5. Order (rd£w). Or orderly array. A military metaphor, quite possibly suggested by Paul’s intercourse with the soldiers in his confinement. See on Philip. i. 13.
Steadfastness (ctepéwua). Only here in the New Testa- ment. See on 1 Pet. v.9. The kindred adjective o7epeos solid, occurs 2 Tim. ii. 19; Heb. v.12; 1 Pet. v. 9; and the verb orepedw to make solid, Acts iii. 7; xvi. 5. The military metaphor is continued. Faith is represented as a host solidly drawn up: your soled front, close phalanw. The verb is found in this sense in the Apocrypha, 1 Mace. x. 50, “ éorepéwoe Tov rorenov, he solidified the battle ;” massed his lines. Compare Ezek. xiii. 5, where the noun has the sense of stronghold: “They stood not év crepewparte in the stronghold.” So Ps. xvii. 2, “The Lord is my strength ;” stronghold or bulwark. The firmament, Gen. i. 6; Ezek. i. 22. In Esther ix. 22, of the confirmation of a letter.
6. Ye received (apeAdBere). By transmission from (mapa) your teachers.
Christ Jesus the Lord (tov Xpuotov ‘Incody tov Kupiov). The Christ, specially defined by the following words, thus em- phasizing the personal Christ rather than the Gospel, because the true doctrine of Christ’s person was perverted by the Colos- sian teachers. Zhe Christ, even Jesus, the Lord.
7. Rooted—built up (éppcfouévor—errovxodopovpevor). Note the change of metaphor from the solidity of military array to walking, rooting of a tree, and then to building. The meta- phors of rooting and being founded occur together, Eph. iii. 17.
Cu. IL] THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 485
Compare 1 Cor. iii. 9. In Jer. i. 10, éxpsfobv to root out is ap- plied to a kingdom, and the words to build and to plant follow. It must be said that prow to cause to take root is often used in the sense of jirmness or jixedness without regard to its primary meaning. Built up. The preposition émi upon indicates the placing of one layer wpon another. See on Acts xx. 32, and 1 Cor. iii. 9. Compare 1 Cor. iii. 10-14; Eph. ii. 20. Note also the change of tenses: having been rooted (perfect participle), being (in process of) budlt up and strengthened (present parti- ciple).
In Him (ev avro). Rather than upon Him, as might have been expected. In this and in the Ephesian epistle, Christ is represented as the sphere within which the building goes on. Compare Eph. ii. 20. The whole upbuilding of the Church proceeds within the compass of Christ’s personality, life, and power.
Thanksgiving (evyapiortig). For Paul’s emphasis on thanks- giving, see Rom. i. 21; xiv. 6; 2 Cor. i. 115 iv. 15; ix. 11, 12; Eph. v. 20; 1 Tim. ii. 1, ete. Evyapiotos thankful, ev- yapiotetv to give thanks, ebxapiatia thanksgiving, are found only in Paul’s writings.
8. Beware (Pnré7rere). Lit., see to a.
Lest any man spoil you (yu Tis éorar tuas 6 cvAaywyar). The Greek is more precise and personal : lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil. So Rev. Xvraywyéw to carry off booty, only here in the New Testament. A very strong expression for the work of the false teachers; make you yourselves a booty. The A. V. is ambiguous, and might be taken to mean corrupt or damage you.
Philosophy and vain deceit (ris idocodplas Kai Kevijs ardrns). Rev. gives the force of the article, 47s philosophy : xal and is explanatory, philosophy which is also vain deceit. Hence the warning is not against ald philosophy. r0codia philosophy, only here in the New Testament. It had originally a good meaning, the love of wisdom, but is used by Paul in the sense of vain speculation, and with special reference to its
486 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. IL
being the name by which the false teachers at Colossae desig- nated not only their speculative system, but also their practical system, so that it covered their ascetic practices no less than their mysticism. Bishop Lightfoot remarks upon the fact that philosophy, vy which the Greeks expressed the highest effort of the intellect, and virtue (a4pery), their expression for the highest moral excellence, are each used but once by Paul, show- ing “that the Gospel had deposed the terms as inadequate to the higher standard, whether of knowledge or practice, which it had introduced.”