It is important to avoid rendering learned with a term which would suggest a person being a student of something. It may, therefore, be more satisfactory to restructure the first clause you learned of God’s grace from Epaphras to read “Epaphras was the one who told you about God’s grace.”

Epaphras … fellow servant … faithful worker: in Greek the first noun is sundoulos, commonly rendered “fellow slave,” and the second one is diakonos, usually rendered “servant.” Since today the word “slave” carries overtones which may not make it acceptable, “servant” is used and diakonos is rendered “worker” (so Barclay). Revised Standard Version Phillips New International Version use “servant” and “minister.”

A literal rendering of our dear fellow servant might suggest that Epaphras was a servant of Paul. It may, therefore, be necessary to translate our dear fellow servant as “one who serves Christ along with us and who is dear to us” or “… one whom we love.”

On our behalf: United Bible Societies Greek New Testament (UBS GK NT) has changed from “our” (hēmōn) in the 2nd edition to “your” (humōn) in the 3rd edition. Textual evidence in favor of “our” certainly seems stronger than for “your,” but other considerations (see Textual Commentary) have a bearing on the matter. Preferring “our” are: Lightfoot, Abbott, Peake, Moule: New English Bible Revised Standard Version Jerusalem Bible New American Bible New International Version Translator’s New Testament Barclay Goodspeed Bible en français courant Traduction œcuménique de la Bible; in favor of “your” are Phillips Moffatt Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch Biblia Dios Habla Hoy. On our behalf means that Epaphras was doing the work among the Colossians that Paul and his companions wanted to do but could not.

The expression Christ’s … worker may be expressed in many languages as “one who works for Christ” or “one who helps Christ.” The term faithful is not to be understood in the sense of “full of faith” but as “loyal to Christ” or as “one who can be trusted.”

On our behalf can be rendered as “this is a help to us” or “in this way Epaphras helps us.” If, however, the textual alternative “your” is to be understood, then one may say “this is a help to you” or “in this way Epaphras helps you.”

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 .