Christophany said concerning Colossians 2:9: For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Now read the Greek below on the present ongoing meaning of Dwells. The bodily dwelling of Deity is permanent not temporary. The incarnation was permanent.[/Quote\]
In the KJV at Colossians 2:9 the word in the Greek "theo'tes," is translated Godhead but some Bibles such as the NWT translate this greek word “divine quality” instead of Godhead and this is the only use of the word in the Christian Greek Scriptures. The same is true of a similar Greek word, theio'tes which appears only at
Romans 1:20, and which the
NWT there renders “Godship,” and the KJV translates "Godhead," in the NWT it translate as follows: “For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable.”
The way these two words have been rendered in the NWT has given rise to the charge that the New World Bible Translation Committee let their religious beliefs influence them. That charge is true, but they did not do so wrongly, or unduly. The meaning that is to be given to these two Greek words depends upon what the entire Bible has to say about Jehovah God and Jesus Christ.
How so? In that there is basis for translating these words either as “Deity,” “Divinity” or “Godhead” and so attributing personality to them, or as “Divine Nature,” “divine quality,” “Godship,” and having them merely denote qualities. Thus those who believe in the trinity will attach personality to these words, whereas those who do not will render them as qualities in view of the way God and Christ are described in the Scriptures and so as to harmonize the words with the rest of God’s Word. This emphasizes the fact that one simply cannot properly and accurately translate the Bible unless one clearly understands its teachings.
Parkhurst’s
A Greek and English Lexicon (1845) defines theio'tes as “Godhead” (page 261) and
theótes as “Deity, godhead, divine nature” (page 264). Note the definition “divine nature” as well as “Godhead.”
Liddell and Scott’s
A Greek-English Lexicon, in its new ninth edition, completed in 1940 and reprinted in 1948, Volume I, defines the two terms in the light of ancient usages apart from the Scriptures.
Theio'tes it defines as “divine nature, divinity” (page 788).
Theótes it defines in exactly the same way, as “divinity, divine nature,” and then cites as an example
Colossians 2:9. In this connection it shows that the similar Greek expression,
dia theóteta, means “for religious reasons” (page 792).
Thus the
NWT is fully justified in rendering
Colossians 2:9 to show that Christ has in him all the fullness, not of God himself, the Deity, the Godhead, but of the divine quality dwelling bodily, and this in behalf of the spiritual body of Christ, so that this body of Christ’s followers is possessed of a fullness by means of him: “It is in [Christ] that all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily. And so you [Christians] are possessed of a fullness by means of him, who is the head of all government and authority.”—
Col. 2:9, 10.
Admittedly, not everyone offers the same interpretation of
Colossians 2:9. But what is in agreement with the rest of the inspired letter to the Colossians? Did Christ have in himself something that is his because he is God, part of a Trinity? Or is “the fullness” that dwells in him something that became his because of the decision of someone else?
Colossians 1:19 (
KJ, Dy) says that all fullness dwelt in Christ because it “pleased the Father” for this to be the case.
NE says it was “by God’s own choice.”
When it comes to the True God no one chose this Divine Nature to be in him. The True God has always had Divine Nature. When Jesus was resurrected he was resurrected a life giving Spirit not a human.1Corinthians 15:45.
