complete verse (Colossians 3:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of Colossians 3:7:

  • Uma: “Formerly, before you submitted to God, your behavior was certainly like that.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “You formerly always really did those bad things.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for the things you did long ago, they were like this also, for at that time your behavior was always evil.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “And your way-of-life was like that before you believed.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well you also, in the past your lives were still like that for you were still being controlled by these disgusting doings.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “You also in days gone by also were like that in that you disobeyed the word of God.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Colossians 3:1-11 as a bullet list

In Nicholas King’s English translation of the New Testament (2004), the translator decided to use bullet point lists in some case in the Ephesians, Colossians, and Titus. “There are elaborate groups of nouns strung together, and the sentences are rather long. I have tried, not entirely successfully, to make these long sentences more manageable by the use of bullet points.” One such list is Colossians 3:1-11:

 

So, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at God’s right hand;

  • think of the things that are above, not of things on earth.
  • For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
  • When Christ appears, [who is] your life, then also you will appear with him in glory-
  • So put to death your earthly parts: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry);
  • through these things the anger of God is coming on the children of dis¬obedience;
  • among them you once walked, because you lived among them;
  • now, however, you have also put everything aside: anger, rage, evil, blasphemy, filthy talk from your mouth;
  • don’t tell lies to others,
  • having put off the old person, with all its practices, and
  • having put on the new person who is made new in knowledge, in accordance with the likeness of the one who created him,
  • where there is no ‘Greek and Jew’, circumcision and uncircumcision’, ‘barbarian’, ‘Scythian’, ‘slave’, ‘free’,
  • but Christ is all in all.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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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).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Colossians 3:7

The phrase at one time must not be interpreted as reference to a specific time but a way of speaking of former time, equivalent in many languages to “previously” or “at an earlier time.”

You yourselves is a possible translation of the Greek kai humeis; or it could be “you, also (as well as other Gentiles)” (see Translator’s New Testament). An equivalent of the emphatic you yourselves may be expressed in some languages as “you are the very ones who.” For live see 1.10, 2.6.

According to such desires represents the Greek “in these” (see Revised Standard Version), the pronoun being read as neuter, referring to the sins or vices of verses 5-6. Some, however, contend that if the longer text of verse 6 is read (that is, with the clause “upon those who do not obey him”), then the pronoun is demonstrably masculine, meaning “among such people you once lived,” but this does not necessarily follow (see Lightfoot, Beare, and others).

Used to live according to such desires must often be restructured so as to read “such desires controlled you,” or “such desires caused you to live as you did,” or “because you had such desires, you lived as you did.”

When your life was dominated by them: the Greek is literally “when you lived in them” (Revised Standard Version), but more would appear to be involved than merely an exact repetition of the first part of the sentence. Though the expression when your life was dominated by them does seem to involve more than what is expressed in the previous statement, it is essentially a means of emphasizing the previous clause, and accordingly it may be possible to coalesce the two statements into a single one by making the combined statement more emphatic. This may be done in some cases by adding adverbial expressions such as “completely” or “entirely.”

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 .

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.

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