Pretend You’re a Translator (Col 1:12)
Let’s have some fun. Today you are on the CBT (Committee on Bible Translation, which controls the NIV). Take a look at Col 1:12 and write your own translation. By the way, it has to make sense and be able to be read in church.
εὐχαριστοῦντες τῷ πατρὶ τῷ ἱκανώσαντι ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν μερίδα τοῦ κλήρου τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ φωτί.
Start with a first-year Greek class translation, an awkward word-for-word rendition. “Giving thanks to the Father to the one who made y’all sufficient into the portion of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” Okay, now your teacher knows that you know what the individual words mean. Now let’s make it English.
You’re going to have to decide what “sufficient” (ἱκανόω) means. BDAG glosses it as, “to cause to be adequate, make sufficient, qualify.” However, “qualified” to me sounds like somehow we now deserve it, so I would never go with that option (contra NASB, ESV, NIV, NET). Much better “enabled” (CSB, NRSV, NLT).
Then you have to make a text critical decision, ὑμᾶς (“y’all”) or ἡμᾶς (“us,” NASB, KJV).
