Differing Translations of Colossians 2:14
Our staff team at the church was looking at Colossians 2:6-15 this morning, the passage our pastor will preach on this coming Sunday, and we found something very intriguing. He likes to use the English Standard Version, and this is what Colossians 2:13-14 says in that translation:
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Now look at how the New International Version translates those two verses:
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
That really is quite a difference. The ESV emphasizes the atonement, particularly stressing penal substitution, while the NIV presents Christ as the head of the new covenant, delivering us from bondage to the law by fulfilling its demands.
How do we account for the difference? The ESV is more literal—in the original Greek, χειρόγραφον τοῖς δόγμασιν, the phrase in verse 14 that is translated as "record of debt" and "legal demands" gives the idea of something like a signed certificate of indebtedness to a set of decrees (cf. Zerwick). However, the ESV is not as clear as the NIV is on what we are indebted to, the NIV making it much more clear that it our indebtedness is to the Law (written code, regulations).
What do you think (especially you Greek scholars out there)? Why do you think the translators of the NIV opted for a less literal, more covenantally-focused interpretation?





















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