Do Not Delight in the Religion of Angels: Colossians 2:18

 I've come to see that Colossians 2:18 is one of the most misunderstood verses in the New Testament, probably because it is among the worst-translated verses in the New Testament. If what it says hasn't been accurately communicated to Christians, how can we understand it properly? I've also come to see that the church in America has a very real need to understand what it is really saying, because a big segment of it is falling into the very trap that this verse warns about. The trap is a serious one, since it has the potential to "defraud" or "disqualify" you.

I want to start with one very important way this verse has been misunderstood, often through poor translation. To do this, I want to show you an interlinear translation of the verse. 

Do you see the word I have circled in red above? Notice under it the English says "[the] worship of the angels". This is not complaining that they are "worshipping angels" as so many suppose. Rather, the complaint is an unhealthy desire or delight in the religious activities of angels. Versions that translate this portion of the verse "worshipping angels" have it wrong. Those which say "worship of angels" are unclear. It isn't that the angels are being worship, it is the religious duties which the angels perform which is meant. Indeed, the best translation would be that they desire or delight in "{the} religion of the angles" or "the ceremonial observances of the angels". 

To demonstrate this, let's look at the definition of "threskiea" from the verse (the word circled in red translated "worship"):

Notice that the three other places that it is used in the New Testament it is uniformly translated "religion", except in this verse where it is translated "worship" or "worshipping". That's poor translating. It should be "delighting in humility and the religion of the angels". Specifically, their "religion" in the sense of their ritual acts or duties. Paul was complaining about their willingness, desire, or even delight in the religious duties of the angels, along with subjecting themselves to ceremonial requirements and prohibitions. 

They were obsessing on those sent to help train them. It would be like a student, instead of learning about the subjects that the tutor was hired to teach them, focused on the duties of a tutor.  Angels were herald's of the King, but these wanted to delight in the messengers and their ranks, orders, and duties- moreso than the King! The stewards of the house are not the Son of the house!

Other translations say things about "visions", but there is nothing in the Greek to support inserting "visions" into the text. The word for seen is "horao", Strong's 3708 and it means to stare at or see, including perceiving with the mind in a figurative since. So that would be "I see" in the sense of figuring something out. The persons Paul complains of think they have something figured out about angels. The many versions which insert the word "vision" or "visions" here are off-base. There is no reason to conclude this is talking about visions. The wording is exactly what one would expect of ordinary academic or scholarly knowledge. 

After comparing twenty-five translations to the Greek, I want to post the most accurate translation in my view, the Berean Literal Translation, along with the King James version:

Berean Literal Bible
Let no one disqualify you, delighting in humility and the worship of the angels, detailing what he has seen, being puffed up vainly by his mind of the flesh,

King James Bible
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

The KJV says that the type of person Paul warns about is "intruding into those things which he hath NOT seen" while the Berean Literal says "detailing what he HAS seen." The difficulty here is that some ancient manuscripts include the negative, but most ancient manuscripts do not. I can't fault the translators here, for they must pick one or the other. This variance is less of an issue to understanding the verse if one uses the punctuation closest to the Greek, which is the Berean Literal translation. 

There where it says "delighting in humility and the worship of the angels" it is clear that the "delighting" applies to both parts of the preposition, whereas in the KJV the lack of a comma and the phrase "in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels" this isn't as clear. This is connected to the duties of the angels, and thus even if one has "seen" in the sense of "perceived or gained an understanding" of this business, this is different from literally seeing angels conduct their religious duties. So in that sense, it doesn't matter whether the manuscripts with the negative are the "correct" ones or if those without the negative are. Both are correct in a sense, so long as you accept the meaning as I have described it here. If you don't, the textual conflict remains and is probably unresolvable. 

Either way, Paul isn't complaining that they are just making things up, or that they have no actual knowledge. He is complaining that they are delighting in or desiring the wrong things. That's another place that the Berean in better than the KJV (and most others) here. It says "delighting in....". It gets to the real problem. It isn't that the things Paul is complaining about are bad in themselves, it is their willingness or desires regarding those things- that is bad. The King James just says "voluntary" and phrases it so that one would think it only applies to the "humility" part. 

Speaking of the "humility" part, why is he complaining about "humility"? Isn't humility good? Yes. The same word is used elsewhere in the sense that we are exhorted to be that way. The religion of angels is good too. Paul isn't warning that these things they are majoring on are intrinsically bad, but their misuse is bad. Majoring on the minors is bad. Being enraptured by the ceremony that we use to celebrate, for example, becoming a man or reaching adulthood, is bad. Their purpose is to point to the true goal, not become the focus themselves. Even the Holy Spirit points to Jesus! How much more is it a danger to become focused on these means and not the end for which those means exist!

Humility is bad when you delight in how humble you are! To put yourself beneath or under these ceremonial requirements may seem like "humility" but it isn't the humility which God has called us to. Indeed it can become a dangerous substitute for it. In the same way, being enamored with the angels may seem like humility, it may sound humble to go on about how we are even lower than the angels so we should learn of their higher ways, but it's not what God called us to. It is a misuse of a thing, humility, which is good in its proper context. 

Read the whole second chapter, particularly the last part. The Colossians were falling for this, both in terms of these religious ceremonies and in regards to the religion of angelic beings. It isn't that this stuff is bad in itself, there is a good purpose served by them, but they are not the purpose. 

Let us keep our eyes upon Jesus. If the wonders of His Work and Person are not enough, perhaps it is because they are not known as well as they should be known. My book on Early Genesis is about just that. 

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