Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Colossians 1:3 - 1:3
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Col_1:3 f. Thanksgiving for the Christian condition of the readers, down to Col_1:8.— å ὐ ÷áñéóôï ͂ υμεν ] I and Timothy; plural and singular alternate in the Epistle (Col_1:23-24; Col_1:28-29 ff., Col_4:3); but not without significant occasion.
καὶ πατρὶ κ . τ . λ .] who is at the same time the Father, etc. See on Eph_1:3.
πάντοτε ] belongs to εὐχαρ ., as in 1Co_1:4; 1Th_1:2; 2Th_1:3; Phm_1:4, and not to περὶ ὑμ . προσευχ . (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Erasmus, Luther, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, Grotius, Bengel, and many others, including Böhmer, Olshausen, Dalmer)—a connection opposed to the parallel Eph_1:16, as well as to the context, according to which the thanksgiving is the main point here, and the prayer merely a concomitant definition; and it is not till Col_1:9 that the latter is brought forward as the object of the discourse, and that as unceasing. This predicate belongs here to the thanking, and in Col_1:9 to the praying, and περὶ ὑμῶν προσευχ .—words which are not, with Bähr, to be separated from one another (whereby προσευχ . would unduly stand without relation)—is nothing but a more precise definition of πάντοτε : “always (each time, Php_1:4; Rom_1:10[11]), when we pray for you.”
ἀκούσαντες κ . τ . λ .] with reference to time; after having heard, etc. Comp. Col_1:9. In that, which Paul had heard of them, lies the ground of his thanksgiving. The πίστις is faith (Rom_1:8; 1Th_1:3; 2Th_1:3) not faithfulness (Ewald), as at Phm_1:5, where the position of the words is different. That Paul has heard their faith praised, is self-evident from the context. Comp. Eph_1:15; Phm_1:5.
ἐν Χ . Ἰ .] on Christ, in so far, namely, as the faith has its basis in Christ. See on Mar_1:15; Gal_3:26; Eph_1:13; Eph_1:15. As to the non-repetition of τήν , see on Gal_3:26.
ἫΝ ἜΧΕΤΕ ] Paul so writes,—not by joining on immediately ( ΤῊΝ ἈΓΆΠΗΝ ΕἸς ΠΆΝΤΑς Κ . Τ . Λ .), nor yet by the mere repetition of the article, as in Eph_1:15 (so the Recepta, see the critical remarks),—because he has it in view to enter more fully upon this point of ἀγάπη , and indeed definitely upon the reason why they cherished it.
[11] For a like use of ἀεί , see Stallbaum, ad Plat. Rep. p. 360 A.