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There are a few. These are regular bible translations, but I will be glad to start a thread on that topic, with the Greek included.Thanks LLoJ; do you have the set of verses where Paul declares that the gospel had already reached the whole world in his day?
I use "biblehub" for a lot of my studies.............
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Colossians 1:23 biblehub
Colossians 1:
6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood the grace of God.
23
if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
Romans 10:18
But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."
1 Timothy 3:16
By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, was taken up in glory.
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Colossians 1:23 Commentaries:
Expositor's Greek Testament
Colossians 1:23.
εἴ γε with the indicative expresses the Apostle’s confidence that the condition will be fulfilled.—ἐπιμένετε. This abiding in faith is the only, as it is the sure way, to this presentation of themselves κατ. αὐτ. This is directed against the false teachers’ assurance that the gospel they had heard needed to be supplemented if they wished to attain salvation. It needs no supplementing, and it is at the peril of salvation that they lose hold of it.—τεθεμελιωμένοι refers to the firm foundation, ἑδραῖοι to the stability of the building.—μὴ μετακινούμενοι. The perfect participle here gives way to the present, expressing a continuous process. It may be passive or middle, probably the former.—ἀπὸ τ. ἐλπίδος τοῦ εὐαγγελίου: to be taken with μετακιν. alone, not, assuming a zeugma, with the three co-ordinate expressions (Sod.), for it is not at all clear that the last of these keeps up the metaphor of a building. The hope of the Gospel is the hope given by or proclaimed in the Gospel.—οὗ ἠκούσατε. Paul again sets his seal on the form of the Gospel which they had received, and again insists on the universality of its proclamation, its catholicity as guaranteeing its truth (see on Colossians 1:5-7).—ἐν πασῇ κτίσει: “in presence of every creature”; π. κτ., as in Colossians 1:15, with the limitation τ. ὑ. τ. οὐρ.—οὗ ἐγενόμην ἐγὼ Παῦλος διάκονος: cf. Ephesians 3:7. This phrase contains a certain stately self-assertion; the Apostle urges the fact that he is a minister of this Gospel as a reason why they should remain faithful to it. His apostolic authority, so far from being impugned by the false teachers, was more probably invoked; so Paul throws it in the balance against them. It is also true that the Gentile mission was so bound up in his own mind with his apostleship that a reference to the one naturally suggested a reference to the other. By this clause Paul effects the transition to Colossians 1:24.
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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
23. if] With a certain emphasis in the Greek, pressing on the saints the need of watching and prayer; a need which leaves untouched in their proper sphere the sure promises of the “final perseverance” of the saints.
“If we look to stand in the faith of the sons of God, we must hourly, continually, be providing and setting ourselves to strive … To our own safety our own sedulity is required. And then blessed for ever and ever be that mother’s child whose faith hath made him the child of God.” (Hooker, Sermon of Faith, at the end; see the whole Sermon.) See our notes on Php 3:11; Php 4:3.—The emphatic caution here has manifest reference to special dangers at Colossæ.
continue in] Abide by, adhere to. So Lightfoot, having regard to the special construction of the Greek.
the faith] So A.V. and R.V. Lightfoot says “perhaps ‘your faith’ rather than ‘the faith’.” And the contrast-parallel Romans 11:23 (“if they abide not still in unbelief”) is distinctly in favour of this. The Colossians were to persist, for their very life, in the Divine simplicity of believing.
grounded] Lit., founded, built on a foundation; a perfect participle. Cp. Ephesians 3:17, where the basis is “love;” and Matthew 7:25, where it is “a rock,” the truth of Christ. Ephesians 3:17 offers an instructive parallel, connecting (as this passage does) “faith” with “foundation.” It is as believing that the Christian enjoys the fixity of the word, and of the love, of God.
settled] The Greek appears elsewhere only 1 Corinthians 7:37; 1 Corinthians 15:58. Usage suggests the special thought of settled purpose; resulting here from a settled rest on eternal truth. Cp. 1 Peter 2:6-9.
be not moved away] Omit ‘be.” The Greek (“moved away”) is a present participle, and suggests a state of chronic or frequent unsettlement, as new allurements away from the truth beset them. Cp. Ephesians 4:14.
the hope] “That blissful hope, even the appearing of the glory, &c.” (Titus 2:13); “the hope of glory” (below, Colossians 1:27).
of the gospel, which ye have heard] So connect. “The hope” revealed in the message of apostolic truth, brought them by Epaphras in the power of the Spirit,—this, and no rival to it, was to be their anchorage. Better, which ye heard, when you were evangelized and converted.
and which was preached] Omit “and.” Which was proclaimed; lit., “heralded.”—Cp., for this verb with “the gospel,” e.g. Matthew 4:23; Galatians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:9.—The time-reference of “was” is, so to speak, ideal; it “was” done when the Saviour, in His accomplished victory, bade it be done (Mark 16:15).
to every creature which] More lit., in all the creation which, &c. “The expression … must not be limited to man,” says Lightfoot. But it is difficult to accept this. “All creation,” in the largest sense, shall indeed in its way share the blessings of our salvation (see e.g. Romans 8:19-22; and cp. Revelation 5:13). But the thought here, and Mark 16:15, is of proclamation, and reception by faith; in view of which we cannot, in any intelligible sense, bring in “rocks and stones and trees.” Context surely limits the word to “our fellow-creatures,” in the human sense.
under heaven] An hyperbole, in the technical sense; a verbal but not therefore real exaggeration, the excess of the phrase being meant only to leave a just impression of the surprise of the fact. See above on Colossians 1:6 (“in all the world”).—After all, if our remark on “was preached,” just above, is right, this phrase like that is ideal, and in that respect not hyperbolical.
For the exact phrase cp. e.g. Genesis 1:9; Genesis 6:17; Genesis 7:19; Deuteronomy 2:25; Acts 2:5; Acts 4:12.
whereof I Paul am made, &c.] Became, when the Lord called me to it. The same phrase occurs Ephesians 3:7. He emphasizes his own part and lot in the ministry of the Gospel, as he has just emphasized that Gospel itself as the veritable message of God, alone authentic amidst all false Gospels. So he asserts his own commission, authentic amidst all false evangelists. Cp. for instances of a similar emphatic Ego, 2 Corinthians 10:1; Galatians 5:2; Ephesians 3:1 (with note in this Series); Philemon 1:19.
a minister] Diâconos. See above on Colossians 1:7.
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Bengel's Gnomen
Colossians 1:23.
Εἴ γε, if indeed) This word depends on the finite verb, He hath reconciled, Colossians 1:21, rather than on the infinitive παραστῆσαι [Colossians 1:22]; and this παραστῆσαι, being the ultimate [final] object, is itself the most delightful fruit of reconciliation; whence it is not the truth of the reconciliation which has been accomplished, that is suspended [is made to depend] on the perseverance of the Colossians, but the most delightful fruit for the time to come, which is not to be obtained, unless the Colossians shall have persevered; comp. εἴ γε, Ephesians 4:21; ἐάνπερ, Hebrews 3:6.—τῇ πίστει) in faith, viz. in confidence; to which hope is usually joined.—τεθεμελιωμένοι) secured to the foundation [grounded]: ἑδραῖοι, stable [settled], firm within. The former is metaphorical, the latter less figurative; the one implies greater respect to the foundation, by which believers are supported; but ἑδραῖοι, stable (settled), suggests the idea of internal strength, which believers themselves possess; just as a building ought to lean (rest) uprightly and solidly on the foundation first of all, but afterwards to cohere securely, and firmly to stand together, even by its own mass [compact solidity of structure].—καὶ ἑδραῖοι καὶ, and stable and) 1 Corinthians 15:58, note; Ephesians 3:18.—τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, of the Gospel) by which reconciliation is declared.—πάσῃ, to every) Colossians 1:20; Mark 16:15, note.—διάκονος, minister) Colossians 1:25; Ephesians 3:7.
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