SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 2001 – Page 3

SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 3:7

3:7

When you lived among them: Paul was writing about the way the Colossians behaved before they became believers.

you: This translates an emphatic pronoun in Greek. Here is another way to translate this pronoun:

you yourselves (Good News Translation)

used to walk in these ways: This is an idiom which means to “behave in these ways.” See the notes on 1:10a and 2:6b.

in these ways: This refers to the list in 3:5b–c.

© 2001 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 4:14

4:14

Luke, the beloved physician: The word beloved is the same word that Paul used about Tychicus in 4:7b and about Onesimus in 4:9b. See the notes on these verses. Luke had often traveled with Paul on his journeys.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 1:6

1:6b

All over the world: This is an exaggeration used to emphasize that the gospel had spread to many places in the world. Such an exaggeration is called hyperbole. If you do not use hyperbole in your language, you could translate this part of the verse:

to people in many places

bearing fruit and growing: This is a figure of speech. Paul said that the gospel was bearing fruit and growing like a tree or plant produces a crop and grows.

bearing fruit: This probably refers to the way a person changes after he becomes a Christian.

growing: This refers to the way the message about Jesus was spreading throughout the world and more and more people were believing it.

You need to check if these figures of speech make sense in your language. If not, you could change them to a simile, like this:

A healthy plant continues to produce good fruit and grow bigger. In the same way the message about Christ is causing many people to behave as God wants them to, and it is causing more and more people to believe the message.

In some modern English versions, the translators have removed the figure of speech completely. For example:

It is producing results and spreading all over the world. (God’s Word)

1:6d

and truly understood the grace of God: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as truly is literally “in truth.” There are two different ways to understand what this means:

(1) In this verse most English versions understand it to mean “the truth about the grace of God.” Here are some other ways to translate this verse part:

[you] came to know it [the grace of God] as it really is (Good News Translation)
-or-
you came to know what God’s kindness truly means (God’s Word)

(2) In some English versions, it means

the grace of God: Here Paul used the word grace as a synonym for the gospel. This is the message that God graciously/freely saves those who trust in Christ. In many languages the term the grace of God must be translated as a clause. For example:

how kind/gracious God is

See “grace” in Key Biblical Terms and meaning 2 in the glossary for further help.

General Comment about 1:6b–d

In some languages it may be helpful to reorder 1:6b–d. One way to do this would be:

When you heard that God would freely forgive you if you trusted in Christ, you understood and believed God’s message as it really is. Now you are behaving in a way that pleases God. In the same way, people in many places ⌊have heard and believed this message⌋ and they are behaving in a way that pleases God. So the message is spreading to others.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 2:9

2:9

For: Beginning with 2:9, Paul gave the Colossian believers some reasons why they should not believe the false teachers. The Greek word hoti that the Berean Standard Bible translates For connects 2:9 with 2:8. Paul was saying: “⌊Do not let them deceive you,⌋ for …”

in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form: This verse is similar to 1:19. In 1:19 Paul said that God decided to have “all His fullness” live in Christ. In 2:9 Paul explained more clearly what this meant. He says all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily in Christ. In the Greek sentence structure, Paul emphasized the words in Christ (literally: “in him”). You may be able to express this: “For it is in Christ ⌊and in Christ alone⌋ that all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”

all the fullness of the Deity: See the note on 1:19. When Paul said that all the fullness of the Deity is in Christ, this implied that Christ alone has all the power and authority that God has.

Deity: The Greek word theotēs that the Berean Standard Bible translates Deity comes from the Greek word theos “God.” It means all that God is: his nature, his power, and his perfection. So when Paul said that “all the fullness of the Deity” lived in Christ, he meant that Christ is fully God. All that God is, Christ is also.

dwells: The Greek verb katoikeō that the Berean Standard Bible translates dwells means, “stays, lives, remains.” Paul used the same verb in 1:19, but there he used a past tense. Here he used the present tense, and so it means that all God’s nature is now permanently in Christ.

in bodily form: This refers to the fact that Christ was born and he became a human being with a human body. Even then, Christ had all of God’s nature in him.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 3:18

Section 3:18–4:1

Paul instructed husbands and wives, children and parents, slaves and masters

In this section, Paul continued to instruct the Colossians about the way that they should behave in order to please Christ. In this section, however, he was writing about how they should behave at home rather than within the Christian community. He gave instructions to six types of people: wives and husbands, children and parents, slaves and masters. His message was the same for all:

(a) That people should submit to those who had authority over them,

(b) That those who had authority should be considerate toward those under them.

Paul gave instructions to wives in 3:18, to husbands in 3:19, to children in 3:20, to parents in 3:21, to slaves in 3:22, and to masters in 4:1. Make sure you begin each of these verses in the same way.

Paragraph 3:18–19

Theme: Paul gave instructions to husbands and wives: that wives should be subject to their husbands, and husbands should love their wives.

3:18a

Wives: Here Paul was writing specifically to the married women. You may need to use the pronoun “you”(plural) in translating this, for example: “You believers who are married women.” In other languages it may be better to translate this “Each of you who is a married woman.” Use whichever way is most natural in your language.

submit to your husbands: The word submit means that a wife must acknowledge that her husband is the leader in their family, she must put herself under his control. In some languages it may need to be translated as “obey.” This command is in the present tense in Greek. This means that a wife should continually submit to her husband.

3:18b

as is fitting in the Lord: Paul was saying that wives should submit to their husbands because that is the way that women who belong to the Lord should behave. It is behavior that is fitting, appropriate, and correct.

Lord: This refers to the Lord Jesus.

3:19a

Husbands: Here Paul is writing specifically to the married men. You may need to use the pronoun “you”(plural) in translating this, for example: “You believers who are married men.” In other languages it may be better to translate this “Each of you who is a married man.” Use whichever way is most natural in your language.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 1:17

1:17a

He is before all things: This means that Christ existed before anything was created.

all things: Notice that Paul used the phrase all things twice in this verse. He had also used this same phrase twice in 1:16. He wanted to emphasize that Christ is important and central. He is supreme over all things. He created all things, is the goal of all things, existed before all things, and holds all things together.

1:17b

in Him all things hold together: This is a difficult clause to translate. It means that after everything was created, Jesus is the one who causes everything to continue to exist and to work together the way God planned. Hebrews 1:3 says something similar:

sustaining all things by his powerful word

SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 2:20

Paragraph 2:20–23

Theme: Paul warned the Colossians that they should not obey once more all those regulations that were based only on human ideas. They had abandoned that old way of living.

2:20a

If you have died with Christ: This is similar to 2:12a. Paul did not mean that the Colossian believers literally died when Christ died. It was their old sinful nature that died with Christ.

In Romans 6:1–11 Paul wrote about this in more detail. If you use footnotes or cross-references, you may want to include references here to Romans 6:1–11 and Galatians 5:19–20.

If: The Greek begins with a word that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as If. However, Paul was not questioning or wondering if the Colossians believers had died with Christ or not. He knew that it was true. “Since” is another way to translate this word in English. You should use a word in your language that expresses that something is certain/true.

have died with Christ to: Paul said that the Colossian believers had died with Christ to these rules. This means that they had been freed from these laws, and now the laws no longer had any control over them.

to the spiritual forces of the world: This phrase spiritual forces of the world is the same as in 2:8d. It has the same meaning here as in 2:8d—“the elementary principles and rules of life.” See the note on 2:8d for the alternative interpretation.

2:20b

why…do you submit to its regulations: This is Paul’s main point in this paragraph (2:20–23). He was telling the Colossian believers that they did not need to submit to the rules that the false teachers were teaching them. Paul used a rhetorical question here to emphasize that the Colossians did not need to submit to these rules. If you do not use rhetorical questions in this way in your language, it may be better to translate this rhetorical question as a command, such as:

Do not obey…
-or-
“You do not need to obey…

as though you still belonged to the world: This means to behave “as if the world were still controlling the way you behave” (rather than in the way someone who belongs to God should behave). Here is another way to translate this:

It’s as though you were still under the world’s influence (God’s Word)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 4:4

4:4

Pray that I may declare it clearly: The Greek word phaneroō, that the Berean Standard Bible translates declare it clearly, means “reveal, make known, make plain, tell clearly.” Paul used this same Greek verb in 1:26 and in 3:4. In 1:26, he used it to refer to God’s secret plan that he (God) had hidden and not revealed (made known) to people in the past. In 3:4 he used it to refer to the relationship between Christ and Christians, which is hidden now, but will be revealed (made known) when Christ returns. In both cases it means, “to tell clearly and publicly.” However, there are two ways to interpret it here:

(1) The emphasis is on “proclaiming publicly.” This part of the verse therefore means “Pray that I may proclaim the message publicly,” or “Pray that I will make the message known to people.” (See NET Bible, SSA.)

(2) The emphasis is on “proclaiming clearly.” This part of the verse therefore means “Pray that I may proclaim the message clearly.”

Both of these are acceptable. Most translations use the word clearly here as the Berean Standard Bible has done, and so follow the second interpretation. However, since Paul, in 4:3–4, was again writing about revealing God’s secret plan, it is likely that the emphasis is on “publicly.” So the first interpretation is recommended (1).

as I should: Paul was asking people to pray that he would proclaim the message to many people because this was his duty (Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, God’s Word, New Century Version, Revised English Bible, SSA). This means that Paul wanted to make sure he fulfilled his obligation to tell people about Christ.

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Source: SIL Translator’s Notes on Colossians 2001