Colossians 1

Colossians 1:3

ἁγίοις] ‘saints,’ i.e. the people consecrated to God, the Israel of the new covenant; see the note on Phil. i. 1. This mode of address marks the later epistles of St Paul. In his earlier letters (1, 2 Thess., 1, 2 Cor., Gal.) he writes τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις. The change begins with the Epistle to the Romans, and from that time forward the Apostle always uses ἁγίοις in various combinations in addressing churches (Rom., Phil., Col., Ephes.). For a similar phenomenon, serving as a chronological mark, see the note on ἡ χάρις, iv. 18. The word ἁγίοις must here be treated as a substantive in accordance with its usage in parallel passages, and not as an adjective connected with ἀδελφοῖς. See the next note.

καὶ πιστοῖς ἀδελφοῖς] This unusual addition is full of meaning. Some members of the Colossian Church were shaken in their allegiance, even if they had not fallen from it. The Apostle therefore wishes it to be understood that, when he speaks of the saints, he means the true and stedfast members of the brotherhood. In this way he obliquely hints at the defection. Thus the words καὶ πιστοῖς ἀδελφοῖς are a supplementary explanation of ταῖς ἁγίοις. He does not directly exclude any, but he indirectly warns all. The epithet πιστὸς cannot mean simply ‘believing’; for then it would add nothing which is not already contained in ἁγίοις and ἀδελφοῖς. Its passive sense, ’trustworthy, stedfast, unswerving,’ must be prominent here, as in Acts xvi. 15 εἰ κεκρίκατέ με πιστὴν τῷ Κυρίῳ εἶναι. See Galatians p. 155.

ἐν Χριστῷ] Most naturally connected with both words πιστοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, though referring chiefly to πιστοῖς; comp. Ephes. vi. 21 πιστὸς διάκονος ἐν

Κυρίῳ, 1 Tim. i. 2 γνησίῳ τέκνῳ ἐν πίστει. For the expression πιστὸς ἐν Χριστῷ, ἐν Κυρίῳ, see also 1 Cor. iv. 17, Ephes. i. 1. The Apostle assumes that the Colossian brethren are ‘stedfast in Christ.’ Their state thus contrasts with the description of the heretical teacher, who (ii. 19) οὐ κρατεῖ τὴν κεφαλὴν.

χάρις κ.τ.λ.] On this form of salutation see the note to 1 Thess. i. 1.

πατρὸς ἡμῶν] The only instance in St Paul’s epistles, where the name of the Father stands alone in the opening benediction without the addition of Jesus Christ. The omission was noticed by Origen (Rom. 1. § 8, IV. p. 467), and by Chrysostom (ad loc. XI. p. 324, Hom. in 2 Cor. XXX, X. p. 651). But transcribers naturally aimed at uniformity, and so in many copies we find the addition καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. The only other exception to the Apostle’s usual form is in 1 Thessalonians, where the benediction is shorter still, χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη, and where likewise the copyists have supplied words to lengthen it out in accordance with St Paul’s common practice.

3-8. ‘We never cease to pour forth our thanksgiving to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ on your account, whensoever we pray to Him. We are full of thankfulness for the tidings of the faith which ye have in Christ Jesus, and the love which ye show towards all the people of God, while ye look forward to the hope which is stored up for you in heaven as a treasure for the life to come. This hope was communicated to you in those earlier lessons, when the Gospel was preached to you in its purity and integrity—the one universal unchangeable Gospel, which was made known to you, even as it was carried

Colossians 1:4-5

ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν προσευχόμενοι· ⁴ ἀκούσαντες τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην [ἦν ἔχετε] εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους, ⁵ διὰ τὴν throughout the world, approving itself by its fruits wheresoever it is planted. For, as elsewhere, so also in you, these fruits were manifested from the first day when ye received your lessons in, and apprehended the power of, the genuine Gospel, which is not a law of ordinances but a dispensation of grace, not a device of men but a truth of God. Such was the word preached to you by Epaphras, our beloved fellowservant in our Master’s household, who in our absence and on our behalf has ministered to you the Gospel of Christ, and who now brings back to us the welcome tidings of the love which ye show in the Spirit.’

3. Εὐχαριστοῦμεν] See the notes on 1 Thess. i. 2.

πατρί] If the καὶ be omitted, as the balance of authorities appears to suggest, the form of words here is quite exceptional. Elsewhere it runs ὁ Θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ Κυρίου, Rom. xv. 6, 2 Cor. i. 3, xi. 31, Ephes. i. 3 (v. l.), 1 Pet. i. 3; comp. Rev. i. 6: and in analogous cases, such as ὁ Θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ ἡμῶν, the rule is the same. See the note on Clem. Rom. § 7. In iii. 17 however we have τῷ Θεῷ πατρί, where the evidence is more decisive and the expression quite as unusual. On the authorities for the various readings here see the detached note.

πάντοτε κ.τ.λ.] We here meet the same difficulty about the connexion of the clauses, which confronts us in several of St Paul’s opening thanksgivings. The words πάντοτε and περὶ ὑμῶν must clearly be taken together, because the emphasis of περὶ ὑμῶν would be inexplicable, if it stood at the beginning of a clause. But are they to be attached to the preceding or to the following sentence? The connexion with the previous words is favoured by St Paul’s usual conjunction of εὐχαριστεῖν πάντοτε (see the note on Phil. i. 3), and by the parallel passage οὐ παύομαι εὐχαριστῶν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν in Ephes. i. 16. Thus the words will mean ‘We give thanks for you always in our prayers.’ For this absolute use of προσευχόμενοι see Matt. vi. 7, Acts xvi. 25.

4. ἀκούσαντες] ‘having heard’ from Epaphras (ver. 8); for the Apostle had no direct personal knowledge of the Colossian Church: see the introduction, p. 27 sq.

ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ] To be connected with τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν. The strict classical language would require τὴν ἐν X. I., but the omission of the article is common in the New Testament (e. g. ver. 8); see the note on 1 Thess. i. 1, and Winer § xx. p. 169 (ed. Moulton). The preposition ἐν here and in the parallel passage, Ephes. i. 15, denotes the sphere in which their faith moves, rather than the object to which it is directed (comp. 1 Cor. iii. 5); for, if the object had been meant, the natural preposition would have been ἐπὶ or εἰς (e. g. ii. 5). This is probably the case also in the passages where at first sight it might seem otherwise, e. g. 1 Tim. iii. 13, 2 Tim. iii. 15; for compare 2 Tim. i. 13 ἐν πίστει καὶ ἀγάπη τῇ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, where the meaning is unambiguous. There is however authority in the LXX for the use of ἐν with πίστις, πιστεύειν, to denote the object, in Jer. xii. 6, Ps. lxxviii. 22, and perhaps in Mark i. 15, Rom. iii. 25, and (more doubtfully still) in Joh. iii. 15.

ἦν ἔχετε] See the detached note on the various readings.

5. διὰ τὴν ἐλπίδα] ‘for the hope,’ i.e. looking to the hope. The following reasons seem decisive in favour of con-

Colossians 1:6

ἐλπίδα τὴν ἀποκειμένην ὑμῖν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἣν προηκούσατε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, ⁶τοῦ παρόντος εἰς ὑμᾶς, καθὼς καὶ ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ ἐστὶν necting διὰ τὴν ἐλπίδα, not with εὐχαριστοῦμεν, but with τὴν πίστιν κ.τ.λ., whether ἣν ἔχετε be retained or not. (1) The great distance of εὐχαριστοῦμεν is against the former connexion; (2) The following clause, ἣν προηκούσατε κ.τ.λ., suggests that the words διὰ τὴν ἐλπίδα describe the motives of the Colossians for well-doing, rather than the reasons of the Apostle for thanksgiving: (3) The triad of Christian graces, which St Paul delights to associate together, would otherwise be broken up. This last argument seems conclusive; see especially the corresponding thanksgiving in 1 Thess. i. 3, μνημονεύοντες ὑμῶν τοῦ ἔργου τῆς πίστεως καὶ τοῦ κόπου τῆς ἀγάπης καὶ τῆς ὑπομονῆς τῆς ἐλπίδος κ.τ.λ., with the note there. The order is the same here, as there; and it is the natural sequence. Faith rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future. They may be regarded as the efficient, material, and final causes respectively of the spiritual life. Compare Polycarp Phil. 3 πίστιν ἥτις ἐστὶ μήτηρ πάντων ἡμῶν, ἐπακολουθούσης τῆς ἐλπίδος, προαγούσης τῆς ἀγάπης.

The hope here is identified with the object of the hope: see the passages quoted on Gal. v. 5. The sense of ἐλπίς, as of the corresponding words in any language, oscillates between the subjective feeling and the objective realisation; comp. Rom. viii. 24 τῇ γὰρ ἐλπίδι ἐσώθημεν· ἐλπίς δὲ βλεπομένη οὐκ ἔστιν ἐλπίς· ὃ γὰρ βλέπει τις κ.τ.λ., where it passes abruptly from the one to the other.

τὴν ἀποκειμένην] ‘which is stored

up.’ It is the θησαυρὸς ἐν οὐρανῷ of the Gospels (Matt. vi. 20, 21, Luke xii. 34, xviii. 22).

προηκούσατε] ‘of which ye were told in time past.’ The preposition seems intended to contrast their earlier with their later lessons—the true Gospel of Epaphras with the false gospel of their recent teachers (see the next note). The expression would gain force, if we might suppose that the heretical teachers obscured or perverted the doctrine of the resurrection (comp. 2 Tim. ii. 18); and their speculative tenets were not unlikely to lead to such a result. But this is not necessary; for under any circumstances the false doctrine, as leading them astray, tended to cheat them of their hope; see ver. 23. The common interpretations, which explain προ- as meaning either ‘before its fulfilment’ or ‘before my writing to you,’ seem neither so natural in themselves nor so appropriate to the context.

τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου] ’the

truth of the Gospel,’ i.e. the true and genuine Gospel as taught by Epaphras, and not the spurious substitute of these later pretenders: comp. ver. 6 ἐν ἀληθεία. See also Gal. ii. 5, 14, where a similar contrast is implied in the use of ἡ ἀληθεία τοῦ εὐαγγελίου. 6. τοῦ παρόντος εἰς ὑμᾶς] ‘which reached you.’ The expression παρεῖναι εἰς is not uncommon in classical writers; comp. παρεῖναι πρὸς in Acts xii. 20, Gal. iv. 18, 20. So also εὑρεθῆναι εἰς (Acts viii. 40), γενέσθαι εἰς (e.g. Acts xxv. 15), and even εἶναι eἰς (Luke xi. 7). See Winer § l. p. 516 sq.

ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ] For a similar

hyperbole see Rom. i. 8 ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ; comp. 1 Thess. i. 8, 2 Cor. ii. 14, ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ. More lurks under these words than appears on the surface. The true Gospel, the Apostle seems to say, proclaims its truth by its universality. The false gospels are the outgrowths

καρποφορούμενον καὶ αὐξανόμενον, καθὼς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν, ἀφ’ ἧς ἡμέρας ἠκούσατε καὶ ἐπέγνωτε τὴν χάριν τοῦ

of local circumstances, of special idiosyncrasies; the true Gospel is the same everywhere. The false gospels address themselves to limited circles; the true Gospel proclaims itself boldly throughout the world. Heresies are at best ethnic: truth is essentially catholic. See ver. 23 μὴ μετακινούμενοι ἀπὸ τῆς ἐλπίδου τοῦ εὐαγγελίου οὗ ἠκούσατε, τοῦ κηρυχθέντος ἐν πάσῃ κτίσει τῇ ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν.

ἐστὶν καρποφορούμενον] ‘is constantly bearing fruit.’ The fruit, which the Gospel bears without fail in all soils and under every climate, is its credential, its verification, as against the pretensions of spurious counterfeits. The substantive verb should here be taken with the participle, so as to express continuity of present action; as in 2 Cor. ix. 12 οὐ μόνον ἐστὶν προσαναπληροῦσα κ.τ.λ., Phil. ii. 26 ἐπιποθῶν ἦν. It is less common in St Paul than in some of the Canonical writers, e.g. St Mark and St Luke; but probably only because he deals less in narrative.

Of the middle καρποφορεῖσθαι no other instance has been found. The voice is partially illustrated by κωδωνοφορεῖσθαι, σιδηροφορεῖσθαι, τυμπανοφορεῖσθαι, though, as involving a different sense of -φορεῖσθαι ’to wear,’ these words are not exact parallels. Here the use of the middle is the more marked, inasmuch as the active occurs just below (ver. 10) in the same connexion, καρποφοροῦντες καὶ αὐξανόμενοι. This fact however points to the force of the word here. The middle is intensive, the active extensive. The middle denotes the inherent energy, the active the external diffusion. The Gospel is essentially a reproductive organism, a plant whose ‘seed is in itself.’ For this ‘dynamic’ middle see Moulton’s note on Winer § xxxviii. p. 319.

καὶ αὐξανόμενον] The Gospel is not like those plants which exhaust themselves in bearing fruit and wither away. The external growth keeps pace with the reproductive energy. While καρποφορούμενον describes the inner working, αὐξανόμενον gives the outward extension of the Gospel. The words καὶ αὐξανόμενον are not found in the received text, but the authority in their favour is overwhelming.

καθὼς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν] The comparison is thus doubled back, as it were, on itself. This irregularity disappears in the received text, καὶ ἐστὶν καρποφορούμενον καθὼς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν, where the insertion of καὶ before καρποφορούμενον straightens the construction. For a similar irregularity see 1 Thess. iv. 1 παρακαλοῦμεν ἐν Κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ ἵνα, καθὼς παρελάβετε παρ’ ἡμῶν τὸ πῶς δεῖ ὑμᾶς περιπατεῖν καὶ ἀρέσκειν Θεῷ, καθὼς καὶ περιπατεῖτε, ἵνα περισσεύητε μᾶλλον, where again the received text simplifies the construction, though in a different way, by omitting the first ἵνα and the words καθὼς καὶ περιπατεῖτε. In both cases the explanation of the irregularity is much the same; the clause reciprocating the comparison (here καθὼς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν, there καθὼς καὶ περιπατεῖτε) is an afterthought springing out of the Apostle’s anxiety not to withhold praise where praise can be given.

For the appearance of καὶ in both members of the comparison, καὶ ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ…καθὼς καὶ, comp. Rom. i. 13 καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν καθὼς καὶ ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς ἔθνεσιν; and in the reversed order below, iii. 13 καθὼς καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἐχαρίσατο ὑμῖν, οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς (with the note): see also Winer liii. p. 549 (ed. Moulton). The correlation of the clauses is thus rendered closer, and the comparison emphasized.

ἠκούσατε καὶ ἐπέγνωτε] The accusative is governed by both verbs equally,

Colossians 1:7-8

Θεοῦ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, Ἰκαθὼς ἐμάθετε ἀπὸ Ἐπαφρᾶ τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ συνδούλου ἡμῶν, ὅς ἐστιν πιστὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν διάκονος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, 8 ὁ καὶ δηλώσας ἡμῖν τὴν ὑμῶν ἀγάπην ἐν πνεύματι.

‘Ye were instructed in and fully apprehended the grace of God.’ For this sense of ἀκούειν see below, ver. 23. For ἐπιγινώσκειν as denoting ‘advanced knowledge, thorough appreciation,’ see the note on ἐπίγνωσις, ver. 9.

τὴν χάριν τοῦ Θεοῦ] St Paul’s synonyme for the Gospel. In Acts xx. 24 he describes it as his mission to preach τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ. The true Gospel as taught by Epaphras was an offer of free grace, a message from God; the false gospel, as superposed by the heretical teachers, was a code of rigorous prohibitions, a system of human devising. It was not χάρις but δόγματα (ii. 14); not τοῦ Θεοῦ but τοῦ κόσμου, τῶν ἀνθρώπων (ii. 8, 20, 22). For God’s power and goodness it substituted self-mortification and self-exaltation. The Gospel is called ἡ χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ again in 2 Cor. vi. 1, viii. 9, with reference to the same leading characteristic which the Apostle delights to dwell upon (e.g. Rom. iii. 24, v. 15, Eph. ii. 5, 8), and which he here tacitly contrasts with the doctrine of the later intruders. The false teachers of Colossæ, like those of Galatia, would lead their hearers ἀθετεῖν τὴν χάριν τοῦ Θεοῦ (Gal. ii. 21); to accept their doctrine was ἐκπίπτειν τῆς χάριτος (Gal. v. 4).

ἐν ἀληθείᾳ] i.e. ‘in its genuine simplicity, without adulteration’: see the note on τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, ver. 5.

7. καθὼς ἐμάθετε] ’even as ye were instructed in it,’ the clause being an explanation of the preceding ἐν ἀληθείᾳ; comp. ii. 7 καθὼς ἐδιδάχθητε. On the insertion of καὶ before ἐμάθετε in the received text, and the consequent obscuration of the sense, see above, p. 29 sq. The insertion however was very natural, inasmuch as καθὼς καὶ is an ordinary collocation of particles and has occurred twice in the preceding verse.

‘Ἐπαφρᾶ] On the notices of Epaphras, and on his work as the evangelist of the Colossians see above, p. 29 sq., p. 34 sq., and the note on iv. 12.

συνδούλου] See iv. 7. The word does not occur elsewhere in St Paul.

ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν] As the evangelist of Colossæ, Epaphras had represented St Paul there and preached in his stead; see above, p. 30. The other reading ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν might be interpreted in two ways: either (1) It might describe the personal ministrations of Epaphras to St Paul as the representative of the Colossians (see a similar case in Phil. ii. 25, iv. 18), and so it might be compared with Philem. 13 ἵνα ὑπὲρ σοῦ μοι διακογῇ; but this interpretation is hardly consistent with τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Or (2) It might refer to the preaching of Epaphras for the good of the Colossians; but the natural construction in this case would hardly be ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν (of which there is no direct example), but either ὑμῶν (Rom. xv. 8) or ὑμῖν (1 Pet. i. 12). The balance of external authority however is against it. Partly by the accidental interchange of similar sounds, partly by the recurrence of ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν in the context (vv. 3, 9), and partly also from ignorance of the historical circumstances, ὑμῶν would readily be substituted for ἡμῶν. See the detached note on various readings.

8. ὁ καὶ δηλώσας] ‘As he preached to you from us, so also he brought back to us from you the tidings, etc.’ ἐν πνεύματι] To be connected with τὴν ὑμῶν ἀγάπην. ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love,’ Gal. v. 22. For the

Colossians 1:9

⁹ Διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς, ἀφ’ ἧς ἡμέρας ἠκούσαμεν, οὐ πανόμεθα ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν προσευχόμενοι καὶ αἰτούμενοι ἵνα πληρωθῆτε τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ ἐν

omission of the article, τὴν ἐν πνεύματι, see the note on ver. 4.

9-14. ‘Hearing then that ye thus abound in works of faith and love, we on our part have not ceased, from the day when we received the happy tidings, to pray on your behalf. And this is the purport of our petitions; that ye may grow more and more in knowledge, till ye attain to the perfect understanding of God’s will, being endowed with all wisdom to apprehend His verities and all intelligence to follow His processes, living in the mind of the Spirit—to the end that knowledge may manifest itself in practice, that your conduct in life may be worthy of your profession in the Lord, so as in all ways to win for you the gracious favour of God your King. Thus, while ye bear fruit in every good work, ye will also grow as the tree grows, being watered and refreshed by this knowledge, as by the dew of heaven: thus ye will be strengthened in all strength, according to that power which centres in and spreads from His glorious manifestation of Himself, and nerved to all endurance under affliction and all long-suffering under provocation, not only without complaining, but even with joy: thus finally (for this is the crown of all), so rejoicing ye will pour forth your thanksgiving to the Universal Father, who prepared and fitted us all—you and us alike—to take possession of the portion which His goodness has allotted to us among the saints in the kingdom of light. Yea, by a strong arm He rescued us from the lawless tyranny of Darkness, removed us from the land of our bondage, and settled us as free citizens in our new and glorious home, where His Son, the offspring and the representative of His love, is King; even the same, who paid our ransom and thus procured our redemption from captivity—our redemption, which (be assured) is nothing else than the remission of our sins.’

9. Διὰ τοῦτο] ‘for this cause,’ i.e. ‘by reason of your progressive faith and love,’ referring not solely to ὁ καὶ δηλώτας κ.τ.λ. but to the whole of the preceding description. For διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς in an exactly similar connexion, see 1 Thess. ii. 13; comp. Ephes. i. 15 διὰ τοῦτο κἀγώ κ.τ.λ. In all these cases the καὶ denotes the response of the Apostle’s personal feeling to the favourable character of the news; ‘we on our part.’ This idea of correspondence is still further emphasized by the repetition of the same words: καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἀφ’ ἧς ἡμέρας ἠκούσατε (ver. 6), καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφ’ ἧς ἡμέρας ἠκούσαμεν (ver. 9).

καὶ αἰτούμενοι] The words have an exact parallel in Mark xi. 24 (as correctly read) πάντα ὅσα προσεύχεσθε καὶ αἰτεῖσθε.

ἵνα] With words like προσεύχεσθαι, αἰτεῖσθαι, etc., the earlier and stronger force of ἵνα, implying design, glides imperceptibly into its later and weaker use, signifying merely purport or result, so that the two are hardly separable, unless one or other is directly indicated by something in the context. See the notes on Phil. i. 9, and comp. Winer § xliv. p. 420 sq.

τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν] A favourite word in the later epistles of St Paul; see the note on Phil. i. 9. In all the four epistles of the first Roman captivity it is an element in the Apostle’s opening prayer for his correspondents’ well-being (Phil. i. 9, Ephes. i. 17, Philem. 6, and here). The greater stress which is thus laid on the contemplative aspects of the Gospel

Colossians 1:10

πάση σοφία καὶ συνέσει πνευματικῇ, ¹⁰περιπατήσαι ἀξίως τοῦ Κυρίου εἰς πᾶσαν ἀρέσκειαν· ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ may be explained partly by St Paul’s personal circumstances, partly by the requirements of the Church. His enforced retirement and comparative leisure would lead his own thoughts in this direction, while at the same time the fresh dangers threatening the truth from the side of mystic speculation required to be confronted by an exposition of the Gospel from a corresponding point of view.

The compound ἐπίγνωσις is an advance upon γνῶσις, denoting a larger and more thorough knowledge. So

Chrysostom here, ἔγνωτε, ἀλλὰ δεῖ τι καὶ ἐπιγνῶναι. Comp. Justin Mart.

Dial. 3, p. 221 A, ἡ παρέχουσα αὐτῶν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων καὶ τῶν θείων γνῶσιν, ἔπειτα τῆς τούτων θειότητος καὶ δικαιοσύνης ἐπίγνωσιν. So too St Paul

himself contrasts γινώσκειν, γνῶσις, with ἐπιγινώσκειν, ἐπίγνωσις, as the partial with the complete, in two passages, Rom. i. 21, 28, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. With this last passage (ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους, τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι) compare Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 17, p. 369, παρὰ τῶν Ἑβραϊκῶν προφητῶν μέρη τῆς ἀληθείας οὐ κατ’ ἐπίγνωσιν λαβόντες, where κατ’ ἐπίγνωσιν is commonly but wrongly translated ‘without proper recognition’ (comp. Tatian ad Grac. 40). Hence also ἐπίγνωσις is used especially of the knowledge of God and of Christ, as being the perfection of knowledge: e. g. Prov. ii. 5, Hos. iv. 1, vi. 6, Ephes. i. 17, iv. 13, 2 Pet. i. 2, 8, ii. 20, Clem. Alex. Pæd. ii. 1, p. 173.

σοφία καὶ συνέσει] ‘wisdom and intelligence.’ The two words are frequently found together: e.g. Exod. xxxi. 3, Deut. iv. 6, 1 Chron. xxii. 12, 2 Chron. i. 10 sq., Is. xi. 2, xxix. 14, Dan. ii. 20, Baruch iii. 23, 1 Cor. i. 19, Clem. Rom. 32. So too σοφοὶ καὶ συνετοί, Prov. xvi. 21, Matt. xi. 25, and elsewhere. In the parallel passage, Eph. i. 8, the words are ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει, and the substitution of φρόνησις for σύνεσις there is instructive. The three words are mentioned together, Arist. Eth. Nic. i. 13, as constituting the intellectual (διανοητικαί) virtues. Σοφία is mental excellence in its highest and fullest sense; Arist. Eth. Nic. vi. 7 ἡ ἀκριβεστάτη τῶν ἐπιστημῶν…ὥσπερ κεφαλὴν ἔχουσα ἐπιστήμη τῶν τιμιωτάτων (see Waitz on Arist. Organ. II. p. 295 sq.), Cicero de Off. i. 43 ‘princeps omnium virtutum,’ Clem. Alex. Pæd. ii. 2, p. 181, τελεία…ἐμπεριλαβοῦσα τὰ ὅλα. The Stoic definition of σοφία, as ἐπιστήμη θείων καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων καὶ τῶν τούτων αἰτιῶν, is repeated by various writers: e.g. Cic. de Off. ii. 5, Philo Congr. erud. grat. 14, p. 530, [Joseph.] Macc. 2, Clem. Alex. Pæd. ii. 2, p. 181, Strom. i. 5, p. 333, Orig. c. Cels. iii. 72, Aristob. in Eus. Præp. Eo. xiii. 12, p. 667. And the glorification of σοφία by heathen writers was even surpassed by its apotheosis in the Proverbs and in the Wisdom of Solomon. While σοφία ‘wisdom’ is thus primary and absoluto (Eth. Nic. vi. 7 μὴ μόνον τὰ ἐκ τῶν ἀρχῶν εἰδέναι ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ tὰς ἀρχὰς ἀληθεύειν), both σύνεσις ‘intelligence’ and φρόνησις ‘prudence’ are derivative and special (Eth. Nic vi. 12 τῶν ἐσχάτων καὶ τῶν καθ’ ἕκαστον). They are both applications of σοφία to details, but they work on different lines; for, while σύνεσις is critical, φρόνησις is practical; while σύνεσις apprehends the bearings of things, φρόνησις suggests lines of action: see Arist. Eth. Nic. vi. 11 ἡ μὲν γὰρ φρόνησις ἐπιτακτικὴ ἐστιν…ἢ δὲ σύνεσις κριτική. For σύνεσις see 2 Tim. ii. 7 νόει ὁ λέγω, δώσει γάρ σοι ὁ Κύριος σύνεσιν ἐν πᾶσιν. This relation of σοφία to σύνεσις explains why in almost every case σοφία (σοφός) precedes σύνεσις (συνετός), where they

I. II]

ἀγαθῷ καρποφοροῦντες καὶ αὐξανόμενοι τῇ ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ Θεοῦ· Ἦν πάσῃ δυνάμει δυναμούμενοι κατὰ τὸ

are found together, and also why in Baruch iii. 23 οἱ ἐκζητηταὶ τῆς συνέσεως, ὁδὸν δὲ σοφίας οὐκ ἔγνωσαν, we find σύνεσις implying a tentative, partial, approach to σοφία. The relation of σοφία to φρόνησις will be considered more at length in the note on the parallel passage, Ephes. i. 8.

πνευματικῇ] The word is emphatic from its position. The false teachers also offered a σοφία, but it had only a show of wisdom (ii. 23); it was an empty counterfeit calling itself philosophy (ii. 8); it was the offspring of vanity nurtured by the mind of the flesh (ii. 18). See 2 Cor. i. 12 οὐκ ἐν σοφίᾳ σαρκικῇ, where a similar contrast is implied, and 1 Cor. i. 20, ii. 5, 6, 13, iii. 19, where it is directly expressed by σοφία τοῦ κόσμου, σοφία ἀνθρώπων, σοφία τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, ἀνθρωπίνη σοφία, etc.

10. περιπατῆσαι ἀξίως κ.τ.λ.] So 1 Thess. ii. 12, Ephes. iv. 1; comp. Phil. i. 27. The infinitive here denotes the consequence (not necessarily the purpose) of the spiritual enlightenment described in ἵνα πληρωθῆτε κ.τ.λ.; see Winer § xlv. p. 399 sq. With the received text περιπατῆσαι ὑμᾶς ἀξίως κ.τ.λ. the connexion might be doubtful; but this reading is condemned by external evidence. The emphasis of the sentence would be marred by the insertion of ὑμᾶς. The end of all knowledge, the Apostle would say, is conduct.

τοῦ Κυρίου] i. e. ‘of Christ.’ In 1 Thess. ii. 12 indeed we have περιπατεῖν ἀξίως τοῦ Θεοῦ; but St Paul’s common, and apparently universal, usage requires us to understand ὁ Κύριος of Christ.

ἀρέσκειαν] i. e. ’to please God in all ways’; comp. 1 Thess iv. 1 πῶς δεῖ ὑμᾶς περιπατεῖν καὶ ἀρέσκειν Θεῷ. As this word was commonly used to describe the proper attitude of men towards God, the addition of τοῦ Θεοῦ

would not be necessary: Philo Quis rer. div. her. 24 (I. p. 490) ὡς ἀποδεχομένου (τοῦ Θεοῦ) τὰς ψυχῆς ἐκουσίου ἀρεσκείας, de Abrah. 25 (II. p. 20) τὰς πρὸς ἀρέσκειαν ὁρμᾶς, de Vict. Off. 8 (II. p. 257) διὰ πασῶν ἰέναι τῶν εἰς ἀρέσκειαν ὁδῶν, with other passages quoted by Loesner. Otherwise it is used especially of ingratiating oneself with a sovereign or potentate, e. g. Polyb. vi. 2. 12; and perhaps in the higher connexion, in which it occurs in the text, the idea of a king is still prominent, as e. g. Philo de Mund. Op. 50 (I. p. 34) πάντα καὶ λέγειν καὶ πράττειν ἐσπούδαξεν εἰς ἀρέσκειαν τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ βασιλέως. Towards men this complaisance is always dangerous and most commonly vicious; hence ἀρέσκεια is a bad quality in Aristotle [1] (Eth. End. ii. 3 τὸ λίαν πρὸς ἡδονὴν) as also in Theophrastus (Char. 5 οὐκ ἐπὶ τῷ βελτίστῳ ἡδονῆς παρασκευαστική), but towards the King of kings no obsequiousness can be excessive. The ἀρέσκεια of Aristotle and Theophrastus presents the same moral contrast to the ἀρέσκεια here, as ἀνθρώποις ἀρέσκειν to Θεῷ ἀρέσκειν in such passages as 1 Thess. ii. 4, Gal. i. 10. Opposed to the ἀρέσκεια commended here is ἀνθρωπαρέσκεια condemned below, iii. 22.

ἐν παντὶ κ.τ.λ.] i. e. ’not only showing the fruits of your faith before men (Matt. vii. 16), but yourselves growing meanwhile in moral stature (Eph. iv. 13).’ τῇ ἐπιγνώσει] ‘by the knowledge.’ The other readings, ἐν τῇ ἐπιγνώσει, εἰς τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν, are unsuccessful attempts to define the construction. The simple instrumental dative represents the knowledge of God as the dew or the rain which nurtures the growth of the plant; Deut. xxxii. 2, Hos. xiv. 5.

11. δυναμούμενοι] A word found more than once in the Greek versions of the Old Testament, Ps. lxvii (lxviii).

Colossians 1:12

κράτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ εἰς πᾶσαν ὑπομονὴν καὶ μακροθυμίαν μετὰ χαρᾶς· ¹² εὐχαριστοῦντες τῷ πατρὶ τῷ ἱκα12. τῷ ἱκανώσαντι ὑμᾶς.

29 (LXX), Eccles. x. 10 (LXX), Dan. ix. 27 (Theod.), Ps. lxiv (lxv). 4 (Aq.), Job xxxvi. 9 (Aq.), but not occurring elsewhere in the New Testament, except in Heb. xi. 34 and as a various reading in Ephes. vi. 10. The compound ἐνδυναμοῦν however appears several times in St Paul and elsewhere.

κατὰ τὸ κράτος] The power communicated to the faithful corresponds to, and is a function of, the Divine might whence it comes. Unlike δύναμις or ἰσχύς, the word κράτος in the New

Testament is applied solely to God. τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ] The ‘glory’ here, as frequently, stands for the majesty or the power or the goodness of God, as manifested to men; e.g. Eph. i. 6, 12, 17, iii. 16; comp. ver. 27, below. The δόξα, the bright light over the mercy-seat (Rom. ix. 4), was a symbol of such manifestations. God’s revelation of Himself to us, however this revelation may be made, is the one source of all our highest strength (κατὰ τὸ κράτος κ.τ.λ.).

ὑπομονὴν καὶ μακροθυμίαν] ’endurance and long-suffering.’ The two words occur in the same context in 2 Cor. vi. 4, 6, 2 Tim. iii. 10, James v. 10, 11, Clem. Rom. 58 (64). Ign. Ephes. 3. They are distinguished in Trench Synon. § liii. p. 184 sq. The difference of meaning is best seen in their opposites. While ὑπομονὴ is the temper which does not easily succumb under suffering, μακροθυμία is the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong. The one is opposed to cowardice or despondency, the other to wrath or revenge (Prok. xv. 18, xvi. 32; see also the note on iii. 12). While ὑπομονὴ is closely allied to hope (1 Thess. i. 3), μακροθυμία is commonly connected with mercy (e.g. Exod xxxiv. 6). This distinction however, though it applies generally, is not true without exception. Thus in Is. lvii. 15 μακροθυμία is opposed to ὀλιγοψυχία, where we should rather have expected ὑπομονή; and μακροθυμεῖν is used similarly in James v. 7.

μετὰ χαρᾶς] So James i. 2, 3, πᾶσαν χαρὰν ἡγήσασθε…ὅταν πειρασμοῖς περιπέσητε ποικίλοις, γινώσκοντες ὅτι τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως κατεργάζεται ὑπομονὴν κ.τ.λ.: comp. 1 Pet. iv. 13, and see below i. 24. This parallel points to the proper connexion of

μετὰ χαρᾶς, which should be attached to the preceding words. On the other hand some would connect it with εὐχαριστοῦντες for the sake of preserving the balance of the three clauses, ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ ἀγαθῷ καρποφοροῦντες, ἐν πάσῃ δυνάμει δυναμούμενοι, μετὰ χαρᾶς eὐχαριστοῦντες; and this seems to be favoured by Phil. i. 4 μετὰ χαρᾶς τὴν δέησιν ποιούμενος: but when it is so connected, the emphatic position of μετὰ χαρᾶς cannot be explained; nor indeed would these words be needed at all, for εὐχαριστία is in itself an act of rejoicing.

12. εὐχαριστοῦντες] Most naturally coordinated with the preceding participles and referred to the Colossians. The duty of thanksgiving is more than once enforced upon them below, ii. 7, iii. 17, iv. 2; comp. 1 Thess. v. 18. On the other hand the first person ἡμᾶς, which follows, has led others to connect εὐχαριστοῦντες with the primary verb of the sentence, οὐ πανόμεθα ver. 9. But, even if the reading ἡμᾶς be preferred to ὑμᾶς (which is perhaps doubtful), the sudden transition from the second to the first person is quite after St Paul’s manner (see the note on ii. 13, 14, συνεζωποίησεν ὑμᾶς… χαρισάμενος ἡμῖν), and cannot create any difficulty.

τῷ ἱκανώσαντι] ‘who made us competent’; comp. 2 Cor. iii. 6. On the

Colossians 1:13

νώσαντι ἡμᾶς εἰς τὴν μερίδα τοῦ κλήρου τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ φωτί· ¹³ὃς ἐρύσατο ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ

various readings see the detached note.

τὴν μερίδα τοῦ κλήρου] ’the parcel of the lot,’ ’the portion which consists in the lot,’ τοῦ κλήρου being the genitive of apposition: see Winer & lix. p. 666 sq., and comp. Ps. xv (xvi). 5 Κύριος μερὶς τῆς κληρονομίας μου. In Acts viii. 21 μερὶς and κλῆρος are coordinated; in Gen. xxxi. 14, Num. xviii. 20, Is. lvii. 6, μερὶς and κληρονομία. The inheritance of Canaan, the allotment of the promised land, here presents an analogy to, and supplies a metaphor for, the higher hopes of the new dispensation, as in Heb. iii. 7—iv. 11. See also below, iii. 24 τὴν ἀνταπόδοσιν τῆς κληρονομίας, and Ephes. i. 18. St Chrysostom writes, διὰ τί κλῆρον καλεῖ; δεικνὺς ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἀπὸ κατορθωμάτων οἰκείων βασιλείας τυγχάνει, referring to Luke xvii. 10. It is not won by us, but allotted to us.

ἐν τῷ φωτί] Best taken with the expression τὴν μερίδα κ.τ.λ. For the omission of the definite article, [τὴν] ἐν τῷ φωτί, see above, vv. 2, 4, 8. The portion of the saints is situated in the kingdom of light. For the whole context compare St Paul’s narrative in Acts xxvi. 18 τοῦ ἐπιστρέψαι ἀπὸ σκότους εἰς φῶς καὶ τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ Σατανᾶ ἐπὶ τὸν Θεόν, τοῦ λαβεῖν αὐτοὺς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν καὶ κλῆρον ἐν τοῖς ἡγιασμένοις, where all the ideas and many of the expressions recur. See also Acts xx. 32, in another of St Paul’s later speeches. As a classical parallel, Plato Resp. vii. p. 518 A, ἕκ τε φωτὸς εἰς σκότος μεθισταμένων καὶ ἐκ σκότους εἰς φῶς, is quoted.

13. ‘Wo were slaves in the land of darkness. God rescued us from this thraldom. He transplanted us thence, and settled us as free colonists and citizens in the kingdom of His Son, in the realms of light.’ ἐρύσατο] ‘rescued, delicered us’ by His strong arm, as a mighty conqueror: comp. ii. 15 θριαμβεύσας. On the form ἐρύσατο see A. Buttmann, p. 29: comp. Clem. Rom. 55, and see the note on ἐξερίζωσεν, ib. 6.

ἐξουσίας] Here ‘arbitrary power, tyranny.’ The word ἐξουσία properly signifies ’liberty of action’ (ἔξεστι), and thence, like the corresponding English word ’license,’ involves two secondary ideas, of which either may be so prominent as to eclipse the other; (1) ‘authority,’ ‘delegated power’ (e.g. Luke xx. 2); or (2) ’tyranny,’ ’lawlessness,’ ‘unrestrained or arbitrary power.’ For this second sense comp. e.g. Demosth. F. L. p. 428 τὴν ἄγαν ταύτην ἐξουσίαν, Xenoph. Hiero 5 τῆς εἰς τὸ παρὸν ἐξουσίας ἵνεκα (speaking of tyrants), Plut. Vit. Eum. 13 ἀνάγωγοι ταῖς ἐξουσίαις καὶ μαλακοὶ ταῖς διαίταις, Vit. Alex. 33 τὴν ἐξουσίαν καὶ τὸν ὄγκον τῆς Ἀλεξάνδρου δυνάμεως, Herodian ii. 4 καθαίρεσιν τῆς ἀνέτου ἐξουσίας. This latter idea of a capricious unruly rule is prominent here. The expression ἡ ἐξουσία τοῦ σκότους occurs also in Luke xxii. 53, where again the idea of disorder is involved. The transference from darkness to light is here represented as a transference from an arbitrary tyranny, an ἐξουσία, to a well-ordered sovereignty, a βασιλεία. This seems also to be St Chrysostom’s idea; for he explains τῆς ἐξουσίας by τῆς τυραννίδος, adding χαλεπὸν καὶ τὸ ἁπλῶς εἶναι ὑπὸ τῷ διαβόλῳ τὸ δὲ καὶ μετ’ ἐξουσίας, τοῦτο χαλεπώτερον.

μετέστησεν] ‘removed,’ when they were baptized, when they accepted Christ. The image of μετέστησεν is supplied by the wholesale transportation of peoples (ἀναστάτους or ἀνασπάστους ποιεῖν), of which the history of oriental monarchies supplied so

σκότους, καὶ μετέστησεν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς

many examples. See Joseph. Ant. ix. II. 1 τοὺς οἰκήτορας αἰχμαλωτίσας μετέστησεν εἰς τὴν αὐτοῦ βασιλείαν, speaking of Tiglath-Pileser and the Transjordanic tribes.

τοῦ υἱοῦ] Not of inferior angels, as the false teachers would have it (ii. 18), but of His own Son. The same contrast between a dispensation of angels and a dispensation of the Son underlies the words here, which is explicitly brought out in Heb. i. 1—ii. 8; see especially i. 2 ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν ἐν υἱῷ, compared with ii. 5 οὐ γὰρ ἀγγέλοις ὑπέταξεν τὴν οἰκουμένην τὴν μέλλουσαν. Severianus has rightly caught the idea underlying τοῦ υἱοῦ here; ὑπὸ τὸν κληρονόμον ἐσμέν, οὐχ ὑπὸ τοὺς οἰκέτας.

τῆς ἀγάπης αὐτοῦ] ‘of His love.’ As love is the essence of the Father (1 Joh. iv. 8, 16), so is it also of the Son. The mission of the Son is the revelation of the Father’s love; for as He is the μονογενής, the Father’s love is perfectly represented in Him (see 1 Joh. iv. 9). St Augustine has rightly interpreted St Paul’s words here, de Trin. xv. 19 (VIII. p. 993) ‘Caritas quippe Patris…nihil est quam ejus ipsa natura atque substantia…ac per hoc filius caritatis ejus nullus est alius quam qui de ejus substantia est genitus.’ See also Orig. c. Cels. v. 11. Thus these words are intimately connected with the expressions which follow, εἰκὼν τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου (ver. 15), and ἐν αὐτῷ εὐδόκησεν πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα κατοικήσαι (ver. 19). The loose interpretation, which makes τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἀγάπης equivalent to τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἠγαπημένου, destroys the whole force of the expression.

In the preceding verses we have a striking illustration of St Paul’s teaching in two important respects. First. The reign of Christ has already begun. His kingdom is a present kingdom. Whatever therefore is essential in the kingdom of Christ must be capable of realisation now. There may be some exceptional manifestation in the world to come, but this cannot alter its inherent character. In other words the sovereignty of Christ is essentially a moral and spiritual sovereignty, which has begun now and will only be perfected hereafter. Secondly. Corresponding to this, and equally significant, is his language in speaking of individual Christians. He regards them as already rescued from the power of darkness, as already put in possession of their inheritance as saints. They are potentially saved, because the knowledge of God is itself salvation, and this knowledge is within their reach. Such is St Paul’s constant mode of speaking. He uses the language not of exclusion, but of comprehension. He prefers to dwell on their potential advantages, rather than on their actual attainments. He hopes to make them saints by dwelling on their calling as saints. See especially Ephes. ii. 6 συνήγειρεν καὶ συνεκάθισεν ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ κ.τ.λ.

14. ἔχομεν] For the reading ἔσχομεν, which is possibly correct here, and which carries out the idea enforced in the last note, see the detached note on the various readings. In the parallel passage, Ephes. i. 7, there is the same variation of reading.

τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν] ‘ransom, redemption.’ The image of a captive and enslaved people is still continued: Philo Omn. prob. lib. 17 (II. p. 463) αἰχμάλωτος ἀπήχθη…ἀπογνοὺς ἀπολύτρωσιν, Plut. Vit. Pomp. 24 πόλεων αἰχμαλώτων ἀπολυτρώσεις. The metaphor however has changed from the victor who rescues the captive by force of arms (ver. 13 ἐρύσατο) to the philanthropist who releases him by the payment of a ransom. The clause which follows in the received text, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ, is interpolated from the parallel passage, Ephes. i. 7.

Colossians 1:14

ἀγάπης αὐτοῦ, ¹⁴ἐν ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν, τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν.

14. ἐν ᾧ ἔσχομεν.

τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν] So in the parallel passage, Ephes. i. 7 the Apostle defines τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν as τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν παραπτωμάτων. May not

this studied precision point to some false conception of ἀπολύτρωσις put forward by the heretical teachers? Later Gnostics certainly perverted the meaning of the term, applying it to their own formularies of initiation. This is related of the Marcosians by Irenæus i. 13. 6 διὰ τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν ἀκρατήτους καὶ ἀοράτους γίνεσθαι τῷ κριτῇ κ.τ.λ., i. 21. 1 ὅσοι γὰρ εἰσι tαύτης τῆς γνώμης μυσταγωγοί, τοσαῦtαι καὶ ἀπολυτρώσεις, ib. § 4 εἶναι δὲ tελείαν ἀπολύτρωσιν αὐτὴν τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ ἀρρήτου μεγέθους (with the whole context), and Hippolytus Har. vi. 41 λέγουσί τι φωνῇ ἀρρήτῳ, ἐπιτιθέντες χεῖρα τῷ τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν λαβόντι κ.τ.λ. (comp. ix. 13). In support of their nomenclature they perverted such passages as the text, Iren. i. 21. 2 τὸν Παῦλον ῥητῶς φάσκουσι τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ἀπολύτρωσιν πολλάκις μεμηνυκέναι. It seems not improbable that the communication of similar mystical secrets, perhaps connected with their angelology (ii. 18), was put forward by these Colossian false teachers as an ἀπολύτρωσις. Compare the words in the baptismal formula of the Marcosians as given in Iren. i. 21. 3 (comp. Theodt. Hier. Fab. i. 9) εἰς ἕνωσιν καὶ ἀπολύτρωσιν καὶ κοινωνίαν τῶν δυνάμεων, where the last words (which have been differently interpreted) must surely mean ‘communion with the (spiritual) powers.’ Thus it is a parallel to εἰς λύτρωσιν ἀγγελικὴν, which appears in an alternative formula of these heretics given likewise by Irenæus in the context; for this latter is explained in Clem. Alex. Ecc. Theod. p. 974, εἰς λύτρωσιν ἀγγελικὴν, τουτέστιν, ἣν καὶ ἄγγελοι ἔχουσιν. Any direct historical connexion between the Colossian heretics and these later Gnostics of the Valentinian school is very improbable; but the passages quoted will serve to show how a false idea of ἀπολύτρωσις would naturally be associated with an esoteric doctrine of angelic powers. See the note on i. 28 ἵνα παραστήσωμεν πάντα ἄνθρωπον τέλειον.

15 sq. In the passage which follows St Paul defines the Person of Christ, claiming for Him the absolute supremacy,

(1) In relation to the Universe, the Natural Creation (vv. 15—17);

(2) In relation to the Church, the new Moral Creation (ver. 18);

and he then combines the two, ἵνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύων, explaining this twofold sovereignty by the absolute indwelling of the pleroma in Christ, and showing how, as a consequence, the reconciliation and harmony of all things must be effected in Him (vv. 19, 20).

As the idea of the Logos underlies the whole of this passage, though the term itself does not appear, a few words explanatory of this term will be necessary by way of preface. The word λόγος then, denoting both ‘reason’ and ‘speech,’ was a philosophical term adopted by Alexandrian Judaism before St Paul wrote, to express the manifestation of the Unseen God, the Absolute Being, in the creation and government of the World. It included all modes by which God makes Himself known to man. As

His reason, it denoted His purpose or design; as His speech, it implied His revelation. Whether this λόγος was conceived merely as the divine energy personified, or whether the

Colossians 1:15

15 ὃς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, πρωτότοκος

conception took a more concrete form, I need not stop now to enquire; but I hope to give a fuller account of the matter in a later volume. It is sufficient for the understanding of what follows to say that Christian teachers, when they adopted this term, exalted and fixed its meaning by attaching to it two precise and definite ideas: (1) ‘The Word is a Divine Person,’ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος; and (2) ‘The Word became incarnate in Jesus Christ,’ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο. It is obvious that these two propositions must have altered materially the significance of all the subordinate terms connected with the idea of the λόγος; and that therefore their use in Alexandrian writers, such as Philo, cannot be taken to define, though it may be brought to illustrate, their meaning in St Paul and St John. With these cautions the Alexandrian phraseology, as a providential preparation for the teaching of the Gospel, will afford important aid in the understanding of the Apostolic writings.

15-17. He is the perfect image, the visible representation, of the unseen God. He is the Firstborn, the absolute Heir of the Father, begotten before the ages; the Lord of the Universe by virtue of primogeniture, and by virtue also of creative agency. For in and through Him the whole world was created, things in heaven and things on earth, things visible to the outward eye and things cognisable by the inward perception. His supremacy is absolute and universal. All powers in heaven and earth are subject to Him. This subjection extends even to the most exalted and most potent of angelic beings, whether they be called Thrones or Dominations or Princedoms or Powers, or whatever title of dignity men may confer upon them. Yes: He is first and He is last. Through Him, as the mediatorial Word, the universe has been created; and unto Him, as the final goal, it is tending. In Him is no before or after. He is pre-existent and self-existent before all the worlds. And in Him, as the binding and sustaining power, universal nature coheres and consists.’

15. ὃς ἐστιν κ.τ.λ.] The Person of Christ is described first in relation more especially to Deity, as εἰκὼν τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, and secondly in relation more especially to created things, as πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως. The fundamental conception of the Logos involves the idea of mediation between God and creation. A perverted view respecting the nature of the mediation between the two lay, as we have seen, at the root of the heretical teaching at Colossæ (p. 34, p. 101 sq., p. 115 sq.), and required to be met by the true doctrine of Christ as the Eternal Logos.

εἰκὼν] ’the image.’ This expression is used repeatedly by Philo, as a description of the Logos; de Mund. Op. 8 (1. p. 6) τὸν ἀόρατον καὶ νοητὸν θεῖον λόγον εἰκόνα λέγει Θεοῦ, de Confus. ling. 20 (1. p. 419) τὴν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ, τὸν ἱερώτατον λόγον, ib. § 28 (1. p. 427) τῆς ἀϊδίου εἰκόνος αὐτοῦ λόγον τοῦ ἱερωτάτου κ.τ.λ., de Proffus. 19 (1. p. 561) ὁ ὑπεράνω τούτων λόγος θεῖος…αὐτὸς εἰκὼν ὑπάρχων Θεοῦ, de Monarch. ii. 5 (II. p. 225) λόγος δὲ ἐστιν εἰκὼν Θεοῦ δι’ οὗ σύμπας ὁ κόσμος ἐδημιουργεῖτο, de Somn. i. 41 (I. p. 656), etc. For the use which Philo made of the text Gen. i. 26, 27, κατ’ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν, κατ’ εἰκόνα Θεοῦ, see the note on iii. 10. Still earlier than Philo, before the idea of the λόγος had assumed such a definite form, the term was used of the Divine σοφία personified in Wisd. vii. 26 ἀπαύγασμα γὰρ ἐστι φωτὸς αἰδίου…καὶ εἰκὼν τῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐτοῦ. St Paul himself applies the term to our Lord in an earlier epistle, 2 Cor. iv. 4 τῆς δόξης

τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὃς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ Θεοῦ (comp. iii. 18 τὴν αὐτὴν εἰκόνα μεταμορφούμεθα). Closely allied to εἰκὼν also is χαρακτήρ, which appears in the same connexion in Heb. i. 3 ὧν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτήρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ, a passage illustrated by Philo de Plant. 5 (i. p. 332) σφραγίδι Θεοῦ ἧς ὁ χαρακτήρ ἐστιν αἰδίος λόγος. See also Phil. ii. 6 ἐν μορφῇ Θεοῦ ὑπάρχων.

Beyond the very obvious notion of likeness, the word εἰκὼν involves two other ideas;

(1) Representation. In this respect it is allied to χαρακτήρ, and differs from ὁμοίωμα. In ὁμοίωμα the resemblance may be accidental, as one egg is like another; but εἰκὼν implies an archetype of which it is a copy, as Greg. Naz. Orat. 30 (i. p. 554) says αὕτη γὰρ εἰκόνος φύσις μίμημα εἶναι τοῦ ἀρχιετύπου. So too Io. Damasc. de Imag. i. 9 (i. p. 311) εἰκὼν ἐστιν ὁμοίωμα χαρακτηρίζου τὸ πρωτότυπον; comp. Philo de Mund. Op. 23 (i. p. 16). On this difference see Trench N. T. Synon. § xv. p. 47. The εἰκὼν might be the result of direct imitation (μιμητική) like the head of a sovereign on a coin, or it might be due to natural causes (φυσική) like the parental features in the child, but in any case it was derived from its prototype: see Basil. de Spir. Sanct. 18 § 45 (III. p. 38). The word itself however does not necessarily imply perfect representation. Thus man is said to be the image of God; 1 Cor. xi. 7 εἰκὼν καὶ δόξα Θεοῦ ὑπάρχων, Clem. Rom. 33 ἄνθρωπον…τῆς ἑαυτοῦ εἰκόνος χαρακτήρα. Thus again an early Judæo-Christian writer so designates the duly appointed bishop, as the representative of the Divine authority; Clem. Hom. iii. 62 ὡς εἰκόνα Θεοῦ προτιμῶντας. The idea of perfection does not lie in the word itself, but must be sought from the context (e.g. πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα ver. 19). The use which was made of this expression, and especially of this passage, in the

Christological controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries may be seen from the patristic quotations in Petav. Theol. Dogm. de Trin. ii. 11. 9 sq., vi. 5. 6.

(2) Manifestation. This idea comes from the implied contrast to τοῦ ἀοράτου Θεοῦ. St Chrysostom indeed maintains the direct opposite, arguing that, as the archetype is invisible, so the image must be invisible also, ἡ τοῦ ἀοράτου εἰκὼν καὶ αὐτὴ ἀόρατος καὶ ὁμοίως ἀόρατος. So too Hilary c. Const. Imp. 21 (II. p. 378) ‘ut imago invisibilis Dei, etiam per id quod ipso invisibilis est, invisibilis Dei imago esset.’ And this was the view of the Nicene and post-Nicene fathers generally. But the underlying idea of the εἰκών, and indeed of the λόγος generally, is the manifestation of the hidden: comp. Philo de Vit. Moys. ii. 12 (II. p. 144) εἰκὼν τῆς ἀοράτου φύσεως ἐμφανής. And adopted into Christian theology, the doctrine of the λόγος expresses this conception still more prominently by reason of the Incarnation; comp. Tertull. adv. Marc. v. 19 ‘Scientes filium semper retro visum, si quibus visus est in Dei nomine, ut imaginem ipsius,’ Hippol. c. Noet. 7 διὰ γὰρ τῆς εἰκόνος ὁμοίας τυγχανοῦσης εὔγνωστος ὁ πατὴρ γίνεται, ib. § 12, 13, Orig. in Ioann. vi. § 2 (IV. p. 104). Among the post-Nicene fathers too St Basil has caught the right idea, Epist. xxxviii. 8 (III. p. 121) ὁ τῆς εἰκόνος κατανοήσας κάλλος ἐν περινοίᾳ τοῦ ἀρχιετύπου γίνεται…βλέπειν διὰ τούτου ἐκείνον…τὸ ἀγέννητον κάλλος ἐν τῷ γεννητῷ κατοπτεύσας. The Word, whether pre-incarnate or incarnate, is the revelation of the unseen Father: comp. John i. 18 Θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν πώποτε· μονογενῆς Θεός, ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρός, ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο, xiv. 9, 10 ὁ ἑώρακας ἐμὲ ἑώρακεν τὸν πατέρα· πῶς σὺ λέγεις, Δεῖξον ἡμῖν τὸν πατέρα; (compared with vi. 46 οὐχ ὅτι τὸν πατέρα ἑώρακέν τις κ.τ.λ.). The epithet ἀοράτου however must not be confined to the ap-

COL.

prehension of the bodily senses, but will include the cognisance of the inward eye also.

πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως] ’the First-born of all creation.’ The word πρωτότοκος has a twofold parentage:

(1) Like εἰκών it is closely connected with and taken from the Alexandrian vocabulary of the Logos. The word however which Philo applies to the λόγος is not πρωτότοκος but πρωτόγονος: de Agric. 12 (I. p. 308) προστησόμενος τὸν ὀρθὸν αὐτοῦ λόγον πρωτόγονον υἱόν, de Somm. i. 37 (I. p. 653) ὁ πρωτόγονος αὐτοῦ θεῖος λόγος, de Confus. ling. i. 28 (I. p. 427) σπουδαξίτω κοσμεῖσθαι κατὰ τὸν πρωτόγονον αὐτοῦ λόγον: comp. ib. i. 14 (I. p. 414) τοῦτον πρεσβύτατον υἱὸν ὁ τῶν ὄντων ἀνέτειλε πατήρ, ον ἑτέρωθι πρωτόγονον ὠνόμασε: and this designation πρεσβύτατος υἱὸς is several times applied to the λόγος. Again in Quis ver. div. her. § 24 (I. p. 489) the language of Exod. xiii. 2 ἁγίασόν μοι πᾶν πρωτότοκον πρωτογενές κ.τ.λ. is so interpreted as to apply to the Divine Word. These appellations, ’the first-begotten, the eldest son,’ are given to the Logos by Philo, because in his philosophy it includes the original conception, the archetypal idea, of creation, which was afterwards realised in the material world. Among the early Christian fathers Justin Martyr again and again recognises the application of the term πρωτότοκος to the Word; Apol. i. 23 (p. 68) λόγος αὐτοῦ ὑπάρχων καὶ πρωτότοκος καὶ δύναμις, ib. § 46 (p. 83) τὸν Χριστὸν πρωτότοκον τοῦ Θεοῦ εἶναι .. λόγον ὄντα οὗ πᾶν γένος ἀνθρώπων μετέσχε, ib. § 33 (p. 75 o) τὸν λόγον ὃς καὶ πρωτότοκος τῷ Θεῷ ἐστι. So too Theophilus ad Autol. ii. 22 τοῦτον τὸν λόγον ἐγεννησεν προφορικόν, πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως.

(2) The word πρωτότοκος had also another not less important link of connexion with the past. The Messianic reference of Ps. lxxxix. 28, ἐγὼ πρωτότοκον θήσομαι αὐτὸν κ.τ.λ., seems to have been generally allowed. So at least it is interpreted by R. Nathan in Shemoth Rabba 19, fol. 118. 4, ‘God said, As I made Jacob a first-born (Exod. iv. 22), so also will I make king Messiah a first-born (Ps. lxxxix. 28).’ Hence ’the first-born’ ὁ πρωτότοκος (בכור) used absolutely, became a recognised title of Messiah. The way had been paved for this Messianic reference of πρωτότοκος by its prior application to the Israelites, as the prerogative race, Exod. iv. 22 ‘Israel is my son, my first-born’: comp. Psalm. Salom. xviii. 4 ἡ παιδεία σου ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς ὡς υἱὸν πρωτότοκον μονογενῆ, 4 Esdr. vi. 58 ’nos populus tuus, quem vocasti primogenitum, unigenitum,’ where the combination of the two titles applied in the New Testament to the Son is striking. Here, as elsewhere (see the note on Gal. iii. 16 καὶ τοῖς σπέρμασιν κ.τ.λ.), the terms are transferred from the race to the Messiah, as the representative, the embodiment, of the race.

As the Person of Christ was the Divine response alike to the philosophical questionings of the Alexandrian Jew and to the patriotic hopes of the Palestinian, these two currents of thought meet in the term πρωτότοκος as applied to our Lord, who is both the true Logos and the true Messiah. For this reason, we may suppose, as well as for others, the Christian Apostles preferred πρωτότοκος to πρωτόγονος, which (as we may infer from Philo) was the favourite term with the Alexandrians, because the former alone would include the Messianic reference as well.

The main ideas then which the word involves are twofold; the one more directly connected with the Alexandrian conception of the Logos, the other more nearly allied to the Palestinian conception of the Messiah.

(1) Priority to all creation. In other words it declares the absolute pre-existence of the Son. At first sight it might seem that Christ is here regarded as one, though the earliest, of created beings. This interpretation however is not required by the expression itself. The fathers of the fourth century rightly called attention to the fact that the Apostle writes not πρωτόκτιστος, but πρωτότοκος; e.g. Basil. c. Eunom. iv (i. p. 292). Much earlier, in Clem. Alex. Exc. Theod. 10 (p. 970), though without any direct reference to this passage, the μονογενής καὶ πρωτότοκος is contrasted with the πρωτόκτιστοι, the highest order of angelic beings; and the word πρωτόκτιστος occurs more than once elsewhere in his writings (e.g. Strom. v. 14, p. 699). Nor again does the genitive case necessarily imply that the πρωτότοκος Himself belonged to the κτίσις, as will be shown presently. And if this sense is not required by the words themselves, it is directly excluded by the context. It is inconsistent alike with the universal agency in creation which is ascribed to Him in the words following, ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα, and with the absolute pre-existence and self-existence which is claimed for Him just below, αὐτὸς ἔστιν πρὸ πάντων. We may add also that it is irreconcilable with other passages in the Apostolic writings, while it contradicts the fundamental idea of the Christian consciousness. More especially the description πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως must be interpreted in such a way that it is not inconsistent with His other title of μονογενής, unicus, alone of His kind and therefore distinct from created things. The two words express the same eternal fact; but while μονογενής states it in itself, πρωτότοκος places it in relation to the Universe. The correct interpretation is supplied by Justin Martyr, Dial. § 100 (p. 326 b) πρωτότοκον τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ πρὸ πάντων τῶν κτισμάτων. He does not indeed mention this passage, but it was doubtless in his mind, for he elsewhere uses the very expression πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, Dial. § 85 (p. 311 b), § 138 (p. 367 b); comp. also § 84 (p. 310 b), where the words πρω-

τότοκος τῶν πάντων ποιημάτων occur.

(2) Sovereignty over all creation. God’s ‘first-born’ is the natural ruler, the acknowledged head, of God’s household. The right of primogeniture appertains to Messiah over all created things. Thus in Ps. lxxxix. 28 after πρωτότοκον θήσομαι αὐτὸν the explanation is added, ὑψηλὸν παρὰ τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν τῆς γῆς, i.e. (as the original implies) ‘above all the kings of the earth.’ In its Messianic reference this secondary idea of sovereignty predominated in the word πρωτότοκος, so that from this point of view πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως would mean ‘Sovereign Lord over all creation by virtue of primogeniture.’ The ἔθηκεν κληρόνομον πάντων of the Apostolic writer (Heb. i. 2) exactly corresponds to the θήσομαι πρωτότοκον of the Psalmist (lxxxix. 28), and doubtless was tacitly intended as a paraphrase and application of this Messianic passage. So again in Heb. xii. 23, ἐκκλησίᾳ πρωτοτόκων, the most probable explanation of the word is that which makes it equivalent to ‘heirs of the kingdom,’ all faithful Christians being ipso facto πρωτότοκοι, because all are kings. Nay, so completely might this idea of dominion by virtue of priority eclipse the primary sense of the term ‘first-born’ in some of its uses, that it is given as a title to God Himself by R. Bechai on the Pentateuch, fol. 124. 4, ‘Who is primogenitus mundi,’ שָׁהוּא בְּכוֹרוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, i.e. ὃς ἔστιν πρωτότοκος τοῦ κόσμου, as it would be rendered in Greek. In this same work again, fol. 74. 4, Exod. xiii. 2 is falsely interpreted so that God is represented as calling Himself ‘primogenitus’: see Schöttgen p. 922. For other instances of secondary uses of בְּכוֹר in the Old Testament, where the idea of ‘priority of birth’ is overshadowed by and lost in the idea of ‘pre-eminence,’ see Job xviii. 13 ’the first-born of death,’ Is. xiv. 30 ’the first-born of the poor.’ πάσης κτίσεως] ‘of all creation,’

10-2 rather than ‘of every created thing.’ The three senses of κτίσις in the New Testament are: (1) creation, as the act of creating, e.g. Rom. i. 20 ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου: (2) creation, as the aggregate of created things, Mark xiii. 19 ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς κτίσεως ἦν ἔκτισεν ὁ Θεός (where the parallel passage, Matt. xxiv. 21, has ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς κόσμου), Rom. viii. 22 πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις συστενάζει: (3) a creation, a single created thing, a creature, e.g. Rom. viii. 39 οὔτε τις κτίσις ἑτέρα, Heb. iv. 13 οὐκ ἔστιν κτίσις ἀφανής. As κτίσις without the definite article is sometimes used of the created world generally (e.g. Mark xiii. 19), and indeed belongs to the category of anarthrous nouns like κόσμος, γῆ, οὐρανός, etc. (see Winer § xix. p. 149 sq.), it is best taken so here. Indeed πάσης κτίσεως, in the sense of πάντος κτίσματος, would be awkward in this connexion; for πρωτότοκος seems to require either a collective noun, or a plural πασῶν τῶν κτίσεων. In ver. 23 the case is different (see the note there). The anarthrous πᾶσα κτίσις is found in Judith ix. 12 βασιλεῦ πάσης κτίσεώς σου, while πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις occurs in Judith xvi. 14, Mark xvi. 15, Rom. viii. 22, Clem. Rom. 19, Mart. Polyc. 14. For πᾶς, signifying ‘all,’ and not ’every,’ when attached to this class of nouns, see Winer § xviii. p. 137.

The genitive case must be interpreted so as to include the full meaning of πρωτότοκος, as already explained. It will therefore signify: ‘He stands in the relation of πρωτότοκος to all creation,’ i.e. ‘He is the Firstborn, and, as the Firstborn, the absolute Heir and sovereign Lord, of all creation.’ The connexion is the same as in the passage of R. Bechai already quoted, where God is called primogenitus mundi. Another explanation which would connect the genitive with the first part of the compound alone (πρωτό-), comparing Joh. i. 15, 30, πρῶτός μου ἦν, unduly strains the grammar, while it excludes the idea of ‘heirship, sovereignty.’

The history of the patristic exegesis of this expression is not without a painful interest. All the fathers of the second and third centuries without exception, so far as I have noticed, correctly refer it to the Eternal

Word and not to the Incarnate Christ, to the Deity and not to the humanity of our Lord. So Justin l.c., Theophilus l.c., Clement of Alexandria Exc. Theod. 7, 8, 19 (pp. 967, 973), Tertullian adv. Prax. 7, adv. Marc. v. 19, Hippolytus Har. x. 33, Origen c. Cels. vi. 47, 63, 64, etc., in Ioann. i. § 22 (iv. p. 21), xix. § 5 (p. 305), xxviii. § 14 (p. 392), Cyprian Test. ii. 1, Novatian de Trin. 16, and the Synod of Antioch (Routh’s Rel. Sacr. III. pp. 290, 293). The Arian controversy however gave a different turn to the exegesis of the passage. The Arians fastened upon the expression πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, and drew from it the inference that the Son was a created being.

The great use which they made of the text appears from the document in Hilary, Fragm. Hist. Op. II. p. 644. The right answer to this false interpretation we have already seen. Many orthodox fathers however, not satisfied with this, transferred the expression into a new sphere, and

maintained that πρωτότοκος πάσης

κτίσεως describes the Incarnate Christ. By so doing they thought to cut up the Arian argument by the roots. As a consequence of this interpretation, they were obliged to understand the κτίσις and the κτίζεσθαι in the context of the new spiritual creation, the καινὴ κτίσις of 2 Cor. v. 17, Gal. vi. 15. Thus interpreted, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως here becomes nearly equivalent to πρωτότοκος ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδελφοῖς in Rom. viii. 29. The arguments alleged in favour of this interpretation are mainly twofold: (1) That, if applied to the Divine nature, πρωτότοκος would contradict μονογενής which elsewhere describes the nature of the

Eternal Son. But those who maintained, and rightly maintained, that πρωτότοκος (Luke ii. 7) did not necessarily imply that the Lord’s mother had other sons, ought not to have been led away by this fallacy. (2) That πρωτότοκος in other passages (e.g. Rom. viii. 29, Rev. i. 5, and just below, ver. 18) is applied to the humanity of Christ. But elsewhere, in Heb. i. 6 ὅταν δὲ πάλιν εἰσαγάγῃ τὸν πρωτότοκον κ.τ.λ., the term must almost necessarily refer to the pre-existence of the Son; and moreover the very point of the Apostle’s language in the text (as will be seen presently) is the parallelism in the two relations of our Lord—His relation to the natural creation, as the Eternal Word, and His relation to the spiritual creation, as the Head of the Church—so that the same word (πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως ver. 15, πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν ver. 18) is studiously used of both. A false exegesis is sure to bring a nemesis on itself. Logical consistency required that this interpretation should be carried farther; and Marcellus, who was never deterred by any considerations of prudence, took this bold step. He extended the principle to the whole context, including even εἰκὼν τοῦ ἀοράτου Θεοῦ, which likewise he interpreted of our Lord’s humanity. In this way a most important Christological passage was transferred into an alien sphere; and the strongest argument against Arianism melted away in the attempt to combat Arianism on false grounds. The criticisms of Eusebius on Marcellus are perfectly just: Eccl. Theol. i. 20 (p. 96) ταῦτα περὶ τῆς θεότητος τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, κἂν μὴ Μαρκέλλῳ δοκῇ, εἴρηται οὐ γὰρ περὶ τῆς σαρκὸς εἶπεν ἂν τοσαῦτα ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος κ.τ.λ.; comp. ib. ii. 9 (p. 67), iii. 6 sq. (p. 175), c. Marcell. i. 1 (p. 6), i. 2 (p. 12), ii. 3 (pp. 43, 46 sq., 48). The objections to this interpretation are threefold: (1) It disregards the history of the terms in their connexion with the pre-

Christian speculations of Alexandrian Judaism. These however, though directly or indirectly they were present to the minds of the earlier fathers and kept them in the right exegetical path, might very easily have escaped a writer in the fourth century. (2) It shatters the context. To suppose that such expressions as ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα [τὰ] ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ [τὰ] ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, or τὰ πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ …ἔκτισται, or τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν, refer to the work of the Incarnation, is to strain language in a way which would reduce all theological exegesis to chaos; and yet this, as Marcellus truly saw, is a strictly logical consequence of the interpretation which refers πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως to Christ’s humanity. (3) It takes no account of the cosmogony and angelology of the false teachers against which the Apostle’s exposition here is directed (see above, pp. 101 sq., 110 sq., 115 sq.). This interpretation is given by St Athanasius c. Arian. ii. 62 sq. (I. p. 419 sq.) and appears again in Greg. Nyss. c. Eunom. ii. (II. pp. 451—453, 492), ib. iii. (II. p. 540—545), de Perf. (III. p. 290 sq.), Cyril Alex. Thes. 25, p. 236 sq., de Trin. Dial. iv. p. 517 sq., vi. p. 625 sq., Anon. Chrysost. Op. VIII. p. 223, appx. (quoted as Chrysostom by Photius Bibl. 277). So too Cyril expresses himself at the Council of Ephesus, Labb. Conc. III. p. 652 (ed. Colet). St Athanasius indeed does not confine the expression to the condescension (συγκατάβασις) of the Word in the Incarnation, but includes also a prior condescension in the Creation of the world (see Bull Def. Fid. Nic. iii. 9 § 1, with the remarks of Newman Select Treatises of S. Athanasius I. pp. 278, 368 sq.). This double reference however only confuses the exegesis of the passage still further, while theologically it might lead to very serious difficulties. In another work, Expos. Fid. 3 (I. p. 80), he seems to take a truer view of its meaning. St Basil,

Colossians 1:16

πάσης κτίσεως· ¹⁶ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα, [τὰ]

who to an equally clear appreciation of doctrine generally unites a sounder exegesis than St Athanasius, while mentioning the interpretation which refers the expression to Christ’s human nature, himself prefers explaining it of the Eternal Word; c. Eunom. iv. (i. p. 292). Of the Greek commentators on this passage, Chrysostom’s view is not clear; Severianus (Cram. Cat. p. 303) and Theodoret understand it rightly of the Eternal Word; while Theodore of Mopsuestia (Cram. Cat. pp. 306, 308, 309, Rab. Maur. Op. vi. p. 511 sq. ed. Migne) expresses himself very strongly on the opposite side. Like Marcellus, he carries the interpretation consistently into the whole context, explaining ἐν αὐτῷ to refer not to the original creation (κτίσις) but to the moral re-creation (ἀνάκτισις), and referring εἰκών to the Incarnation in the same way. At a later date, when the pressure of an immediate controversy has passed away, the Greek writers generally concur in the earlier and truer interpretation of the expression. Thus John Damasceno (de Orthod. Fid. iv. 8, 1. p. 258 sq.), Theophylact (ad loc.), and Ecumenius (ad loc.), all explain it of Christ’s Divine Nature. Among Latin writers there is more diversity of interpretation. While Marius Victorinus (adn. Arium i. 24, p. 1058, ed. Migne), Hilary of Poictiers (Tract. in ii Ps. § 28 sq., 1. p. 47 sq.; de Trin. viii. 50, ii. p. 248 sq.), and Hilary the commentator (ad loc.), take it of the Divine Nature, Augustine (Expos. ad Rom. 56, iii. p. 914) and Pelagius (ad loc.) understand it of the Incarnate Christ. This sketch of the history of the interpretation of the expression would not be complete without a reference to another very different explanation. Isidore of Pelusium, Epist. iii. 31 (p. 268), would strike out a new path of interpretation altogether (εἰ καὶ δόξαιμί τισι καινοτέραν ἑρμηνείας ἀνατέμνειν ὁδόν), and for the passive πρωτότοκος suggests reading the active πρωτοτόκος, alluding to the use of this latter word in Homer (Il. xvii. 5 μήτηρ πρωτοτόκος…οὐ πρὶν εἰδύϊα τόκοιον: comp. Plat. Theat. 151 c ὥσπερ αἱ πρωτοτόκοι). Thus St Paul is made to say that Christ πρῶτον τετοκέναι, τουτέστι, πεποιηκέναι τὴν κτίσιν.

16. ὅτι κ.τ.λ.] We have in this sentence the justification of the title given to the Son in the preceding clause, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως. It must therefore be taken to explain the sense in which this title is used. Thus connected, it shows that the πρωτότοκος Himself is not included in πάσα κτίσις; for the expression used is not τὰ ἄλλα or τὰ λοιπά, but τὰ πάντα ἐκτίσθη—words which are absolute and comprehensive, and will admit no exception.

ἐν αὐτῷ] ‘in Him,’ as below ver. 17 ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν. For the preposition comp. Acts xvii. 28 ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ ζῶμεν καὶ κινούμεθα καὶ ἐσμεν. All the laws and purposes which guide the creation and government of the Universe reside in Him, the Eternal Word, as their meeting-point. The Apostolic doctrine of the Logos teaches us to regard the Eternal Word as holding the same relation to the Universe which the Incarnate Christ holds to the Church. He is the source of its life, the centre of all its developments, the mainspring of all its motions. The use of ἐν to describe His relations to the Church abounds in St Paul (e.g. Rom. viii. 1, 2, xii. 5, xvi. 3, 7, 9, etc., 1 Cor. i. 30, iv. 15, 17, vii. 39, xv. 18, 22, etc.), and more especially in the Epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians (e.g. below ii. 7, 10). In the present passage, as in ver. 17, the same preposition is applied also to His relations to the Universe; comp. Joh. i. 4 ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν (more especially if we connect the preceding ὁ γέγονεν with it)

ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ [τὰ] ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ

Thus it is part of the parallelism which runs through the whole passage, and to which the occurrence of πρωτότοκος in both relations gives the key. The Judæo-Alexandrian teachers represented the Logos, which in their view was nothing more than the Divine mind energizing, as the τόπος where the eternal ideas, the νοητὸς κόσμος, had their abode; Philo de Mund. Op. 4 (I. p. 4) ὅσαπερ ἐν ἐκείνῳ νοητά, ib. § 5 (p. 4) οὐδὲ ὁ ἐκ τῶν ἰδεῶν κόσμος ἄλλον ἂν ἔχει τόπον ἢ τὸν θεῖον λόγον τὸν ταῦτα διακοσμήσαντα, ib. § 10 (p. 8) ὁ ἀσώματος κόσμος… ἱδρυθεὶς ἐν τῷ θεῷ λόγῳ; and see especially de Migr. Abr. 1 (I. p. 437) οἶκος ἐν ᾧ διαστάται… ὅσα ἂν ἐνθυμήματα τέκῃ, ὥσπερ ἐν οἴκῳ τῷ λόγῳ διαθεῖς. The Apostolic teaching is an enlargement of this conception, inasmuch as the Logos is no longer a philosophical abstraction but a Divine Person: see Hippol. Hær. x. 33 αἴτιον τοῖς γινομένοις Λόγος ἦν, ἐν ἑαυτῷ φέρων τὸ θέλειν τοῦ γεγεννηκότος… ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὰς ἐν τῷ πατρὶ προεννοηθεῖσας ἰδέας ὅθεν κελεύοντος πατρὸς γίνεσθαι κόσμον τὸ κατὰ ἓν Λόγος ἀπετελεῖτο ἀρίσκων Θεῷ: comp. Orig. in Ioann. i. § 22, iv. p. 21.

ἐκτίσθη] The aorist is used here; the perfect below. Ἐκτίσθη describes the definite historical act of creation; ἔκτισται the continuous and present relations of creation to the Creator: comp. Joh. i. 3 χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἓν with ib. ὁ γέγονεν, 1 Cor. ix. 22 ἐγενόμην τοῖς ἀσθενίσιν ἀσθενής with ib. τοῖς πᾶσιν γέγονα πάντα, 2 Cor. xii. 17 μὴ τινα ὧν ἀπέσταλκα with ver. 18 καὶ συναπέστειλα τὸν ἀδελφόν, 1 Joh. iv. 9 τὸν μονογενῆ ἀπέσταλκεν ὁ Θεὸς εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἵνα ζήσωμεν δι’ αὐτοῦ with ver. 10 ὅτι αὐτὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς καὶ ἀπέστειλεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ.

τὰ πάντα] ’the universe of things,’ not πάντα ‘all things severally,’ but τὰ πάντα ‘all things collectively.’ With very few exceptions, wherever this phrase occurs elsewhere, it stands in a similar connexion; see below, vv. 17, 20, iii. 11, Rom. xi. 36, 1 Cor. viii. 6, xi. 12, xii. 6, xv. 27, 28, 2 Cor. v. 18, Eph. i. 10, 11, 23, iv. 10, Heb. i. 3, ii. 8, Rev. iv. 11. Compare Rom. viii. 32 τὰ πάντα ἡμῖν χαρίσεται, 2 Cor. iv. 15 τὰ πάντα δι’ ὑμᾶς, with 1 Cor. iii. 22 εἶτε κόσμος… ὑμῶν; and Phil. iii. 8 τὰ πάντα ἐζημιώθην with Matt. xvi. 26 ἐὰν τὸν κόσμον ὅλον κερδῆσῃ. Thus it will appear that τὰ πάντα is nearly equivalent to ’the universe.’ It stands midway between πάντα and τὸ πᾶν. The last however is not a scriptural phrase; for, while with τὰ πάντα it involves the idea of connexion, it suggests also the unscriptural idea of self-contained unity, the great world-soul of the Stoic pantheist.

ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς κ.τ.λ.] This division of the universe is not the same with the following, as if [τὰ] ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς were equivalent to τὰ ἀόρατα and [τὰ] ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς to τὰ ὁρατά. It should rather be compared with Gen. ii. 1 ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, ii. 1 συνετελέσθησαν ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ καὶ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος αὐτῶν, xiv. 19 ὃς ἔκτισεν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν, Rev. x. 6 ὃς ἔκτισεν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ. It is a classification by locality, as the other is a classification by essences. Heaven and earth together comprehend all space; and all things whether material or immaterial are conceived for the purposes of the classification as having their abode in space. Thus the sun and the moon would belong to ὁρατά, but they would be ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς; while the human soul would be classed among ἀόρατα but would be regarded as ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς; see below ver. 20.

It is difficult to say whether τὰ…τὰ should be expunged or retained. The elements in the decision are; (1) The facility either of omission or of addition in the first clause, owing to the

ἀόρατα, εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες, εἴτε ἀρχαὶ εἴτε

termination of πάντα: (2) The much greater authority for the omission in the first clause than in the second. These two combined suggest that τὰ was omitted accidentally in the first clause, and then expunged purposely in the second for the sake of uniformity. On the other hand there is (3) The possibility of insertion in both cases either for the sake of grammatical completeness or owing to the parallel passages, ver. 20, Ephes. i. 10. On the whole the reasons for their omission preponderate. At all events we can hardly retain the one without the other.

τὰ ὄρατὰ κ.τ.λ.] ‘Things material and immaterial,’ or, according to the language of philosophy, φαινόμενα and νούμενα: comp. Plato Phad. 79 A θῶμεν οἶν, εἰ βούλει, ἔφη, δύο εἴδη τῶν ὄντων, τὸ μὲν ὄρατόν, τὸ δὲ ἀειδές, κ.τ.λ.

εἴτε κ.τ.λ.] ‘whether they be thrones or lordships, etc.’ The subdivision is no longer exhaustive. The Apostle singles out those created beings that from their superior rank had been or might be set in rivalry with the Son.

A comparison with the parallel passage Ephes. i. 21, ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας καὶ δυνάμεως καὶ κυριότητος καὶ παντὸς κ.τ.λ., brings out the following points:

(1) No stress can be laid on the sequence of the names, as though St Paul were enunciating with authority some precise doctrine respecting the grades of the celestial hierarchy. The names themselves are not the same in the two passages. While ἀρχή, ἐξουσία, κυριότης, are common to both, θρόνος is peculiar to the one and δύναμις to the other. Nor again is there any correspondence in the sequence. Neither does δύναμις take the place of θρόνος, nor do the three words common to both appear in the same order, the sequence being ἀρχ. ἐξ. [δύν.] κυρ. in Eph. i. 21, and [θρόν.] κυρ. ἀρχ. ἐξ. here.

(2) An expression in Eph. i. 21 shows the Apostle’s motive in introducing these lists of names: for he there adds καὶ παντὸς ὀνόματος ὀνομαζομένου οὐ μόνον ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τοίτῳ ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι, i.e. ‘of every dignity or title (whether real or imaginary) which is reverenced,’ etc.; for this is the force of παντὸς ὀνόματος ὀνομαζομένου (see the notes on Phil. ii. 9, and Eph. i.e.). Hence it appears that in this catalogue St Paul does not profess to describe objective realities, but contents himself with repeating subjective opinions. He brushes away all these speculations without enquiring how much or how little truth there may be in them, because they are altogether beside the question. His language here shows the same spirit of impatience with this elaborate angelology, as in ii. 18.

(3) Some commentators have referred the terms used here solely to earthly potentates and dignities. There can be little doubt however that their chief and primary reference is to the orders of the celestial hierarchy, as conceived by these Gnostic Judaizers. This appears from the context; for the words τὰ ἀόρατα immediately precede this list of terms, while in the mention of πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα and in other expressions the Apostle clearly contemplates the rivalry of spiritual powers with Christ. It is also demanded by the whole design and purport of the letter, which is written to combat the worship paid to angels. The names too, more especially θρόνοι, are especially connected with the speculations of Jewish angelology. But when this is granted, two questions still remain. First; are evil as well as good spirits included, demons as well as angels? And next; though the primary reference is to spiritual powers, is it not possible that the expression was intended to be comprehensive and to include earthly dignities as well? The clause added in the parallel passage, οὐ μόνον ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ κ.τ.λ., encourages us thus to extend the Apostle’s meaning; and we are led in the same direction by the comprehensive words which have preceded here, [τὰ] ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς κ.τ.λ. Nor is there anything in the terms themselves which bars such an extension; for, as will be seen, the combination ἀρχαὶ καὶ ἐξουσίαι is applied not only to good angels but to bad, not only to spiritual powers but to earthly. Compare Ignat. Smyrn. 6 τὰ ἐπουράνια καὶ ἡ δόξα τῶν ἀγγελῶν καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες ὁρατοί τε καὶ ἀόρατοι.

✓ Thus guided, we may paraphrase the Apostle’s meaning as follows: ‘You dispute much about the successive grades of angels; you distinguish each grade by its special title; you can tell how each order was generated from the preceding; you assign to each its proper degree of worship. Meanwhile you have ignored or you have degraded Christ. I tell you, it is not so. He is first and foremost, Lord of heaven and earth, far above all thrones or dominations, all princedoms or powers, far above every dignity and every potentate—whether earthly or heavenly—whether angel or demon or man—that evokes your reverence or excites your fear.’ See above, pp. 103 sq.

Jewish and Judeo-Christian speculations respecting the grades of the celestial hierarchy took various forms. In the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Levi 3), which as coming near to the Apostolic age supplies a valuable illustration (see Galatians p. 307 sq.), these orders are arranged as follows: (1) θρόνοι, ἐξουσίαι, these two in the highest or seventh heaven; (2) οἱ ἄγγελοι οἱ φέροντες τὰς ἀποκρίσεις τοῖς ἀγγέλοις τοῦ προσώπου in the sixth heaven; (3) οἱ ἄγγελοι τοῦ προσώπου in the fifth heaven; (4) οἱ ἅγιοι in the fourth heaven; (5) αἱ δυνά-

μεις τῶν παρεμβολῶν in the third heaven; (6) τὰ πνεῦματα τῶν ἐπαγωγῶν (i.e. of visitations, retributions) in the second heaven; or perhaps the denizens of the sixth and fifth heavens, (2) and (3), should be transposed. The lowest heaven is not propped by any spirits. In Origen de Princ. i. 5. 3, ib. i. 6. 2, 1. pp. 66, 70 (comp. i. 8. 1, ib. p. 74), we have five classes, which are given in an ascending scale in this order; (1) angels (sancti angeli, τάξις ἀγγελική); (2) princedoms (principatus, δύναμις ἀρχική, ἀρχαί); (3) powers (potestates, ἐξουσίαι); (4) thrones (throni vel sedes, θρόνοι); (5) dominations (dominations, κυριότητες); though elsewhere, in Ioann. i. § 34, iv. p. 34, he seems to have a somewhat different classification in view. In Ephrom Syrus Op. Syr. 1. p. 270 (where the translation of Benedetti is altogether faulty and misleading) the ranks are these: (1) θεοί, θρόνοι, κυριότητες; (2) ἀρχάγγελοι, ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι; (3) ἄγγελοι, δυνάμεις, χερουβίμ, σεραφίμ; these three great divisions being represented by the χιλίαρχοι, the ἱκατόνταρχοι, and the πεντηκόνταρχοι respectively in Deut. i. 15, on which passage he is commenting. The general agreement between these will be seen at once. This grouping also seems to underlie the conception of Basil of Seleucia Orat. 39 (p. 207), who mentions them in this order; θρόνοι, κυριότητες, ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, δυνάμεις, χερουβίμ, σεραφίμ. On the other hand the arrangement of the pseudo-Dionysius, who so largely influenced subsequent speculations, is quite different and probably later (Dion. Areop. Op. 1. p. 75, ed. Cord.); (1) θρόνοι, χερουβίμ, σεραφίμ; (2) ἐξουσίαι, κυριότητες, δυνάμεις; (3) ἄγγελοι, ἀρχάγγελοι, ἀρχαί. But the earlier lists for the most part seem to suggest as their common foundation a classification in which θρόνοι, κυριότητες, belonged to the highest order, and ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι to the next below. Thus it would appear that the Apostle takes as an illustration the titles

ἐξουσίαι· τὰ πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται·

assigned to the two highest grades in a system of the celestial hierarchy which he found current, and which probably was adopted by these Gnostic Judaizers. See also the note on ii. 18.

θρόνοι] In all systems alike these ’thrones’ belong to the highest grade of angelic beings, whose place is in the immediate presence of God. The meaning of the name however is doubtful: (1) It may signify the occupants of thrones which surround the throne of God; as in the imagery of Rev. iv. 4 κύκλοθεν τοῦ θρόνου θρόνοι εἴκοσι τέσσαρες (comp. xi. 16, xx. 4). The imagery is there taken from the court of an earthly king: see Jer. iii. 32. This is the interpretation given by Origen de Princ. i. 5. 3 (p. 66), i. 6. 2 (p. 70) ‘judicandi vel regendi… habentes officium.’ Or (2) They were so called, as supporting or forming the throne of God; just as the chariot-seat of the Almighty is represented as resting on the cherubim in Ezek. i. 26, ix. 3, x. 1 sq., xi. 22, Ps. xviii. 10, 1 Chron. xxviii. 18. So apparently Clem. Alex. Proph. Ecl. 57 (p. 1003) θρόνοι ἂν εἶεν…διὰ τὸ ἀναπαύεσθαι ἐν αὐτοῖς τὸν Θεόν. From this same imagery of the prophet the later mysticism of the Kabbala derived its name ‘wheels,’ which it gave to one of its ten orders of Sephiroth. Adopting this interpretation, several fathers identify the ’thrones’ with the cherubim: e.g. Greg. Nyss. c. Eunom. i (II. p. 349 sq.), Chrysost. de Incompr. Nat. iii. 5 (I. p. 467), Theodoret (ad loc.), August. in Psalm. xviii. § 3 (IV. p. 1061). This explanation was adopted also by the pseudo-Dionysius de Carl. Hier. 7 (I. p. 80), without however identifying them with the cherubim; and through his writings it came to be generally adopted. The former interpretation however is more probable; for (1) The highly symbolical character of the latter accords better with a later stage of mystic speculation, like the Kabbala; and (2) It seems best to treat θρόνοι as belonging to the same category with κυριότητες, ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι, which are concrete words borrowed from different grades of human rank and power. As implying regal dignity, θρόνοι naturally stands at the head of the list.

κυριότητες] ‘dominations,’ as Ephes. i. 21. These appear to have been regarded as belonging to the first grade, and standing next in dignity to the θρόνοι. This indeed would be suggested by their name.

ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι] as Ephes. i. 21. These two words occur very frequently together. In some places they refer to human dignities, as Luke xii. 11, Tit. iii. 1 (comp. Luke xx. 20); in others to a spiritual hierarchy. And here again there are two different uses: sometimes they designate good angels, e.g. below ii. 10, Ephes. iii. 10; sometimes evil spirits, e.g. ii. 15, Ephes. vi. 12: while in one passage at least (1 Cor. xv. 24) both may be included. In Rom. viii. 38 we have ἀρχαί without ἐξουσίαι (except as a v. l.), and in 1 Pet. iii. 22 ἐξουσίαι without ἀρχαί, in connexion with the angelic orders.

δι’ αὐτοῦ κ.τ.λ.] ‘As all creation passed out from Him, so does it all converge again towards Him.’ For the combination of prepositions see Rom. xi. 36 ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα. He is not only the Δ but also the ω, not only the ἀρχή but also the τέλος of creation, not only the first but also the last in the history of the Universe: Rev. xxii. 13. For this double relation of Christ to the Universe, as both the initial and the final cause, see Heb. ii. 10 δι’ ὃν τὰ πάντα καὶ δι’ οὗ τὰ πάντα, where δι’ ὃν is nearly equivalent to εἰς αὐτὸν of the text.

In the Judaic philosophy of Alexandria the preposition διὰ with the

Colossians 1:17

17 καὶ αὐτὸς ἔστιν πρὸ πάντων, καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ

genitive was commonly used to describe the function of the Logos in the creation and government of the world; e.g. de Cherub. 35 (I. p. 162) where Philo, enumerating the causes which combine in the work of Creation, describes God as ὑφ’ οὔ, matter as ἐξ οὔ, and the Word as δι’ οὔ; comp. de Mon. ii. 5 (II. p. 225) λόγος… δι’ οὐ σύμπας ὁ κόσμος ἐδημιουργεῖτο. The Christian Apostles accepted this use of διὰ to describe the mediatorial function of the Word in creation; e.g. John i. 3 πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο κ.τ.λ., ib. ver. 10 ὁ κόσμος δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, Heb. i. 2 δι’ οὗ καὶ ἐποίησεν τοὺς αἰῶνας. This mediatorial function however has entirely changed its character. To the Alexandrian Jew it was the work of a passive tool or instrument (de Cherub. l.c. δι’ οὗ, τὸ ἐργαλεῖον, ὄργανον…δι’ οὔ); but to the Christian Apostle it represented a cooperating agent. Hence the Alexandrian Jew frequently and consistently used the simple instrumental dative ᾧ to describe the relation of the Word to the Creator, e.g. Quod Deus immut. 12 (I. p. 281) ᾧ καὶ τὸν κόσμον εἰργάζετο, Leg. All. i. 9 (I. p. 47) τῷ περιφανεστάτῳ καὶ τηλαυγεστάτῳ ἑαυτοῦ λόγῳ ῥήματι ὁ Θεὸς ἀμφότερα ποιεῖ, comp. ib. iii. 31 (I. p. 106) ὁ λόγος…ᾧ καθάπερ ὀργάῳ προσχρησάμενος. This mode of speaking is not found in the New Testament.

εἰς αὐτόν] ‘unto Him.’ As of the Father it is said elsewhere, I Cor. viii. 6 ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς αὐτόν, so here of the Son we read τὰ πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτόν. All things must find their meeting-point, their reconciliation, at length in Him from whom they took their rise—in the Word as the mediatorial agent, and through the Word in the Father as the primary source. The Word is the final cause as well as the creative agent of the Universe. This ultimate goal of the present dispensation in time is similarly stated in several passages. Sometimes it is represented as the birth-throo and deliverance of all creation through Christ; as Rom. viii. 19 sq. αὐτὴ ἡ κτίσις ἐλευθερωθήσεται, πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις…συνωδίνει. Sometimes it is the absolute and final subjection of universal nature to Him; as I Cor. xv. 28 ὅταν ὑποταγῇ αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα. Sometimes it is the reconciliation of all things through Him; as below, ver. 20 δι’ αὐτοῦ ἀποκαταλλάξαι τὰ πάντα. Sometimes it is the recapitulation, the gathering up in one head, of the Universe in Him; as Ephes. i. 10 ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ. The image involved in this last passage best illustrates the particular expression in the text εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται; but all alike enunciate the same truth in different terms. The Eternal Word is the goal of the Universe, as He was the starting-point. It must end in unity, as it proceeded from unity: and the centro of this unity is Christ. This expression has no parallel, and could have none, in the Alexandrian phraseology and doctrine.

17. καὶ αὐτὸς κ.τ.λ.] ‘and HE IS before all things’: comp. Joh. viii. 58 πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενίσθαι, ἐγὼ εἰμὶ (and perhaps also viii. 24, 28, xiii. 19). The imperfect ἦν might have sufficed (comp. Joh. i. 1), but the present ἔστιν declares that this pre-existence is absolute existence. The ἄγτος ἔστιν here corresponds exactly to the ἐγὼ εἰμὶ in St John, and this again is illustrated by Exod. iii. 14. The verb therefore is not an enclitic, but should be accentuated ἔστιν. See Basilade. Eunom. iv (I. p. 294) ὁ ἀπόστολος εἰπών, Πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται, ὤφειλεν εἰπεῖν, Καὶ αὐτὸς ἐγένετο πρὸ πάντων, εἰπὼν δέ, Καὶ αὐτὸς ἔστι πρὸ πάντων, ἔδειξε τὸν μὲν ἀεὶ ὄντα τὴν δὲ κτίσιν γενομένην. The αὐτός is as necessary for the completeness of the meaning,

Colossians 1:18

συνέστηκεν. ¹⁸καὶ αὐτὸς ἐστιν ἡ κεφαλὴ τοῦ σώ-

as the ἔστιν. The one emphasizes the personality, as the other declares the pre-existence. For this emphatic αὐτός see again ver. 18; comp. Ephes. ii. 14, iv. 10, 11, 1 Joh. ii. 2, and esp. Rev. xix. 15 καὶ αὐτὸς ποιμανεῖ…καὶ αὐτὸς πατεῖ. The other interpretation which explains πρὸ πάντων of superiority in rank, and not of priority in time, is untenable for several reasons. (1) This would most naturally be expressed otherwise in Biblical language, as ἐπὶ πάντων (e.g. Rom. ix. 5, Eph. iv. 6), or ὑπὲρ πάντα (Eph. i. 22), or ὑπεράνω πάντων (Eph. i. 21, iv. 10). (2) The key to the interpretation is given by the analogous words in the context, esp. πρωτότοκος, vv. 15, 18. (3) Nothing short of this declaration of absolute pre-existence would be adequate to introduce the statement which follows, καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν.

πρὸ πάντων] ‘before all things.’ In the Latin it was translated ‘ante omnes,’ i.e. thronos, dominationes, etc.; and so Tertullian adv. Marc. v. 19 ‘Quomodo enim ante omnes, si non ante omnia? Quomodo ante omnia, si non primogenitus conditionis?’ But the neuter τὰ πάντα, standing in the context before and after, requires the neuter here also.

συνέστηκεν] ‘hold together, cohere.’ He is the principle of cohesion in the universe. He impresses upon creation that unity and solidarity which makes it a cosmos instead of a chaos. Thus (to take one instance) the action of gravitation, which keeps in their places things fixed and regulates the motions of things moving, is an expression of His mind. Similarly in Heb. i. 3 Christ the Logos is described as φέρων τὰ πάντα (sustaining the Universe) τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ. Here again the Christian Apostles accept the language of Alexandrian Judaism, which describes the Logos as the δεσμὸς of the Universe; e.g.

Philo de Profulg. 20 (I. p. 562) ὃ τε γὰρ τοῦ ὄντος λόγος δεσμὸς ὢν τῶν ἀπάντων…καὶ συνέχει τὰ μέρη πάντα καὶ σφίγγει καὶ κωλύει αὐτὰ διαλύεσθαι καὶ διαρτάσθαι, de Plant. 2 (I. p. 331) συνάγων τὰ μέρη πάντα καὶ σφίγγων δεσμὸν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἄρρηκτον τοῦ παντὸς ὁ γεννήσας ἐποίει πατήρ, Quis rer. div. her. 38 (I. p. 507) λόγῳ σφίγγεται θεῖς· κόλλα γὰρ ἐστι καὶ δεσμὸς οὗτος τὰ πάντα τῆς οὐσίας ἐκπεπληρωκώς: and for the word itself see Quis rer. div. her. 12 (I. p. 481) συνέστηκε καὶ ζωπυρεῖται προνοίᾳ Θεοῦ, Clem. Rom. 27 ἐν λόγῳ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης αὐτοῦ συνεστήσατο τὰ πάντα. In the same connexion σύγκειται is used, Ecclus. xliii. 26. The indices to Plato and Aristotle amply illustrate this use of συνέστηκεν. This mode of expression was common with the Stoics also.

18. ‘And not only does He hold this position of absolute priority and sovereignty over the Universe—the natural creation. He stands also in the same relation to the Church—the new spiritual creation. He is its head, and it is His body. This is His prerogative, because He is the source and the beginning of its life, being the First-born from the dead. Thus in all things—in the spiritual order as in the natural—in the Church as in the World—He is found to have the pre-eminence.’

The elevating influence of this teaching on the choicest spirits of the subapostolic age will be seen from a noble passage in the noblest of early Christian writings, Epist. ad Diogn. § 7 τὸν λόγον τὸν ἅγιον…ἀνθρώποις ἐνίδρυσε…οὐ, καθάπερ ἂν τις εἰκάσειεν, ἀνθρώποις ὑπηρέτην τινὰ πέμψας ἢ ἄγγελον ἢ ἄρχοντα ἢ τινα τῶν διεπόντων τὰ ἐπίγεια ἢ τινα τῶν πεπιστευμένων τὰς ἐν οὐρανοῖς διοικήσεις, ἀλλ’ αὐτὸν τὸν τεχνίτην καὶ δημιουργὸν τῶν ὅλων…ὧ πάντα διατέτακται καὶ διώρισται καὶ ὑποτέτακται, οὐρανοὶ καὶ τὰ ἐν ματος, τῆς ἐκκλησίας· ὃς ἐστιν ἀρχή, πρωτότοκος τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ κ.τ.λ. See the whole context.

καὶ αὐτός] ‘and He,’ repeated from the preceding verse, to emphasize the identity of the Person who unites in Himself these prerogatives: see on ver. 17, and comp. ver. 18 αὐτός, ver. 19 δι’ αὐτοῦ. The Creator of the

World is also the Head of the Church. There is no blind ignorance, no imperfect sympathy, no latent conflict, in the relation of the demiurgic power to the Gospel dispensation, as the heretical teachers were disposed consciously or unconsciously to assume (see above, p. 101 sq., p. 110 sq.), but an absolute unity of origin.

ἡ κεφαλὴ] ’the head,’ the inspiring, ruling, guiding, combining, sustaining power, the mainspring of its activity, the centre of its unity, and the seat of its life. In his earlier epistles the relations of the Church to Christ are described under the same image (1

Cor. xii. 12—27; comp. vi. 15, x. 17, Rom. xii. 4 sq.); but the Apostle there takes as his starting-point the various functions of the members, and not, as in these later epistles, the originating and controlling power of the Head. Comp. i. 24, ii. 19, Eph. i. 22 sq., ii. 16, iv. 4, 12, 15 sq., v. 23, 30. τῆς ἐκκλησίας] in apposition with τοῦ σώματος: comp. i. 24 τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ, ὃ ἐστιν ἡ ἐκκλησία, Eph. i. 23. ἀρχή] ’the origin, the beginning.’ The term is here applied to the Incarnate Christ in relation to the

Church, because it is applicable to the Eternal Word in relation to the Universe, Rev. iii. 14 ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ. The parallelism of the two relations is kept in view throughout. The word ἀρχή here involves two ideas: (1) Priority in time; Christ was the first-fruits of the dead, ἀπαρχή (1 Cor. xv. 20, 23): (2) Originating power; Christ was also the source of life, Acts iii. 14 ὁ ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς; comp. Acts v. 31, Heb. ii. 10. He is not merely the principium principiatum but the principium principians (see Trench Epistles to the Seven Churches p. 183 sq.). He rose first from the dead, that others might rise through Him. The word ἀρχή, like πρῶτος (see the note on Phil. i. 5), being absolute in itself, does not require the definite article. Indeed the article is most commonly omitted where ἀρχή occurs as a predicate, as will appear from several examples to be gathered from the extracts in Plut. Mor. p. 875 sq., Stob. Ecl. Phys. i. 10, 12 sq. Comp. also Aristot. Mel. x. 7, p. 1064, τὸ θεῖον… ἂν εἴη πρώτη καὶ κυριωτάτη ἀρχή, Onatus in Stob. Ecl. Phys. i. 2. 39 αὐτὸς γὰρ [Θεὸς] ἀρχὰ καὶ πράτον, Tatian. ad Grac. 4 Θεὸς…μόνος ἄναρχος ὢν καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπάρχων τῶν ὅλων ἀρχή, Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. 25, p. 638, ὁ Θεὸς δὲ ἄναρχος, ἀρχὴ τῶν ὅλων παντελής, ἀρχῆς ποιητικός, Method. de Creat. 3 (p. 100, ed. Jahn) πάσης ἀρετῆς ἀρχὴν καὶ πηγὴν…ἠγῇ τὸν Θεόν, pseudo-Dionys. de Div. Nom. v. § 6 ἀρχὴ γὰρ ἐστι τῶν ὄντων, § 10 πάντων οὖν ἀρχὴ καὶ τελευτὴ τῶν ὄντων ὁ προών.

The text is read with the definite article, ἡ ἀρχή, in one or two excellent authorities at least; but the obvious motive which would lead a scribe to aim at greater distinctness renders the reading suspicious.

πρωτότοκος] Comp. Rev. i. 5 ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν καὶ ὁ ἄρχων τῶν βασιλέων τῆς γῆς. His resurrection from the dead is His title to the

headship of the Church; for ’the power of His resurrection’ (Phil. iii. 10) is the life of the Church. Such passages as Gen. xlix. 3, Deut. xxi. 17, where the πρωτότοκος is called ἀρχὴ τέκνων and superior privileges are claimed for him as such, must necessarily be only very faint and partial illustrations of the connexion between ἀρχὴ and πρωτότοκος here, where the subject-matter and the whole context

Colossians 1:19

ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, ἵνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύων· 19 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ εὐδόκησεν πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα κατοικῆpoint to a fuller meaning of the words. The words πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν here correspond to πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως ver. 15, so that the parallelism between Christ’s relations to the Universe and to the Church is thus emphasized.

ἵνα γένηται κ.τ.λ.] As He is first with respect to the Universe, so it was ordained that He should become first with respect to the Church as well. The γένηται here answers in a manner to the ἔστιν of ver. 17. Thus ἔστιν and γένηται are contrasted as the absolute being and the historical manifestation. The relation between Christ’s headship of the Universe by virtue of His Eternal Godhead and His headship of the Church by virtue of His Incarnation and

Passion and Resurrection is some-

what similarly represented in Phil. ii. 6 sq. ἐν μορφῇ Θεοῦ ὑπάρχων…μορφὴν dούλου λαβών…γενόμενος ὑπήκοος μέχρι θανάτου…διὸ καὶ ὁ Θεὸς αὐτὸν ὑπερύψωσεν κ.τ.λ.

ἐν πᾶσιν] ‘in all things,’ not in the Universe only but in the Church

also. Καὶ γάρ, writes Theodoret, ὡς Θεός, πρὸ πάντων ἐστὶ καὶ σὺν τῷ πατρί ἐστι, καὶ ὡς ἄνθρωπος, πρωτότοκος ἐκ tῶν νεκρῶν καὶ τοῦ σώματος κεφαλῆ. Thus ἐν πᾶσιν is neuter and not masculine, as it is sometimes taken. Either construction is grammatically correct, but the context points to the former interpretation here; and this is the common use of ἐν πᾶσιν, e. g. iii. 11, Eph. i. 23, Phil. iv. 12. For the neuter compare Plut. Mor. p. 9 σπεύδοντες τοὺς παῖδας ἐν πᾶσι τάχιον πρωτεῦσαι. On the other hand in

[Demosth.] Amat. p. 1416 κράτιστον eἶναι τὸ πρωτεύειν ἐν ἅπασι the context shows that ἅπασι is masculine.

αὐτός] ‘He Himself’; see the note

on καὶ αὐτὸς above.

19, 20. ‘And this absolute supremacy is His, because it was the

Father’s good pleasure that in Him all the plenitude of Deity should have its home; because He willed through Him to reconcile the Universe once more to Himself. It was God’s purpose to effect peace and harmony through the blood of Christ’s cross, and so to restore all things, whatsoever and wheresoever they be, whether on the earth or in the heavens.’ 19. ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κ.τ.λ.] The eternal indwelling of the Godhead explains the headship of the Church, not less than the headship of the Universe. The resurrection of Christ, whereby He became the ἀρχή of the Church, was the result of and the testimony to His deity; Rom. i. 4 τοῦ ὁρισθέντος υἱοῦ Θεοῦ…ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν.

εὐδόκησεν] sc. ὁ Θεός, the nominative being understood; see Winer

§ lviii. p. 655 sq., § lxiv. p. 735 sq.; comp. James i. 12 (the right reading), iv. 6. Here the omission is the more easy, because εὐδοκία, εὐδακεῖν etc. (like θέλημα), are used absolutely of God’s good purpose, e. g. Luke ii. 14 ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας (or εὐδοκία), Phil. ii. 13 ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐδοκίας, Clem. Rom. § 40 πάντα τὰ γινόμενα ἐν εὐδοκήσει; see the note on Clem. Rom. § 2. For the expression generally comp. 2 Macc. xiv. 35 σύ, Κύριε, εὐδόκησας ναὸν τῆς σῆς κατασκηνώσεως ἐν ἡμῖν γενέσθαι. The alternative is to consider πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα personified as the nominative; but it is difficult to conceive St Paul so speaking, more especially as with eὐδόκησεν personification would suggest personality. The πλήρωμα in-

deed is personified in Clem. Alex. Exc. Theod. 43 (p. 979) συναινέσαντος καὶ τοῦ πληρώματος, and in Iren. i. 2. 6 βουλῇ μιᾷ καὶ γνώμῃ τὸ πᾶν πλήρωμα tῶν αἰώνων κ.τ.λ., i. 12. 4 πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα ηὐδόκησεν [δι’ αὐτοῦ δοξάσαι τὸν πατέρα]; but the phraseology of the

Colossians 1:20

σαι, ²⁰καὶ δι’ αὐτοῦ ἀποκαταλλάξαι τὰ πάντα εἰς

Valentinians, to which these passages refer, cannot be taken as an indication of St Paul’s usage, since their view of the πλήρωμα was wholly different. A third interpretation is found in Tertullian ade. Marc. v. 19, who translates ἐν αὐτῷ in semetipso, taking ὁ Χριστὸς as the nominative to εὐδόκησεν: and this construction is followed by some modern critics. But, though grammatically possible, it confuses the theology of the passage hopelessly.

τὸ πλήρωμα] ’the plenitude,’ a recognised technical term in theology, denoting the totality of the Divine powers and attributes; comp. ii. 9. See the detached note on πλήρωμα. On the relation of this statement to the speculations of the false teachers at Colosse see the introduction, pp. 102, 112. Another interpretation, which explains τὸ πλήρωμα as referring to the Church (comp. Ephes. i. 22), though adopted by several fathers, is unsuited to the context and has nothing to recommend it.

κατοικῆσαι] ‘should have its permanent abode.’ The word occurs again in the same connexion, ii. 9. The false teachers probably, like their later counterparts, maintained only a partial and transient connexion of the πλήρωμα with the Lord. Hence St Paul declares in these two passages that it is not a παροικία but a κατοικία. The two words κατοικεῖν, παροικεῖν, occur in the LXX as the common renderings of 𐀀𐀓𐀍𐀍 and 𐀀𐀓𐀍𐀍 respectively, and are distinguished as the permanent and the transitory; e.g. Gen. XXXVI. 44 (XXXVI. 1) κατῴκει δὲ Ἰακὼβ ἐν τῇ γῇ οὐ παρῴκησεν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ ἐν γῇ Χαναάν (comp. Hos. x. 5), Philo Sacr. Ab. et Ca. 10 (i. p. 170 M) ὁ τοῖς ἐγκυκλίοις μόνοις ἐπανέχων παροικεῖ σοφίᾳ, οὐ κατοικεῖ, Greg. Naz. Orat. xiv (i. p. 271 ed. Caillau) τίς τὴν κάτω σκηνὴν καὶ τὴν ἄνω πόλιν; τίς παροικίαν καὶ κατοικίαν; comp. Orat. vii

(i. p. 200). See also the notes on Ephes. ii. 19, and on Clem. Rom. 1.

20. The false teachers aimed at effecting a partial reconciliation between God and man through the interposition of angelic mediators. The Apostle speaks of an absolute and complete reconciliation of universal nature to God, effected through the mediation of the Incarnate Word. Their mediators were ineffective, because they were neither human nor divine. The true mediator must be both human and divine. It was necessary that in Him all the plenitude of the Godhead should dwell. It was necessary also that He should be born into the world and should suffer as a man.

δι’ αὐτοῖ] i.e. τοῦ Χριστοῦ, as appears from the preceding ἐν αὐτῷ, and the following διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ σταυροῦ αὐτοῦ, δι’ αὐτοῦ. This expression δι’ αὐτοῦ has been already applied to the Preincarnate Word in relation to the Universe (ver. 16); it is now used of the Incarnate Word in relation to the Church.

ἀποκαταλλάξαι] sc. εὐδόκησεν ὁ Θεός. The personal pronoun αὐτόν, instead of the reflexive ἑαυτόν, is no real obstacle to this way of connecting the words (see the next note). The alternative would be to take τὸ πλήρωμα as governing ἀποκαταλλάξαι, but this mode of expression is harsh and improbable.

The same double compound ἀποκαταλλάσσειν is used below, ver. 21 and Ephes. ii. 16, in place of the usual καταλλάσσειν. It may be compared with ἀποκατάστασις, Acts iii. 21. Tertullian, arguing against the dualism of Marcion who maintained an antagonism between the demiurge and the Christ, lays stress on the compound, ade. Marc. v. 19 ‘conciliari extraneo possent, reconciliari vero non alii quam suo.’ The word ἀποκαταλλάσσειν corresponds to ἀπηλλοτριωμένους

Colossians 1:21

αὐτόν, εἰρηνοποιήσας διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ σταυροῦ αὐτοῦ, δι’ αὐτοῦ εἴτε τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς εἴτε τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ²¹καὶ ὑμᾶς ποτὲ ὄντας ἀπηλλοτριωμένους καὶ

here and in Ephes. ii. 16, implying a restitution to a state from which they had fallen, or which was potentially theirs, or for which they were destined. Similarly St Augustine on Gal. iv. 5 remarks that the word used of the υἱοθεσία is not accipere (λαμβάνειν) but recipere (ἀπολαμβάνειν). See the note there.

• τὰ πάντα] The whole universe of things, material as well as spiritual, shall be restored to harmony with God. How far this restoration of universal nature may be subjective, as involved in the changed perceptions of man thus brought into harmony with God, and how far it may have an objective and independent existence, it were vain to speculate.

εἰς αὐτόν] ’to Him,’ i.e. ’to Himself.’ The reconciliation is always represented as made to the Father. The reconciler is sometimes the Father Himself (2 Cor. v. 18, 19 ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ καταλλάξαντος ἡμᾶς ἑαυτῷ διὰ Χριστοῦ…Θεὸς ἦν ἐν Χριστῷ κόσμον καταλλάσσων ἑαυτῷ), sometimes the Son (Ephes. ii. 16: comp. Rom. v. 10, 11). Excellent reasons are given (Bleck Hebr. II. p. 69, A. Buttmann Gramm. p. 97) for supposing that the reflexive pronoun ἑαυτοῦ etc. is never contracted into αὐτοῦ etc. in the Greek Testament. But at the same time it is quite clear that the oblique cases of the personal pronoun αὐτός are there used very widely, and in cases where we should commonly find the reflexive pronoun in classical authors: e.g. Ephes. i. 4, 5 ἐξελέξατο ἡμᾶς… εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ…προορίσας ἡμᾶς εἰς υἱοθεσίαν διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς αὐτόν. See also the instances given in A. Buttmann p. 98. It would seem indeed that αὐτοῦ etc. may be used for ἑαυ-

τοῦ etc. in almost every connexion, except where it is the direct object of the verb.

εἰρηνοποιήσας] The word occurs in the Lxx, Prov. x. 10, and in Hermes in Stob. Ecl. Phys. xli. 45. The substantive εἰρηνοποιός (see Matt. v. 9) is found several times in classical writers.

δι’ αὐτοῦ] The external authority for and against these words is nearly evenly balanced: but there would obviously be a tendency to reject them as superfluous. They are a resumption of the previous δι’ αὐτοῦ. For other examples see ii. 13 ὑμᾶς, Rom. viii. 23 καὶ αὐτοί, Gal. ii. 15, 16 ἡμεῖς, Ephes. i. 13 ἐν ᾧ καὶ, iii. 1, 14 τούτου χάριν, where words are similarly repeated for the sake of emphasis or distinctness. In 2 Cor. xii. 7 there is a repetition of ἵνα μὴ ὑπεραίρωμαι, where again it is omitted in several excellent authorities.

21-23. ‘And ye too—ye Gentiles—are included in the terms of this peace. In times past ye had estranged yourselves from God. Your hearts were hostile to Him, while ye lived on in your evil deeds. But now, in Christ’s body, in Christ’s flesh which died on the Cross for your atonement, ye are reconciled to Him again. He will present you a living sacrifice, an acceptable offering unto Himself, free from blemish and free even from censure, that ye may stand the piercing glance of Him whose scrutiny no defect can escape. But this can only be, if ye remain true to your old allegiance, if ye hold fast (as I trust ye are holding fast) by the teaching of Epaphras, if the edifice of your faith is built on solid foundations and not reared carelessly on the sands, if ye suffer not yourselves to be

Colossians 1:22

ἐχθρούς τῇ διανοίᾳ ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς, νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκατηλλάγητε ²² ἐν τῷ σώματι τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ διὰ

21. νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκατήλλαξεν.

shifted or shaken but rest firmly on the hope which ye have found in the Gospel—the one universal unchangeable Gospel, which was proclaimed to every creature under heaven, of which I Paul, unworthy as I am, was called to be a minister.’

21. ἀπηλλοτριωμένους] ’estranged,’ not ἀλλοτρίους, ‘strangers’; comp. Ephes. ii. 12, iv. 18. See the note on ἀποκαταλλάξαι, ver. 20.

ἐχθρούς] ‘hostile to God,’ as the consequence of ἀπηλλοτριωμένους, not ‘hateful to God,’ as it is taken by some. The active rather than the passive sense of ἐχθρούς is required by the context, which (as commonly in the New Testament) speaks of the sinner as reconciled to God, not of God as reconciled to the sinner: comp. Rom. v. 10 εἰ γὰρ ἐχθροὶ ὄντες κατηλλάγημεν τῷ Θεῷ κ.τ.λ. It is the mind of man, not the mind of God, which must undergo a change, that a reunion may be effected.

τῇ διανοίᾳ] ‘in your mind, intent.’ For the dative of the part affected compare Ephes. iv. 18 ἐσκοτωμένοι τῇ διανοίᾳ, Luke i. 51 ὑπερηφάιους διανοίᾳ καρδίας αὐτῶν. So καρδίᾳ, καρδίαις, Matt. v. 8, xi. 29, Acts vii. 51, 2 Cor. ix. 7, 1 Thess. ii. 17; φρεσίν, 1 Cor. xiv. 20.

ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις κ.τ.λ.] ‘in the midst of, in the performance of your wicked works’; the same use of the preposition as e.g. ii. 23, iv. 2.

νυνὶ] Here, as frequently, νῦν (νυνὶ) admits an aorist, because it denotes not ‘at the present moment,’ but ‘in the present dispensation, the present order of things’: comp. e.g. ver. 26, Rom. v. 11, vii. 6, xi. 30, 31, xvi. 26, Ephes. ii. 13, iii. 5, 2 Tim. i. 10, 1 Pet. i. 10, ii. 10, 25. In all these passages there is a direct contrast between the old dispensation and the new, more especially as affecting the relation of the Gentiles to God. The aorist is found also in Classical writers, where a similar contrast is involved; e.g. Plato Symp. 193 Α πρὸ τοῦ, ὥσπερ λέγω, ἐν ἦμεν νυνὶ δὲ διὰ τὴν ἀδικίαν διφκίσθημεν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, Isæus de Cleon. her. 20 τότε μέν…νυνὶ δὲ…ἐβουλήθη.

ἀποκατηλλάγητε] The reasons for preferring this reading, though the direct authority for it is so slight, are given in the detached note on the various readings. But, whether ἀποκατηλλάγητε or ἀποκατήλλαξεν be preferred, the construction requires explanation. If ἀποκατήλλαξεν be adopted, it is perhaps best to treat δὲ as introducing the apodosis, the foregoing participial clause serving as the protasis: ‘And you, though ye were once estranged… yet now hath he reconciled,’ in which case the first ὑμᾶς will be governed directly by ἀποκατήλλαξεν; see Winer Gramm. § liii. p. 553. If this construction be adopted, παραστῆσαι ὑμᾶς will describe the result of ἀποκατήλλαξεν, ‘so as to present you’; but ὁ Θεὸς will still be the nominative to ἀποκατήλλαξεν as in 2 Cor. v. 19. If on the other hand ἀποκατηλλάγητε be taken, it is best to regard νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκατηλλάγητε as a direct indicative clause substituted for the more regular participial form νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκαταλλαγέντας for the sake of greater emphasis: see the note on ver. 26 τὸ ἀποκεκρυμμίνον…νῦν δὲ ἐφανερώθη. In this case παραστῆσαι will be governed directly by εὐδόκησεν, and will itself govern ὑμᾶς πότε ὄντας κ.τ.λ., the second ὑμᾶς being a repetition of the first; ‘And you who once were estranged…but now ye have been reconciled…to present you, I say, holy and without blemish.’ For the repetition of ὑμᾶς, which was

COL.

Colossians 1:23

τοῦ θανάτου [αὐτοῦ], παραστῆσαι ὑμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους καὶ ἀνεγκλήτους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ, ²³εἶ γε ἐπιμένετε τῇ πίστει τεθεμελιωμένοι καὶ ἑδραῖοι καὶ μὴ μεταneeded to disentangle the construction, see the note on δι’ αὐτοῦ ver. 20.

22. τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ] It has been supposed that St Paul added these words, which are evidently emphatic, with a polemical aim either; (1) To combat doctism. Of this form of error however there is no direct evidence till a somewhat later date: or (2) To combat a false spiritualism which took offence at the doctrine of an atoning sacrifice. But for this purpose they would not have been adequate, because not explicit enough. It seems simpler therefore to suppose that they were added for the sake of greater clearness, to distinguish the natural body of Christ intended here from the mystical body mentioned just above, ver. 18. Similarly in Ephes. ii. 14 ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ αὐτοῦ is used rather than ἐν τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ, because σῶμα occurs in the context (ver. 16) of Christ’s mystical body. The same expression, τὸ σῶμα τῆς σαρκὸς, which we have here, occurs also below, ii. 11, but with a different emphasis and meaning. There the emphasis is on τὸ σῶμα, the contrast lying between the whole body and a single member (see the note); whereas here τῆς σαρκὸς is the emphatic part of the expression, the antithesis being between the material and the spiritual. Compare also Ecclus. xxiii. 16 ἄνθρωπος πόρνος ἐν σώματι σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ.

Marcion omitted τῆς σαρκὸς as inconsistent with his views, and explained ἐν τῷ σώματι to mean the

Church. Hence the comment of

Tertullian adv. Marc. v. 19, ‘utique in eo corpore, in quo mori potuit per carnem, mortuus est, non per ecelesiam sed propter ecclesiam, corpus commutando pro corpore, carnale pro spiritali.’ παραστῆσαι] If the construction which I have adopted be correct, this is said of God Himself, as in 2 Cor. iv. 14 ὁ ἐγείρας τὸν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν καὶ ἡμᾶς σὺν Ἰησοῦ ἐγερᾶ καὶ παραστήσει σὺν ὑμῖν. This construction seems in all respects preferable to connecting παραστῆσαι directly with ἀποκατηλλάγητε and interpreting the words, ‘Ye have been reconciled so that ye should present yourselves (ὑμᾶς)…before Him.’ This latter interpretation leaves the καὶ ὑμᾶς ποτὲ ὄντας κτ.λ. without a government, and it gives to the second ὑμᾶς a reflexive sense (as if ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς or ἑαυτοὺς), which is at least harsh.

ἀμώμους] ‘without blemish,’ rather than ‘without blame,’ in the language of the New Testament; see the note on Ephes. i. 4. It is a sacrificial word, like τέλειος, ὀλόκληρος, etc. The verb παριστάναι also is used of presenting a sacrifice in Rom. xii. 1 παραστῆσαι τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν θυσίαν ζῶσαν ἁγίαν κ.τ.λ., Lev. xvi. 7 (v. 1): comp. Luke ii. 2.

ἀνεγκλήτους] An advance upon ἀμώμους, ‘in whom not only no blemish is found, but against whom no charge is brought’: comp. 1 Tim. vi. 14 ἄσπιλον, ἀνεπίλημπτον. The word ἀνέγκλητος occurs again in 1 Cor. i. 8, 1 Tim. iii. 10, Tit. i. 6, 7.

κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ] ‘before Him,’ i. e. ‘Himself,’ as in the parallel passage, Ephes. i. 4; if the construction here adopted be correct. For this use of the personal pronoun instead of the reflexive see the note on εἰς αὐτόν, ver. 20. But does κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ refer to God’s future judgment or His present approbation? The latter seems more probable, both because the expression certainly has this meaning in the parallel passage, Ephes. i. 4, and because κατενώπιον, ἐνώπιον,

κινούμενοι ἀπὸ τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ εὐαγγελίου οὗ ἠκούσατε, τοῦ κηρυχθέντος ἐν πάσῃ κτίσει τῇ ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν, οὗ ἐγενόμην ἐγὼ Παῦλος διάκονος.

κατέναντι, etc., are commonly so used; e.g. Rom. xiv. 22, 1 Cor. i. 29, 2 Cor. ii. 17, iv. 2, vii. 12, xii. 19, etc. On the other hand, where the future judgment is intended, a different expression is found, 2 Cor. v. 10 ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ βήματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Thus God is here regarded, not as the judge who tries the accused, but as the μωμοσκόπος who examines the victims (Polyc. Phil. 4, see the note on Ephes. i. 4). Compare Heb. iv. 12, 13, for a closely allied metaphor. The passage in Jude 24, στήσαι κατενώπιον τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ ἀμώμους ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει, though perhaps referring to final approval, is too different in expression to influence the interpretation of St Paul’s language here.

23. εἴ γε] On the force of these particles see Gal. iii. 4. They express a pure hypothesis in themselves, but the indicative mood following converts the hypothesis into a hope.

ἐπιμένετε] ‘ye abide by, ye adhere to,’ with a dative; the common construction of ἐπιμένειν in St Paul: see the note on Phil. i. 24. In this connexion τῇ πίστει is perhaps ‘your faith,’ rather than ’the faith.’ τεθεμελιωμένοι κ.τ.λ.] ‘built on a foundation and so firm’; not like the house of the foolish man in the parable who built χωρὶς θεμελίου, Luke vi. 49. For τεθεμελιωμένοι comp.

Ephes. iii. 17. The consequence of τεθεμελιωμένοι is ἑδραῖοι: Clem. Rom. 33 ἤδρασεν ἐπὶ τὸν ἀσφαλῆ τοῦ ἰδίου βουλήματος θεμέλιον. The words

ἑδραῖος, ἑδράζω, etc., are not uncommonly applied to buildings, e.g. ἑδραίωμα 1 Tim. iii. 15. Comp. Ign. Ephes. 10 ὑμεῖς ἑδραῖοι τῇ πίστει.

μὴ μετακινούμενοι] ’not constantly shifting,’ a present tense; the same idea as ἑδραῖοι expressed from the negative side, as in 1 Cor. xv. 58 ἑδραῖοι γίνεσθε, ἀμετακίνητοι, Polyc. Phil. 10 ‘firmi in fide et immutabiles.’ τῆς ἐλπίδος κ.τ.λ.] ’the hope held out by the Gospel,’ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου being a subjective genitive, as in Ephes. i. 18 ἡ ἐλπίς τῆς κλήσεως (comp.

iv. 4).

ἐν πάσῃ κτίσει] ‘among every creature,’ in fulfilment of the Lord’s last command, Mark xvi. 15 κηρύξατε τὸ eὐαγγέλιον πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει. Here however the definitive article, though found in the received text, ἐν πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει, must be omitted in accordance with the best authorities. For the meanings of πᾶσα κτίσις, πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις, see the note on ver. 15. The expression πᾶσα κτίσις must not be limited to man. The statement is given in the broadest form, all creation animate and inanimate being included, as in Rev. v. 13 πᾶν κτίσμα…καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα ἤκουσα λέγοντα κ.τ.λ. For the hyperbole ἐν πάσῃ κτίσει compare 1 Thess. i. 8 ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ. To demand statistical exactness in such a context would be to require what is never required in similar cases. The motive of the Apostle here is at once to emphasize the universality of the genuine Gospel, which has been offered without reserve to all alike, and to appeal to its publicity, as the credential and guarantee of its truth: see the notes on ver. 6 ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ and on ver. 28 πάντα ἄνθρωπον.

οὗ ἐγενόμην κ.τ.λ.] Why does St

Paul introduce this mention of himself so abruptly? His motive can hardly be the assertion of his Apostolic authority, for it does not appear that this was questioned; otherwise he would have declared his commission in stronger terms. We can only answer that impressed with the dignity of his office, as involving the offer of grace to the Gentiles, he cannot 11-2

Colossians 1:24

²⁴ Νῦν χαίρω ἐν τοῖς παθήμασιν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, καὶ

refrain from magnifying it. At the same time this mention enables him to link himself in bonds of closer sympathy with the Colossians, and he passes on at once to his relations with them: comp. Ephes. iii. 2—9, 1 Tim. i. 11 sq., in which latter passage the introduction of his own name is equally abrupt.

ἐγὼ Παῦλος] i.e. ‘weak and unworthy as I am’: comp. Ephes. iii. 8 ἐμοὶ τῷ ἐλαχιστοτέρῳ πάντων ἁγίων.

24—27. ‘Now when I see the full extent of God’s mercy, now when I ponder over His mighty work of reconciliation, I cannot choose but rejoice in my sufferings. Yes, I Paul the persecutor, I Paul the feeble and sinful, am permitted to supplement—I do not shrink from the word—to supplement the afflictions of Christ. Despite all that He underwent, He the Master has left something still for me the servant to undergo. And so my flesh is privileged to suffer for His body—His spiritual body, the Church. I was appointed a minister of the Church, a steward in God’s household, for this very purpose, that I might administer my office on your behalf, might dispense to you Gentiles the stores which His bountiful grace has provided. Thus I was charged to preach without reserve the whole Gospel of God, to proclaim the great mystery which had remained a secret through all the ages and all the generations from the beginning, but which now in these last times was revealed to His holy people. For such was His good pleasure. God willed to make known to them, in all its inexhaustible wealth thus displayed through the call of the Gentiles, the glorious revelation of this mystery—Christ not the Saviour of the Jews only, but Christ dwelling in you, Christ become to you the hope of glory.’

24. Νῦν χαίρω] A sudden outburst of thanksgiving, that he, who was less than the least, who was not worthy to be called an Apostle, should be allowed to share and even to supplement the sufferings of Christ. The relative ὃς, which is found in some authorities, is doubtless the repetition of the final syllable of διάκονος; but its insertion would be assisted by the anxiety of scribes to supply a connecting link between the sentences. The genuine reading is more characteristic of St Paul. The abruptness, which dispenses with a connecting particle, has a parallel in 1 Tim. i. 12 χάριν ἔχω τῷ ἐνδυναμώσαντί με Χριστῷ κ.τ.λ., where also the common text inserts a link of connexion, καὶ χάριν ἔχω κ.τ.λ. Compare also 2 Cor. vii. 9 νῦν χαίρω, οὐχ ὅτι κ.τ.λ., where again there is no connecting particle.

The thought underlying νῦν seems to be this: ‘If ever I have been disposed to repine at my lot, if ever I have felt my cross almost too heavy to bear, yet now -now, when I contemplate the lavish wealth of God’s mercy—now when I see all the glory of bearing a part in this magnificent work—my sorrow is turned to joy.’ ἀνταναπληρῶ] ‘I fill up on my part,’ ‘I supplement.’ The single compound ἀναπληροῦν occurs several times (e.g. 1 Cor. xiv. 16, xvi. 17, Gal. vi. 2); another double compound προσαναπληροῦν twice (2 Cor. ix. 12, xi. 9; comp. Wisd. xix. 4, v. l.); but ἀνταναπληροῦν only here in the LXX or New Testament. For this verb compare Demosth. de Symm. p. 182 τούτων τῶν συμμοριῶν ἑκάστην διελεῖν κελεύω πέντε μέρη κατὰ δώδεκα ἄνδρας, ἀνταναπληροῦντας πρὸς τὸν εὐπορώτατον ἀεὶ τοὺς ἀπορωτάτους (where τοὺς ἀπορωτάτους should be taken as the subject to ἀνταναπληροῦντας), Dion Cass. xliv. 48 ἵν’ ὅσον…ἐνέδει, τοῦτο ἐκ τῆς παρὰ τῶν ἄλλων συντελείας ἀνταναπληρωθῇ, Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. 12 p. 878 οὗτος…τὴν ἀποστολικὴν ἀπουσίαν ἀνταναπληροῖ, Apollon. Constr. Or. i. 3 ἀνταναπληρῶ τὰ ὑστερήματα τῶν θλίψεων τοῦ Χρι(p. 13 sq.) ἡ ἀντωνυμία ἀνταναπληροῦσα καὶ τὴν θέσιν τοῦ ἀνόματος καὶ τὴν τάξιν τοῦ ῥήματος, Ptol. Math. Comp. vi. 9 (i. p. 435 ed. Halma) ἐπὶ δ’ ἡ μὲν ἐλλείπειν ἐποίει τὴν ἀποκατάστασιν ἢ δὲ πλεονάζειν κατά τινα συντυχίαν ἦν ἴσως καὶ ὁ Ἱππαρχος ἀνταναπληρουμένην πως κατανενοήκει κ.τ.λ. The substantivo ἀνταναπλήρωσις occurs in Diog. Laert. x. 48. So too ἀνταναπλήθειν Xen. Hell. ii. 4. 11, 12 ξυνετάξαντο ὥστε ἐμπλήσαι τὴν ὁδόν…οἱ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς φυλῆς ἀντανίπλησαν…τὴν ὁδόν. Compare also ἀντανισοῦν Themist. Paraphr. Arist. 43 B οὐδὲν κωλύει κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἄλλοθί που μεταβάλλειν ἀέρα εἰς ὕδωρ καὶ

ἀντανισοῦσθαι τὸν σύμπαντα ὄγκον, and ἀντανίσωμα Joseph. Ant. xviii. 9. 7. The meaning of ἀντὶ in this compound will be plain from the passages quoted. It signifies that the supply comes from an opposite quarter to the deficiency. This idea is more or less definitely expressed in the context of all the passages, in the words which are spaced. The force of ἀνταναπληροῦν in St Paul is often explained as denoting simply that the supply corresponds in extent to the deficiency. This interpretation practically deprives ἀντὶ of any meaning, for ἀναπληροῦν alone would denote as much. If indeed the supply had been the subject of the verb, and the sentence had run τὰ παθήματά μου ἀνταναπληροῖ τὰ ὑστηρήματα κ.τ.λ., this idea might perhaps be reached without sacrificing the sense of ἀντὶ; but in such a passage as this, where one personal agent is mentioned in connexion with the supply and another in connexion with the deficiency, the one forming the subject and the other being involved in the object of the verb, the ἀντὶ can only describe the antithesis of these personal agents. So interpreted, it is eminently expressive here. The point of the Apostle’s boast is that Christ the sinless Master should have left something for Paul the unworthy servant to suffer. The right idea has been seized and is well expressed by Photius Amphil. 121 (i. p. 709 Migne) οὐ γὰρ ἁπλῶς φησιν Ἀναπληρῶ, ἀλλ’

Ἀνταναπληρῶ; τουτέστιν, Ἀντὶ δεσπότου καὶ διδασκάλου ὁ δοῦλος ἐγὼ καὶ μαθητὴς κ.τ.λ. Similar in meaning, though not identical, is the expression in 2 Cor. i. 5, where the sufferings of Christ are said to ‘overflow’ (περισσεύειν) upon the Apostle. The theological difficulty which this plain and natural interpretation of ἀνταναπληροῦν is supposed to involve will be considered in the note on τῶν

θλίψεων.

τὰ ὑστερήματα] ’the things lacking.’ This same word ὑστέρημα ‘deficiency’ occurs with ἀναπληροῦν 1 Cor. xvi. 17, Phil. ii. 30, and with προσαναπληροῦν 2 Cor. ix. 12, xi. 9. Its direct opposite is περίσσευμα ‘abundance, superfluity,’ 2 Cor. viii. 13, 14; comp. Luke xxi. 4. Another interpretation, which makes ὑστέρημα an antithesis to προτέρημα, explaining it ’the later’ as opposed to the earlier ‘sufferings of Christ,’ is neither supported by the usage of the word nor consistent with ἀνταναπληρῶ.

τῶν θλίψεων τοῦ Χριστοῦ] ‘of the

afflictions of Christ,’ i.e. which Christ endured. This seems to be the only natural interpretation of the words. Others have explained them as meaning ’the afflictions imposed by Christ,’ or ’the afflictions endured for Christ’s sake,’ or ’the afflictions which resemble those of Christ.’ All such interpretations put a more or less forced meaning on the genitive. All alike ignore the meaning of ἀντὶ in ἀνταναπληρῶ which points to a distinction of persons suffering. Others again suppose the words to describe St Paul’s own afflictions regarded as Christ’s, because Christ suffers in His suffering Church; e.g. Augustine in Psalm. exlii. § 3 (iv. p. 1590) ‘Patitur, inquit, adhuc Christus pressuram, non in carne sua in qua ascendit in cælum,

Colossians 1:25

στοῦ ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου ὑπὲρ τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ, ὅ ἐστιν ἡ ἐκκλησία· ²⁵ ἧς ἐγενόμην ἐγὼ διάκονος κατὰ τὴν

sed in carne mea quæ adhuc laborat in terra,’ quoting Gal. ii. 20. This last is a very favourite explanation, and has much to recommend it. It cannot be charged with wresting the meaning of αἱ θλίψεις τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Moreover it harmonizes with St Paul’s mode of speaking elsewhere. But, like the others, it is open to the fatal objection that it empties the first proposition in ἀνταναπληρῶ of any force. The central idea in this interpretation is the identification of the suffering Apostle with the suffering Christ, whereas ἀνταναπληρῶ emphasizes the distinction between the two. It is therefore inconsistent with this context, however important may be the truth which it expresses.

The theological difficulty, which these and similar explanations are intended to remove, is imaginary and not real. There is a sense in which it is quite legitimate to speak of Christ’s afflictions as incomplete, a sense in which they may be, and indeed must be, supplemented. For the sufferings of Christ may be considered from two different points of view. They are either satisfictoriae or adificatoriae. They have their sacrificial efficacy, and they have their ministerial utility. (1) From the former point of view the Passion of Christ was the one full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. In this sense there could be no ὑστέρημα of Christ’s sufferings; for, Christ’s sufferings being different in kind from those of His servants, the two are incommensurable. But in this sense the Apostle would surely have used some other expression such as τοῦ σταυροῦ (i. 20, Eph. ii. 16 etc.), or τοῦ θανάτου (i. 22, Rom. v. 10, Heb. ii. 14, etc.), but hardly τῶν θλίψεων. Indeed θλίψες, ‘affliction,’ is not elsewhere applied in the New Testament in any sense to Christ’s sufferings, and certainly would not suggest a sacrificial act. (2) From the latter point of view it is a simple matter of fact that the afflictions of every saint and martyr do supplement the afflictions of Christ. The Church is built up by repeated acts of self-denial in successive individuals and successive generations. They continue the work which Christ began. They bear their part in the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor. i. 7 κοινωνοὶ τῶν παθημάτων, Phil. iii. 10 κοινωνίαν τῶν παθημάτων); but St Paul would have been the last to say that they bear their part in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. This being so, St Paul does not mean to say that his own sufferings filled up all the ὑστερήματα, but only that they went towards filling them up. The present tense ἀνταναπληρῶ denotes an inchoate, and not a complete act. These ὑστερήματα will never be fully supplemented, until the struggle of the Church with sin and unbelief is brought to a close.

Thus the idea of expiation or satisfaction is wholly absent from this passage; and with it is removed the twofold temptation which has beset theologians of opposite schools. (1) On the one hand Protestant commentators, rightly feeling that any interpretation which infringed the completeness of the work wrought by Christ’s death must be wrong, because it would make St Paul contradict himself on a cardinal point of his teaching, have been tempted to wrest the sense of the words. They have emptied ἀνταναπληρῶ of its proper force; or they have assigned a false meaning to ὑστερήματα; or they have attached a non-natural sense to the genitive τοῦ Χριστοῦ. (2) On the

Colossians 1:26

οἰκονομίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι εἰς ὑμᾶς, πληρῶσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ, ²⁶ τὸ μυστήριον τὸ ἀποκεκρυμμένον other hand Romanist commentators,

while protesting (as they had a right to do) against these methods of interpretation, have fallen into the opposite error. They have found in this passage an assertion of the merits of the saints, and (as a necessary consequence) of the doctrine of indulgences. They have not observed that, if the idea of vicarious satisfaction comes into the passage at all, the satisfaction of St Paul is represented here as the same in kind with the satisfaction of Christ, however different it may be in degree; and thus they have truly exposed themselves to the reproach which Estius indignantly repudiates on their behalf, ‘quasi Christus non satis passus sit ad redemptionem nostram, ideoque supplemento martyrum opus habeat; quod impium est sentire, quodque Catholicos dicere non minus impie calumniantur hæretici.’ It is no part of a commentator here to enquire generally whether the Roman doctrine of the satisfaction of the saints can in any way be reconciled with St Paul’s doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ. It is sufficient to say that, so far as regards this particular passage, the Roman doctrine can only be imported into it at the cost of a contradiction to the Pauline doctrine. It is only fair to add however that Estius himself says, ‘quæ quidem doctrina, etsi Catholica et Apostolica sit, atque aliunde satis probetur, ex hoc tamen Apostoli loco nobis non videtur admodum solide statui posse.’ But Roman Catholic commentators generally find this meaning in the text, as may be seen from the notes of à Lapide.

τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ] An antithesis

of the Apostle’s own flesh and Christ’s body. This antithetical form of expression obliges St Paul to explain what he means by the body of Christ, ὃ ἐστιν ἡ ἐκκλησία; comp. ver. 18. Contrast the explanation in ver. 22 ἐν τῷ σώματι τῆς σαρκὺς αὐτοῦ, and see the note there.

25. τὴν οἰκονομίαν κ.τ.λ.] ‘stewardship in the house of God.’ The word οἰκονομία seems to have two senses: (1) ‘The actual administration of a household’; (2) ‘The office of the administrator.’ For the former meaning see the note on Ephes. i. 10; for the latter sense, which it has here, compare 1 Cor. ix. 17 οἰκονομίαν πεπίστευμαι, Luke xvi. 2—4, Isaiah xxii. 19, 21. So the Apostles and ministers of the Church are called οἰκονόμοι, 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2, Tit. i. 7: comp. 1 Pet. iv. 10.

εἰς ὑμᾶς] ’to youward,’ i.e. ‘for

the benefit of you, the Gentiles’; εἰς ὑμᾶς being connected with τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι, as in Ephes. iii. 2 τὴν οἰκονομίαν τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ τῆς δοθείσης μοι εἰς ὑμᾶς; comp. Rom. xv. 16 διὰ τὴν χόριν τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰς τὸ εἶναι με λειτουργὸν Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ εἰς τὰ ἔθνη.

πληρῶσαι] ’to fulfil,’ i.e. ’to preach fully,’ ’to give its complete development to’; as Rom. xv. 19 ὥστε με

ἀπὸ Ἱερουσαλὴμ καὶ κύκλῳ μέχρι τοῦ Ἰλλυρικοῦ πεπληρωκέναι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Thus ’the word of

God’ here is ’the Gospel,’ as in most places (1 Cor. xiv. 36, 2 Cor. ii. 17, iv. 2, etc.), though not always (e.g. Rom. ix. 6), in St Paul, as also in the Acts. The other interpretation, ’to accomplish the promise of God,’ though suggested by such passages as 1 Kings ii. 27 πληρωθῆναι τὸ ῥῆμα Κυρίου,

2 Chron. xxxvi. 21 πληρωθῆναι λόγον Κυρίου, etc., is alien to the context here.

26. τὸ μυστήριον] This is not the only term borrowed from the ancient mysteries, which St Paul employs to describe the teaching of the Gospel

[1. 27

ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν γενεῶν, νῦν δὲ ἐφανερώθη τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ, ²⁷οἷς ἠθέλησεν ὁ Θεὸς γνωρίσαι τί τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τοῦ μυστηρίου τούτου ἐν τοῖς The word τέλειον just below, ver. 28, seems to be an extension of the same metaphor. In Phil. iv. 12 again we have the verb μεμύημαι: and in Ephes. i. 14 σφραγίζεσθαι is perhaps an image derived from the same source. So too the Ephesians are addressed as Παῦλον συμμύσται in Ign. Ephes. 12. The Christian teacher is thus regarded as a ἱεροφάντης (see Epict. iii. 21. 13 sq.) who initiates his disciples into the rites. There is this difference however; that, whereas the heathen mysteries were strictly confined to a narrow circle, the Christian mysteries are freely communicated to all. There is therefore an intentional paradox in the employment of the image by St

Paul. See the notes on πάντα ἄνθρωπον τέλειον below.

Thus the idea of secrecy or reserve disappears when μυστήριον is adopted into the Christian vocabulary by St Paul: and the word signifies simply ‘a truth which was once hidden but now is revealed,’ ‘a truth which without special revelation would have been unknown.’ Of the nature of the truth itself the word says nothing. It may be transcendental, incomprehensible, mystical, mysterious, in the modern sense of the term (1 Cor. xv. 51, Eph. v. 32): but this idea is quite accidental, and must be gathered from the special circumstances of the case, for it cannot be inferred from the word itself. Hence μυστήριον is almost universally found in connexion with words denoting revelation or publication; e. g. ἀποκαλύπτειν, ἀποκάλυψις, Rom. xvi. 25, Ephes. iii. 3, 5, 2 Thess. ii. 7; γνωρίζειν Rom. xvi. 26, Ephes. i. 9, iii. 3, 10, vi. 19; φανεροῦν Col. iv. 3, Rom. xvi. 26, 1 Tim. iii. 16; λαλεῖν iv. 3, 1 Cor. ii. 7, xiv. 2; λέγειν, 1 Cor. xv. 51.

But the one special ‘mystery’ which absorbs St Paul’s thoughts in the

Epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians is the free admission of the Gentiles on equal terms to the privileges of the covenant. For this he is a prisoner; this he is bound to proclaim fearlessly (iv. 3, Ephes. vi. 19); this, though hidden from all time, was communicated to him by a special revelation (Ephes. iii. 3 sq.); in this had God most signally displayed the lavish wealth of His goodness (ver. 27, ii. 2 sq., Ephes. i. 6 sq., iii. 8 sq.). In one passage only throughout these two epistles is μυστήριον applied to anything else, Ephes. v. 32. The same idea of the μυστήριον appears very prominently also in the thanksgiving (added apparently later than the rest of the letter) at the end of the Epistle to the Romans, xvi. 25 sq. μυστηρίου… εἰς ὑπακοὴν πίστεως εἰς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη γνωρισθέντος.

ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων κ.τ.λ.] The pre-

position is doubtless temporal here, being opposed to νῦν, as in the parallel passage, Ephes. iii. 9: comp. Rom. xvi. 25 κατὰ ἀποκάλυψιν μυστηρίου χρόνοις αἰωνίοις σεσιγημένου, 1 Cor. ii. 7 Θεοῦ σοφίαν ἐν μυστηρίῳ τὴν ἀποκεκρυμμένην ἣν προώρισεν ὁ

Θεὸς πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων. So too ἀπ’

αἰῶνος, Acts iii. 21, xv. 18, Ps. xcii. 3, etc.; ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου, Matt. xiii. 35, xxv. 34, etc.

τῶν γενεῶν] An αἰὼν is made up of many γενεαί; comp. Ephes. iii. 21 εἰς πάσος τὰς γενεὰς τοῦ αἰῶνος τῶν αἰώνων, Is. li. 9 ὡς γενεὰ αἰῶνος (where the Hebrew has the plural ‘gene-

rations’). Hence the order here.

Not only was this mystery unknown in remote periods of antiquity, but even in recent generations. It came upon the world as a sudden surprise. The moment of its revelation was the moment of its fulfilment.

Colossians 1:28

ἔθνεσιν, ὃ ἐστιν Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν, ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς δόξης· 28 ὃν ἡμεῖς καταγγέλλομεν νουθετοῦντες πάντα ἄνθρω27. ὃς ἐστιν.

νῦν δὲ κ.τ.λ.] An indicative clause is substituted for a participial, which would otherwise have been more natural, for the sake of emphasizing the statement; comp. ver. 22 νυνὶ δὲ ἀποκατηλλάγητε, and see Winer §lxiii. p.717. 27. ἠθέλησεν] ‘willed,’ ‘was pleased.’ It was God’s grace: it was no merit of their own. See the note on i. 1 διὰ θελήματος Θεοῦ.

τὸ πλοῦτος] The ‘wealth of God,’ as manifested in His dispensation of grace, is a prominent idea in these epistles: comp. ii. 2, Ephes. i. 7, 18, iii. 8, 16; comp. Rom. xi. 33. See above, p. 43 sq. St Paul uses the neuter and the masculine forms indifferently in these epistles (e.g. τὸ πλοῦτος Ephes. i. 7, ὁ πλοῦτος Ephes. i. 18), as in his other letters (e.g. τὸ πλοῦτος 2 Cor. viii. 2, ὁ πλοῦτος Rom. ix. 23). In most passages however there are various readings. On the neuter forms τὸ πλοῦτος, τὸ ζῆλος, etc., see Winer § ix. p. 76.

τῆς δόξης] i.e. ‘of the glorious manifestation.’ This word in Hellenistic Greek is frequently used of a bright light; e.g. Luke ii. 9 περιέλαμψεν, Acts xxii. 11 τοῦ φωτός, 1 Cor. xv. 41 ἡλίου, σελήνης, etc., 2 Cor. iii. 7 toῦ προσώπου [Μωυσέως]. Hence it is applied generally to a divine manifestation, even where there is no physical accompaniment of light; and more especially to the revelation of God in Christ (e.g. Joh. i. 14, 2 Cor. iv. 4, etc.). The expression πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης occurs again, Rom. ix. 23, Ephes. i. 18, iii. 16. See above, ver. 11 with the note.

ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν] i.e. ‘as exhibited among the Gentiles.’ It was just here that this ‘mystery,’ this dispensation of grace, achieved its greatest triumphs and displayed its transcendant glory; φαίνεται μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἐν ἑτέροις, writes Chrysostom, πολλῷ δὲ πλέον ἐν τούτοις ἡ πολλὴ τοῦ μυστηρίου dόξα. Here too was its wealth; for it overflowed all barriers of caste or race. Judaism was ‘beggarly’ (Gal. iv. 9) in comparison, since its treasures sufficed only for a few.

ὃ ἐστιν] The antecedent is pro-

bably τοῦ μαστηρίου; comp. ii. 2 τοῦ μυστηρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ ἐν ᾧ εἰσιν πάντες κ.τ.λ.

Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν] ‘Christ in you,’

i.e. ‘you Gentiles.’ Not Christ, but Christ given freely to the Gentiles, is the ‘mystery’ of which St Paul speaks; see the note on μυστήριον above. Thus the various reading, ὃς for ὅ, though highly supported, interferes with the sense. With Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν compare μεθ’ ἡμῶν Θεός Matt. i. 23. It may be a question however, whether ἐν ὑμῖν means ‘within you’ or ‘among you.’ The former is perhaps the more probable interpretation, as suggested by Rom. viii. 10, 2 Cor. xiii. 5, Gal. iv. 19; comp. Ephes. iii. 17 κατοικήσαι τὸν Χριστὸν diὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν. ἡ ἐλπίς] Comp. 1 Tim. i. 2; so ἡ

[καινὴ] ἐλπίς ἡμῶν Ign. Eph. 21, Magn. 11, Philad. 5, etc., applied to our Lord. 28, 29. ‘This Christ we, the Apostles and Evangelists, proclaim without distinction and without reserve. We know no restriction either of persons or of topics. We admonish every man and instruct every man.

We initiate every man in all the mysteries of wisdom. It is our single aim to present every man fully and perfectly taught in Christ. For this end I train myself in the discipline of self-denial; for this end I commit myself to the arena of suffering and toil, putting forth in the conflict all that energy which He inspires, and which works in me so powerfully.’

28. ἡμεῖς] ‘we,’ the preachers; the same opposition as in 1 Cor. iv. 8, 10,

πον καὶ διδάσκοντες πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ, ἵνα παραστήσωμεν πάντα ἄνθρωπον τέλειον ἐν Χριστῷ· ix. 11, 2 Cor. xiii. 5 sq., 1 Thess. ii. 13 sq., etc. The Apostle hastens, as usual, to speak of the part which he was privileged to bear in this glorious dispensation. He is constrained to magnify his office. See the next note, and comp. ver. 23.

ὃν ἡμεῖς κ.τ.λ.] As in St Paul’s own language at Thessalonica, Acts xvii. 3 ὃν ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν, and at

Athens, Acts xvii. 23 τοῦτο ἐγὼ καταγγέλλω ὑμῖν, in both which passages, as here, emphasis is laid on the person of the preacher.

νουθετοῦντες] ‘admonishing.’ The two words νουθετεῖν and διδάσκειν present complementary aspects of the preacher’s duty, and are related the one to the other, as μετάνοια to πίστις, ‘warning to repent, instructing in the faith.’ For the relation of νουθετεῖν to μετάνοια see Plut. Mor. p. 68 ἔνεστι τὸ νουθετοῦν καὶ μετάνοιαν ἐμποιοῦν, p. 452 ἡ νουθεσία καὶ ὁ ψόγος ἐμποῖεῖ μετάνοιαν καὶ αἰσχύνην. The two verbs νουθετεῖν and διδάσκειν are connected in Plato Protag. 323 B, Legg. 845 B, Plut. Mor. p. 46 (comp. p. 39), Dion Chrys. Or. xxxiii. p. 369; the substantives διδαχὴ and νουθέτησις in Plato Resp. 399 B. Similarly νουθετεῖν and πείθειν occur together in Arist. Rhet. ii. 18. For the two functions of the preacher’s office, corresponding respectively to the two words, see St Paul’s own language in Acts xx. 21 διαμαρτυρόμενος…τὴν εἰς Θεὸν μετάνοιαν καὶ πίστιν εἰς τὸν

Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν.

πάντα ἄνθρωπον] Three times re-

peated for the sake of emphasizing the universality of the Gospel. This great truth, for which St Paul gave his life, was now again endangered by the doctrine of an intellectual exclusiveness taught by the Gnosticizers at Colossæ, as before it had been endangered by the doctrine of a ceremonial exclusiveness taught by the Judaizers in Galatia. See above, pp. 77, 92, 98 sq. For the repetition of πάντα compare especially 1 Cor. x. 1 sq., where πάντες is five times, and ib. xii. 29, 30, where it is seven times repeated; see also Rom. ix. 6, 7, xi. 32, 1 Cor. xii. 13, xiii. 7, xiv. 31, etc. Transcribers have been offended at this characteristic repetition here, and consequently have omitted πάντα ἄνθρωπον in one place or other.

ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ] The Gnostic spoke of a blind faith for the many, of a higher γνῶσις for the few. St Paul declares that the fullest wisdom is offered to all alike. The character of the teaching is as free from restriction, as are the qualifications of the recipients. Comp. ii. 2, 3 πᾶν πλοῦτος τῆς πληροφορίας τῆς συνέσεως…πάντες οἱ θησαυροὶ τῆς σοφίας καὶ γνώσεως.

παραστήσωμεν] See the note on

παραστῆσαι, ver. 22.

τέλειον] So 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7 σοφίαν δὲ λαλοῦμεν ἐν τοῖς τελείοις…Θεοῦ σοφίαν ἐν μυστηρίῳ τὴν ἀποκερυμμένην. In both these passages the epithet τέλειος is probably a metaphor borrowed from the ancient mysteries, where it seems to have been applied to the fully instructed, as opposed to the novices: comp. Plato Phædr.

249 ο τελέους ἀεὶ τελετὰς τελούμενος τέλεος ὄντως μόνος γίγνεται…250 Β, ο eἶδόν τε καὶ ἐτελοῦντο τελετῶν ἣν θέμις λέγειν μακαριωτάτην…μυούμενοί τε καὶ ἐποπτεύοντες ἐν αὐγῇ καθαρᾷ, Symp. 209 Ε ταῦτα…κᾶν σὺ μυηθείης· τὰ δὲ tέλεα καὶ ἐποπτικά…οὐκ οἶδ’ εἰ οἷός τ’ ἂν εἴης, Plut. Fragm. de An. vi. 2 (v. p. 726 Wyttenb.) ὁ παντελῆς ἤδη καὶ μεμνημένος (with the context), Dion Chrys. Or. xii. p. 203 τὴν ὁλόκληρον καὶ τῷ ὄντι τελείαν τελετὴν μυούμενον; see Valcknaer on Eurip. Hippol. 25, and Lobeck Aglaoph. p. 33 sq., p. 126 sq. Somewhat similarly in

Colossians 1:29

29 εἰς ὃ καὶ κοπιῶ ἀγωνιζόμενος κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐνεργουμένην ἐν ἐμοὶ ἐν δυνάμει.

the LXX, I Chron. XXV. 8 τελείων καὶ μανθανόντων stands for ’the teachers (or the wise) and the scholars.’ So also in 2 Pet. i. 16 ἐπόπται γενηθέντες τῆς ἐκείνου μεγαλειότητος we seem to have the same metaphor. As an illustration it may be mentioned that Plato and Aristotle called the higher philosophy ἐποπτικόν, because those who have transcended the bounds of the material, οἷον ἐντελῇ [I. ἐν τελετῇ] τέλος ἔχειν φιλοσοφίαν [φιλοσοφίας] νομίζουσι, Plut. Mor. 382 D, E. For other metaphorical expressions in St Paul, derived from the mysteries, see above on μυστήριον ver. 26. Influenced probably by this heathen use of τέλειος, the early Christians applied it to the baptized, as opposed to the catechumens: e.g. Justin Dial. 8 (p. 225 c) πάρεστιν ἐπιγνόντι σοι τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τελείῳ γενομένῳ εὐδαιμονεῖν, Clem. Hom. iii. 29 ὑποχωρεῖν μοι κελεύσας, ὡς μήπω εἰληφότι τὸ πρὸς σωτηρίαν βάπτισμα, τοῖς ἤδη τελείοις ἔφη κ.τ.λ., xi. 36 βαπτίσας… ἤδη λοιπὸν τέλειον ὄντα κ.τ.λ.; and for later writers see Suicer Thes. s. vv. τελείου, τελείωσις. At all events we may ascribe to its connexion with the mysteries the fact that it was adopted by Gnostics at a later date, and most probably by the Gnosticizers at this time, to distinguish the possessors of the higher γνῶσις from the vulgar herd of believers: see the passages quoted in the note on Phil. iii. 15. While employing the favourite Gnostic term, the Apostle strikes at the root of the Gnostic doctrine. The language descriptive of the heathen mysteries is transferred by him to the Christian dispensation, that he may thus more effectively contrast the things signified. The true Gospel also has its mysteries, its hierophants, its initiation: but these are open to all alike. In Christ every believer is τέλειος, for he has been admitted as ἐπόπτης of its most profound, most awful, secrets. See again the note on ἀπόκριφοι, ii. 3.

29. εἰς ὃ] i.e. εἰς τὸ παραστῆσαι πάντα ἄνθρωπον τέλειον, ’that I may initiate all mankind in the fulness of this mystery,’ ’that I may preach the Gospel to all without reserve.’ If St Paul had been content to preach an exclusive Gospel, he might have saved himself from more than half the troubles of his life.

κοπιῶ] This word is used especially of the labour undergone by the athlete in his training, and therefore fitly introduces the metaphor of ἀγωνιζόμενος: comp. 1 Tim. iv. 10 εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ κοπιῶμεν καὶ ἀγωνιζόμεθα (the correct reading), and see the passages quoted on Phil. ii. 16.

ἀγωνιζόμενος] ‘contending in the lists,’ the metaphor being continued in the next verse (ii. 1), ἠλίκον ἀγῶνα; comp. iv. 12. These words ἀγών, ἀγωνία, ἀγωνίζεσθαι, are only found in St Paul and the Pauline writings (Luke, Hebrews) in the New Testament. They occur in every group of St Paul’s Epistles. The use here most resembles 1 Thess. ii. 2 λαλῆσαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν πολλῷ ἀγώνι.

ἐνεργουμένην] Comp. Eph. iii. 20. For the difference between ἐνεργεῖν and ἐνεργεῖσθαι see the note on Gal. v. 6.

II. 1—3. ‘I spoke of an arena and a conflict in describing my apostolic labours. The image was not lightly chosen. I would have you know that my care is not confined to my own direct and personal disciples. I wish you to understand the magnitude of the struggle, which my anxiety for you costs me—for you and for your neighbours of Laodicea, and for all who, like yourselves, have never met me face to face in the flesh. I am constantly wrestling in spirit, that the