Section 106
75Cf. J. S. Stewart, A Man in Christ (London, 1935), pp. 171, 192. On the subject-matter and interpretation of vv. 11-12 see also G. W. H. Lampe, The Seal of the Spirit (London, 1951), pp. 5, 56, 83, 85 et passim.
76Gk. ϰαì ὑμᾶς; . . . συνεζῳοποίησεν, with which may be compared ϰαὶ ὑμᾶς; . . . ἀποϰατήλλαξεν in Col. 1:21-22. As the Christ-hymn is followed by a personal application to the readers, so is this “baptismal homily” on the hymn (cf. p. 101, n. 49), and in a parallel construction.
77Lit., “in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh” ([ἐν] τοῖς; παϱ-απτώμασɩν ϰαì τῇ ἀϰϱοβυστίᾳ τῆς; σαϱϰòς; ὑμѽν). Before each of these instrumental datives ἐν is read by a variety of witnesses.
78Gk. ὑμᾶς;, resumptive of ὑμᾶς; in ϰασ ὑμᾶς;, but p46 B and some other witnesses read ἡμᾶς;, anticipating ἡμῖν in the following clause, while many (including ℵ2 D F G Ψ and the majority of cursives) omit the pronoun entirely.
79For ἡμῖν ℵ2 K* L P and some other witnesses read ὑμῖν.
80Gk. τò ϰαθ’ ἡμѽν ϰεɩϱòγϱαφον τοῖς; δóγμασɩν. The translation above treats τοῖς; δòγμασɩν as a dative of accompaniment (“ordinances and all”). E. Percy (Die Probleme, pp. 88-90) takes τοῖς; δòγμασɩν with the following clause ὃ ἦ νὑπεναντίον ἡμῖν, so that the meaning is “the handwriting that was against us, which by virtue of the ordinances testified against us.” The ordinances are, in his view, the Mosaic commandments. It is, however, awkward to construe τοῖς; δòγμασɩν with the following adjective clause, in spite of the parallels which Percy adduces. He maintains that, on any other construction, the clause ὃ ἦ νὑπεναντίον ἡμῖν is a superfluous repetition of ϰαθ’ ἡμѽν. J. A. T. Robinson (The Body, p. 43, n. 1) takes ϰαθ’ ἡμѽν to mean “in our name,” an attractive suggestion which would be accepted with greater alacrity if such a sense could be established for ϰατά with the genitive (the use of this construction with verbs of swearing and asseveration is not a sufficient parallel). The same writer (ibid.) construes τò . . . ϰεɩϱóγϱαφον τοῖς; δóγμασɩν as “our subscription to the ordinances.” C. F. D. Moule (IBNTG, p. 45) acknowledges the plausible and ingenious character of this interpretation, and appears to regard it as preferable to Percy’s, which involves “too much violence to word-order”; but he himself renders the phrase “the document with its decrees (meaning, apparently, a document containing, or consisting of, decrees).” E. Lohse, who thinks that “a fragment of a confession formulated in hymnic phrases underlies vss 14-15,” suggests that τοῖς δóγμασɩν might have been inserted by the author of Colossians in order “to emphasize that with the forgiveness of sins each and every claim of the ’elements of the universe’ (στοɩϰεῖα τοῦ ϰóσμου) was nullified” (ad loc., pp. 106-07). R. P. Martin similarly regards τοῖς; δóγμασɩν (and also ὃ ἦ ὑπεναντίον ἡμῖν) as inserted by Paul into a hymnic fragment in praise of the Redeemer “to clarify the special sense in which he wishes τò ϰεɩϱóγϱαφον to be understood” (”Reconciliation and Forgiveness in the Letter to the Colossians,” in Reconciliation and Hope, ed. R. Banks [Exeter, 1974], pp. 116-20). Cf. Eph. 2:15, ἐν δóγμασɩν (“consisting of ordinances”).