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Col_1:19.[43] ὍΤΙ ] Confirmatory of the ἽΝΑ ΓΈΝΗΤΑΙ Κ . Τ . Λ ., just said: “about which divinely intended ΓΊΓΝΕΣΘΑΙ ἘΝ ΠᾶΣΙΝ ΑὐΤῸΝ ΠΡΩΤΕΎΟΝΤΑ there can be no doubt, for it has pleased, that in Him, etc.” How could He, who was thus destined to be possessor of the divine fulness and reconciler of the world, have been destined otherwise than to become ἐν πᾶσιν πρωτεύων ! This confirmation, therefore, does not refer to the statement that Christ is the Head of the church (Steiger, Huther, comp. Calovius), which has already its confirmation by means of Ὅς ἘΣΤΙΝ ἈΡΧῊ Κ . Τ . Λ ., nor at all to ἘΚ ΤῶΝ ΝΕΚΡῶΝ (Hofmann, following up his incorrect explanation of these words), as if the reason were specified why Christ should have gone to His high dignity as beginner of a new world by the path of deepest abasement—a thought which Paul would have known how to express quite differently (comp. Php_2:7 f.) than by the bare ἐκ τῶν νεκρ ., which is currently used everywhere of resurrection from death, and without conveying any special significance of humiliation. Nor yet does Paul move in a circle, by putting forward in Col_1:19 as ground of proof that from which in Col_1:15 ( ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν κ . τ . λ .) he had started (de Wette); for Col_1:19 is a historical statement (observe the aorists), whereas Col_1:15 expressed what Christ is, His habitual being.
ἐν αὐτῷ ] although belonging to ΚΑΤΟΙΚ ., is prefixed in emphatic transposition (Kühner, II. 2, p. 1101).
ΕὐΔΌΚΗΣΕ ] He was pleased, placuit ei, that, etc. As to this use of εὐδοκεῖν in the later Greek (1Co_1:21; Gal_1:15, et al.), for which, in the classical language, δοκεῖν merely was employed, see Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 370. On the accusative with infinitive, comp. 2Ma_14:35; Polyb. i. 8. 4. The subject, whose pleasure it is, is not expressed; but that it is God, is obvious from the context, which in ἵνα γένηται κ . τ . λ . has just stated the divine purpose. Among Greek authors also ὁ Θεός is not unfrequently omitted, where it is self-evident as the subject. See Kühner, II. 1, p. 30 c. According to Ewald and Ellicott (also Weiss, Bibl. Theol. p. 428, ed. 2, and Rich. Schmidt, Paul. Christol. p. 208), πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα is the subject; and the whole fulness is a new expression for the Godhead, inasmuch as, going as it were out of itself, it fills something separate and thus becomes visible (= ëáåã éäåä , ΔΌΞΑ , ΛΌΓΟς , ΠΝΕῦΜΑ ). Without support from N. T. usage; ΠᾶΝ , too, would be unsuitable for the subject of εὐδόκησε ; and εἰς αὐτόν in Col_1:29 clearly shows that Θεός is conceived as subject, to which εἰρηνοποιήσας then refers. According to Hofmann (comp. also his Schriftbew. II. 1, p. 357 f.), Christ is meant to be the subject of εὐδόκ . Col_1:20 itself, and Eph_1:9, ought to have precluded this error. Throughout the whole of the N. T. it is never Christ, but always the Father, who in respect to the work of redemption to be executed gives the decree, while Christ executes it as obedient to the Father; hence also Paul, “beneficium Christi commemorans, nunquam dimittit memoriam Patris,” Bengel. Comp. Reiche, Comment. crit. p. 263.
πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα κατοικ .] that in Him the whole fulness was to take up its abode. The more precise definition of the absolute ΠᾶΝ ΤῸ ΠΛΉΡΩΜΑ is placed beyond doubt by the subject to be mentally supplied with ΕὐΔΌΚΗΣΕ ,[44] namely, τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ (Eph_3:19; comp. ΤῸ ΠΛΉΡ . Τῆς ΘΕΌΤΗΤΟς , Col_2:9). ΤῸ ΠΛΉΡΩΜΑ , the signification of which is not to be defined actively: id quod rem implet (in opposition to Storr, Opusc. I. p. 144 ff., Bähr, Steiger), but passively: id quo res impletur (see generally on Eph_1:10; Eph_3:19, Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 469), has here, as in Eph_3:9, the derivative general notion of copia, πλοῦτος , like the German Fülle. What is meant, namely, is the whole charismatic riches of God, His whole gracious fulness of εὐλογία πνευματική (Eph_1:3), of which Christ became permanent ( ΚΑΤΟΙΚῆΣΑΙ ) possessor and bearer, who was thereby capable of fulfilling the divine work of reconciliation (see the following ΚΑῚ ΔΙʼ ΑὐΤΟῦ ἈΠΟΚΑΤΑΛΛΆΞΑΙ Κ . Τ . Λ .). The case is otherwise in Col_2:9, where the divine essence ( τῆς θεότητος ) is indicated as the contents of the ΠΛΉΡΩΜΑ , and the ΚΑΤΟΙΚΕῖΝ of the same in Christ is affirmed as present and with reference to His state of exaltation. It would be an utterly arbitrary course mentally to supply here the τῆς θεότητος , Col_2:9, and to regard both passages as an echo of Eph_1:23, where the notion of ΠΛΉΡΩΜΑ is a very different one (in opposition to Holtzmann). Inasmuch as the charismatic ΠΛΉΡΩΜΑ of God, meant in our passage, dwelt in Christ, and consequently Christ was the possessor and disposer of it, this divine fulness is not in substance different from the πλήρωμα Χριστοῦ , out of which grace passed over to men (Joh_1:16; Eph_4:13). The thought and expression in 1Co_15:28 are different from our passage, and different also from Eph_1:23. Beza aptly observes: “cumulatissima omnium divinarum rerum copia, quam scholastici gratiam habitualem … appellant, ex qua in Christo, tanquam inexhausto fonte, omnes gratiae in nos pro cujusque membri modulo deriventur;” comp. also Bleek. Observe, at the same time, the stress lying on the πᾶν , in contrast to a merely partial imparting out of this fulness, which would have been inadequate to the object of reconciling the universe. The ontological interpretation of the “fulness of the nature of God” (Huther, Dalmer, Weiss; Oecumenius, and Theodoret: the nature of the Θεὸς λόγος ; Calovius and others: of the communicatio hypostatica, that is, of the absolute immanence of God in Him, comp. Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, I. p. 222; Rich. Schmidt, Paul. Christol. p. 201) does not correspond to the idea of εὐδόκησεν , for doubtless the sending of the Son, and that with the whole treasure of divine grace, into the world (Joh_3:17) for behoof of its reconciliation and blessedness, was the act of the divine pleasure and resolve; but not so the divine nature in Christ, which was, on the contrary, necessary in Him,[45] although by His incarnation He emptied Himself of the divine mode of appearance ( δόξα or μορφή , Php_2:6 ff.). The divine nature is presupposed in what is here said of Christ. Comp. Gess, v. d. Pers. Christi, p. 85. Some (see especially Steiger, Bähr, and Reuss) have regarded τὸ πλήρωμα as derived from the Gnostic terminology of the false teachers, who might perhaps, like Valentinus, have given this name to the aggregate of the Aeons (see Baur, Gnosis, p. 157),[46] and in opposition to whom Paul maintains that in Jesus there dwells the totality of all divine powers of life, and not merely a single emanated spirit; but this view is all the more unwarranted, because Paul himself does not intimate any such polemical destination of the word; on the contrary, in Eph_3:19 also he uses πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τ . Θεοῦ evidently without any reference of the kind. And if he had wished to place the whole fulness of the efflux of divine power in contrast to an asserted single emanation, he must have prefixed, not ἐν αὐτῷ (in Him and in none other), but πᾶν (the whole πλήρωμα , not merely a single constituent element of it) with the main emphasis, and have logically said: ὅτι πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα εὐδόκησεν ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικῆσαι . Hofmann (comp. his Schriftbew. p. 29, 359), who in general has quite misunderstood Col_1:19 f. (comp. above on εὐδόκησεν ), takes πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα as “the one-like totality of that which is;” and holds that the will of Christ (to which εὐδοκ . applies) can only have been, “that that may come to dwell in Him, which otherwise would not be in Him, consequently not what is in God, but what is out of God.” This idea of the immanent indwelling of the universe in Christ, repeated by Schenkel in the sense of Christ being the archetype, would be entirely alien to the N. T. view of the relation of Christ to the world, and is not indicated either at Eph_1:10 or here in the context by τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν . Christ is not the place for the world, so that ultimately all comes to dwell in Him, as all has been created in Him and has in Him its subsistence; but the world originated and maintained through Him, which He was to redeem, is the place for Him.[47] If Paul had really entertained the obscure paradoxical conception attributed to him by Hofmann, he would have known how to express it simply by τὸ πᾶν (or τὰ πάντα ) κατοικῆσαι , or by τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ παντὸς (or τῶν πάντων ) κατοικῆσ . Lastly, at utter variance with both the word and the context, some have based on Eph_1:22 f. the interpretation of πλήρωμα as the church. So already Theodoret: πλήρ . τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἐφεσίους ἐκάλεσεν , ὡς τῶν θείων χαρισμάτων πεπληρωμένην . Ταύτην ἔφη εὐδοκῆσαι τὸν Θεὸν ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ κατοικῆσαι , τουτέστιν αὐτῷ συνῆφθαι , and recently in substance Heinrichs, Baumgarten-Crusius, and others; comp. also Schleiermacher, who, in accordance with Rom_11:12; Rom_11:25, understands “the fulness of the Gentiles and the collective whole of Israel,” the dwelling of whom in Christ is the “definitive abiding state,” which the total reconciliation (see the sequel) must necessarily have preceded, as this reconciliation is conditioned by the fact that both parties must have become peaceful.
κατοικῆσαι ] The πλήρωμα is personified, so that the abiding presence, which it was to have according to the divine εὐδοκία in Christ, appears conceived under the form of taking up its abode; in which, however, the idea of the Shechinah would only have to be presupposed, in the event of the πλήρωμα being represented as appearance ( ëáåã éäåä ). See on Rom_9:5. Comp. Joh_1:14. Analogous is the conception of the dwelling of Christ (see on Eph_3:17) or of the Spirit (see Theile on Jam_4:5) in believers. Comp. also 2Pe_3:13. In point of time, the indwelling of the divine fulness of grace according to God’s pleasure in Christ refers to the earthly life of the Incarnate One, who was destined by God to fulfil the divine work of the ἀποκαταλλάξαι τὰ πάντα , and was to be empowered thereto by the dwelling in Him of that whole divine πλήρωμα . Without having completed the performance of this work, He could not become ἐν πᾶσιν πρωτεύων ; but of this there could be no doubt, for God has caused it to be completed through Him ( ὅτι , Col_1:19). Ernesti, Urspr. d. Sünde, I. p. 215 f. (comp. also Weiss, Bibl. Theol. p. 428, ed. 2), refers εὐδόκησε κ . τ . λ . to the heavenly state of Christ, in which God, by way of reward for the completion of His work, has made Him the organ of His glory (Php_2:9); he also is of opinion that ἈΠΟΚΑΤΑΛΛΆΞΑΙ in Col_1:20 does not apply to the reconciliation through His blood, but to the reunion of all created things through the exalted Lord, as a similar view is indicated in Php_2:10. But this idea of the ἈΠΟΚΑΤΑΛΛΆΞΑΙ is just the point on which this view breaks down. For Col_1:21 clearly shows that ἈΠΟΚΑΤΑΛΛΆΞΑΙ is to be taken in the usual sense of the work of reconciliation completed through the ἹΛΑΣΤΉΡΙΟΝ of Christ. Moreover, that which Christ received through His exaltation was not the divine ΠΛΉΡΩΜΑ , but the divine ΔΌΞΑ .
[43] Holtzmann, after having rejected vv. 14–18 entirely as an interpolation, allows to stand as original in vv. 19, 20 only the words: ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ εὐδόκησεν καταλλάξαι , to which καταλλ . there is then attached in ver. 21, as object, καὶ ὑμᾶς , also you, with reference to ἡμᾶς in ver. 13. How daring and violent, and yet how paltry (rescuing merely the καὶ ὑμᾶς ), would the procedure of the author thus have been!
[44] Hence not: “la totalité de l’être qui doit être realisée dans le monde,” Sabatier, l’apôtre Paul, p. 209.
[45] As in the Son of God in the metaphysical sense; hence the original being of God in Him cannot be conceived merely as ideal, which was to develope itself into reality, and the realization of which, when it at length became perfect, made Him the absolute abode of the fulness of Godhead. So Beyschlag, Christol. p. 232 f., according to whom Christ would be conceived as “man drawing down upon himself” this indwelling of God. He is conceived as the incarnate Son (comp. ver. 13 ff.), who, in accordance with the Father’s decree, has appeared as bearer ot the whole fulness of salvation. For He was its dwelling not merely in principle, but in fact and reality, when He appeared, and He employed it for the work, which the Father desired to accomplish by Him (ver. 20). Comp. Gal_4:4; Rom_8:3. The indwelling of the πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα He had not, indeed, to achieve by his own effort; but He had, in obedience towards the Father, to preserve (comp. Heb_4:15), apply, communicate it; and so this indwelling is—not merely in the risen One, but in His very work on the cross—the presupposition of the universal reconciliation, ver. 20.
[46] Baur himself (Paulus, II. p. 12 ff.) likewise explains πλήρωμα from the technical language of the Gnostics, especially of the Valentinian doctrine of Aeons, but finds the Gnosticism to belong to the (post-apostolic) writer of the epistle. According to Baur (see his Neutest. Theol. p. 258), Christ is the πλήρωμα of God as He “in whom that which God is in Himself, according to the abstract idea of His nature, is filled with its definite concrete contents.” Comp. also Hilgenfeld in his Zeitschr. 1870, p. 247, according to whom our passage is intended to affirm that the Pleroma of divine nature is to be sought not in the prolix series of the Aeons of the Gnostics, but in Christ alone. Holtzmann, with more caution, adheres to the view that the idea of the πλήρωμα forms a first step towards the extended use which the Gnostics make of the word; whereas Hilgen-feld (Zeitschr. 1873, p. 195) finds the idea here already so firmly established, “that the πλήρωμα emerges as in a certain measure holding an independent position between God and Christ.”
[47] Comp. Rich. Schmidt, l.c. p. 208.