9. Onesimus. See on Philem. 10.
The faithful and beloved brother. Whom the Colossians had known only as the worthless, runaway slave. See Philem. ch BES
10. Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner. See on Philem. 23, 24. Unnecessary difficulty is made over the fact that the term fellow-prisoner is applied to Epaphras in Philem. 238, and not to Aristarchus ; while here the case is reversed. It is not ne- cessary to suppose that the two had changed places, or that the
512 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cu. IV.
captivity was voluntary, if a literal captivity was meant. All the three terms—fellow-prisoner, fellow-servant, fellow-worker —might be applied to-both; and, as Dwight remarks, “ Reasons unknown to us may easily have determined the use of one word or the other, independently of the question as to the par- ticular time when they were in imprisonment.”
Sister’s son (avers). Only here in the New Testament. Rey., correctly, cousin. The sense of nephew did not attach to the word until very late. Lightfoot remarks that this incident- al notice explains why Barnabas should have taken a more favorable view of Mark’s defection than Paul, Acts xv. 87, 389.
11. Jesus Justus. Not mentioned elsewhere. The only one of these names not mentioned in the salutations of the Epistle to Philemon.
Have been a comfort (éyevjIncav rapnyopia). TIlapnyopia comfort, only here in the New Testament. Properly, an ad- dress, an exhortation: an exhortation for the purpose of en- couraging: hence a comfort. Plutarch, in his “ Life of Cimon,” uses it with mévdous grief; a comfort for grief ; and in his “Life of Pericles,” of consolation for a dead son. Aretaeus, a medical writer, of the asswaging of a paroxysm. This word, and the kindred adjectives mapnyopuxés and mrapnyopntixds soothing, are common in medical writings. So Galen, of soothing fictions, pretences to quiet the diseased. Have been is, more strictly, have proved.
12. Laboring fervently (aywrfouevos). Rev., striving. See on ch. i. 29; ii. 1. Compare Rom. xv. 30.
Perfect (réAevot). See on 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7; ch. i. 28.
Complete (sreAnpodopnyévor). See on most surely believed, Luke i. 1; and compare full assurance, ch. ii. 2. Rev., Sully assured.
In all the will (€v wav7i Sersjuare). Lit., in every will. Will means the thing willed, as Luke xii. 47; Jas. v. 30; 1
Cu. IV.] THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. _ 513
Thess. v. 18. Hence used sometimes in the plural, as Acts xiii. 22, shall do all my will (9errpara), é.c., perform all the things willed by me. Eph. ii. 8, desires, strictly wéllings. So here the sense is, everything willed by God. The connection is ap- parently with oradjre ye may stand. For a similar construct- ion see John viii. 44; Rom. v. 2; 1 Cor. xv. Lyexvir 13eeAS Meyer observes, this connection gives stand both a modal defini- tion (perfect and fully assured) and a local definition (in all the will).
13. Zeal (Gjrov). Read zrovov labor, which occurs elsewhere only in Apoc. xvi. 10, 11; xxi. 4, in the sense of pan. TIévos labor is from the root of révouas to work for one’s daily bread, and thence to be poor. Iovos toil, révns one who works Jor his daily bread, and trovnpos wicked, have a common root. See on wickedness, Mark vii. 22. In their original conceptions, «d7os labor (1 Cor. xv. 58; 2 Cor. vi. 5) emphasizes the fatigue of labor: poxy3os hard labor (2 Cor. xi. 27; 1 Thess. ii. 9), the hardship: novos the effort, but mévos has passed, in the New Testament, in every instance but this, into the meaning of pain.
Hierapolis. The cities are named in geographical order. Laodicaea and Hierapolis faced each other on the north and south sides of the Lycus valley, about six miles apart. Colossae was ten or twelve miles farther up the stream. Hierapolis owed its celebrity to its warm mineral springs, its baths, and its trade in dyed wools, It was a centre of the worship of the Phrygian goddess Cybele,* whose rites were administered by mutilated priests known as Galli, and of other rites representing different oriental cults. Hence the name ierapolis or sacred city.