In choosing a word for the Greek that is typically translated as “gospel” in English, a number of languages construct a phrase meaning “good news,” “joyful report” or “happiness-bringing words.” In some instances such a phrase may be slightly expanded in order to convey the proper meaning, e.g. “new good word” (Tzotzil), or it may involve some special local usage:
the Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates as “all-transformative good news” (alles verändernde gute Botschaft), also “good news”
Vitaly Voinov tells this story about the translation into Rutul (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight):
“In Rutul, it was only during the most recent consultant checking session that I realized that the Rutul word for Gospel – Incir (from Arabic إنجيل — Injil) — sounds and looks exactly like the word that means ‘fig’ in Rutul. This is a case of homonymy, in which two completely non-related words from differing historical sources have come to sound exactly alike. Most Rutul speakers know that incir means ‘fig’ because they grow this fruit in their yard or buy it at the market every week. However, because the religious sphere of discourse was heavily disparaged during the Soviet era, most people simply never encountered Incir with the meaning of ‘Gospel.’ This meaning of the word, which Rutuls of the pre-Soviet era knew from the Koran, simply fell into disuse and never had much reason for returning into contemporary Rutul since there is no Christian church established among the people. So if the translator continues to use the term Incir as the rendering for ‘Gospel,’ he runs the risk that most readers will, at best, read the word with a smile because they know that it also means ‘fig,’ and, at worst, will completely misunderstand the word. The seemingly ‘easy’ solution in this case is for the translator to use a Rutul neologism meaning ‘Joyful Message’ or ‘Good News,’ [see above] instead of Incir; but in fact it is not all that easy to make this change if the translator himself insists on using the historical word because at least some Rutuls still understand it as meaning ‘Gospel.’ This is a situation in which the translation team has to gradually grow into the understanding that a fully intelligible translation of Scripture is preferable to one that maintains old words at the cost of alienating much of the readership.”
Nida (1947, p. 230) says this about the translation of the concept of “truth”: “The words for ‘truth’ and ‘true’ are not always the most readily discovered in aboriginal languages. In some instances the only expression which corresponds to ‘true’ is something like ‘it happened.’ A falsehood is something that ‘did not happen.’ In a good many languages the meaning of ‘truth’ is expressed by the words signifying ‘straight’ and ‘direct.’ Untruth is accordingly ‘crookedness.’ An abstract noun such as English “truth” is quite difficult to find in some instances. Only an expression such as ‘true statement’ or ‘true word’ will be found to correspond to English ‘truth.’”
The Greek, Latin, Ge’ez, and Hebrew that is usually translated in English as “truth” is translated in Luchazi with vusunga: “the quality of being straight” (source: E. Pearson in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 160ff. ), in Obolo as atikọ or “good/correct talk” (source: Enene Enene), and in Ekari as maakodo bokouto or “enormous truth” (esp. in John 14:6 and 17; bokouto — “enormous” — is being used as an attribute for abstract nouns to denote that they are of God [see also here]; source: Marion Doble in The Bible Translator 1963, p. 37ff. ).
Helen Evans (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 40ff. ) tells of the translation into Kui which usually is “true-thing.” In some instances however, such as in the second part of John 17:17 (“your word is truth” in English), the use of “true-thing” indicated that there might be other occasions when it’s not true, so here the translation was a a form of “pure, holy.”
The translation committee of the Malay “Good News Bible” (Alkitab Berita Baik, see here ) wrestled with the translation of “truth” in the Gospel of John:
“Our Malay Committee also concluded that ‘truth’ as used in the Gospel of John was used either of God himself, or of God’s revelation of himself, or in an extended sense as a reference to those who had responded to God’s self-disclosure. In John 8:32 the New Malay translation reads ‘You will know the truth about God, and the truth about God will make you free.’ In John 8:44 this meaning is brought out by translating, ‘He has never been on the side of God, because there is no truth in him.’ Accordingly Jesus ‘tells the truth about God’ in 8:45, 46 (see also 16:7 and 8:37a). Then, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6) becomes ‘I am the one who leads men to God, the one who reveals who and what God is, and the one who gives men life.” At 3:21 the translation reads ” … whoever obeys the truth, that is God himself, comes to the light …’; 16:13a appears as ‘he will lead you into the full truth about God’; and in 18:37 Jesus affirms ‘I came into the world to reveal the truth about God, and whoever obeys God listens to me.’ On this basis also 1:14 was translated ‘we saw his glory, the glory which he had as the Father’s only Son. Through him God has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace)’; and 1:17 appears as ‘God gave the law through Moses; but through Jesus Christ he has completely revealed himself (truth) and his love for us (grace).'” (Source: Barclay Newman in The Bible Translator 1974, p. 432ff. )
The German New Testament translation by Berger / Nord (publ. 1999) has followed a somewhat similar path to the Malay committee 50 years earlier in the gospel of John. In John 1 it translates “truth as “God’s nature,” in John 3 as “God’s will,” in John 8 as “God’s reality,” in John 14 as “encountering God,” and in John 16 as “God’s truth.”
“Hope is sometimes one of the most difficult terms to translate in the entire Bible. It is not because people do not hope for things, but so often they speak of hoping as simply ‘waiting.’ In fact, even in Spanish, the word esperar means both ‘to wait’ and ‘to hope.’ However, in many instances the purely neutral term meaning ‘to wait’ may be modified in such a way that people will understand something more of its significance. For example, in Tepeuxila Cuicatec hope is called ‘wait-desire.’ Hope is thus a blend of two activities: waiting and desiring. This is substantially the type of expectancy of which hope consists.
In Yucateco the dependence of hope is described by the phrase ‘on what it hangs.’ ‘Our hope in God’ means that ‘we hang onto God.’ The object of hope is the support of one’s expectant waiting. In Ngäbere the phrase “resting the mind” is used. This “implies waiting and confidence, and what is a better definition of hope than ‘confident waiting’.” (Source for this and above: Nida 1952, p. 20, 133)
Enlhet: “waitings of (our) innermost” (“innermost” or valhoc is a term that is frequently used in Enlhet to describe a large variety of emotions or states of mind — for other examples see here) (source: Jacob Loewen in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 24ff. )
Kwang: “one’s future is restored to one’s soul like a fresh, cool breeze on a hot day.” (Source: Mark Vanderkooi right here )
Noongar: koort-kwidiny or “heart waiting” (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Anjam: “looking through the horizon” (source: Albert Hoffmann in his memoirs from 1948, quoted in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 7)
Ron: kintiɓwi or “put lip” (source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
Alekano: “wait not hearing two ears” (meaning to “wait without being double-minded” — source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation June 1986, p. 36ff.)
In Mwera “hope” and “faith” are translated with the same word: ngulupai. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
C.M. Doke looks at a number of Bantu languages and their respective translations of “hope” with slightly varying connotations (in The Bible Translator 1954, p. 9ff. ):
Xhosa and Zulu: themba “hope, expect,” also “have faith in, rely upon”
Tswana: tsholofelo “hope, expect, look for confidently”
Southern Sotho: tshepo “trust, rely on, believe in, have confidence in”
“Unlike English, which uses the word hope broadly, the French language uses two words that derive from the word espérer (to hope): espoir and espérance. Both can first refer to something hoped for. In this sense, the word espoir usually refers to an uncertain object; that is, someone who hopes for something in this way does not have the certainty that it will happen (“I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow”). On the other hand, espérance describes what, rightly or wrongly, is hoped for or expected with certainty. It often refers to a philosophical or eschatological object (‘I hope in the goodness of human beings’; ‘I hope for the return of Jesus Christ’).
“When we speak of espoir or espérance, we then have in mind different types of objects hoped for. This difference matters, because both terms also commonly refer to the state of mind that characterizes the hopeful. And this state of mind will be different precisely according to the object hoped for.
“Having espoir for an uncertain yet better future in these difficult times may be a good thing, but it is not enough. Such hope can be disappointed and easily fade away when our wishes and expectations (our hopes) do not materialize.
“The opposite is true with espérance, which is deeper than our desire and wish for an end to a crisis or a future without pain and suffering. To face the trials of life, we need peace and joy in our hearts that come from expecting certain happiness. This is what espérance is: a profound and stable disposition resulting from faith in the coming of what we expect. In this sense, it is similar in meaning to the English word hopefulness.
“If we have believed in the Son of the living God, we have such a hope. It rests on the infallible promises of our God, who knows the plans he has for us, his children — plans of peace and not misfortune, to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). By using the two meanings of the word, we can say that the espérance that the fulfillment of his promises represents (the object hoped for) fills us with espérance (the state of mind).”
Following are a number of back-translations of Colossians 1:5:
Uma: “You believe and love like that, because you trust/hope-in God, you wait for what he has stored for you in heaven, like you heard about in the Good News that was announced to you. The Good is indeed true,” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Formerly/Earlier when you heard the message which is true, which is the good news about Isa Almasi, you really were already expecting/hoping that there is something stored-up/kept by God for you there in heaven. And that is the underlying-reason that you trust in Isa Almasi and love your fellow-men.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The reason your faith is strong and your kindness is great is because your expectancy of everything in Heaven that God has prepared for you, it cannot be removed. You heard about this at the time when the true teaching which is the Good News, was preached to you.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “And that faith and love of yours, they stem from what you are expecting which is that you will receive in-the-future what God has reserved/stored-up in heaven for you. You came-to-know concerning this that you are expecting when you heard back then the true message (lit. words) which is the good news.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Your trust and holding dear are like this because you are being-sure-of the good (situation) being stored up for us in heaven, that good (situation) that you became-sure-of through the Good News which is truth which was taught to you in the past.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “I also thank God for all that good he has already determined to give you in heaven. You already know that God will give you this good because this was the message accompanying the good news which was told to you. And this word which was told to you is true.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Ge’ez, and Aramaic all have one term only that refers to what can be expressed in English as “sky” or “heaven(s)” (as a physical and spiritual entity). While there is a slight overlap between the meaning of the two English terms, “sky” (from Old Norse sky meaning “cloud”) typically refers to the physical entity, and “heaven” (from Old English heofon meaning “home of God”) typically refers to the spiritual entity. While this enriches the English lexicon, it also forces English Bible translators to make decisions that can be found only in the context in the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. Most versions tend to use “heaven(s)” even if the meaning is likely “sky,” but the Contemporary English Version (NT: 1991, OT: 1995, DC: 1999) is an English translation that attempted to be more specific in the separation of the two meanings and was used as the basis for the links to verses used for this and this record (“sky”).
Norm Mundhenk (in The Bible Translator 2006, p. 92ff. ) describes the difficulty that English translations face (click or tap here to see more):
“A number of years ago an old lady asked me a question. What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away’? I do not remember what answer I gave, but I was surprised at how concerned she seemed to be about the verse. It was only later, after I had left her, that I suddenly realized what it was that she was so concerned about. She knew that death could not be far away, and all her life she had looked forward to being with God in heaven. But this verse said that ‘heaven will pass away’! What did that mean for her hopes? In fact, of course, in this verse Jesus was talking about the skies or the heavens, not about Heaven as the place of God’s presence. If I had realized the problem in time, I could easily have set the lady’s mind at rest on this question that was troubling her so much. However, I suspect that she is not the only person to be misled by the wording of this verse. Therefore, it is very surprising to find that even today many English versions (including the New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Good News Translation) still say ‘heaven and earth’ in verses like Matt 24:35 and its parallels (Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33). The Contemporary English Version (CEV) and Phillips’ translation seem to be aware of the problem, and in Mark 13:31 both of these have ‘earth and sky’ instead of ‘heaven and earth.’ But in some other passages (such as Matt 5:18) the traditional wording is still found in both of those translations. The New Century Version (NCV) does have ‘earth and sky’ more consistently, and the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has ‘sky and earth’ in these passages. (Although ‘sky and earth’ is closer to the Greek, it seems more natural in English to say ‘earth and sky’; but either way, at least the meaning is correct.)
“Louw and Nida’s Lexical Semantics of the Greek New Testament (publ. 1992) suggests that the Greek expression being translated here, ho ouranos kai he ge is ‘a more or less fixed phrase equivalent to a single lexical unit’ and that it means everything that God created, that is, the universe. They then quote Mark 13:31 as an example, using ‘heaven and earth’ in their translation of it. However, they go on to say that there ‘may be certain complications involved in rendering ho ouranos kai he ge as ‘heaven and earth,’ since ‘heaven’ might be interpreted in some languages as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself. The referents in this passage are ‘the sky and the earth,’ in other words, all of physical existence, but not the dwelling place of God, for the latter would not be included in what is destined to pass away.’ In my opinion, English itself is one of the languages where the word ‘heaven’ will be interpreted as referring only to the dwelling place of God himself, and translations into English should not use ‘heaven’ in these passages. It is probably because these passages are so very familiar that translators do not realize the meaning they are giving their readers when they use the expression ‘heaven and earth’ here. In modern English we might talk about a rocket ‘soaring into the heavens,’ but we would certainly not describe it as ‘soaring into heaven,’ because ‘heaven’ is not another way of referring to the sky or to outer space.
“In fact, it is surely important in all languages to have some way of distinguishing the concept of ‘sky’ from the concept of ‘dwelling place of God.’ In these passages translators should never use a term meaning ‘the dwelling place of God.’ It may not be necessary to use a term meaning ‘sky’ either, if there is some other expression in the language which gives the correct meaning of ‘everything that has been created’ or ‘the universe.’ There are of course places in the New Testament where Heaven, as the place where God lives, is contrasted with the earth. In these passages, translators should be careful to give the correct meaning. A good example of this is in the Lord’s Prayer, in Matt 6:10: ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Similarly, 1 Cor 15:47 says that ‘the first man [a reference to Adam] was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.’ Passages like these are referring to Heaven, not to the sky. Other NT passages where heaven refers to God’s dwelling place, in contrast with earth, are Matt 5:34-35, 16:19, 18:18, Acts 7:49, James 5:12, and Rev 5:3.
“Sometimes in the New Testament, the word ‘heaven’ is used because of the Jewish reluctance to use the name of God. ‘Heaven’ in these cases is used in place of ‘God’ and refers to God himself. This is the case in the many references in Matthew to ‘the kingdom of heaven’ where other gospels have ‘the kingdom of God’ (e.g., compare Matt 4:17 with its parallels in Mark 1:15 and Luke 10:9). It is also most likely the case in references like Matt 16:1, Luke 20:4, 5, John 3:27, and even perhaps Col 1:5.
“There are some places, such as Matt 11:25, where God is called ‘Lord of heaven and earth.’ Since God is of course the Lord of Heaven as well as of the universe, it may not matter so much which interpretation is given in these passages (others are Luke 10:21 and Acts 17:24). Nevertheless, the intended meaning here is likely to be ‘the universe.’ This is because this expression in Greek, as Louw and Nida say, is a set expression referring to everything that has been created. Acts 17:24 in fact combines the idea of the creation of the universe with the idea of God as Master or Lord of the universe. (…)
“Old Testament background The use of ‘heaven and earth’ in the New Testament is very similar to what we find in the Old Testament, because it is largely based on the Old Testament.
“The Old Testament begins with the story of creation, which is presented as the creation of the heavens and the earth, with lights to shine in the heavens and give light to the earth. Birds are created to live in the heavens, animals to live on earth, and fish to live in the sea (Gen 1:1-2:4).
“As we can see from the way the creation story is told, it is meant to be understood as the creation of the universe. Although in English the regions above the earth have traditionally been called ‘the heavens’ in the story of creation, they cannot be called ‘Heaven,’ in the sense of the place where God dwells. In terms of modern English, it would probably be better to say ‘the sky and the earth’ or ‘the earth and the sky.’ The story of creation then becomes an important theme throughout the Old Testament. (…)
“In most passages, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, when ‘heaven and earth’ or ‘the heavens and the earth’ are mentioned, the meaning is the created universe. It is not a reference to Heaven, as the dwelling place of God. In English, translators have not been careful to keep this distinction clear, and this is probably true in many other languages as well. However, as we have seen, this can lead to real confusion for ordinary Bible readers. It is better if translators find ways to make the meaning clear in these passages. ‘Heaven’ should be mentioned only in passages which clearly mean the dwelling place of God. In other passages, an expression should be used which means only ‘sky.’ Or else, the whole expression ‘heaven and earth’ can be translated in a way to show that the whole universe is meant.”
Other languages that have a semantic distinction similar to English include (click or tap here to see more):
Mossi: saase — “sky”; nyingeri — “the up above”(source for Loma and Mossi: Bratcher/Nida)
Roviana: mamaṉa — “sly”; maṉauru — “heaven” (an old word, meaning “empty, open space of the sky”) (source: Carl Gross)
Kayaw: mô̄la or “canopy-under”/mô̄khû̄la or “canopy-above-under” — “sky” (atmosphere where there is just air); mô̄khû̄ or “canopy-on/above” — “heaven” (invisible abode of God and angels)
Mairasi: Sinyavi — an indigenous term that is used for both “sky” and heaven”; Surga — loanword from Sanskrit via Indonesian referring to “heaven” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Kupsabiny: “up” for “sky” vs. “God’s Homestead” for “heaven” (source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
In some languages, such as Yagaria, a term that was originally used as “sky” (gokudana) was adopted by the Christian community as “heaven.” This resulted in a language shift so that now all communities uses “empty space / air” (galogina or hakalogina) as “sky” and gokudana is exclusively used for the Christian concept of heaven. (Source: Renck 1990, p. 133)
Many languages follow the original biblical languages in not making that distinction, such as (click or tap here to see more):
In some languages, such as Wandala, the vocabulary for terms for either “heaven” or “sky” is much richer than just to include those two distinction. While zhegela, the term that is specifically used for the physical sky was only used in early translations of the New Testament for “sky,” other terms such as samaya (used for both “sky” and “heaven”), zlanna (specifically used for the perfect abode of God and the goal of the faithful, as in Matthew 8:11), kwárá (a locational term used to speak of a chief’s rule [lit., “voice”] such as Matthew 3:2), or sleksire (“chieftaincy,” “kingship,” or “royalty” [originally from slekse “chief”] and used where there are no locational overtones, such as in Matthew 16:28) are used. (Source: Mona Perrin in Notes on Translation 1/1999, p. 51ff.)
Under the auspices of the Dhama Mate Swe Association , a new Burmese translation of the New Testament was published in 2024 which uses terminology that attempts to overcome “insurmountable barriers to the Buddhist world.” One term that this version uses is ရွှေမြို့တော် (shway myahoettaw) or “Golden City” for “heaven,” referring it to the golden city described in Revelation 21 but at the same time using a Buddhist term for a desired destination that does not have the Buddhist connotation of ကောင်း ကင် (kaungg kain) as being the Trāyastriṃśa (တာဝတိံသာ) heaven, home of Śakra/Indra. This Burmese translation formed the basis of translations of parts of the New Testament into other languages spoken in Burma, including Sumtu Chin, Ekai Chin, Songlai Chin, Danau, Kadu, Kanan, Khün, Lahta Karen, Rakhine, Marma (Northern Rakhine), Riang Lai, Samtao, Shwe Palaung, Tai Laing, Taungyo, and Chak (Thet). (Source: Jay Pratt)
The English translation by Sarah Ruden (2021) uses “sky” throughout. Ruden explains (p. li): “The Greek word ouranos refers evenhandedly to the physical sky and the place—often pictured as a royal court — where supreme divinity resides. ‘Sky’ seems generally better, first of all in avoiding the wackier modern imagery that comes with the English ‘heaven.’ And even when a supernatural realm is meant, ‘sky’ will often do, because the divine realm was thought to be located there, in addition to the weather and the heavenly bodies, whereas ‘heaven’ to us is fundamentally a religious term, and the ancients did not tend to separate linguistic domains in this way. I have retained the plural ‘skies’ where I see it in the Greek, because it is a Hebraism familiar in English translations of scripture and (I hope) not too archaic or jarring.”
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
In Greek (see Revised Standard Version) the sentence continues without interruption; Good News Translation has quite radically reconstructed the verse; see also Phillips (Phillips), Translator’s New Testament (Translator’s New Testament), Barclay and New English Bible.
The true message, the Good News: in Greek this phrase is preceded by the preposition en, which some take instrumentally, that is, the gospel was the means by which they heard; it could be taken temporally, “in the time when” (so Moule; Turner admits this is possible). What Paul clearly intends to say is that the Colossians heard of this hope the first time the gospel was announced to them. The gospel is described as the word of truth. The word (ho logos) may be the act of preaching, proclamation, so that “the truth (of) the gospel” can be taken to mean “the true gospel,” as contrasted with the false message proclaimed by the heretics (so Lightfoot Moule New English BibleTranslator’s New Testament); or else, “the true message of the gospel” [Goodspeed Twentieth Century (Twentieth Century New Testament)]; or else, “the gospel” is taken in apposition “the true message, that is, the gospel” [so Good News TranslationDie Bibel im heutigen Deutsch New American Bible (New American Bible); compare Abbott].
In some languages, the concept of true is expressed in one of two different ways. One may speak of (1) “a message about what really happened” or (2) “a message which is worthy of being believed” or “a message which merits confidence.” It is probably the latter of these forms of expressions which is more appropriate, especially in this type of context.
In a number of languages, it is not possible to translate literally Good News since this would imply that in some way or other “news” has some moral quality of “goodness.” A more satisfactory equivalent in a number of languages is “refreshing news,” or “happy news,” or “news which makes one happy.”
The term News is frequently expressed as “recent words” or by some term which combines at least three different components, namely, “recent,” “important,” and “words.”
First came to you, you heard: the compound verb “to hear before” occurs only here in the NT. Some take this “before” to refer to the time before the Colossians had actually hoped or to the time before receiving this letter; both of these possibilities seem highly unlikely. It seems more probable that it here refers to “the first time” they heard the gospel [so New English BibleGoodspeedPhillips French common language translation (Bible en français courant); Moffatt “you heard of this hope originally”]. It was Epaphras who proclaimed the gospel to them (verse 7).
Frequently, one cannot speak of “Good News coming”; only animate objects may actually “come,” and therefore, in this context it may be useful to use some such expression as “when you were first told about the good news” or “when for the first time someone announced the good news to you.”
It is quite clear that the hope does not here represent the attitude of hoping, held by the Colossians, since it is impossible to say that one’s attitude of hoping can be kept safe in heaven, that is, with God; it is, rather, the object of the Colossians’ hope that is kept safe in heaven. This object (as of faith) is, finally, Christ or God himself; but in this context, it seems not to be personal, but to refer to the reward that is kept safe in heaven for God’s people. In general, in the NT “hope” is not simply an uncertain expectation or an unfounded desire; it is assurance confidence, certainty.
Since the hope refers to the object for which one hopes, it may be important to express the hope by a clause, for example, “you heard about what you can hope for.” The term hope involves several important and closely related components of meaning. There is an element of time, often expressed as “waiting for.” A second element suggests some measure of patience, and a third factor is something good which is to happen at the end of a period of waiting. Thus, in this sense, hope is the opposite of “dread.” It may, therefore, be appropriate, in this context, to translate you heard about the hope it offers as “you heard about what the good news says concerning that good which you may expect, as you wait in confidence for it.”
There may be problems involved in speaking of “the Good News offering hope,” but one can usually speak of “the good news which talks about hope,” or “… which is a message about hope,” or “… about what one may hope for.”
In Greek, “the hope” is preceded by the preposition dia “because” (so Revised Standard Version). Some take it here to mean that “the hope” is the foundation or source of the readers’ faith and love. A connection is clearly intended, as Good News Translationso and Revised Standard Version “because” make explicit; see also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutschja auch.
The statement so your faith and love are based on what you hope for becomes especially complex in languages in which one cannot readily speak of faith and love as nouns but must render these as verbs. This inevitably results in considerable expansion, for example, “this means that the fact that you have confidence in Christ Jesus and love for God’s people is the result of what you have hoped for” or, inversely, “what you hope for is what causes you to put confidence in Christ Jesus and love God’s people.”
The verb translated kept safe occurs only in three other passages in the NT: Luke 19.20, 2 Tim 4.8, and Heb 9.27 (where it is used impersonally). A similar passage (using different words) is found in 1 Peter 1.4. The verb means “put away for safekeeping,” “store up,” “keep safe.”
A more or less literally rendering of kept safe almost immediately suggests that the object of one’s hope is some physical object rather than the experience of the glory which will be the believer’s in the future. Furthermore, in some languages, it is important to render the passive is kept safe as an active verb with the agent, namely, God. Therefore, one must say “God is keeping safe for you in heaven what you are hoping for” or “… for you in heaven the reward that you are confident God will give to you.”
In a number of languages, an important distinction is made between “heaven” as the sky and “heaven” as the abode of God. This latter meaning must then be expressed as “where God is” or “where God dwells.”
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 .
the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard: The Greek text does not include the words the faith and love in this verse, but begins “because of the hope” (see Revised Standard Version). The Berean Standard Bible has repeated the words faith and love from 1:4 to clarify the connection between 1:4 and 1:5. Paul was saying that the Colossian believers trusted in Christ Jesus and loved other Christians because of the hope they had.
hope: In English the word hope is more like a “wish.” When someone says, “I hope it doesn’t rain,” he means that he is uncertain: he doesn’t want it to rain, but he doesn’t know if it will or not. But this is not the biblical meaning of hope. The Greek word elpis, that the Berean Standard Bible translates hope, means “to confidently expect something to happen.”
Full Christian hope is this:
(a) Christ will descend from heaven.
(b) He will raise to life the Christians who have died, and he will gather them along with those who are still alive in order to bring them all together to meet him.
(c) All these believers will receive new bodies.
(d) God will accept them all as his perfect people.
(e) They all will live forever with God and Christ in heaven.
When Paul spoke about “the hope stored up for you in heaven,” he was referring to all these wonderful things that Christians are waiting for, the things that God has prepared for his people in heaven.
stored up: The Greek word apokeimai that the Berean Standard Bible translates stored up means, “to put away, store up,” like a farmer who stores grain in a barn so he can use it in the future. Paul was not saying that God had stored up literal “things” like money or food, but he was referring to the reward which God has for his people and which he is “keeping safe” for them. The UBS Handbook Handbook (page 11) suggests one way to translate this:
God is keeping safe for you in heaven the reward that you are confident that he will give you.
1:5c–6a
the word of truth, the gospel: Paul was not writing about two different things. The word of truth and the gospel refer to the same thing. Here is another way to translate this phrase:
the true message, which is the good news (Contemporary English Version)
the word of truth: This means the true message about Christ. In these verses, Paul began to emphasize that the message about Christ that the Colossians had originally been taught was the only true message about Christ. He emphasized this because some people in Colossae had begun to teach false things about Christ.
gospel: The Greek word euaggelion that the Berean Standard Bible translates gospel means “good news.” After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the first Christians soon began to use euaggelion to mean specifically “God’s message about Christ.” If you translate it using a general phrase like “good news,” check that the people who use your translation will understand that the term refers specifically to the message about Christ. See “gospel” in Key Biblical Terms and in the glossary.
that has come to you: Although this expression is actually part of 1:6, it is joined grammatically to 1:5.
In some languages, it is not possible to talk about news “coming” to a place or to people. If this is the case in your language, you can say something like:
the message that was first told to you -or-
the message that was first brought to you
In this verse, Paul did not say who brought the gospel. In 1:7, Paul said that Epaphras taught them the gospel. However, Epaphras may not have been the only teacher who brought the gospel to Colossae. So if you need to say who brought the message in your translation, it is better to say something general like. For example:
people came and told you…
General Comment about 1:5a–6a
It may be helpful in your translation to change the order of the parts of 1:5a–6a. The Good News Translation has done that in this way:
When the true message, the good news, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven.
Another way might be to say:
When people first came to you and told you the true message, the good news ⌊about Christ, you heard it and believed it⌋. Now you are expectantly waiting for the blessings that ⌊God⌋ has planned to give you in heaven. Because of this, ⌊you are trusting in Christ Jesus and love all God’s people⌋.
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