314
z Constr., ch. i
p., Col.
Ill,
at Ἡ χριστὸν διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν, 18. ἐν ἀγάπῃ Col. i. 2; ἐῤῥιζωμένοι καὶ " τεθεμελιωμένοι, ἵνα ἢ ἐξισχύσητε “ καταλαβέσθαι
bait 4 σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς " ἁγίοις τί τὸ ' πλάτος καὶ " μῆκος καὶ " βάθος 1 καὶ
e=ch. i. Σ reff.
iv. 13, X. 34, xxv. 25; Phil. iii. 12, 13 . fg Rev. xx. 9, xxi. 16 only; Gen. i. 15.
1νψ. κ. Bad. BCDEFG 17, 37, 57, 73, 116, It., Vulg., Syr., Ar.-erp., Copt., Eth., Arm., Ath., Cyr., Lucif.. Ambrst., Pel., Jer.; βαθος και υψος AKL, etc., Syr., al.,
Orig., Chrys., Thdrt., al.
vovpevos, Col. iii. το). The strength, therefore, which was to be communicated by the impartation of new spiritual power through the Holy Spirit was a gift to en- rich and invigorate the deepest and most central thing in them—their whole con- scious, personal being.
Ver. 17. κατοικῆσαι τὸν Χριστὸν διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν : that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, The presence of Christ, His stated presence (κατοικεῖν as contrasted with παροικεῖν = sojourn, cf. Gen. xxxvii. 1), the taking up of His abode in them (cf. the use of κατοικεῖν in Matt. xii. 45; Luke xi. 26; 2 Pet. iii. 13; and also its application to Christ Himself in an- other relation in Col. i. 19), is also em- braced in the scope of Paul’s prayer. The indwelling expressed here by the comp. κατοικεῖν is also expressed by the simple οἰκεῖν (Rom. viii. 9; 1 , iii, 16). Its seat is the καρδία---εἷνε centre of feeling, thinking, willing (cf. Delitzsch, Bib. Psych., iv., 5). And the means or ped ας through which it takes posses- sion of the heart is faith, the διὰ πίστεως indicating the receptivity which is the condition on our side. There remains, however, the question of the construction. The κατοικῆσαι, etc., may be taken as dependent on the δῷ and as forming a second boon contemplated in the gift prayed for, as if = “and that He may grant you also that Christ may dwell in your hearts” (Mey., Abb., εἰς.). Or it may be taken as dependent on the κρα- ταιωθῆναι, etc., expressing the contem- plated result of the gift of strength (inf. of consequence ; cf. Acts v. 3; Heb. vi. 10; Apoc. v. 5, xvi. 9, etc.), = “to the effect that Christ may dwell in your hearts’. The omission of the con- necting καί is no insuperable objection to the former ; for cases of asyndeton are sufficiently common. But the second view (so ΕΙΙ., Alf., etc.) is on the whole to be preferred, as it deals better both with the grammatical connection and with the emphatic position of the κατοικῆσαι.
The former view has the difficulty of tak- ing two somewhat different grammatical constructions as parallels, and it fails to bring out as the latter does the advance in thethought. The indwelling of Christ is the higher boon which is in view as the end and effect of the strengthening.—év ἀγάπῃ ἐῤῥιζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι: ye having been rooted and pases love. Nothing can legitimately be made of the anarthrous ἀγάπῃ, the article being often dropped before abstract nouns, and es- pecially after a preposition (Win.-Moult., ΡΡ. 148, 149). As the ἀγάπῃ is also without any αὐτοῦ or other defining gen., it appears to have its most general sense here, not “the love of God” or “the love of Christ” in particular, but love, the Christian principle or grace which is “the bond of perfectness"’ (Col. iii. 14). In this love they are described (by two perf. partics.) as ‘having been rooted and grounded’’. If the terms ἐῤῥιζωμένοι, τεθεμελιωμένοι were used in fet proper etymological connotation, they might suggest much, The former might con- vey the idea of subjects deriving their life and growth from love; and the latter the idea of subjects built up on the basis of love as living stones in the Divine temple. But the terms are also used without any reference to their original, etymological sense — ῥιζοῦν, ¢.g., in Soph., (2d. C., 1591, means simply to establish something firmly. So here the two words probably express the one simple idea of being securely settled and deeply founded. Thoroughly established in love, having it not as an uncertain feeling changing with every change of experience, but as the constant principle of their life—this they must be if they are fully to apprehend the magnitude of Christ’s love. Here, again, the con- struction is a difficult question. West- cott and Hort attach ἐν ay to the κατοικῆσαι Clause and the ἐῤῥιζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι to the ἵνα clause. But the ἐν καρδίαις ὑμῶν seems a pro