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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Colossians 2:11 - 2:11
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Implying that they did not need, as the Judaizers taught, the outward rite of circumcision, since they had already the inward spiritual reality of it.
are - rather, as the Greek, “Ye were (once for all) circumcised (spiritually, at your conversion and baptism, Rom 2:28, Rom 2:29; Phi 3:3) with a (so the Greek) circumcision made without hands”; opposed to “the circumcision in the flesh made by hands” (Eph 2:11). Christ’s own body, by which the believer is sanctified, is said to be “not made with hands” (Mar 14:58; Heb 9:11; compare Dan 2:45).
in putting off - rather as Greek, “in your putting off”; as an old garment (Eph 4:22); alluding to the putting off the foreskin in circumcision.
the body of the sins of the flesh - The oldest manuscripts read, “the body of the flesh,” omitting “of the sins,” that is, “the body,” of which the prominent feature is fleshiness (compare Rom 8:13, where “flesh” and “the body” mutually correspond). This fleshly body, in its sinful aspect, is put off in baptism (where baptism answers its ideal) as the seal of regeneration where received in repentance and faith. In circumcision the foreskin only was put off; in Christian regeneration “the body of the flesh” is spiritually put off, at least it is so in its ideal conception, however imperfectly believers realize that ideal.
by - Greek, “in.” This spiritual circumcision is realized in, or by, union with Christ, whose “circumcision,” whereby He became responsible for us to keep the whole law, is imputed to believers for justification; and union with whom, in all His vicarious obedience, including HIS CIRCUMCISION, is the source of our sanctification. Alford makes it explanatory of the previous, “a circumcision made without hands,” namely, “the circumcision brought about by your union with Christ.” The former view seems to me better to accord with Col 2:12; Col 3:1, Col 3:3, Col 3:4, which similarly makes the believer, by spiritual union with Christ, to have personal fellowship in the several states of Christ, namely, His death, resurrection, and appearing in glory. Nothing was done or suffered by our Mediator as such, but may be acted in our souls and represented in our spirits. Pearson’s view, however, is that of Alford. JOSHUA, the type (not Moses in the wilderness), circumcised the Israelites in Canaan (Jos 5:2-9) the second time: the people that came out of Egypt having been circumcised, and afterwards having died in the wilderness; but those born after the Exodus not having been so. Jesus, the Antitype, is the author of the true circumcision, which is therefore called “the circumcision of Christ” (Rom 2:29). As Joshua was “Moses’ minister,” so Jesus, “minister of the circumcision for the truth of God” unto the Gentiles (Rom 15:8).