14. Blotting out (éfarelas). See on Acts iii. 19: com- pare Apoe. iii. 5. The simple verb ade/pw means to anoint, see on John xi. 2. Hence to besmear. The compounded preposi- tion €€ means completely. The compound verb here is used by Thucydides of whitewashing a wall; 1 Chron. xxix. 4, of over- laying walls with gold. The preposition also carries the sense of removal ; hence to smear out ; to wipe away.
The handwriting (76 yeupéypadov). The A. V. has simply translated according to the composition of the noun, yelp hand, ypadw to write. Properly an autograph, and specially a note of hand, bond. Compare Tobit v. 3; ix. 5. Transcribed, chirographus and chirographon, it appears often in Latin authors, especially in law-books. So Juvenal, of a rascally neighbor, who declares his note of hand void, and the tablets on which it is written as so much useless wood (xvi., 41). Sueton- ius, of the promise of marriage given by Caligula to Ennia Naevia “under oath and bond” (chirographo, “Caligula,” 12).
Of ordinances (rots déyuaow). See on Luke ii. 1. Lit., in ordinances ; consisting in, or, as Rev., written in, as suggested by handwriting. As Paul declares this bond to be against us, including both Jews and Gentiles, the reference, while primar- ily to the Mosaic law, is to be taken in a wider sense, as includ- ing the moral law of God in general, which applied to the Gen- tiles as much as to the Jews. See Rom. iii. 19. The law is frequently conceived by Paul with this wider reference, as a principle which has its chief representative in the Mosaic law, but the applications of which are much wider. See on Rom. li. 12. This law is conceived here as a bond, a bill of debt, standing against those who have not received Christ. As the form of error at Colossae was largely Judaic, insisting on the Jewish ceremonial law, the phrase is probably colored by this fact. Compare Eph. ii. 15.
Which was contrary to us (3 $v dmevavtlop nutv). He has just said which was against us (rd Ka¥? nuav); which stood to
Cu, IL] THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 491
our debit, binding us legally. This phrase enlarges on that idea, emphasizing the hostile character of the bond, as a hin- drance. Compare Rom. iv. 15; v. 20; 1 Cor. xv. 56; Gal. iii. 23. ‘Law is against us, because it comes like a taskmaster, bidding us do, but neither putting the inclination into our hearts nor the power into our hands. And law is against us, be- cause the revelation of unfulfilled duty is the accusation of the defaulter, and a revelation to him of his guilt. And law is against us, because it comes with threatenings and foretastes of penalty and pain. Thus, as standard, accuser, and avenger it is against us” (Maclaren).
Took it out of the way (av7d jpxev éx Tod wécov). Lit., out of the midst.
Nailing it to His cross (apoond\a@oas aitd Td otavpo). Rev., the cross. The verb occurs nowhere else. The law with its decrees was abolished in Christ’s death, as if crucified with Him. It was no longer in the midst, in the foreground, as a debtor’s obligation is perpetually before him, embarrassing his whole life. Ignatius: “I perceived that ye were settled in un- movable faith, as if nazled (kaInXwpévovs) upon the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, both in flesh and spirit ” (To Smyrna, i.).
15. Having spoiled principalities and powers (azrexév- odpevos Tas apyas Kal tas éEovclas). For the verb spoiled, see on putting off, ver. 11. The principalities and powers are the angelic hosts through whose ministry the law was given. See Deut. xxxiii. 2; Acts vii. 53; Heb. ii. 2; Gal. iii. 19. Great importance was attached, in the later rabbinical schools, to the angels who assisted in giving the law; and that fact was not without influence in shaping the doctrine of angelic media- tors, one of the elements of the Colossian heresy, which was partly Judaic. This doctrine Paul strikes at in ch. i. 163 i 10; here, and ver. 18. God put off from himself, when the bond of the law was rendered void in Christ’s crucifixion, that ministry of angels which waited on the giving of the law, re- vealing Christ as the sole mediator, the head of every principal- ity and power (ver. 10). The directness of the gospel ministra- tion, as contrasted with the indirectness of the legal ministra-