Colossians 2

Text

Textual witnesses

• Papyrus 46
• Codex Vaticanus
• Codex Sinaiticus
• Codex Alexandrinus
• Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus
• Codex Freerianus
• Codex Claromontanus
• Codex Coislinianus

  Servant of the Mystery (1:24-2:5)

Verses 1–3

Warning against Errors (2:6-23)

Verse 7

Verse 8

• "Cheat you": lit. "plunder you" or "take you captive".

  Verse 9

Verse 11

• "In Him you were also circumcised" : This is applied to the non-Jew Christians to counter the objection by the Jews that they were not circumcised, because of the high significance of circumcision in Judaism. Paul counters this objection by stating that they were circumcised in Christ, who is their sanctification.
• "With the circumcision made without hands": which is that of the heart, in the spirit. The Ethiopian version reads "by the hand of man", for though men are sometimes exhorted to circumcise themselves, as in ;, in order to convince them of the corruption of their nature, and the need they stand in of spiritual circumcision; the Lord has graciously promised his people to do it himself for them, ; as the human nature of Christ is said to be a tabernacle not made with hands, that, is of men, but of God, being what God has pitched, and not man; and it stands opposed to circumcision in the flesh, which was made with hands, ; and by some instrument, as a sharp knife or stone.
• "In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh": the Vulgate Latin, the Alexandrian versions and some others leave out the word "sins"; and the Syriac version omits the word "body". "The flesh" points to the corrupt nature, which propagates in a carnal way, to be the source of all sin. "The sins" consist of various parts and members, as a body does; being united together, and receiving frequent additions, committed and yielded to by the members of the natural body.
• "By the circumcision of Christ": not the one at eight days old, that was performed to fulfill all the righteousness, but the one by his Spirit.