John Bengel Commentary - Colossians 3:11 - 3:11

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

John Bengel Commentary - Colossians 3:11 - 3:11


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Col 3:11. Ὅπου) where, i.e. in whom, or in which thing.-οὐκ ἔνι, there is not present) In the estimation of God and of believers there is present neither Jew, etc.-Ἕλλην καὶ Ἰουδαῖος, Greek and Jew) The concrete for the abstract, as afterwards also Christ is used: for circumcision and uncircumcision, which occur presently, are abstract nouns.-ἀκροβυστία, uncircumcision) Even the Greek might have been circumcised. Therefore the mention of uncircumcision renders the expression more distinct.-Βάρβαρος, Σκύθης, Barbarian, Scythian) These two words, put by Asyndeton without a conjunction, make equally a pair (συζυγίαν) as bond, free. The Greeks were on the west, the Jews on the east; the Barbarians on the south (for Scaliger shows that the term Barbarians is an Arabic word properly applied to the Numidians), the Scythians on the north, more barbarous than the barbarians (properly so-called). And with this impression Anacharsis, as Galen relates, was reproached by, I know not whom, ὅτι βάρβαρος εἴη καὶ Σκὐθης, that he was a barbarian, and [what is tantamount to] barbarous, a Scythian. Every nation, as it prefers some one other nation to itself, so again, under whatever pretext, prefers itself to all the rest. Therefore the Barbarian, as occupying the middle place between the Greeks and Scythians, gave the palm to the Greek, but at the same time considered himself superior to the Scythian. Faith takes away this distinction. Perhaps at Colosse there were one or two Scythian Christians.-τὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσι Χριστὸς, Christ is all and in all) The apposition is Χριστὸς (ὤν) τὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσι. A Scythian is not a Scythian, but Christ’s. A barbarian is not a barbarian, but Christ’s. Christ is all, and that too in all, who believe. The new creature is in Christ, Col 3:10; Gal 6:15.