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Did God Really Say?


For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10)
          Since today’s random verse happens to fit in with what being said in Hebrews, so a slight detour fits into the trip nicely. I recently mentioned having a visit from a couple of women, one of whom told me that she’s been studying the Bible for something like 40 years (a few longer than I have) and that it has been corrupted.  I don’t know what she would have said about the book of Hebrews, but today’s passage would be one that would likely give her problems. No doubt, some power hungry disciples or church fathers, or at the very latest Constantine added the material. The problem with that? Colossians is one of the letters included in P46, a codex dated to 200 AD. 
          In checking the variations that have been found among the Latin, Coptic, and Syriac copies, the scholars say that there is no variation in verses 9 and 10. In fact, here are the variations listed for the whole of the second chapter of Colossians:
Col 2:2 "of God, the Father" vs. "of the Father"
Col 2:7 "in there/it in/with thanksgiving" vs. "in/with thanksgiving"
Col 2:7 "the faith" vs. "in the faith"
Col 2:12 case of the Greek word for "baptism"
Col 2:13 "you being dead" vs. "being dead"
Col 2:13 "forgiven us" vs. "forgiven you (plural)"
Col 2:18 "which he has seen" vs. which he has not seen"
Col 2:23 "humility of mind" vs. "humility"
          The only of those that is even slightly interesting as a change is 2:18, and either way, it doesn’t speak well of the people being described. There is no evidence that Constantine messed with the text. There’s no actual evidence that Colossians was written by someone other than Paul or that Paul was a fraud who mislead Christianity. After all, John until later than Paul and he and his disciples could have easily rejected anything of Paul’s that was not kosher. Peter noted that Paul’s writings were being collected as part of Scripture. Luke, who traveled with Paul outlived him as well, and given Luke’s nature, if Paul had been a false teacher, he would have let the world know.
          So, I see no actual evidence (please share it if you know of some) that Colossians is other than as it says. Paul thought Jesus to be the fullness of deity living in bodily form – or, as transliterated[1] from the Greek: in Jesus “dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily.” 
          If we reject that, we are left with a Jesus who is no better than the Buddha, or Mohammed, or David Koresh or Jim Jones. Of course, for some, that’s the whole point. If we can discount what has been accepted as truth, then anything can be put in its place. It’s a “tale as old as time…” 
          "Did God really say…?” Genesis 3:1.



[1] Transliterated refers to a word for word translation from the Greek as provided by The Interlinear KJV-NIV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English. If you don’t have one – it’s cool, especially for those of us who (like me!) aren’t even close to fluent in New Testament Greek.

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