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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Colossians 1:20 - 1:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Having made peace (εἰρηνοποιήσας)
Only here in the New Testament. Having concluded peace; see on Joh 3:21. The participle is parallel with to reconcile, and marks peace-making and reconciliation as contemporaneous. The kindred εἰρηνοποιός peacemaker, only in Mat 5:9. The phrase making peace, in which the two factors of this verb appear separately, occurs only Eph 2:15.
To reconcile (ἀποκαταλλάξαι)
Only here, Col 1:21, and Eph 2:16. The connection is: it was the good pleasure of the Father (Col 1:19) to reconcile. The compounded preposition ἀπό gives the force of back, hinting at restoration to a primal unity. So, in Eph 2:12-16, it occurs as in Col 1:21, in connection with ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι alienated, as if they had not always been strangers. See on Eph 2:12. Others explain to reconcile wholly. For the verb καταλλάσσω to reconcile, see on Rom 5:10.
All things (τὰ πάντα)
Must be taken in the same sense as in Col 1:16, Col 1:17, Col 1:18, the whole universe, material and spiritual. The arrangement of clauses adopted by Rev. is simpler.