Section 68
127Gk. ἐν λóγῳ αὐτοῦ σúγϰειται πάντα (Heb. ûḇiḏeḇārâwyippā’ēl rāṣôn, “and by his words [his] will is done”).
128For this view see E. Schweizer, “Die Kirche als Leib Christi in den paulinischen Antilegomena,” in Neotestamentica (Zürich, 1963), pp. 293-316. E. Käsemann, who regards the original composition as being not only pre-Pauline but pre-Christian, thinks its subject was the gnostic Redeemer, identified with the Archetypal Man, and that “the church” and other additions were part of its adaptation as a Christian baptismal liturgy (“A Primitive Christian Baptismal Liturgy”). H. A. Wagenführer, Die Bedeutung Christi für Welt und Kirche (Leipzig, 1941), p. 62, takes τῆς ἐϰϰλησίας as an editorial gloss intruded into the text of Colossians—for this there is no textual evidence. N. Kehl, Der Christushymnus, p. 41, rejects the idea that the body is the kosmos (refusing to treat τῆς ἐϰϰλησίας as an addition to the original composition) on the ground that, if the universe is already related to Christ as its head, it should not need to be reconciled to God. (But in Col. 2:10 he is “the head of every principality and power,” and some at least of these are hostile.) See also I. J. DuPlessis, Christus as Hoof van Kerk en Kosmos (Groningen, 1962).