Bible / Colossians
Colossians 1
Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner revision (1749–1752), the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate. If you read a modern Bible, this is the same Scripture in older English; some names are spelled differently (Cesarea for Caesarea, Apocalypse for Revelation). About this translation
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, a brother:
2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus who are at Colossa.
3 Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. CCC
4 Hearing your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have towards all the saints. CCC
5 For the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard in the word of the truth of the gospel, CCC
6 Which is come unto you, as also it is in the whole world and bringeth forth fruit and groweth, even as it doth in you, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. CCC
7 As you learned of Epaphras, our most beloved fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ Jesus;
8 Who also hath manifested to us your love in the spirit.
9 Therefore we also, from the day that we heard it, cease not to pray for you and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding:
10 That you may walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing; being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God: CCC
11 Strengthened with all might according to the power of his glory, in all patience and longsuffering with joy,
12 Giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light: CCC
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, CCC
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins: CCC · Fathers
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: CCC · Fathers
16 For in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by him and in him. CCC
17 And he is before all: and by him all things consist. CCC
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may hold the primacy: CCC · Fathers
19 Because in him, it hath well pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell: CCC
20 And through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven. CCC
21 And you, whereas you were some time alienated and enemies in mind in evil works: CCC · Fathers
22 Yet now he hath reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unspotted and blameless before him: CCC
23 If so ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and immoveable from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which is preached in all the creation that is under heaven: whereof I Paul am made a minister.
24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church: CCC
25 Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given me towards you, that I may fulfil the word of God:
26 The mystery which hath been hidden from ages and generations, but now is manifested to his saints,
27 To whom God would make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ, in you the hope of glory. CCC
28 Whom we preach, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
29 Wherein also I labour, striving according to his working which he worketh in me in power.
This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church
Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text.
Read the Catechism
Read the Catechism
- CCC 2632 “Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ. There…”
Read the Catechism
- CCC 2632 “Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ. There…”
Read the Catechism
- CCC 2632 “Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ. There…”
Read the Catechism
- CCC 2520 “Baptism confers on its recipient the grace of purification from all sins. But the baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of…”
Read the Catechism
- CCC 1250 “Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to…”
Read the Catechism and Fathers
- CCC 517 “Christ's whole life is a mystery of redemption. Redemption comes to us above all through the blood of his cross, but this…”
- CCC 1250 “Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to…”
- CCC 2839 “With bold confidence, we began praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking…”
“… was of the seed of David according to His birth from Mary; and that Jesus Christ was appointed the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, as being the first begotten in all the creation;”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XVI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
“By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins.”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter II. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
Read the Catechism and Fathers
- CCC 241 “For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with…”
- CCC 299 “Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: "You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight." The universe,…”
- CCC 1701 “Christ, . . . in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, makes man fully manifest…”
- CCC 2641 “[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Like…”
- CCC 142 “By his Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in…”
“… was of the seed of David according to His birth from Mary; and that Jesus Christ was appointed the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, as being the first begotten in all the creation;”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XVI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
Read the Catechism
- CCC 291 “In the beginning was the Word. . . and the Word was God. . . all things were made through him, and…”
- CCC 331 “Christ is the centre of the angelic world. They are his angels: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and…”
- CCC 2641 “[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Like…”
Read the Catechism and Fathers
- CCC 504 “Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary's womb because he is the New Adam, who inaugurates the new…”
- CCC 753 “In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures through which Revelation speaks of the inexhaustible mystery of the Church.…”
- CCC 792 “Christ "is the head of the body, the Church." He is the principle of creation and redemption. Raised to the Father's glory,…”
- CCC 2641 “[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Like…”
“… in earth, inasmuch as [He was] a righteous man, "who did no sin, neither was there found guile in His mouth;" and that He might have the pre-eminence over those things which are under the earth, He Himself being made "the first-begotten of the dead;”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XX. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
Read the Catechism
- CCC 2641 “[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Like…”
Read the Catechism
- CCC 1042 “At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign…”
- CCC 2305 “Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his…”
- CCC 2641 “[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Like…”
Read the Catechism and Fathers
- CCC 2305 “Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his…”
“… to the Colossians, says, "And though ye were formerly alienated, and enemies to His knowledge by evil works, yet now ye have been reconciled in the body of His flesh, through His death, to present yourselves holy and chaste, and without fault in His sight.”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XIV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
Read the Catechism
- CCC 2305 “Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his…”
Read the Catechism
- CCC 307 “To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing"…”
- CCC 618 “The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men". But because in his incarnate divine person…”
- CCC 1499 “By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to…”
- CCC 1508 “The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing 118 so as to make manifest the power of the grace…”
Read the Catechism
- CCC 772 “It is in the Church that Christ fulfills and reveals his own mystery as the purpose of God's plan: "to unite all…”
A modern English Catholic translation will be added once its publisher grants permission.