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OET (OET-LV) having_been_buried_with with_him in the washing, in which also you_all_were_raised_up_with him, through the faith in_the working of_ the _god, which having_raised him from the_dead.
OET (OET-RV) You all were buried with him when you were immersed in water, and you came back to life with him when you came up from the water, through faith in God’s working which gave him life after death.
Theme: Paul told the Colossians to behave correctly because they belong to Christ. They should not follow those who teach a false message. He also reminded them that God had accepted them completely because they belong to Christ.
In 1:13–2:5 Paul had reminded the Colossians what is true about Christ and had told them that God had always planned to make them his people. Beginning in 2:6, Paul urged them to continue to believe in Christ. He assured them that this was the same message that Epaphras and others had taught them. Therefore, they should continue to trust in Christ more and more and act in ways that honor God. They should not believe any other message.
Theme: Paul warned the Colossians to make sure that the false teachers did not deceive them with their deceptive Greek philosophies and ideas about the spirit world.
Paul stated his main point at the beginning of this paragraph: “See to it that no one takes you captive…” (2:8a). You need to make this main point clear in your translation.
In 2:11 Paul used circumcision as a figure of speech to describe what Christ does when a person becomes a Christian: he removes the person’s old, sinful nature. In 2:12 Paul used a different figure of speech: baptism. Baptism also describes and symbolizes what happens when a person becomes a Christian, but it includes something extra. In baptism, not only is the old, sinful nature put to death, but also God gives the person a new nature. Paul compared the death of the old sinful nature and the receiving of the new nature to the death and resurrection of Christ.
And having been buried with Him in baptism,
When you were baptized, it showed that your sinful nature was buried just like Christ was buried,
When you were baptized, it was as if you had died and been buried with Christ,
And having been buried with Him in baptism: Paul compared the death of a person’s old sinful nature to Christ’s death and burial. Here Paul said that when a Christian is baptized, the act of going into the water is like being buried. In 2:12b he said that the act of coming out of the water is like rising from death. Therefore, baptism shows what happens when a person becomes a Christian—his old nature dies and he receives a new nature.
Since Paul was not writing about being literally buried, in your translation you may want to say something like this:
When you were baptized, it is as if you died and were buried together with Christ,
You may also want to repeat your translation of the phrase “sinful nature” from 2:11 in your translation as follows:
When you were baptized, your sinful nature died and was buried just like Christ,
with Him: The phrase with Him means “together with Christ” or “just like Christ.” It shows that Christians identify with Christ. Be careful not to translate this phrase in a way that implies that Christians were buried beside/alongside Christ at the same time as he was.
in baptism: This means “When you were baptized…,” or “At the time of your baptism…”
you were raised with Him
and you were raised with a new nature just like Christ was raised to life.
and then it was as if you had been raised from death with him.
you were raised with Him: The BSB implies that the phrase “in baptism” is only connected to the verb “buried.” However, in Greek this phrase actually is connected to the verb raised in 2:12b as well as to the verb “buried” in 2:12a. Therefore, Paul was comparing a person coming out of the water after being baptized to someone rising from the dead. This is the second part of Paul’s figure of speech. Paul was comparing the way God raised Jesus from death with the way he gives a new nature to believers.
with Him: As in 2:12b, this phrase with Him shows that people who are baptized identify with Christ. It does not mean that people were raised from the dead at the same time as Christ was.
through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.
This happened to you because you believed that God who raised Christ to life had the power to do it.
This happened because you believed that God’s power to raise Christ from the dead would raise you with a new nature also.
This happened because you believed that God, by his power, raised Christ to life again after he had died.
through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead: This means that believers are given a new nature by believing that God has the power to do it just as he had the power to raise Jesus from the dead.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
συνταφέντες αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ βαπτισμῷ
˓having_been˒_buried_with ˱with˲_him in ¬the washing
Paul here uses a metaphor that connects baptism to “burial” to further explain what happens to believers when they are united to Christ. This metaphor expresses how, when they are baptized, believers are united to Christ in his (death and) burial and are no longer who they once were. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express this idea with the language of analogy, or express it plainly. Alternate translation: [having been united with the Messiah in his burial when you were baptized] or [having been baptized in him, as if you were buried with him,]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / synecdoche
συνταφέντες
˓having_been˒_buried_with
Paul refers only to being buried, but he also implies “dying.” If buried would not include the idea of “dying” in your language, you could include “dying” in your translation. Alternate translation: [having died and been buried with]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive
συνταφέντες αὐτῷ
˓having_been˒_buried_with ˱with˲_him
If your language does not use this passive form, you could translate this phrase in active form, with God as the subject. Alternate translation: [God burying you with him]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
ἐν ᾧ & συνηγέρθητε
in in which & ˱you_all˲_˓were˒_raised_up_with_‹him›
Paul here explains that believers are not only united to Christ in his burial but also in his resurrection. It is by being united to him in his resurrection that believers receive new life. If it would be helpful in your language, you could translate this idea plainly. Alternate translation: [in union with the Messiah, in his resurrection you received new life]
Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive
συνηγέρθητε
˱you_all˲_˓were˒_raised_up_with_‹him›
If your language does not use this passive form, you could translate the idea in its active form, with God as the subject. Alternate translation: [God raised you up]
Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom
συνηγέρθητε & τοῦ ἐγείραντος αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν
˱you_all˲_˓were˒_raised_up_with_‹him› & ¬the (Some words not found in SR-GNT: συνταφέντες αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ βαπτισμῷ ἐν ᾧ καί συνηγέρθητε διά τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἐγείραντος αὐτόν ἐκ νεκρῶν)
Paul uses the words raised up and raised him from the dead to refer to someone who had died and then came back to life. If your language does not use these words to describe coming back to life, use a comparable idiom or a short phrase. Alternate translation: [you were restored to life … who restored him to life]
Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / abstractnouns
διὰ τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ Θεοῦ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: συνταφέντες αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ βαπτισμῷ ἐν ᾧ καί συνηγέρθητε διά τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἐγείραντος αὐτόν ἐκ νεκρῶν)
If your language does not use abstract nouns to express the ideas behind faith and power, you could express the ideas in another way. Alternate translation: [because you trusted in the powerful God] or [because you believe in the powerful working of God]
Note 8 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj
νεκρῶν
˓the˒_dead
Paul is using the adjective dead as a noun in order to describe a group of people. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this with a noun phrase. Alternate translation: [among the dead people] or [the dead ones]
2:12 you were buried with Christ when you were baptized: As in a roughly parallel passage (Rom 6:3-6), Paul assumes a strong identity between believers and Christ. In God’s sight, we really were with Christ when he was buried and raised, so we experience the benefits of what Christ did for us. Paul can link that identification with Christ to baptism because water baptism was so closely related to conversion in the early church.
OET (OET-LV) having_been_buried_with with_him in the washing, in which also you_all_were_raised_up_with him, through the faith in_the working of_ the _god, which having_raised him from the_dead.
OET (OET-RV) You all were buried with him when you were immersed in water, and you came back to life with him when you came up from the water, through faith in God’s working which gave him life after death.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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