Colossians, Rightly Divided, verse-by-verse

Session 12| Colossians 4:7-11

Colossians 4:7-18 | Reports, Greetings, and Conclusion

• Verse 7 | Black

  • “messenger" for Paul, delivering his letters. He is described as a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord. These are characteristics of Christian service toward which we should all strive.

    
    

• Verse 8 | Black

  • Not only would Tychicus update the Colossians concerning Paul, but also come to know the estate of the Colossians and to comfort them. The word estate, as with state in verse 7 is simply the things concerning you and“property" sense in which we sometimes use the word estate.

    Note that the modern versions change your estate“our circumstances" (NASB). While there is no doctrinal issue at hand, such opposite texts demand one to determine which one is the Word of God.“our circumstances" being made known to the Colossians, and a change from your to our would thus make verse 9 repetitive.
    

• Verse 9 | Black

  • Tychicus will be sent with Onesimus who is also a faithful and beloved brother, and also one of you (apparently from Colossae). Onesimus is the subject of the letter to Philemon.

    The two will make known unto you all the things which are done here. I would love to know what they know! But God did not preserve that information for us, and Paul did not seem to think it needed proclaimed in writing.
    

• Verse 10 | Black

  • Aristarchus is a Macedonian of Thessalonica (Acts 27:2). Here he is called my fellowprisoner and is almost certainly a Jew even from these words alone (confirmed in verse 11). His Jewishness is important, as will be seen in verse 11. As far as we know, only Jewish believers were imprisoned for their faith at this time. The Gentile world was, for the most part, unconcerned with a person's faith practices, and the Roman Empire tolerated most religions. Exceptions came later, under Nero after the fire or Rome (A.D. 64, with Colossians written about A.D. 62). Aristarchus' Jewishness could be presumed by putting this passage together with Romans 16:7 if you assume my fellowprisoners are the same in Romans as in Colossians.

  • Paul also mentions Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas. We know him better as John Mark (see Acts 12:12). John Mark is most definitely Jewish, a fact that becomes important in the next verse.

  Modern translations refer to him as Barnabas' cousin. The Greek is ἀνεψιός [anephios] from which we get the word nephew. One may look and see that the word sister is not in the text. How then do we know that he is the sister's son rather than the *brother's* or even a cousin in the modern sense?

  • Modern Bible teachers often mention that "sister" is not in the text, and they are correct, in a sense. They anephios means "cousin," which is also correct, but only when fully understood. In mentioning these two points, they fail to mention two points:

    • anephios nephew. A sister's son would be just that.

    • The English word cousin cousin comes to us from Latin consobrinus, which literally means "pertaining to the sister." In early English, a cousin was ONLY the "sister's son."

      
      

  • I think there is more support for sister's son than there is for "cousin." Further, the use of "cousin" presumes the modern understanding upon the original understanding.

  “sisters sonne“cousin german," which came into English when the phrase cousin was changing its meaning, and“sister's son."
  Concerning Marcus, the Colossian assembly was instructed to receive him if he were to come that way. Remember, of course, that Paul and John Mark once split ways over differences in work ethic (Acts 15:37-39, especially v. 38). Now Paul wants the church to know that these differences have been mended.