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Col_2:16. Οὖν ] since ye, according to Col_2:11-15, are raised to a far higher platform than that of such a legal system.
κρινέτω ἐν βρώσει ] No one is to form a judgment (whether ye are acting allowably or unallowably, rightly or wrongly) concerning you in the point of eating ( ἐν , comp. Rom_2:1; Rom_14:22; 1Pe_2:12). There is hereby asserted at the same time their independence of such judgments, to which they have not to yield (comp. Eph_5:6). With Paul, βρῶσις is always actio edendi, and is thus distinct from βρῶμα , cibus (Rom_14:17; 1Co_8:4; 2Co_9:10; also Heb_12:16), although it is also current in the sense of βρῶμα with John (Joh_4:32, Joh_6:27; Joh_6:55), and with profane authors (Hom. Il. xix. 210, Od. i. 191, x. 176, et al.; Plat. Legg. vi. p. 783 C; Hesiod, Scut. 396). This we remark in opposition to Fritzsche, ad Rom. III. p. 200. The case is the same with πόσις (Rom_14:17) and πόμα (1Co_10:4; Heb_9:10).
ἐν πόσει ] Since the Mosaic law contained prohibitions of meats (Lev_7:10 ff.), but not also general prohibitions of drinks, it is to be assumed that the false teachers in their ascetic strictness (Col_2:23) had extended the prohibition of the use of wine as given for the Nazarites (Num_6:3), and for the period of priestly service (Lev_10:9), to the Christians as such (as ἁγίους ). Comp. also Rom_14:17; Rom_14:21. De Wette arbitrarily asserts that it was added doubtless in consideration of this, as well as of the Pharisaic rules as to drinks, Mat_23:24, and of the prohibition of wine offered to idols ( οὖν does not point to such things), but still mainly on account of the similarity of sound (Rom_14:17; Heb_9:10, and Bleek in loc.).
ἐν μέρει ἑορτῆς κ . τ . λ .] ἐν μέρει , with the genitive, designates the category, as very frequently also in classical authors (Plat. Theaet. p. 155 E, Rep. p. 424 D; Dem. 638. 5, 668. 24); comp. on 2Co_3:10, and see Wyttenbach, ad Plut. I. p. 65. The three elements: festival, new moon, and Sabbath, are placed side by side as a further classis rerum; in the point ( ἐν ) of this category also no judgment is to be passed upon the readers (if, namely, they do not join in observing such days). The elements are arranged, according as the days occur, either at longer unequal intervals in the year ( ἑορτῆς ), or monthly ( νουμην .), or weekly ( σαββάτ .). But they are three, co-ordinated; there would be only one thing with three connected elements, if καί were used instead of ἤ in the two latter places where it occurs. The three are given in inverted order in 1Ch_23:31; 2Ch_2:4; 2Ch_31:3. On the subject-matter, comp. Gal_4:10. Respecting the Jewish celebration of the new moon, see Keil, Archäol. I, § 78; Ewald, Alterth. p. 470 f.; and on σάββατα as equivalent to σάββατον , comp. Mat_12:1; Mat_28:1; Luk_4:16, et al. ἐν μέρει has been erroneously understood by others in the sense of a partial celebration (Chrysostom: ἐξευτελίζει λέγεν · ἢ ἐν μέρει ἑορτῆς · οὐ γὰρ δὴ πάντα κατεῖχον τὰ πρότερα , Theodoret: they could not have kept all the feasts, on account of the long journey to Jerusalem; comp. Dalmer), or: vicibus festorum (Melanchthon, Zanchius), or, that the participation in the festival, the taking part in it is expressed (Otto, dekalog. Unters. p. 9 ff.), or that it denotes the segregatio, “nam qui dierum faciunt discrimen, quasi unum ab alio dividunt” (Calvin). Many, moreover inaccurately, hold that ἐν μέρει means merely: in respect to (Beza, Wolf, and most expositors, including Bähr, Huther, and de Wette); in 2Co_3:10; 2Co_9:3, it also denotes the category. Comp. Aelian. V. H. viii. Colossians 3 : κρίνοντες ἕκαστον ἐν τῷ μέρει φόνου .