The people who wrote Colossians were using words and expressions in terms of their idioms in use at their time. We must not interpret their ideas through definitions written in our day in terms of our idioms.
The vast majority at that time were illiterate and they received the messages orally through a literate person, at times the person who travelled with the written scroll. It was meant to be heard, not read. Theirs was not a time of books in common use as exists today. The printing press changed communication even more than has the www.
It is unwise to hang onto the meaning of a single word, or to think that what we have is precisely what was initially written. The initial went through several drafts, just as happens today, each scroll was individually hand written and was subjected to deliberate and accidental changes.
The NWT makes changes to suit its preferred outcome. In doing so, it sits comfortable with history, starting at least 2600 years ago with the Hebrew text. When the Pentateuch was compiled in the 4th century BCE it was an amalgum of several different sources.
All of the texts were fluid and in a constant state of flux. Even 2 Corinthians is a compilation of at least two letters.
When the material was defined in the 4th century CE as sacred text, there was no universal agreement on which writings to accept or reject -- and that lack of agreement persists today.
The words were not written in stone, like archaeological tablets or carvings. Even the text of the Ten Commandments, supposedly written on stone tablets, comes to us in at least three different versions.
Doug
