Section 131
49Gk. νεϰϱώσατε. This is the only NT instance of νεϰϱόω in this sense (it is used in the perfect participle passive νενεϰϱωμένος in Rom. 4:19 and Heb. 11:12 to describe Abraham’s body in old age, “as good as dead”). In Rom. 6:11 λογίζεσθε . . . νεϰϱούς (“reckon as dead”) is synonymous with νεϰϱώσατε here, except that νεϰϱώσατε is aorist and λογίζεσθε is present (there must be a decisive initial act introducing a settled attitude). Cf. the similar sense of θάνατον in Rom. 7:4; 8:13; elsewhere in the NT this verb has the literal sense “put to death.”
50G. Bornkamm, following W. Bousset (Hauptprobleme der Gnosis [Göttingen, 1907], p. 229, and R. Reitzenstein, Das iranische Erlösungsmysterium [Bonn, 1921], p. 161, n. 2), takes the five vices listed here to be the “members” of the old man, making up his essence, in accordance with the Iranian-Gnostic “pentad scheme,” as the five virtues of v. 12 are the “members” which make up the essence of the new man (“The Heresy of Colossians,” in Conflict at Colossae, ed. Francis and Meeks [Missoula, MT, 1975], p. 133).
51J. B. Lightfoot, ad loc. (p. 211). On this A. S. Peake justly says, “It is true that the apposition of μέλη and the list of sins that follows is strange, but not so strange as to make this very forced construction preferable” (ad loc.).