494. WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, [Cu. II.
In respect (ev péper). See on 2 Cor. iii. 10. Lit., an the di- vision or category. i
Holyday (€op7fs). Festival or feast-day. The annual fes- tivals. The word holyday is used in its earlier sense of a sacred day.
New moon (vouynvias). Only here in the New Testament. The monthly festivals. The festival of the new moon is placed beside the Sabbath, Isa. i. 138; Ezek. xlvi. 1. The day was celebrated by blowing of trumpets, special sacrifices, feasting, and religious instruction. Labor was suspended, and no na- tional or private fasts were permitted to take place. The authorities were at great pains to fix accurately the commence- ment of the month denoted by the appearance of the new moon. Messengers were placed on commanding heights to watch the sky, and as soon as the new moon appeared, they hastened to communicate it to the synod, being allowed even to travel on the Sabbath for this purpose. The witnesses were assembled and examined, and when the judges were satisfied the president pronounced the words it ¢s sanctified, and the day was declared new moon.
Sabbath days (ca8Bdrwv). The weekly festivals. Rev., correctly, day, the plural being used for the singular. See on Luke iv. 31; Acts xx. 7. The plural is only once used in the New Testament of more than a single day (Acts xvii. 2). The same enumeration of sacred seasons occurs 1 Chron. xxxiii. 31; 2 Chron. ii. 4; xxxi. 3; Ezek. xlv. 17; Hos. ii. 11.
17. Which are. Explanatory. Seeing they are. Referr- ing to all the particulars of ver. 16.
Shadow of things to come. Shadow, not sketch or out- line, as is shown by body following. The Mosaic ritual system was to the great verities of the Gospel what the shadow is to the man, a mere general type or resemblance.
The body is Christ’s. The substance belongs to the Christ- ian economy. It is derived from Christ, and can be realized only through union with Him.
Cutty THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS, 495
18. Beguile of reward (xata8paBevérw). Only here in the New Testament. From xara against, BpaBevw to act as a judge or umpire. Hence to decide against one, or to declare him unworthy of the prize. Bishop Lightfoot’s rendering 70d you of your prize, adopted by Rev., omits the judicial idea,* which, however, I think must be retained, in continuation of the idea of judgment in ver. 16, “Jet no man judge,” etc. The at- titude of the false teachers would involve their sitting in judg- ment as to the future reward of those who refused their doctrine of angelic mediation. Paul speaks from the stand- point of their claim.
In a voluntary humility (éAwv év tarewodpoctivy). Ren- der delighting in humility. This rendering is well supported by Septuagint usage. See 1 Sam. xviii. 22; 2 Sam. xv. 26; 1 Kings x. 9; 2 Chron. ix. 8+ It falls in, in the regular participial series, with the other declarations as to the vain conceit of the teachers; signifying not their purpose or their wish to deprive the Christians of their reward, but their vain enthusiasm for their false doctrine, and their conceited self- complacency which prompted them to sit as judges. The wor- ship of angels involved a show of humility, an affectation of superior reverence for God, as shown in the reluctance to at- tempt to approach God otherwise than indirectly : in its as- sumption that humanity, debased by the contact with matter, must reach after God through successive grades of intermediate beings. For humility, see on Matt. xi. 29.
Worship of angels (Ipnoxeta). See on religious, Jas. i. 26. Defining the direction which their humility assumed. The usage of the Septuagint and of the New Testament limits the meaning to the external aspects of worship. Compare Acts xxvi. 5; Jas. 1. 27.