Romans 15:24

15:24 when I go to Spain. For I hope to visit you when I pass through and that you will help me ¹  on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

Romans 15:32

15:32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

Acts 11:23

11:23 When ²  he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true ³  to the Lord with devoted hearts, ⁴ 

Acts 11:2

11:2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, ⁵  the circumcised believers ⁶  took issue with ⁷  him,

Colossians 2:1-3

2:1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, ⁸  and for those in Laodicea, and for those who have not met me face to face. ⁹  2:2 My goal is that ¹⁰  their hearts, having been knit together ¹¹  in love, may be encouraged, and that ¹²  they may have all the riches that assurance brings in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ¹³  2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 1:4-7

1:4 since ¹⁴  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ¹⁵  from the hope laid up ¹⁶  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ¹⁷  1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ¹⁸  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ¹⁹  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 1:7 You learned the gospel ²⁰  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ²¹  – a ²²  faithful minister of Christ on our ²³  behalf –

Colossians 1:13

1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, ²⁴ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁵  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 2:17-20

2:17 these are only ²⁶  the shadow of the things to come, but the reality ²⁷  is Christ! ²⁸  2:18 Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths ²⁹  about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. ³⁰  2:19 He has not held fast ³¹  to the head from whom the whole body, supported ³²  and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God. ³³ 

2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits ³⁴  of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world?

Colossians 3:7-10

3:7 You also lived your lives ³⁵  in this way at one time, when you used to live among them. 3:8 But now, put off all such things ³⁶  as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth. 3:9 Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices 3:10 and have been clothed with the new man ³⁷  that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it.

Colossians 3:2

3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,

Colossians 1:4

1:4 since ³⁸  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ³⁹  brothers and sisters ⁴⁰  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ⁴¹  from God our Father! ⁴² 

Colossians 1:4

1:4 since ⁴³  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

Colossians 1:3

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ⁴⁴  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

Colossians 1:3-4

Paul’s Thanksgiving and Prayer for the Church

1:3 We always ⁴⁵  give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 1:4 since ⁴⁶  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

[15:24]  ¹ tn Grk “and to be helped by you.” The passive construction was changed to an active one in the translation.

[11:23]  ² tn Grk “Antioch, who when.” The relative pronoun was omitted and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek.

[11:23]  ³ tn BDAG 883 s.v. προσμένω 1.a.β has “remain true to the Lord” for προσμένειν (prosmenein) in this verse.

[11:23]  ⁴ tn Grk “with purpose of heart”; BDAG 869 s.v. πρόθεσις 2.a translates this phrase “purpose of heart, i.e. devotion” here.

[11:2]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:2]  ⁶ tn Or “the Jewish Christians”; Grk “those of the circumcision.” Within the larger group of Christians were some whose loyalties ran along ethnic-religious lines.

[11:2]  ⁷ tn Or “believers disputed with,” “believers criticized” (BDAG 231 s.v. διακρίνω 5.b).

[2:1]  ⁸ tn Or “I want you to know how hard I am working for you…”

[2:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.”

[2:2]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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 048^vid 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.

[1:4]  ¹⁴ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:5]  ¹⁵ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ¹⁶ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ¹⁷ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[1:6]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ¹⁹ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[1:7]  ²⁰ tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ²¹ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:7]  ²² tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ²³ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.

[1:13]  ²⁴ tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

[1:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[2:17]  ²⁶ tn The word “only,” though not in the Greek text, is supplied in the English translation to bring out the force of the Greek phrase.

[2:17]  ²⁷ tn Grk “but the body of Christ.” The term body here, when used in contrast to shadow (σκιά, skia) indicates the opposite meaning, i.e., the reality or substance itself.

[2:17]  ²⁸ tn The genitive τοῦ Χριστοῦ (tou Cristou) is appositional and translated as such: “the reality is Christ.”

[2:18]  ²⁹ tn For the various views on the translation of ἐμβατεύων (embateuwn), see BDAG 321 s.v. ἐμβατεύω 4. The idea in this context seems to be that the individual in question loves to talk on and on about his spiritual experiences, but in reality they are only coming out of his own sinful flesh.

[2:18]  ³⁰ tn Grk “by the mind of his flesh.” In the translation above, σαρκός (sarkos) is taken as an attributive genitive. The phrase could also be translated “by his sinful thoughts,” since it appears that Paul is using σάρξ (sarx, “flesh”) here in a morally negative way.

[2:19]  ³¹ tn The Greek participle κρατῶν (kratwn) was translated as a finite verb to avoid an unusually long and pedantic sentence structure in English.

[2:19]  ³² tn See BDAG 387 s.v. ἐπιχορηγέω 3.

[2:19]  ³³ tn The genitive τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou) has been translated as a genitive of source, “from God.”

[2:20]  ³⁴ tn See the note on the phrase “elemental spirits” in 2:8.

[3:7]  ³⁵ tn Grk “you also walked.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is commonly used in the NT to refer to behavior or conduct of one’s life (L&N 41.11).

[3:8]  ³⁶ tn The Greek article with τὰ πάντα (ta panta) is anaphoric, referring to the previous list of vices, and has been translated here as “all such things.”

[3:10]  ³⁷ 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).

[1:4]  ³⁸ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:2]  ³⁹ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ⁴¹ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ⁴² tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[1:4]  ⁴³ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:3]  ⁴⁴ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

[1:3]  ⁴⁵ tn The adverb πάντοτε (pantote) is understood to modify the indicative εὐχαριστοῦμεν (eucaristoumen) because it precedes περὶ ὑμῶν (peri Jumwn) which probably modifies the indicative and not the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi). But see 1:9 where the same expression occurs and περὶ ὑμῶν modifies the participle “praying” (προσευχόμενοι).

[1:4]  ⁴⁶ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).