Colossians 1:25
Context1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship 1 from God – given to me for you – in order to complete 2 the word of God,
Colossians 4:15-16
Context4:15 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters 3 who are in Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets in her 4 house. 5 4:16 And after 6 you have read this letter, have it read 7 to the church of Laodicea. In turn, read the letter from Laodicea 8 as well.
1 tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”
2 tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.
3 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.
4 tc If the name Nympha is accented with a circumflex on the ultima (Νυμφᾶν, Numfan), then it refers to a man; if it receives an acute accent on the penult (Νύμφαν), the reference is to a woman. Scribes that considered Nympha to be a man’s name had the corresponding masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ here (autou, “his”; so D [F G] Ψ Ï), while those who saw Nympha as a woman read the feminine αὐτῆς here (auth", “her”; B 0278 6 1739[*] 1881 sa). Several
5 tn Grk “the church in her house.” The meaning is that Paul sends greetings to the church that meets at Nympha’s house.
6 tn Grk “when.”
7 tn The construction beginning with the imperative ποιήσατε ἵνα…ἀναγνωσθῇ (poihsate Jina…anagnwsqh) should be translated as “have it read” where the conjunction ἵνα functions to mark off its clause as the direct object of the imperative ποιήσατε. The content of the clause (“reading the letter”) is what Paul commands with the imperative ποιήσατε. Thus the translation “have it read” has been used here.
8 sn This letter is otherwise unknown, but some have suggested that it is the letter known today as Ephesians.