Colossians 2

I want you to know how hard I am struggling for you, and for the people at Laodicea, and for everyone who has never met me face to face.

1For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

NoteLaodicea was a wealthy city in the Lycus valley of western Asia Minor (now Turkey), about ten miles from Colossae. The KJV's "great conflict" translates a Greek word taken from athletics, the strain of a contest in the games; it means hard exertion on their behalf, not a quarrel with them.

2My goal is that they would be encouraged in heart, joined together in love, and made rich with the full confidence that comes from real understanding, so they may know God's hidden truth, the truth of the Father, and of Christ.

2That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

Note"Mystery" in these letters does not mean a riddle or something unknowable. It translates a word for a secret that was kept hidden for a long age and has now been announced in the open. The end of this verse is the single most uncertain piece of Greek in the letter: the manuscripts differ, and it can be read as "the mystery of God, that is, the Father and Christ," or "the mystery of God, namely Christ."

3Every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is hidden in him.

3In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4I say this so that no one will fool you with smooth, persuasive words.

4And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

5Even though I am not with you in body, I am with you in spirit, and I am glad to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

5For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

NoteBoth of the KJV's words here are borrowed from the army. "Order" is the drawing up of troops in their proper ranks, and "stedfastness" is a solid, unbroken front. Paul is picturing a formation that has not been broken.

6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, keep on living your life in him.

6As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

Note"Walk" is a standing Hebrew and Greek idiom for the whole conduct of a life, not for taking a stroll. To walk in someone is to live one's daily life within that relationship.

7Be rooted in him and built up in him. Be made firm in the faith you were taught, and overflow with thankfulness.

7Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

8Be careful that no one carries you off as a prize through philosophy and empty deception. That kind of teaching comes from human tradition and from the basic forces of the world, not from Christ.

8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

NoteThe KJV's "spoil you" does not mean ruin you. It renders a word for carrying a person off as plunder, the way a raider takes captives. "Rudiments of the world" translates stoicheia, literally the things in a row: the ABCs. Ancient readers used it both for elementary first lessons and for the elements that make up the universe, and by extension for the spirit powers thought to stand behind sun, stars and seasons. Which sense Paul intends is genuinely disputed, and the rendering's "basic forces" keeps the question open.

9For all the fullness of God lives in Christ, in bodily form.

9For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Note"Fulness" translates pleroma, a word some religious teachers of the period used for the total sum of divine being, thought of as spread across many ranks of intermediaries. The claim here is that the whole of it resides in one person, and in a body at that.

10And you have been made complete in him. He is the head over every ruler and every authority.

10And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Note"Principality and power" are not English words for provinces. They are two of the standard terms of the period for ranks of invisible rulers and authorities, and the same words were used of earthly officials. The vocabulary deliberately covers both.

11In him you were also circumcised, but not with a circumcision done by human hands. Your sinful self was stripped away in the circumcision that Christ performs.

11In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

NoteCircumcision was the cutting away of the foreskin, performed on a Jewish boy on his eighth day, and it was the physical mark of belonging to the covenant people of Israel. The live question in Colossae was whether non-Jewish believers had to undergo it. "The body of the sins of the flesh" uses "flesh" in its moral sense, human nature as it runs on its own appetites, not the meat of the body.

12You were buried with him in baptism, and in baptism you were also raised with him, through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

12Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

NoteBaptism at this period was immersion: the candidate went down under the water and came back up, which is what makes burial and rising the natural image. The KJV's "the faith of the operation of God" is ambiguous in the Greek as well: it can mean faith in God's working, or the faith that God's working produces.

13You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your body. God made you alive together with Christ, and he forgave us all the wrongs we had done.

13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

Note"Quickened" is old English for made alive, from the same root as "the quick and the dead." "The uncircumcision of your flesh" is shorthand for being a Gentile, physically unmarked and so standing outside the covenant people.

14He wiped out the written record of rules that stood against us and worked against us. He took it away by nailing it to his cross.

14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

Note"The handwriting of ordinances" translates cheirographon, the ordinary word for an IOU: a debt note written out and signed in the debtor's own hand, acknowledging what he owed. Cancelling such a note was done by wiping the ink off the papyrus. Nailing it up in public is the image of the charge being posted where everyone can see it has been settled.

15And he stripped the rulers and authorities of their power. He put them on public display, leading them as defeated captives by the cross.

15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

NoteThe KJV's "spoiled" again does not mean ruined. The verb means stripped, as a defeated soldier is stripped of his armor, hence disarmed. "Triumphing over them" points to the Roman triumph, the victory parade in which a general rode through the city with his captives led in chains behind his chariot for the crowds to see. The final "in it" is ambiguous in Greek: in the cross, or in Christ.

16So do not let anyone judge you about what you eat or what you drink, or about a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or Sabbath days.

16Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

NoteThese are the three standing Jewish observances, listed from the yearly down to the weekly. A "holyday" is an annual festival such as Passover or Tabernacles. The new moon, the first day of each lunar month, was marked by sacrifices and a pause from ordinary business. The Sabbath was the seventh day of rest. Jewish law also restricted which foods could be eaten, and in some stricter circles what could be drunk.

17These things are only a shadow of what was coming; the body that casts the shadow belongs to Christ.

17Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

NoteThe picture is of a solid object with the light behind it, throwing its shadow out ahead of itself. "Body" here means the substance, the thing itself that casts the shadow, and not a human body.

18Do not let anyone rob you of your prize, anyone who insists on a self-chosen humility and on the worship of angels, prying into things he has not seen. Such a person is puffed up for no reason by his human way of thinking.

18Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

Note"Beguile you of your reward" is one Greek verb taken from the games: it is what an umpire does when he rules against a competitor and denies him the prize. "Worshipping of angels" is ambiguous in the Greek and has been read two ways for centuries: worship offered to angels, or the worship that angels themselves perform, which the visionary claims to have joined. "Intruding into those things which he hath not seen" is also uncertain; the verb was used of entering in at initiation into a mystery cult, and some manuscripts lack the word "not," which would make it "things which he has seen," that is, in a vision.

19He is not holding on to the Head. From the Head the whole body is fed and held together by its joints and ligaments, and it grows with the growth that God gives.

19And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Note"Bands" is old English for ligaments. The picture follows the medical writing of the period, in which the head supplies the rest of the body through joints and ligaments and coordinates its growth.

20If you died with Christ and so are done with the basic forces of the world, why do you still submit to rules, as though you belonged to the world?

20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

NoteThe KJV's "are ye subject to ordinances" is a single passive verb, roughly "do you let yourselves be regulated." On "rudiments of the world," see the note at verse 8.

21"Do not touch! Do not taste! Do not handle!"

21(Touch not; taste not; handle not;

NoteThese three commands are not Paul's instructions. He is quoting back, in clipped form, the slogans of the teachers he is arguing against. The KJV's "touch" and "handle" render two different Greek verbs; the first means to take hold of or have anything to do with, and is the stronger of the two.

22All these things are meant to be used up and then be gone. They come from human commands and human teachings.

22Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

NoteThe point of "perish with the using" is that food and drink are consumed and gone the moment they are used, so rules governing them are rules about perishable things.

23Such rules do look wise, with their self-chosen worship, their humility, and their harsh treatment of the body. But they are of no value against the appetites of the body.

23Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Note"Will worship" is a coined Greek compound, roughly self-chosen or self-invented religion, worship a person prescribes for himself rather than receives. The last clause of this verse is famously the hardest sentence in the letter to construe: the Greek can be read as "of no value against the indulgence of the body," or as "with no honor, serving only to gratify the flesh," and translators have never settled it.