Passage

Colossians 3.21

Book: Colossians · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"19. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 20. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord."

"21. Fathers, provoke not your children, that they be not discouraged."

"22. Servants, obey in all things them that are your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord: 23. whatsoever ye do, work heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men;" (Colossians 3:19-23, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"19. Husbands, love your wives, and don’t be bitter against them. 20. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord."

"21. Fathers, don’t provoke your children, so that they won’t be discouraged."

"22. Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. 23. And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men," (Colossians 3:19-23, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"19. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 20. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord."

"21. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged."

"22. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: 23. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;" (Colossians 3:19-23, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"19. the husbands! love your wives, and be not bitter with them; 20. the children! obey the parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord;"

"21. the fathers! vex not your children, lest they be discouraged."

"22. The servants! obey in all things those who are masters according to the flesh, not in eye-service as men-pleasers, but in simplicity of heart, fearing God; 23. and all, whatever ye may do, out of soul work, as to the Lord, and not to men," (Colossians 3:19-23, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: TBD
Audience: TBD
Location: TBD
Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

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; see Lexicon Roadmap.

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Quoted in

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.