Vincent Word Studies - Colossians 2:3 - 2:3

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Vincent Word Studies - Colossians 2:3 - 2:3


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Hid (ἀπόκρυφοι)

Only here, Mar 4:22; Luk 8:17. Compare 1Co 2:7. Not to be joined with are, as A.V. Its position at the end of the sentence, and so far from are, shows that it is added as an emphatic secondary predicate. Hence, as Rev., in whom are all the treasures, etc., hidden. For a similar construction, see Col 3:1, “where Christ is on the right hand of God seated (there).” Jam 1:17, “Every perfect gift is from above, coming down.” Grammatically, hidden may be taken as an attribute of treasures; “in whom the hidden treasures are contained;” but the other is preferable. The words which immediately follow in Col 2:4, suggest the possibility that hidden may convey an allusion to the Apocrypha or secret writings of the Essenes, whose doctrines entered into the Colossian heresy. Such writings, which, later, were peculiar also to the Gnostics, contained the authoritative secret wisdom, the esoteric teaching for the learned few. If such is Paul's allusion, the word suggests a contrast with the treasures of christian wisdom which are accessible to all in Christ.

Wisdom and knowledge

See on Rom 11:33.