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愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru Love Binds Them All Together

Japanese Scroll of Love Binds Them All Together (ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である Original Scroll by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Abstract

愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である, love is the sash that binds all things perfectly, is the second sentence of Colossians 3:14 in the 1955 口語訳's words, 愛は、すべてを完全に結ぶ帯である, without the comma; three of the four designs write すべて as 全て, and the cursive design writes it in kana, as the Bible does. The older Japanese Bibles made love a sash of the virtues: 衆徳の帯 in the Meiji Bible of 1880, 徳を全うする帯 in the revision of 1917; readers who rendered the verse afresh, from the English, from the original or in their own words, wrote 完全の帶, the sash of perfection, in print from 1915, the earliest hit for 愛は完全の帶 in the National Diet Library's full-text index, searched oldest first. The hymnals read here set the verse over a wedding hymn, from a printing of 1910. The 聖書協会共同訳 of 2018 has the 口語訳's second sentence without its comma, ending です.

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Overview

The sense. The verse adds love over everything before it, これらいっさいのものの上に、愛を加えなさい in the 口語訳's words, and names love the sash that binds all things in completeness.

The words. 愛 carries a Christian sense in the dictionary, for God to cherish all humankind without limit, first cited from 植村正久's Browning of 1890 [1]. 帯, a sash, is cited from the 日本書紀 of 720 [2]; 完全 from the 玉塵抄 of 1563 [3].

The text in English. Colossians 3:14 in the King James Version reads And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness; the Revised Version of 1881, printed beside it, reads love where the King James has charity [4], and the American Standard reads the same as the Revised [5]. The New International reads put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity; the English Standard and the New Revised Standard read binds everything together in perfect harmony [5].

The historical record

1852 and 1919. The Chinese Bibles beside the Japanese. Two Chinese translations stand beside the Japanese wording, read here for what they share with it, not as its source. The Delegates' Version of 1852 reads 盡善之維繫 for the sash [6]; the Union Version of 1919 reads 聯絡全德的 [7].

1880, 1881 and 1887. The Meiji New Testament. The Meiji translators finished the New Testament on 3 November 1879, and its last books, Colossians among them, came out in 1880 [8]. The Colossians of 1880, 新約聖書哥羅西書, printed alone, reads …事の外に愛をくはへよ。あいは衆徳(すべてのとく)の帯(おび)なり, the second love written in kana [9]; the 1881 新約全書, the earliest complete printing in the National Diet Library's title search, reads この諸の事の外に愛を加へよ愛ハ衆徳(すべてのとく)の帶(おび)なり [9] (徳 or 德, and in 1880 帯 or 帶, cannot be told at the images' resolution; the 1904 print's text layer reads 德), and its reference edition of 1887, set the same way, reads the same [10]. 三浦徹's annotated 新約全書略註 of 1904 ends the verse with 也, read なり: この諸の事の外に愛を加へよ愛は衆德の帶也 [11]. The Meiji Bible has 衆徳の帯, the sash of all virtues, where 愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である has 全てを完全に結ぶ帯.

1910. The Catholic ラゲ訳. The Catholic missionary Raguet's translation of 1910 reads Colossians 3:14 尙(なほ)此(この)一切(いつさい)の事(こと)に加(くは)へて愛(あい)を有(いう)せよ、愛(あい)は完(くわん)德(とく)の結(むすび)なればなり [12]: love as the knot of perfect virtue.

1917. The 大正改訳. The Protestant revision of the New Testament, completed in February 1917 and published on 5 October [13], reads Colossians 3:14 凡て此等のものの上に愛を加へよ、愛は德(とく)を全(まつた)うする帶(おび)なり in its 1927 printing [14]: love as the sash that perfects virtue.

1910 and 1922. The verse over a wedding hymn. The hymnal 讃美歌, compiled by the 讃美歌委員会, in its printing of 1910 (the Library's record dates the hymnal 1903 and 1910; the 1903 printing is not read here), prints the verse in the Meiji Bible's words, この諸の事の外に愛を加へよ、愛ハ衆德の帶なり, above its hymn 380, filed under 結婚, marriage, which opens いもせをちぎる いへのうち, in the home where husband and wife make their vows; the book marks the hymn ※(古今百四十九), hymn 149 of the Anglican hymnal 古今聖歌集 [15]. The Anglican church's revised 古今聖歌集 of 1922 prints the same hymn as its 320, filed under 結婚式, the wedding service, and 夫妻の幸福, the happiness of husband and wife, with the verse above it in the 1917 revision's words, 愛は德を全うする帶なり [16].

1915 to 1943. The sash of perfection. Beside the Bibles, readers who rendered the verse afresh wrote love as 完全の帶, the sash of perfection, the earliest in 1915, the first hit for 愛は完全の帶 in the National Diet Library's full-text index, searched oldest first. 伝道者のスクラップブック, translated by 葛原定市 from シ・イ・カウマン (Cowman) in 1915, renders the verse from the English, 愛を加へよ愛は完全の帶なり, marked 英譯, and says the literal translation gives it more beauty and force [17]. A commentary of 1940 says of the 1917 wording, which it quotes as 愛は德を完うする帶なり, that the original, translated literally, reads 『そは完全の帶なり』, it is the sash of perfection [18]; and 黒崎幸吉's own translation of 1943 reads 愛は完全の帶なり [19].

1955. The colloquial 口語訳. The Japan Bible Society's colloquial translation, the New Testament in 1954 and the whole Bible in 1955 [20], reads これらいっさいのものの上に、愛を加えなさい。愛は、すべてを完全に結ぶ帯である at its own verse-search endpoint [21]. The Japan Bible Society's own list of the wordings it revised in 1975, 1984 and 2002 does not touch this verse [22]. 愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である is this Bible's second sentence with the comma dropped and, on three of the four designs, 全て in kanji. Written with 全て in kanji, the sentence stands in a book quoting Paul in 1987, the earliest hit for 愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯 in the National Diet Library's full-text index [23].

1965, 2003 and 2017. The 新改訳. The 新改訳's New Testament appeared in 1965 and the whole Bible in 1970 [24]; the 1965 New Testament already reads 愛は結びの帯として完全なものです [25], as the 2003 text does, そして、これらすべての上に、愛を着けなさい。愛は結びの帯として完全なものです [26], and the 2017 text ends 愛は結びの帯として完全です [27]: perfect as a binding sash, where the 口語訳 has the sash that binds everything perfectly.

1987. The 新共同訳. 新共同訳, published September 1987 [28], reads Colossians 3:14 これらすべてに加えて、愛を身に着けなさい。愛は、すべてを完成させるきずなです [29] — a bond, きずな, not a sash, 帯.

2018. The 聖書協会共同訳. 聖書協会共同訳, published December 2018 [30], reads さらに、これらすべての上に、愛を着けなさい。愛はすべてを完全に結ぶ帯です [31]: the 口語訳's sentence without its comma, ending です for である.

Across the Bibles. The sash, 帯, is the Meiji Bible's word and that of every later Japanese Bible read here except the Catholic ラゲ訳, which has 結, a knot, and the 新共同訳, which has きずな; what the sash does changes with each.

A reading

愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である is the 1955 口語訳's sentence, on three designs with a kanji where the Bible prints kana, as some books quoting Paul also write it, and on the cursive design as the Bible prints it; the 2018 Bible has that sentence nearly word for word. Before 1955 the Protestant Bibles read here made love the sash of the virtues, 衆徳の帯 from 1880 and 徳を全うする帯 from 1917, reading the Greek's bond of perfectness as the bond that holds the virtues together; readers who rendered it afresh wrote 完全の帶, the sash of perfection. The 口語訳 made it the sash that binds everything, as the New International Version does in English with binds them all together. The churches printed it over a wedding hymn: in the hymnals read here, from a printing of 1910, in the older words.

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Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Love Binds Them All Together (ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯であるVB5CBlock
Japanese Scroll of Love Binds Them All Together (ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯であるVC4BCursive
Japanese Scroll of Love Binds Them All Together (ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯であるVS4CSemi-Cursive
Japanese Scroll of Love Binds Them All Together (ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯であるVS5CSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

The 1917 first printing of the 大正改訳, the New Testament's original revision; the earliest printing this history cites is of 1927, and a printing of 1919 was read for the research record at another verse, 1 Corinthians 13:13, not at this one. The National Diet Library catalogues one Bible carrying the revision's wording at this verse as January 1914, three years before the revision was published, a date its text cannot bear; the Library serves it only to registered readers in Japan. A copy of 1917 would show the revision's wording at this verse in its first printing.

The 1902 古今聖歌集, the Anglican hymnal whose hymn 149 the 1910 讃美歌 marks beside its wedding hymn, ※(古今百四十九), served by the Library only to registered readers in Japan. Its hymn 149 would show whether the verse already stood over the hymn before 1910.

伝道者のスクラップブック of 1915, 黒崎幸吉's commentary of 1943 and the 新改訳 New Testament of 1965, read here only in the excerpts the Library's full-text index shows, each served by the Library only to registered readers in Japan. Their pages would show each rendering in its context.

The Catholic フランシスコ会訳 and バルバロ訳, two twentieth-century Catholic translations still in copyright, with no public verse-search endpoint. Their text of this verse would show whether the Catholic church's modern Bible differs from ラゲ訳's 1910 wording or from the Protestant Bibles it postdates.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「愛」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/愛
  2. 「帯」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/帯
  3. 「完全」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/完全
  4. The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being the King James Version of A.D. 1611 and the Revised Version of A.D. 1881, American Book Exchange, New York, 1881, p. 390 (Colossians 3:14, the Revised Version at leaf n793 and the King James at leaf n794). https://archive.org/details/newtestamentofou00newyrich/page/n793/mode/2up
  5. Colossians 3:14, English versions in parallel, at biblehub.com. https://biblehub.com/colossians/3-14.htm
  6. 哥羅西書, 聖經 (委辦譯本或稱代表譯本), 1852, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/聖經_(委辦譯本或稱代表譯本)/哥羅西書
  7. 歌羅西書, 聖經 (和合本), 1919, at zh.wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/聖經_(和合本)/歌羅西書
  8. 「明治元訳聖書」, Japanese Wikipedia (the New Testament translation finished 3 November 1879; Colossians published 1880). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/明治元訳聖書
  9. 新約聖書哥羅西書, 米國聖書會社, Yokohama, 1880, image 9 (chapter 3, the verse across the spread), Doshisha University Digital Collection MD00000213. https://dgcl.doshisha.ac.jp/digital/collections/MD00000213 · https://dgcl.doshisha.ac.jp/images/iiif/1/50000/MD00000213/67213.tiff/full/max/0/default.jpg · 新約全書, 米国聖書会社, 1881, scan 295 (Colossians 3:14, p. 582). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992682/1/295
  10. 新約全書 引照, 米国聖書会社, 1887, scan 301 (Colossians 3:14, p. 582). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992572/1/301
  11. 三浦徹, 新約全書略註, 1904, scan 390 (Colossians 3:14, p. 712). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/825539/1/390
  12. コロサイ書 (ラゲ訳), 1910, at ja.wikisource (Colossians 3:14). https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/コロサイ書_(ラゲ訳)
  13. 「大正改訳聖書」, Japanese Wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/大正改訳聖書
  14. 我らの主なる救主イエス・キリストの新約聖書, 1927, scan 269 (Colossians 3:14, p. 524). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1053815/1/269
  15. 讃美歌, 讃美歌委員会 編, 警醒社 and others, 1910 (the record's dates 明治36 and 43), scan 227 (hymn 380, 結婚). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/825386/1/227
  16. 古今聖歌集 譜附, 古今聖歌集改訂委員, 1922, scan 198 (hymn 320, 結婚式). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/941747/1/198
  17. シ・イ・カウマン, 葛原定市 訳, 伝道者のスクラップブック, 1915, scan 41, the full-text index's excerpt only. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/925088/1/41
  18. 現代新約聖書註解全書 第10巻, 現代新約聖書註解全書刊行会, 1940, scan 63. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1173067/1/63
  19. 黒崎幸吉, 註解新約聖書 パウロ小書簡, 日英堂, 1943, scan 73, the full-text index's excerpt only. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1172361/1/73
  20. 「聖書 口語訳」, Japanese Wikipedia (the New Testament published 1954, the whole Bible 1955). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/聖書_口語訳
  21. 口語訳, 日本聖書協会, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html
  22. 聖書語句訂正一覧（口語訳聖書）, 日本聖書協会, the 1975 · 1984 · 2002 revisions. https://www.bible.or.jp/read/si_word_correction/jc_word_correction.html
  23. 榊燎太郎, 雄魂の伝説, 一光社, 1987, scan 80, the full-text index's excerpt only. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13527930/1/80
  24. 「新改訳聖書」, Japanese Wikipedia. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/新改訳聖書
  25. 新約聖書, 新改訳聖書刊行会 訳, 日本聖書刊行会, 1965, scan 185, the full-text index's excerpt only. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2973352/1/185
  26. 新改訳 第三版, 新日本聖書刊行会, 2003 text, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch/
  27. 新改訳2017, 新日本聖書刊行会, 2017 text, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.seisho.or.jp/biblesearch/
  28. 「新共同訳聖書」, Japanese Wikipedia (published 5 September 1987). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/新共同訳聖書
  29. 新共同訳, 日本聖書協会, 1987, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html
  30. 「聖書 聖書協会共同訳」, Japanese Wikipedia (published 3 December 2018). https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/聖書_聖書協会共同訳
  31. 聖書協会共同訳, 日本聖書協会, 2018, at the publisher's verse search (Colossians 3:14). https://www.bible.or.jp/read/vers_search.html

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Sonnet 5 and Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Takase Studios (an address check by script), 2026-10-31, citations: every cited address the script could open was checked against the quotation it carries; the 1927 and 1940 quotations now print 德 as their pages do, and the 1904 也 was confirmed at the page; web pages, and the books served only in Japan and known from their excerpts, could not be opened by the check; nothing cited was missing · two fresh-context readers (Claude), 2026-10-31, every claim in the page's summary traced to its source: a clause calling the scroll a marriage gift, which no source carries, was struck; the 1910 hymnal is now the 1903 hymnal in a printing of 1910, the Meiji New Testament is dated from its own source, the readers who rendered the verse afresh are described as each marks it, the 2018 Bible is said to have the 1955 Bible's second sentence, and each earliest find names its search

Research depth: step 3 of our 10-step ladder, foundation complete · October 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 愛は全てを完全に結ぶ帯である (ai wa subete o kanzen ni musubu obi de aru)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/ai-wa-subete-o-kanzen-ni-musubu-obi-de-aru.