Moule echoes other commentators when he says that this verse “is by common consent regarded as hopelessly obscure—either owing to corruption or because we have lost the clue.” He offers the following translation: “which (rules about diet, etc.) have indeed a reputation for wisdom, with their voluntary delight in religiousness and self-mortification and severity of the body, but are of no value in combatting sensual indulgence.”

The transitional emphatic phrase of course is equivalent in some languages to an introductory expression such as “it is true that” or “everyone knows that.”

Such rules may also require certain expansion, for example, “such rules about what to eat and drink” or “statements about what you can or cannot eat or drink.”

Appear to be based on wisdom (Good News Translation) or “have … an appearance of wisdom” (Revised Standard Version) expresses the meaning most commentators and translators attach to the rather unusual Greek phrase. Lohse translates “have the reputation of wisdom.” It may be particularly difficult to render more or less literally an expression such as appear to be based on wisdom, for this is semantically a very complex construction. Appear may be equivalent to “many people think” or “many people are caused to think.” To be based may be rendered as “are justified by” or “are true because of.” Wisdom cannot be expressed, in many instances, as an abstract but must be related to people who have the quality of being wise. Therefore, it may actually be necessary, in some instances, to translate appear to be based on wisdom as “people think that those who have made such rules are wise, but they are not” or “people who have made such regulations seem to be wise while they really are not.”

The three specific matters that appear to be based on wisdom are: (1) “rigor of devotion” (Revised Standard Version) represents a Greek word which appears only here in the NT and which is translated as “self-imposed worship” or “devotions” or “rigoristic piety” or the like. Bible en français courant has “their worship which springs from human will.” Some commentators see this as a reference back to “the (forced) worship of angels” in 2.18, and that is how Good News Translation has translated it; compare (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) “self-chosen worship of the unseen powers.” (2) False humility is the same word as in verse 18 and has here the same meaning as there. (3) Severe treatment of the body refers to asceticism, the denial of normal bodily needs; it translates a word found nowhere else in the NT.

Their forced worship of angels may be rendered as “the way in which they insist that people must worship angels” or, as expressed in direct discourse, “the way in which they command, ‘You must worship angels.’ ”

False humility may be expressed as “saying that they are humble when they are not” or “pretending to be humble” or, as expressed negatively in some languages, “saying that they are not at all proud.”

Severe treatment of the body may be expressed as “not giving the body what it really needs” or “not supplying one’s self with what is necessary in order to live.” In some instances, a somewhat figurative expression may be employed, for example, “torturing one’s body as a part of one’s religion” or “saying that one can serve God by making one’s body suffer.”

The last part of the verse may be understood in two different ways: (1) these rules are of no value in controlling physical passions (so Good News Translation Revised Standard Version New English Bible New International Version Translator’s New Testament Barclay ver WEYver* Bible en français courant Biblia Dios Habla Hoy Barclay); or (2) these rules are of no value at all: rather they only serve to satisfy physical passions (RSV mg, Abbott, Beare, Lohse, New American Bible Traduction œcuménique de la Bible Goodspeed Moffatt Phillips). Lohse sees two elements in the Greek and translates: “These things … have nothing to do with honor and only serve to satiate the flesh.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch represents another idea: “Actually these men search only for their own honor, and they satisfy their vanity.” Before such a bewildering variety of possibilities, the translator must determine which one seems in better accord with the whole context of the passage and the letter. Dogmatic certainty, however, is impossible.

In rendering the interpretation of the Good News Translation they have no real value in controlling physical passions, one may say “these rules do not help a person who wishes to control what his body wants” or “… the desires he has because of his body.” If one adopts the second principal interpretation, one may translate “these rules about what one must or must not do, do not help even a little bit; they only satisfy what our bodies really want anyway.” In some instances, “satisfy” may be expressed as “cause us to do.”

With 3.1 a definite shift takes place from exposition to exhortation. Although there has been some exhortation in 1.3–2.23, and although there will be some exposition in 3.1–4.1, the two sections are clearly distinct in content and tone.

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 .