What Does Colossians 3:10 Mean?
And have put on the new human, which is being made new in full knowing, after the image of him who created him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:THE KEY
The verse uses different Greek words for the self put on as new and the ongoing work of making it fresh in the Creator’s image.
THE MEANING
You have put on a new self, and its renewal is happening as you know and perceive the One who made you. Your life is being brought into correspondence with the Creator’s image; the verse describes an identity already present and a freshness still unfolding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that renewal requires manufacturing a different identity falls away: the text describes a self already put on and continually renewed according to its Creator’s image.
THE ROOT
ἀνακαινούμενον
anakainoumenon
GROWS FROM
καιν-
kain-
Newness or freshness; the quality of being made new.
“being made new” in this verse is anakainoumenon. The Greek verb for “renewed” comes from the kainos family, while “new man” is νέος (neos, new or recent). The self is put on as new, while its freshness continues to unfold in knowing.
ALSO GROWS
kainoō: Make new; renew.
καινόω
This verb names the continuing renewal described here.
anakainōsis: Renewal; a making new.
ἀνακαίνωσις
Romans 12:2 uses this related noun for the renewal through which transformation takes shape.
ἐπίγνωσις
epignōsis
GROWS FROM
γινώσκ-
ginōsk-
Knowing, perceiving, or recognizing.
“full knowing” in this verse is epignōsis. This word belongs to the γινώσκω (ginōskō, know or perceive) family. The renewal is bound to perceiving the Creator’s image, not simply collecting information about it.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: Know; perceive; recognize.
γινώσκω
The verb family gives “knowledge” the shade of knowing through perception.
epiginōskō: Recognize; know fully.
ἐπιγινώσκω
This related verb makes recognition part of the same family as the knowledge in which renewal occurs.
εἰκόνα
eikona
GROWS FROM
εἰκ-
eik-
Likeness or resemblance.
The image is the pattern according to which renewal takes shape. The verse presents the Creator’s likeness as the measure of the renewed self.
ALSO GROWS
eikōn: Image; likeness.
εἰκών
This is the noun used for the Creator’s image in the verse.
eikazō: Liken; compare; represent as similar.
εἰκάζω
This related word makes the family’s emphasis on resemblance visible.
THE PATTERN
The self named new is renewed in knowing and brought into the Creator’s image.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.Do not take the shape of this age, but be reshaped by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test what is the good, well-pleasing, and complete will of God.But we all, with uncovered faces, mirror the weight of the LORD, and are being reshaped into the same image, ever increasing in weight, even as from the breath of the LORD.THE THREAD
But we all, with uncovered faces, mirror the weight of the LORD, and are being reshaped into the same image, ever increasing in weight, even as from the breath of the LORD.Both verses use εἰκών (eikōn, image): Colossians says renewal follows the Creator’s image, and Corinthians says we are changed into that same image. The thread between them is seeing and becoming: the image perceived is also the pattern of renewal.
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