Paul compares the act of forgiveness of sins to the cancelation of a record of debts. The subject of the verbs (two participles, one before and one after the finite verb) in Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version continues to be God (from verse 13).
He canceled is the Greek verb for “wipe out, erase”; used also in Acts 3.19 (sins), Rev 3.5 (name), 7.17, 21.4 (tears); the corresponding Hebrew verb in the OT is often used also with “sin(s)” as the object (compare Psa 51.9; 109.14; Isa 43.25). In order to express the concept of canceled, it is possible in some languages to use a phrase such as “to tear up,” “to throw away,” or “to declare that it is no longer valid.”
The … record of our debts represents a Greek noun which is literally “a handwritten document”—an IOU, (that is, “I owe you”) personally signed by the debtor, acknowledging his debt. The … record of our debts may be rendered as “the paper that says how much we owe,” or “the list of all that we owe,” or “the page that tells how many are our debts.”
Unfavorable translates two separate phrases; even Revised Standard Version telescopes the two: “which stood against us” (compare King James Version “the handwriting of the ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us”). It is unnecessary to represent both in translation. In a number of instances, unfavorable can best be rendered simply as “how much we had to pay,” or “debts against us,” or as in some cases “debts against our name.”
With its binding rules is simply the dative, without a preposition, and its relation to the preceding is uncertain. Perhaps “because” (so Lohse); and commentaries give other possibilities. Paul is saying that God not only forgave man’s debts, but also did away completely with the legislation that made him a debtor. The “legislation” is the Mosaic Law, and some translations make this explicit: “the decrees of the law” (New English Bible Barclay), “the law’s demands” (Translator’s New Testament). With its binding rules may sometimes be translated as “with rules governing what we must do” or “with laws saying, You must not do that.”
Did away with it completely is literally “removed it from the midst”; the verb is used with “sins” as object in John 1.29, 1 John 3.5. The pronoun it refers here to the record of our debts, but it may seem rather strange to speak of doing away with a record by “nailing it to the cross.” The point is not that the record was destroyed in the process, but that it was made no longer valid in the sense that the death of Christ on the cross wiped out our indebtedness. Therefore, did away with it may be expressed as “made it ineffective,” or “caused it to no longer have power,” or even “destroyed its meaning.”
Nailing it to the cross: by use of this figure Paul says that the forgiveness of sins was accomplished by the crucifixion of Christ (for similar expression see 1 Peter 2.24). Moule comments that there seems to be no evidence for the alleged custom of canceling a bond by piercing it with a nail. Nor does the figure here seem to allude to the cancelation of a bond by marking it out with an X, that is, crossing it out. Nailing it to the cross may be expressed as “attaching the record to the cross with a nail” or “using a nail to put the record on the cross,” but since this expression is essentially figurative, it may be necessary, as in other instances, to mark the figurative usage by means of an expression indicating similarity or likeness, for example, “nailing it, so to speak, to the cross” or “as it were, nailing it to the cross.”
The matter of the subject(s) of the verbs in verses 13-15 should be considered. In Greek “God” is clearly the subject of the verb in verse 13 “he made you alive (with him),” and thereafter there is no name or pronoun to identify the subject of the remaining verbs. Most translations and commentaries take God as the subject of all the verbs in verses 13-15 (Peake, Abbott, Beare, Lohse; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Revised Standard Version Bible en français courant Jerusalem Bible New American Bible New English Bible Translator’s New Testament Moffatt New International Version Barclay Traduction œcuménique de la Bible Goodspeed; Weymouth seems to make Christ the subject of all the verbs). Lightfoot, however, feels that there must be a change of subject somewhere, since in his understanding the first participle in verse 15 can hardly have God for a subject; consequently, he makes the change with the finite verb in verse 14, “he set aside” (Revised Standard Version). Moule also makes a change of subject, but with the first participle “having canceled” (Revised Standard Version) in verse 14; Good News Translation Biblia Dios Habla Hoy Barclay make the change in verse 15, with Christ as the subject of the verbs.
The determining factor is the understanding of the first participle in verse 15, whether it refers to an action taken by God or whether it must be related to Christ.
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 .