Colossians 2:20

Linguistic Bible Translation from Source Texts

If you died with Christ to the elemental principles of the world, why, as though still living in the world, do you submit to its decrees?

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Εἰ οὖν ἀπεθάνετε σὺν τῷ Χριστῷ ἀπὸ τῶν στοιχείων τοῦ κόσμου, τί, ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κόσμῳ, δογματίζεσθε,

Transliteration

If therefore you apethanete with the Christō from the stoicheiōn of the kosmou, why, as zōntes in kosmō, are you dogmatizesthe,

Grammar Details

• *apethanete*: aorist active indicative, 2nd person plural - you died
• *Christō*: dative, masculine, singular - Christ
• *stoicheiōn*: genitive, neuter, plural - elements/principles/rudiments
• *kosmou*: genitive, masculine, singular - world/universe/ordered system
• *zōntes*: present active participle, nominative, masculine, plural - living
• *kosmō*: dative, masculine, singular - world
• *dogmatizesthe*: present passive indicative, 2nd person plural - you are subjected to regulations

Word Meanings

• *apethanete*: died/passed away
• *stoicheiōn*: elements/principles/rudiments/elemental spirits
• *kosmou*: world/universe/ordered system/age
• *zōntes*: living/alive/dwelling
• *dogmatizesthe*: subjected to regulations/ordinances/rules

Other Translations

• King James Version 1769 (Standard Version)

  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

• KJV1611 – Modern English

  Therefore if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations,

• King James Version 1611 (Original)

  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

• American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

  {G3767} If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances,

• King James Version with Strong's Numbers

  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

• Tyndale Bible (1526/1534)

  Wherfore if ye be deed with Christ fro ordinaunces of the worlde why as though ye yet lived in the worlde are ye ledde with tradicios of them that saye?

• Coverdale Bible (1535)

  Wherfore yf ye be deed with Christ from the ordinaunces of the worlde, why are ye holden the with soch tradicions, as though ye lyued after the worlde? As whan they saye:

• Geneva Bible (1560)

  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ fro the ordinances of the world, why, as though ye liued in ye world, are ye burdened with traditions?

• Bishops' Bible (1568)

  Wherfore, yf ye be dead with Christe from ye rudimentes of the world: why, as though lyuyng in the worlde, are ye led with traditions,

• Authorized King James Version (1611)

  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

• Webster's Bible (1833)

  If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,

• Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

  If, then, ye did die with the Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?

• American Standard Version (1901)

  If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances,

• American Standard Version (1901)

  If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances,

• Bible in Basic English (1941)

  If you were made free, by your death with Christ, from the rules of the world, why do you put yourselves under the authority of orders

• World English Bible (2000)

  If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,

• NET Bible® (New English Translation)

  If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as though you lived in the world?

Referenced Verses

• Gal 4:3 : 3 In the same way, we too, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental principles of the world.
• Col 2:8 : 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, based on human tradition and the elemental principles of the world rather than on Christ.
• Col 2:14 : 14 He erased the legal debt that stood against us with its decrees. He took it away, nailing it to the cross.
• Col 2:16 : 16 Therefore, let no one judge you in regard to food and drink or regarding a festival, a new moon, or Sabbaths.
• Gal 4:9-9 : 9 But now, having come to know God—or rather, having been known by God—how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been in vain. 12 I beg you, brothers: Become like me, for I also became like you. You have done me no wrong.
• Gal 6:14 : 14 But as for me, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
• Eph 2:15 : 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,
• John 15:19 : 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. But you do not belong to the world, for I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
• John 17:14-16 : 14 I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
• Rom 7:4-6 : 4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, having died to what once bound us, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
• 2 Cor 10:3 : 3 For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.
• Gal 2:19-20 : 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. 20 I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
• Col 3:3 : 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
• Heb 13:9 : 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by God’s grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which have not benefited those who have followed them.
• Jas 4:4 : 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
• 1 Pet 4:1-3 : 1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body on our behalf, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body has ceased from sin. 2 As a result, you should no longer live the rest of your earthly life for human desires but instead for the will of God. 3 For you have already spent enough time in the past doing what the Gentiles choose to do, living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.
• 1 John 5:19 : 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
• Rom 6:2-9 : 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore, we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in the resurrection. 6 We know this: our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, and we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For the one who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. 9 We know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. 10 For the death He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life He lives, He lives to God. 11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.