Explainer / Torah
Colossians 2:14
having blotted out the bond written in decrees that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
ἐξαλείψας τὸ καθ’ ἡμῶν χειρόγραφον τοῖς δόγμασιν ὃ ἦν ὑπεναντίον ἡμῖν, καὶ αὐτὸ ἦρκεν ἐκ τοῦ μέσου προσηλώσας αὐτὸ τῷ σταυρῷ.
We rendered τοῖς δόγμασιν "in decrees" where the ASV has "in ordinances," and kept the rest of the ASV's wording in modern English.
Why
χειρόγραφον
means "a handwritten document." In everyday Greek of the period it was used for a signed certificate of debt, written in the debtor's own hand.
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The ASV's "bond" carries that sense, so we kept it.
τοῖς δόγμασιν
is a dative without a preposition and is grammatically awkward.
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It can mean the bond "consisting of" decrees, "based on" decrees, or "with" its decrees. "Written in decrees" keeps the bare dative without choosing among these. We render δόγμα "decrees" here and in Eph 2:15; the ASV has "ordinances."
The same word elsewhere
δόγμασιν also appears in Eph 2:15, "the Torah of commandments contained in decrees."