Colossians1:20
Previous VerseTranslation
and by Him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace by the blood of His cross, [yes, to reconcile all things] by Him,
Go to footnote numberwhether things on the earth or things in the heavens.
Paraphrase
and through Him to reconcile absolutely everything to Himself, with nothing being excluded, nothing on earth, and nothing in heaven; this was possible because He had made peace with God for mankind by means of the blood He shed on the cross.
Footnotes
1
The Greek text uses the phrase “by Him” twice, causing a quandary when one tries to communicate it in English. It seems like the intent was to say the first part all over again in order to emphasize that nothing stood outside the reach of His reconciliatory work, but it was made shorter by leaving out most of it except the words “by Him.” It was expected that the reader would be able to assume the part that was left out. I have reflected that intent in the translation column on the left with the assumed part in brackets. Most translations clean it up by only expressing the idea once and leaving out the second occurrence of the words “by Him.” In my paraphrase column on the right I have cleaned it up for English, but also expanded it to show the full meaning.