Section 107
81The subject of συνεζῳοποίησεν (v. 13) is God, and there is no formal indication of a change of subject before the end of v. 15. Hence some translations (e.g., RSV) and commentators (e.g., Lohse) take God as the subject throughout. But the description of what was accomplished on the cross (vv. 14-15) more naturally implies that Christ is the subject (J. B. Lightfoot, ad loc., locates the change of subject at ἦϱϰεν ἐϰ τοῦ μέσου [v. 14b]). Such a change of subject would naturally come about if we recognize in vv. 14 and 15 the quotation of a hymn celebrating in pictorial terms the redemptive work of Christ on the cross (so R. P. Martin, “Reconciliation and Forgiveness in . . . Colossians,” pp. 116-23).
82Gk. ἀπεϰδυσάμενος, the verb corresponding to ἀπέϰδυσɩς (v. 11). The force of this aorist participle middle is much debated. In Col. 3:9 ἀπεϰδυσάμενοɩ means “having put off,” as of clothes. So some, taking τὰς ἀϱϰὰς ϰαὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας to be the object of ἀπεϰδυσάμενος here, have thought of Christ as stripping off the hostile powers from himself, as they clung to him on the cross like a shirt of Nessus. This was the general view of the Greek fathers, and is approved by J. B. Lightfoot (ad loc). On the other hand, ἀπεϰδυσάμενος could be used intransitively, in the sense “having stripped,” “having undressed himself” (τὰς ἀϱϰὰς ϰαὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας being then the object of ἐδεɩγμάτɩσεν only). In that case what Christ put off was his “body of flesh” (cf. v. 11); this was the general view of the Latin fathers and has been upheld more recently by C. A. A. Scott, Christianity according to St. Paul (Cambridge, 1927), pp. 34-37; E. Käsemann, Leib und Leib Christi (Tübingen, 1933), p. 139; W. L. Knox, St. Paul and the Church of the Gentiles (Cambridge, 1939), p. 169 n.; G. H. C. Macgregor, “Principalities and Powers: The Cosmic Background of St. Paul’s Thought,” NTS 1 (1954-55), 23; J. A. T. Robinson, The Body, pp. 41-42; R. P. Martin, “Reconciliation and Forgiveness in . . . Colossians,” pp. 121-23. It may well be, however, that the middle voice here simply indicates the personal interest of the subject in the action of the verb; in fact, Hellenistic Greek does not lack examples of the middle voice of such verbs in an active sense (cf. A. Oepke, TDNT 2, p. 319, s.v. δύω, etc.; BAG, s.v. ἀπεϰδύομαɩ). In that case the sense would be “having completely disarmed” (cf. E. Lohmeyer, ad loc., “having divested of their dignity”; E. Schweizer, ad loc). “These angel-powers have been deprived of all their previous power through the removal of the charges which the law brought against men and therewith also of the demands of the law itself” (E. Percy, Die Probleme, p. 98).