Section 101
49Gk. ὅτɩ ἐν αὐτῷ ϰατοɩϰεῖ πᾶν τò πλήϱωμα τῆς θεóτητος σωματɩϰѽς. The terms ἐν αὐτῷ, ϰατοɩϰέω, and πᾶν τò πλήϱωμα are repeated from the Christhymn (Col. 1:19). Indeed, the whole passage (vv. 9-15) has been described by J. M. Robinson (Int. 10 [1956], 349, in review of IB 11) as “clearly a baptismal homily on the anti-gnostic kerygmatic hymn in Col. 1:15-20.” G. Bornkamm (“The Heresy of Colossians,” p. 125) thinks that the heresy might have accepted the statement of Col. 2:9, “only with the difference that it did not put the ἐν αὐτῷ . . . in opposition to the indwelling of the divine πλήϱωμα in the στοɩϰεῖα, but regarded the divine fulness in Christ as given in his relationship to the elements.” Nowhere else in the NT does θεóτης occur. J. B. Lightfoot (ad loc.) aptly quotes two passages from Plutarch to illustrate the difference between it and θεɩóτης (also found once in the NT, in Rom. 1:20): On the obsolescence of oracles 415C (where a few δαóμονες are said after long probation to attain θεóτης) and On the malice of Herodotus 857A (where θεɩóτης is used of divine inspiration in human beings). Cf. also E. K. Simpson, Words Worth Weighing in the Greek New Testament (London, 1946), pp. 12-13, on the appropriateness of θεɩóτης with reference to the hand of God in creation but θεóτης with reference to the unveiling of his face in Christ.
50Gk. σωματɩϰѽς. For the view preferred above cf. G. B. Caird, ad loc. (“in solid reality”). See also P. T. O’Brien, ad loc. According to L. Cerfaux, Christ in the Theology of St. Paul, E.T. (New York, 1959), p. 427, “The whole sanctifying power of the divinity in this world came to be concentrated in Christ and in his risen body”; he refers to J. Dupont, Gnosis (Louvain, 1949), pp. 420-93, for a study of “the whole complex of stoic ideas and formulas,” including σῶμα and its derivatives, which Paul has taken over and modified.
51G. B. Caird (ad loc.) takes the meaning to be that the fullness of life exemplified in the risen Christ is possessed already by Christians “in him, i.e. in union with his representative and inclusive manhood.”