The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 97

jusl UBed the nonn l,.,rl1<llutris (ver. 11) in a returns to the point from which ho et:u·tetl corresponding scnso (see note in loc. on tho in ver. 10. He h11s just declared that God force ofilie double compound). He employs has oancelled and removed tho La.w as o.n compnuu<ls of~""' in tho middle voioe seven- instrument of oondemuntion; o.nd now adds teen (imes elsewhere, nnd alwnys in the thnt he has at the same time thrown oft souse of " pultiug off [or, 'on'] from one's and laid a.side the veil of nugclic mediation self;" nnd there is no sure instance in under which, in the administration of thnt Greek of the micldle verb bearing o.ny other La.w, he had withdrawn himself. Doth meaning. Yet such critics ns Meyer, Ea.die, these acts take place" in Christ.• Both 11ro luoppor, cling to the rendering of the neccsso.ry to that "access to the Fo.ther " Vulgnte nncl our Authorized Version; nnd which, in the npostle's view, is the speci11l not without reason, as we sho.ll see. The prerogative of Christian faith (Eph. ii. 18; Ilcviiled margin follows the earlier Latin iii. 12; Rom. v. 2), and which the Colossian Fathers nnd some ancient versions, supply- error doubly barred, by its ascetio oerc- ing " his body" o.s object of the participle, monia.lism and by its o.ngelio medio.tion. understanding " Christ" as subject. But (See, on this po.sso.go, Alford; o.lso Peirce's the context does not, as in 2 Cor. v. 3, 'Paraphrase and Notes,' 2nd edit., 1729; suggest this ellipsis, 1tnd it is arbitrary to Robertson Smith, on 'Christ and the make the participle itself mean " having Angels,' Ezpositor, second series, vol. i. 138, disembodied himself." Nor has the writer etc.; A. Sabatier's • L' Apotre Paul,' p. 220, introduced any new subject since ver. 12, 2nd edit., 1881.) We &re compelled, with where " God" appears o.s agent of each of the all deferenco to its high authority, to reject o.cts of salvation set forth in vcrs. 12-15. the view of the Greek Fathers, to which Moreover, " the principalities and the Ellicott, Lightfoot, and Wordsworth have dominions " of this verse must surely be returned, according to which " Christ in his those of ver.10 and of eh. i. 16 (comp3.1'e the &toning deo.th [in it; 'the cross,' vcr. 15 b] "angels" of ,er. 18). We understand St. stripped off from himself the Satanic powers." Paul, therefore, to say "that God [revealing For it requires us to bring in, without himself in Christ; • in Lim,' 15 bJ pnt off grammatical warrant, "somewhere" (Light- nnd pnt nway those angelic powers through foot), " Christ" as subject; it puts upon" the whom he had previonsly shown himself to principalities and the dominions" 11 sense men." The Old Testament associates the foreign to the conteit, and that cannot bo 11,ngels with the creation of the world and justified by Eph. vi. 12, where the con- the action of the powers of nature (Job nection is wholly different and the- hostilci x=viii. 7; Ps. civ. 4), o.nd with its great sense of the terms is most explicitly defined; theophn.nies genero.lly (Ps. lx.vili. 7; Dent. and it presents an idea. harsh and unfitting in xxxiii. 2; 2 Kings vi 17, etc.); a.nd its itself, the incongruity of which such illustra- hints in this direction were emphasized and tions as those of the Nessus robe and Joseph's extended by the Greek translators of the garment only make more a.ppo.rent. It is LXX. Acts vii 38, 53 (St. Stephen); Go.L one thing to say that the powers of evil iii. HJ ; Heb. ii. 2, ascribe to them a special surrounded Christ, and quite another thing agency in the givfog of the Law. Heb. i. and to say that he t11ore them as we h&ve worn ii. s1ow how large a place the doctrine of "the body of the flesh" (ver. 11 ; oh. iii. 9). the mediation of angels filled in Jewish He ma.de a show (of them) openly, having thou.,.ht at tliis time, and how it tended to led them in triumph in him; or, it (Epb. limit' the wediatorship of Christ. The i. 21, 22; Phil. ii. 10 ; I Pet. iii, 22 ; Heb. i. mystic developments of Judaism among the 5, G; John i. 52; Matt. xxv. 31; xxvi. 53; Essenes ancl the Ebionites (Chri.Etian Rev. xix. 10; =ii. 9). In this, as in the la.et E,sem,s), and in the Cabba.l.a., arc full of this verse, we ho.ve a finite verb between two par- belief. And it is a comer-stone of the ticiples, one introductory (" having stripped philosophic mysticism of Alexandria. In off"), the other explanatory. L;.e,-yµa-ri(w, to l'hilo the angels arc the "Divine powers," make a show or example, occurs in the New " words," " images of God," forming the court Testament besides only in Mo.tt. i. 17, nnd entourage of the invi.Eible King, by where it is compounded with 1Ca.pa• (Ro- wLoi!C means Le crea.ted and maintains the visocl Text), giving it a sinister meaning, Dl:11.erio.l world, and holds converse with the not belonging to the simple verb. With sou1l of wen (see quotation, ver. 10). This the angelic " principalities,'' etc., for object, cloct.rine, we may suppose, was a chief the verb denotes, not 11 shameful exposure, article of the Colossian heresy. Theodorct's but "an exhibition of them in their true nc.,t<, on ver. 18 is apposite here: "They character and position," such as forbids wLo defe:ndcd the Lo.w taught m~n to them to be regarded superstitiously (ver. 18). worship angels, saying that the Law was God exhibited the angi,Ja e.s the subordinates b'1\'l,n Ly them. This mischief continued and servants of hie Son (vor. 10: comp. !oug: in PLJ·yoria and Pisi<l~a." The apostle Luke i. 213; ii. 10, 13; llfork i. 13; Luke en. u. 1-23.] 'l'llE EPISTLg TO TIIE COLOSSIANS. 91