Jesus Is All The Fullness Of Deity In Bodily Form

  • Greek Texts

    Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς

    Beza Greek New Testament 1598
    Ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς·

    Tischendorf 8th Edition 1872
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    Westcott and Hort 1881
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    Scrivener’s Textus Receptus 1894
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    Nestle Greek New Testament 1904
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς Θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    Greek Orthodox Church 1904
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    RP Byzantine Majority Text 2005
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    SBL Greek New Testament 2010
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    Berean Greek New Testament 2016
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς Θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    Westcott and Hort / [NA27 variants]
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

    Westcott and Hort / {NA28 variants}
    ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

Greek Interlinear

  • Interlinear

    For [ὅτι(hoti)] in [ἐν(en)] him [αὐτῷ(autō)] dwells [κατοικεῖ(katoikei)] all [πᾶν(pan)] the [τὸ(to)] fullness [πλήρωμα(plērōma)] of the [τῆς(tēs)] Deity [Θεότητος(Theotētos)] bodily [σωματικῶς(sōmatikōs)], — Colossians 2:9 (Apostolic Bible Polyglot Interlinear, Nestle 1904)

  • Reverse Interlinear

    For (hoti) in (en) him (autō) the (to) whole (pan) fullness (plērōma) of (tēs) deity (theotētos) dwells (katoikei) bodily (sōmatikōs), — Colossians 2:9 ESV (The English-Greek Reverse Interlinear, NA28)

    For (hoti) in (en) him (autos) the (ho) whole (pas) fullness (plērōma) of (ho) deity (theotēs) dwells in (katoikeō) bodily form, (sōmatikōs) — Colossians 2:9 MOUNCE (Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament)

Formal Equivalence (Word-For-Word)

  • Received Text (Textus Receptus)

    For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. — Colossians 2:9 KJV (48.83% / 66.58%)

    For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; — Colossians 2:9 NKJV (60.32% / 65.21%)

    For in Him lives all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. — Colossians 2:9 MEV (Modern English Version)

  • Majority Text

    For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, — Colossians 2:9 WEB (World English Bible)

  • Critical Text

    For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily, — Colossians 2:9 LSB (NASB ‘95 61.65% / 67.99%)

    For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, — Colossians 2:9 NASB ‘95 (61.65% / 67.99%)

    For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, — Colossians 2:9 ESV (62.36% / 68.74%)

Dynamic Equivalence (Thought-For-Thought)

  • Critical Text

    For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. — Colossians 2:9 NLT (70.08% / 39.90%)

    For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, — Colossians 2:9 NIV (67.20% / 53.10%)

    For in him all the fullness of deity lives[a] in bodily form, — Colossians 2:9 NET (66.28% / 53.94%)

  • NET Bible Translator Notes

    a. Colossians 2:9 NET sn In him all the fullness of deity lives. The present tense in this verse (“lives”) is significant. Again, as was stated in the note on 1:19, this is not a temporary dwelling, but a permanent one. Paul’s point is polemical against the idea that the fullness of God dwells anywhere else, as the Gnostics believed, except in Christ alone. At the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity assumed humanity, and is forever the God-man.

Messianic Bible translations

  • Critical Text

    For all the fullness of Deity lives bodily in Him, — Colossians 2:9 TLV (Tree of Life Version, Formal Equivalent)

    For in him, bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is. — Colossians 2:9 CJB (Complete Jewish Bible, Dynamic Equivalent)

Highly Idiomatic Translation / Paraphrase

  • Critical Text

    8-10 Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything. — Colossians 2:8-10 MSG (The Message)

Conclusion

Colossians 2:9 is not saying that Jesus has mere divine qualities. Rather, it is saying that the absolute “fullness of Deity” dwells in Christ in bodily form.

Greek scholars are unanimous that Colossians 2:9 points to the absolute deity of Jesus Christ.

  • New Testament scholar Joseph B. Lightfoot says the phrase “fullness of the deity” means “the totality of the divine powers and attributes.”

  • Greek scholar J. H. Thayer—whose Greek lexicon is called “comprehensive” by the Cults/Watchtower Society—says the Greek word in Colossians 2:9 refers to “deity, that is, the state of being God, Godhead.”

    Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, STRONGS NT 2320: θεότης

    θεότης, θεότητος, ἡ (deitas, Tertullian, Augustine (de civ. Dei 7, 1)), deity i. e. the state of being God, Godhead: Colossians 2:9. (Lucian, Icar. 9; Plutarch, de defect. orac. 10, p. 415 c.) [SYNONYMS: θεότης, θειότης: θεότης deity differs from θειότης divinity, as essence differs from quality or attribute; cf. Trench, § ii.; Lightfoot or Meyer on Colossians, the passage cited; Fritzsche on Romans 1:20.]

  • Greek scholar Richard C. Trench says that “St. Paul is declaring that in the Son there dwells all the fullness of absolute Godhead….He was, and is, absolute and perfect God.”
  • Greek scholar John A. Bengel states that the Greek word refers “not merely [to] the Divine attributes, but [to] the Divine Nature itself.”
  • Bible scholar H. C. G. Moule states that the Greek word “is as strong as possible; Deity, not only Divinity.”
  • Theologian Robert Reymond says the Greek word refers to “the being of the very essence of deity.”
  • In keeping with all this, theologian Benjamin B. Warfield concludes that “the very deity of God, that which makes God God, in all its completeness, has its permanent home in our Lord, and that in a ‘bodily fashion,’ that is, it is in Him clothed with a body.”