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Col_2:4. After this affecting introduction, testifying to his zealous striving for the Christian development of his readers, and thereby claiming their faithful adherence to his gospel, the warning now follows, for the sake of which Paul has prefixed Col_2:1-3 ( τοῦτο ). That τοῦτο does not refer merely to Col_2:3 (so Oecumenius, Theophylact, Calvin, Zanchius, Estius, and others, including Bähr and Böhmer; Huther is undecided) is in itself probable, since Col_2:1-3 form a connected sentence admirably preparatory in its entire purport for what follows, and is confirmed by Col_2:5, which glances back to Col_2:1. Hence: This contained in Col_2:1-3, which ye ought to know, I say with the design that, etc.
ἵνα μηδείς (see the critical remarks); comp. Mar_5:43; Tit_3:12; Rev_3:11, et al.
παραλογίζ .] In N. T., only found elsewhere in Jam_1:22 (see Theile in loc.); frequent in the later Greek writers since Demosthenes (822. 25, 1037. 15). It indicates, by a term borrowed from false reckoning, the deception and overreaching that take place through false reasoning. What particular sophistries the false teachers, whose agitations at all events tended (see Col_2:8 f.) to the disadvantage of the Pauline gospel, were guilty of, does not appear. It is certain, however, that they were not those suggested by Böhmer (nothing good can come out of Nazareth; one who was crucified cannot have possessed divine wisdom), since the false teachers were not non-Christians. Hardly did these beguiling sophistries affect the person of the apostle, as if he were not concerning himself about the confirming and training of churches not planted by himself, as Hofmann thinks. In that case we should have in Col_2:1-3 only a self-testimony to the contrary, which, as assertion against assertion, would neither have been skilful nor delicate; nor do we in what follows find any defence in opposition to personal calumniation. This applies also in opposition to Holtzmann, p. 177. The γάρ in Col_2:5 by no means requires this interpretation.
ἐν πιθανολογίᾳ ] by means of persuading speech; Luther’s “with rational discourses” misapprehends the meaning. It occurs in this place only in the N. T.; but see Plato, Theaet. p. 162 E; comp. Dem. 928. 14: λόγους θαυμασίως πιθανούς , also πιθανολογεῖν , Diog. L. x. 87; Diod. Sic. i. 39; and πιθανῶς λέγειν , Lucian, Amor. 7. Hence the art of persuasion: ἡ πιθανολογική , Arr. Epict. i. 8. 7.