Passage

Colossians 3.16

Book: Colossians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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Setting

• Speaker: Paul, with "Timothy our brother" named in the greeting (1:1), writing as a prisoner (4:3, 18). Authorship is debated. Many critical scholars hold that a disciple of Paul wrote the letter in his name, pointing to its style and its developed teaching on Christ and the church. Others defend Paul's authorship, noting the letter's close personal ties with Philemon, which is almost universally accepted as Paul's. Some suggest a co-worker such as Timothy drafted it under Paul's direction.
• Audience: "the saints and faithful brethren in Christ that are at Colossæ" (1:2), a small town in the Lycus valley of Phrygia, in the Roman province of Asia, near Laodicea and Hierapolis (4:13). Paul had not founded the church or visited it (2:1). It was planted by Epaphras, "one of you" (1:7; 4:12), and was largely Gentile (1:27; 2:13). A teaching Paul calls "philosophy and vain deceit" (2:8), with food and calendar rules, "worshipping of the angels," visions and severe treatment of the body (2:16-23), was pressing on the church. Scholars debate exactly what this teaching, often called the Colossian error, was.
• Location: an imprisonment, traditionally Rome, with Ephesus and Caesarea as the main alternatives. Tychicus carried the letter, together with Onesimus, "the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you" (4:7-9). Onesimus is the slave on whose behalf Paul wrote Philemon, and that letter names the same companions, Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke (Philemon 23-24; compare Colossians 4:10-14), with Archippus addressed in both (Philemon 2; Colossians 4:17).
• Time period: c. AD 60-62 if Paul wrote from Rome, or the mid-50s if from Ephesus. Scholars who read the letter as written after Paul's death usually place it later in the first century. The reading below does not depend on the choice.
• Literary context: the closing part of the call to "put on" Christian virtues (3:12-17). Paul has spoken of love as "the bond of perfectness" (3:14) and of the peace of Christ ruling in the church's hearts (3:15). This verse turns to the church's life of teaching and worship, and verse 17 widens it to everything done "in word or in deed."

Theological reading

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God." (Colossians 3:16, ASV)

The word of Christ at home. "The word of Christ" is the message about Christ, the gospel the Colossians first heard from Epaphras (1:5-7). Paul wants it to "dwell" in them, to live in the congregation as a permanent resident, and to do so "richly." In a letter facing a rival "philosophy" (2:8), the remedy is not a new teaching but a fuller hold on the one they already have.

Mutual teaching. "Teaching and admonishing one another" is not limited to leaders. The whole congregation instructs and corrects itself, "in all wisdom," the same phrase Paul uses of his own ministry in 1:28.

Song as teaching. The means include "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." Singing is treated as a way of teaching, not only as praise. Ephesians 5:19 gives a close parallel. Interpreters debate whether the three terms name distinct kinds of song or overlap; either way, the church's songs are to carry the word of Christ. The hymn-like passage on Christ in 1:15-20 may itself give an idea of what such songs contained. The singing is "with grace in your hearts unto God," directed to God and not merely performed.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

• G5485 - charis, charis, Strong's G5485
• G2588 - kardia, kardia, Strong's G2588
• G3056 - logos, logos, Strong's G3056
• G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547
• G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962
• G3956 - pas, pas, Strong's G3956

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

• Argument from the Universal Music Convergence
• Argument from Transformed Lives, via Colossians 3.1-17

Guides:

• Ris3n Arguments

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

• ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
• WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
• KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
• YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.