Colossians 2:20
New International Version
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:

New Living Translation
You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as,

English Standard Version
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—

Berean Standard Bible
If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:

Berean Literal Bible
If you have died with Christ, away from the principles of the world, why as if living in the world do you submit to decrees:

King James Bible
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,

New King James Version
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—

New American Standard Bible
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

NASB 1995
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

NASB 1977
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

Legacy Standard Bible
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees:

Amplified Bible
If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were still living in the world, do you submit to rules and regulations, such as,

Christian Standard Bible
If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations:

Holman Christian Standard Bible
If you died with the Messiah to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “

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

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For if you have died with The Messiah to the principles of the world, why are you just as if you live in the world,

Contemporary English Version
You died with Christ. Now the forces of the universe don't have any power over you. Why do you live as if you had to obey such rules as,

Douay-Rheims Bible
If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you yet decree as though living in the world?

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

GOD'S WORD® Translation
If you have died with Christ to the world's way of doing things, why do you let others tell you how to live? It's as though you were still under the world's influence.

Good News Translation
You have died with Christ and are set free from the ruling spirits of the universe. Why, then, do you live as though you belonged to this world? Why do you obey such rules as

International Standard Version
If you have died with the Messiah to the basic principles of the world, why are you submitting to its decrees as though you still lived in the world?

Literal Standard Version
If, then, you died with the Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as living in the world, are you subject to ordinances—

Majority Standard Bible
If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:

New American Bible
If you died with Christ to the elemental powers of the world, why do you submit to regulations as if you were still living in the world?

NET Bible
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?

New Revised Standard Version
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,

New Heart English Bible
If you died with Christ from the elementary principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,

Webster's Bible Translation
Wherefore, if ye are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

Weymouth New Testament
If you have died with Christ and have escaped from the world's rudimentary notions, why, as though your life still belonged to the world, do you submit to such precepts as

World English Bible
If you died with Christ from the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,

Young's Literal Translation
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?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Alive in Christ
19He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow. 20If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations: 21“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”?…

Cross References
Romans 6:2
Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

Romans 6:11
So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 4:3
So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.

Galatians 4:9
But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

Galatians 6:14
But as for me, may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Ephesians 2:15
by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace

Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.


Treasury of Scripture

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

if.

Colossians 3:3
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Romans 6:2-11
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? …

Romans 7:4-6
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God…

from.

Colossians 2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Ephesians 2:15
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

rudiments.

John 15:19
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

John 17:14-16
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world…

2 Corinthians 10:3
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

subject.

Colossians 2:14,16
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; …

Galatians 4:3,9-12
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: …

Hebrews 13:9
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

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Colossians 2
1. Paul still exhorts them to be constant in Christ;
8. to beware of philosophy, and vain traditions;
18. worshipping of angels;
20. and legal ceremonies, which are ended in Christ.














(20-23) In this and the succeeding section, St. Paul, starting from the idea of union with the Head, draws out the practical consequences of partaking of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. In virtue of the former participation, he exhorts them to be dead to the law of outward ordinances; in virtue of the latter, to have a life hid with Christ in God.

(20) If ye be dead with Christ.--The whole idea of the death with Christ and resurrection with Him is summed up by St. Paul in Romans 6:3-9, in direct connection (as also here, see Colossians 2:12) with the entrance upon Christian life in baptism, "We are buried with Him by baptism unto death . . . we are dead with Christ . . . we are planted together in the likeness of His death . . . that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also should walk in newness of life . . . planted together in the likeness of His resurrection . . . alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The death with Christ is a death unto "the life of the flesh." But this may be (as in Romans 6:1-2; Romans 6:6-7; Romans 6:11) "the life of sin"; or it may be the outward and visible life "of the world." The latter is the sense to be taken here. This outward life is under "ordinances" (see Colossians 2:1), under the "rudiments of the world" (see Colossians 2:8), or, generally, "under law." Of such a life St. Paul says (in Galatians 2:19), "I through the Law died to the Law, that I might live unto God." There (Galatians 4:9), as here, he brands as unspiritual the subjection to the "weak and beggarly elements" of mere ordinances. Of course it is clear that in their place such ordinances have their value, both as means to an end, and as symbols of an inner reality of self-devotion. The true teaching as to these is found in our Lord's declaration to the Pharisees as to spiritual things and outward ordinances, "These things (the spiritual things) ought ye to have done, and not to leave the others (the outward observances) undone" (Matthew 23:23). In later times St. Paul declared with Judicial calmness, "The Law is good if a man use it lawfully" (1Timothy 1:8). But to exalt these things to the first place was a fatal superstition, which, both in its earlier and later phases, he denounces unsparingly. . . .

Verses 20-23. - The apostle's fourth and last warning is directed against ascetic rules of life. Verse 20. - If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world (vers. 8, 10-13; Colossians 3:3; Romans 6:1-11; Romans 7:1-6; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17). "Therefore" is struck out by the Revisers on the best authority. It would imply a logical dependence of this verse upon the last, which does not exist. This warning, like those of vers. 16, 18, looks back to the previous section, and especially to vers. 8, 10, 12. It is a new application of St. Paul's fundamental principle of the union of the Christian with Christ in his death and resurrection (see notes, vers. 11, 12). Accepting the death of Christ as supplying the means of his redemption (Colossians 1:14, 22), and the law of his future life (Philippians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15; Galatians 2:20), the Christian breaks with and becomes dead (to and) from all other, former religious principles; which appear to him now but childish, tentative gropings after and preparations for what is given him in Christ (comp. Galatians 2:19; Galatians 3:24; Galatians 4:2, 3; Romans 7:6). On "rudiments," see note, ver. 8. There these "rudiments of the world" appear as general ("philosophical") principles of religion, intrinsically false and empty; here they are moral rules of life, mean and worthless substitutes for "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." (For the Pauline idiom, "died from (so as to be separate, or free from)," comp. Romans 7:2, 6; Acts 13:39.) Why, as (men) living in (the) world, are you made subject to decrees (Galatians 4:9; Galatians 5:1; Galatians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17). To adopt the rules of the new teachers is to return to the worldly, pre-Christian type of religion which the Christian had once for all abandoned (Galatians 4:9). "World" bears the emphasis rather than "living" ("having one's principle of life:" comp. 1 Timothy 5:6; Luke 12:15). Standing without the article, it signifies "the world as such," in its natural character and attainments, without Christ (ver. 8; Ephesians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 1:21). Δογματίζεσθε (the verb only here in the New Testament) is passive rather than middle in voice (Winer, p. 326; see Meyer in loc.); literally, why are yon being dogmatized, overridden with decrees? Compare "spell" (ver. 8), "judge" (ver. 16), for the domineering spirit of the false teacher. The "dogmas" or "decrees" of ver. 14 (see note) are those of the Divine Law; these are of human imposition (vers. 8, 22), which their authors, however, seem to put upon a level with the former. In each case the decree is an external enforcement, not an inner principle of life.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
If
Εἰ (Ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

you have died
ἀπεθάνετε (apethanete)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 599: To be dying, be about to die, wither, decay. From apo and thnesko; to die off.

with
σὺν (syn)
Preposition
Strong's 4862: With. A primary preposition denoting union; with or together.

Christ
Χριστῷ (Christō)
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5547: Anointed One; the Messiah, the Christ. From chrio; Anointed One, i.e. The Messiah, an epithet of Jesus.

to
ἀπὸ (apo)
Preposition
Strong's 575: From, away from. A primary particle; 'off, ' i.e. Away, in various senses.

the
τῶν (tōn)
Article - Genitive Neuter Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

spiritual forces
στοιχείων (stoicheiōn)
Noun - Genitive Neuter Plural
Strong's 4747: Neuter of a presumed derivative of the base of stoicheo; something orderly in arrangement, i.e. a serial constituent, proposition.

of the
τοῦ (tou)
Article - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

world,
κόσμου (kosmou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2889: Probably from the base of komizo; orderly arrangement, i.e. Decoration; by implication, the world (morally).

why,
τί (ti)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5101: Who, which, what, why. Probably emphatic of tis; an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what.

as though
ὡς (hōs)
Adverb
Strong's 5613: Probably adverb of comparative from hos; which how, i.e. In that manner.

you still belonged
ζῶντες (zōntes)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2198: To live, be alive. A primary verb; to live.

to
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

[the] world,
κόσμῳ (kosmō)
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2889: Probably from the base of komizo; orderly arrangement, i.e. Decoration; by implication, the world (morally).

do you submit to [its] regulations:
δογματίζεσθε (dogmatizesthe)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 1379: From dogma; to prescribe by statute, i.e. to submit to, ceremonially rule.


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NT Letters: Colossians 2:20 If you died with Christ (Coloss. Col Co)
Colossians 2:19
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