I am officially two-thirds of the way through Colossians!

I did not put up a post when I finished chapter 2, but it is finished. I would especially like some thoughts on chapter 2 because I’m not quite happy with my translation yet- but at the same time I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly I’m not satisfied with.

Also, I have translated chapter 3 through verse 11.  If you are reading through my translation, I want some feedback particularly on verse 11 which says “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free…” To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what a Scythian was so I went to O’Brien, Wright, and Robertson’s Word Pictures.  I figured that most people would also be clueless as to what Paul’s point is by including “barbarian, Scythian…” which was actually a very strong, and clear, point to the original audience.   In order to get  Paul’s point across I decided to go with a paraphrase here: “cultural barriers” (I will have an upcoming post that will be an exposition of Col 3:11, where I hope to bring this idea out more fully). In order to make the rest of the verse flow, I paraphrased it as: “where there are no racial distinctions, cultural barriers, or class distinctions” with a footnote that quotes the actual translation.  Let me know what you think.