Two “Pauline” Pericopes

Apologias for my translations of Colossians 1:24 and Philippians 2:6-8

I: A Preliminary and Needlessly Long Excursus on Syntax and Semantics

At the risk of sounding a little sententious, I shall start with two maxims that really do not need to be stated, but that I might as well lay out anyway: 1) Profundity is a good thing, no doubt, but not when pursued at the expense of intellectual honesty. 2) Clarity also is something to be prized, at least for the most part, but not if it can be achieved only by refusing to acknowledge obscurities when they appear.