Hymns or Not? Recent Work on Col 1:15-20 and Phil 2:6-11
News flash: the Christ “hymns” might not even be hymns. Here’s some recent work arguing for both sides, and the hermeneutical implications.
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Greek Webinar: Colossians 2:16-19, the Epistle’s Interpretive Crux
This week we tackled the most difficult passage to interpret in Colossians, 2:16-19. Verse 18 has the most difficult phrase, “which things he has seen, entering.” The phrase “worship of angels” is also a problem — is it subjective, or objective….
Gregory MaGee’s Response to My Review of His Portrait of an Apostle
Earlier, I reviewed Greg Magee’s published dissertation, Portrait of an Apostle: A Case for Paul’s Authorship of Colossians and Ephesians (Wipf & Stock, 2013), 204 pages. You can catch up on the review here. I found this book very creative and well executed, so I decided to ask Greg to write a reply to my review, hoping that he could sharpen my thinking a bit on a topic he spent years studying. He graciously replied, and we hope the discussion between us is fruitful and stimulating….
Portrait of an Apostle: A Case for Paul’s Authorship of Colossians and Ephesians, by Gregory S. MaGee
If Colossians, Ephesians, or both are pseupigraphal writings, how would we know? There is one objective, historical test to which we might subject the documents. There are documents that are unanimously agreed to be Pauline pseudepigraphs, namely, Epistle to the Loadiceans (Ep. Lao.) and Third Corinthians (3 Cor.). An objective, historical test would be to compare the language and ideas of these two known pseudepigraphs….
Greek Matters: Colossians 2:20 and Liberation from Fleshly Living
Εἰ ἀπεθάνετε σὺν Χριστῷ ἀπὸ τῶν στοιχείων τοῦ κόσμου, τί ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ δογματίζεσθε; (Colossians 2:20)
There are two difficult elements of Greek grammar here, but, once sorted out, we see a powerful question posed to the Colossians. The first four words are simple enough, “If you died with Christ…” But the following preposition ἀπό seems strange following the verb ἀποθνῄσκω, “to die”; what does it mean to “die from” something? As you can imagine, it means more to “die to” or with reference to something, but even more than that. According to BDAG….
Enter to Win Our Colossians Greek Reading Videos!
Enter here to win one of five sets of Colossians Greek Reading Videos! (A description of the videos is below in the giveaway widget.)
These videos are at the heart of what we at Exegetical Tools want to do for biblical language learners, namely, assist and empower you to continue improving your biblical language skills as you use them personally and in your teaching or preaching. Unfortunately, I’m not independently wealthy and it took me around 160 hours to complete these Colossians videos, so the only way….
Greek Matters: Colossians 1:9-12 and Pleasing God
How can we please God? Colossians 1:9-12 is a complex passage with lots of participles and prepositional phrases. One could translate each clause and read it well enough, but analyzing the paragraph as a whole enables us to see what the major idea of the passage is and how Paul develops that idea. After Paul tells his readers that he always thanks God for their faith, hope, and love, he continues on that basis (Διὰ τοῦτο, “because of this”) to say that he never ceases praying and asking “that you might be filled” (ἵνα πληρωθῆτε) with the knowledge of God’s will….
Greek Matters: Colossians 1:3-5 and Christian Hope
Εὐχαριστοῦμεν τῷ θεῷ πατρὶ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν προσευχόμενοι, ἀκούσαντες τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην ἣν ἔχετε εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους 5 διὰ τὴν ἐλπίδα τὴν ἀποκειμένην ὑμῖν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἣν προηκούσατε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου
(Colossians 1:3-5)
In Colossians 1:3-5 we see Paul’s triad of faith, hope, and love. By sorting out what a particular prepositional phrase modifies, we discover something unique about Christian hope. The main idea of this section is the first verb, “We give thanks.” Paul then explains the reason why he and his co-workers give thanks: ἀκούσαντες (because we have heard) of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints….
Announcing Our Colossians Greek Reading Videos
Today is the day that Exegetical Tools comes into its own and begins to realize a vision that began three years ago. I wanted this site to be a hub for biblical languages and exegesis, and three years ago I began making Greek Reading Videos.
After beginning my PhD program at Westminster, I simply ran out of time in the week and put the project on halt. When I began teaching Greek at Westminster, I found a good opportunity to begin creating Basic Greek Videos by recording my lectures after teaching a class. Hopefully, the Basic Greek Videos will be done by the end of this month.
Greek Reading: Colossians 1:1-4
The first video in a series walking through the Greek text of Colossians to focus on translation, basic grammar and syntax, vocabulary, and morphology.
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