Because of such things must be rendered in some languages as “because people have such desires” or “because people desire to do such evil.”

God’s anger is the expression of the reason why God punishes sin and evil. On the part of some scholars (notably C. H. Dodd, in his commentary on Romans), there is a reluctance to use the word “anger” (or “wrath”) of God because of its connotations; they would prefer to use something like “disaster from God” (so Moule); New English Bible has here “God’s dreadful judgement,” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “God’s judgement,” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “God’s terrible punishment.” It would be out of keeping with biblical thought, however, to think of this as the mechanical operation of a disembodied principle. What happens is caused by God, and such things happen because God is angry, that is, he is affected. He is not distant and unmoved by human sin, but expresses his anger by punishing sinners.

In translating anger, it is important to avoid the implications of “fury” or “hatred.” God’s anger is not an irrational, emotional reaction but a justified response to man’s willful disobedience and sin. In an attempt to avoid the meaning of unreasonable fury, there is also the danger of introducing a meaning which is essentially equivalent to “being irritable” or simply being irritated because of man’s sin. Such an expression seriously distorts the significance of the context. An additional problem is posed by the English expression God’s anger will come upon those, for it is rare that one may speak of “anger coming.” In general one must say “God will be angry with those.”

Will come (Good News Translation) or “is coming” (Revised Standard Version): the present tense of the Greek verb either expresses a certainty and an immediacy which are better represented by “is coming” or “comes,” or else is a conventional way or speaking of the Day of Judgement, in which case “will come” is more suitable.

Upon those who do not obey him: the phrase seems to have been added here from the parallel Eph 5.6; but a majority of the Committee that prepared the UBS Greek NT judged it to be original, and so included it in the text, though within brackets and graded as a D passage. Many modern translations omit it (Revised Standard Version New English Bible Jerusalem Bible New American Bible Barclay New International Version Traduction œcuménique de la Bible); among those that include it are Good News Translation Bible en français courant Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Barclay Translator’s New Testament Bible de Jérusalem. The phrase “the sons of disobedience” (Revised Standard Version) is a Semitic way of talking about disobedient people, that is, people who disobey God.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .