inclusive vs. exclusive pronoun (Col. 1:8)

Many languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first-person plural pronouns (“we”). (Click or tap here to see more details)

The inclusive “we” specifically includes the addressee (“you and I and possibly others”), while the exclusive “we” specifically excludes the addressee (“he/she/they and I, but not you”). This grammatical distinction is called “clusivity.” While Semitic languages such as Hebrew or most Indo-European languages such as Greek or English do not make that distinction, translators of languages with that distinction have to make a choice every time they encounter “we” or a form thereof (in English: “we,” “our,” or “us”).

For this verse, translators typically select the exclusive form (excluding the addressee).

Source: Velma Pickett and Florence Cowan in Notes on Translation January 1962, p. 1ff.

complete verse (Colossians 1:8)

Following are a number of back-translations of Colossians 1:8:

  • Uma: “He is the one who told us (excl.) that you love all the followers of the Lord Yesus because of the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “He hep is the one who told us (excl.) that you love each other. This love was put in your livers by God’s Spirit.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He has told us that your kindness to your fellow believers is great because you are inspired by the Holy Spirit.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “He also is the one who told us (excl.) concerning your love to us (excl.) and to your fellows which the Ispirito Santo (Holy Spirit) gives.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “He is the one from whom we came to know about the big-size of your valuing of one another through the help of the Espiritu Santo.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “This Epaphras is the one who told me how it is that the Holy Spirit is causing that you love one another.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Colossians 1:8

Told represents a verb used infrequently in the NT (7 times), and has the sense of “make plain, clear.”

The love that the Spirit has given you represents the literal “your love in (the) spirit.” There is much uncertainty about the meaning of this phrase. Commentators point out that Paul does not refer to the Holy Spirit in Colossians, unless this phrase is such a reference (see also Good News Bible in 1.9; the other occurrence of pneuma is 2.5, where it refers to Paul’s own spirit). As Moule says, it may be simply “your more than merely human love.” New English Bible has “your God-given love,” Phillips “Christian love,” Translator’s New Testament “the love which the Spirit has inspired in you” (similarly Barclay), Goodspeed “love which the Spirit has awakened in you” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible similarly); Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is more explicit, “… God’s Spirit…”; Dutch common language translation (Bijbel in Gewone Taal) has “your love whose source is the Spirit.”

Love here may be the love for all fellow Christians (as in verse 4), or it could be the Colossians’ love for Paul and his companions.

It is rare that one can speak of “love” without designating the object of love. The relationship of the Spirit to this love is probably best understood as causative, and therefore, if love must be expressed as a verb, perhaps one can render verse 8 as “he has told us how the Spirit has caused you to love fellow Christians” or “… love us.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .