Colossians 1:19

For God ¹  was pleased to have all his ²  fullness dwell ³  in the Son ⁴ 

For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him,

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,

For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,

So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding.

For God in full measure was pleased to be in him;

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,

For God ¹  was pleased to have all his ²  fullness dwell ³  in the Son ⁴ 

¹ tn The noun “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but since God is the one who reconciles the world to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19), he is clearly the subject of εὐδόκησεν (eudokhsen).

² tn The Greek article τό (to), insofar as it relates to God, may be translated as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “his.” BDAG 404 s.v. εὐδοκέω 1 translates the phrase as “all the fullness willed to dwell in him” thus leaving the referent as impersonal. Insofar as Paul is alluding to the so-called emanations from God this is acceptable. But the fact that “the fullness” dwells in a person (i.e., “in him”) seems to argue for the translation “his fullness” where “his” refers to God.

³ tn The aorist verb κατοικῆσαι (katoikhsai) could be taken as an ingressive, in which case it refers to the incarnation and may be translated as “begin to dwell, to take up residence.” It is perhaps better, though, to take it as a constative aorist and simply a reference to the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. This is a permanent dwelling, though, not a temporary one, as the present tense in 2:9 makes clear.

⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (the Son; see v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.