CHAPTER IV.

WHER

ye

HEREFORE, my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved. 2 I beseech Euodia, and I beseech 1Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yea, I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help them, inasmuch as they laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also,—and my other fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: again I will say it, Rejoice. 5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be anxious about nothing; but in every thing by your prayer and your supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

soever things are of good report; whatever virtue there is, and whatever praise, think on these things.

9 The things, which ye also learned, and received, and heard, and saw in me; these do, and the God of peace shall be with you.

10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last ye have revived again in your care for me; wherein ye were also careful, but lacked opportunity.

II Not that I speak in respect of want: for I learned, in the state in which I am, therein to be content.

12 I know also how to be in low estate, I know also how to abound: in each and in all things have I been instructed both how to be full and to be hungry, both how to abound and to be in want.

13 I have strength for all things in him1 which giveth me power.

1 Pronounce Sýntуche. The two names are those of women.

1 Christ is omitted in the oldest MSS.

PAUL

CHAPTER I.

an apostle of 1Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossæ : Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 We give thanks to God 2 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for

you,

4 Having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

5 Because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

6 Which is present among you, as in all the world; it is bringing forth fruit and growing, even as it doth in you also, since the day ye

1 So all the oldest MSS.

2 And is omitted by two of the oldest MSS. and the most ancient version.

3 And is omitted in all the oldest MSS.

4 Thus all the oldest authorities.

heard it, and came to know the grace of God in truth: 7 As ye 1learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on 2our behalf; 8 Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. 9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease praying for you, and making request that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

10 So as to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, bringing forth fruit in every good work, and growing 3by the knowledge of God;

II Being strengthened with all strength, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy;

12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which made us meet for the portion of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13 Who delivered us out of

1 Also is omitted by all the oldest authorities.

2 Thus most of the oldest MSS. 3 So all the oldest MSS.

14 In whom we have our redemption,1 even the remission of our sins:

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation:

alienated and enemies in your mind by your wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22 In the body of his flesh through his death, to present you holy and blameless and unreproveable in his sight:

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things subsist.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he may be the first.

19 Because he was well pleased that in him should all the fulness dwell;

20 And through him to reconcile all things unto himself; having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him 2[I say], whether they be the things on the earth, or the things in the heavens.

1 Through his blood is omitted in

all the ancient authorities. It has been supplied here from Eph. i. 7.

2 Not expressed in the original.

24 I now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and fill up what remaineth behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church :

25 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the stewardship of God which was given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

26 Even the mystery which hath been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now hath been manifested unto his saints:

27 To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this which is Christ among you, mystery among the Gentiles; the hope of the glory:

28 Whom we proclaim, warn

ing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in 1Christ:

29 Whereunto I labour also, earnestly contending according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

CHAPTER II.

`OR I would have you know

FOR

how great a contention I have for you, and those at Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; 2 That their hearts may be confirmed, they being knit together in love, and unto all the riches of the full assurance of the understanding, unto the thorough knowledge of the mystery of 2 God,

3 Wherein are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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

1 Jesus is omitted by all the oldest MSS.

2 It is almost impossible to say what was the original reading. The Vatican MS. has, of God [even] Christ: the Sinaitic, of God, Father of Christ the Alexandrine and

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

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

7 Rooted and being builded up in him, and stablished in the faith, even as ye were taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

8 Beware lest there shall be any man that leadeth you captive through his philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ.

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

IO And ye are filled full in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

II In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not wrought with hands, in the putting off of the body1 of the flesh in the circumcision

ing, as A. V., has no very ancient authority.

1 of the sins is omitted by all the oldest MSS.