Section 52
48Cf. Luke 20:36, where those who attain the resurrection age are “equal to angels (ἰσάγγελοɩ) and are sons of God.”
49Cf. M. Noth, “The Holy Ones of the Most High” (1955), E.T. in The Laws in the Pentateuch and Other Studies (Edinburgh, 1966), pp. 215-28; L. Dequeker, “‘The Saints of the Most High’ in Qumran and Daniel,” OTS 18 (1973), 108-87.
50Cf. E. Schweizer, Colossians, p. 51; P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon, pp. 26-27. See also on v. 26 below.
51 Acts 26:18 (from the report of Paul’s Damascus-road commission) presents especially close affinities with our present passage, referring as it does to turning “from darkness to light and from the power (ἐξουσία) of Satan to God” and to receiving “forgiveness of sins” (ἄφεσɩς ἁμαϱτɩѽν) as well as an “inheritance (ϰλήϱος, as here) among those who have been sanctified by faith” in Christ. If, as is generally agreed, Luke’s sources did not include the Pauline letters, an interesting question arises about the source of this accurate reproduction of Pauline language.
52For non-Pauline accounts of this heavenly inheritance cf. Heb. 11:8-16; 1 Pet. 1:4.
53The phrase ἐν τῷ φωτί at the end of v. 12 does not qualify τѽν ἁγίων (as though “saints in light” were a special category of saints); it denotes the environment of the inheritance.