went there ⁶  because of ⁷  a revelation and presented ⁸  to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so ⁹  only in a private meeting with the influential people, ¹⁰  to make sure that I was not running – or had not run ¹¹  – in vain.

Colossians 1:16

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ¹²  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

[2:6]  ¹ tn Or “influential leaders.” BDAG 255 s.v. δοκέω 2.a.β has “the influential men Gal 2:2, 6b. A fuller expr. w. the same mng., w. inf. added…vss. 6a, 9.” This refers to the leadership of the Jerusalem church.

[2:6]  ² tn Grk “God does not receive the face of man,” an idiom for showing favoritism or partiality (BDAG 887-88 s.v. πρόσωπον 1.b.α; L&N 88.238).

[2:6]  ³ tn Or “influential people”; here “leaders” was used rather than “people” for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy with the word “people” in the previous parenthetical remark. See also the note on the word “influential” at the beginning of this verse.

[2:6]  ⁴ tn Or “contributed.” This is the same word translated “go to ask advice from” in 1:16, but it has a different meaning here; see L&N 59.72.

[2:6]  ⁵ tn Or “added nothing to my authority.” Grk “added nothing to me,” with what was added (“message,” etc.) implied.

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Grk “I went up”; one always spoke idiomatically of going “up” to Jerusalem.

[2:2]  ⁷ tn Or “in accordance with.” According to BDAG 512 s.v. κατά B.5.a.δ, “Oft. the norm is at the same time the reason, so that in accordance with and because of are merged…Instead of ‘in accordance w.’ κ. can mean simply because of, as a result of, on the basis of…κ. ἀποκάλυψιν Gal 2:2.”

[2:2]  ⁸ tn Or “set before them.”

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Grk “Gentiles, but only privately…to make sure.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started with “But” and the words “I did so,” an implied repetition from the previous clause, were supplied to make a complete English sentence.

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn L&N 87.42 has “important persons, influential persons, prominent persons” for οἱ δοκοῦντες and translates this phrase in Gal 2:2 as “in a private meeting with the prominent persons.” The “prominent people” referred to here are the leaders of the Jerusalem church.

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Here the first verb (τρέχω, trecw, “was not running”) is present subjunctive, while the second (ἔδραμον, edramon, “had not run”) is aorist indicative.

[1:16]  ¹² tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.