Colossians 2:8-18

8 Beware lest {anyone take you captive} through philosophy and empty deceit, according to {human tradition}, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ,
9 because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily,
10 and you are filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority,
11 in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, by the removal of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which also you were raised together with [him] through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 And {although you were dead} in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14 having destroyed the certificate of indebtedness in ordinances against us, which was hostile to us, and removed it out of the way [by] nailing it to the cross.
15 [When he] had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a display of [them] in public, triumphing over them by it.

Do Not Be Judged by Human Religious Rules

16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with reference to eating or drinking or participation in a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath,
17 which are a shadow of what is to come, but the reality [is] Christ.
18 Let no one condemn you, taking pleasure in humility and the worship of angels, going into detail [about] [the things] which he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,

Footnotes 8

  • [a]. Literally "anyone be the one who takes captive you"
  • [b]. Literally "the tradition of men"
  • [c]. Literally "and you being dead"
  • [d]. *Here the participle ("being") is understood as concessive
  • [e]. *Here "by" is supplied as a component of the participle ("nailing") which is understood as means
  • [f]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("had disarmed") which is understood as temporal
  • [g]. Or "in him"
  • [h]. Some manuscripts have "and"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.