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Col_2:5. A special reason, having reference to his bodily absence, by which his readers are encouraged not to allow themselves to be deceived.
τῇ σαρκί ] with respect to the flesh, i.e. bodily. Comp. 1Co_5:3.
ἁλλά ] at, yet am I on the other hand, beginning the apodosis; see on Rom_6:5 and 1Co_4:15.
τῷ πνεύματι ] with respect to the spirit, i.e. mentally; my spirit, translating itself in thought into your midst, is along with you. Erroneously Grotius: “Deus Paulo revelat, quae Colossis fierent,” so that πνεῦμα would be meant of the Holy Spirit. According to Wiggers, in the Stud. u. Krit. 1838, p. 181, and Vaihinger, in Herzog’s Encyklop. IV. p. 79, ἄπειμι takes for granted the apostle’s having been there previously. A quite groundless assumption; the verb expresses ( ἀπό ) the being away from, but does not indicate whether a person had been previously present or not, which can only be gathered from the connection or other circumstances of the case. In this case the context directly indicates, by Col_2:1, that a bodily παρεῖναι had not occurred. It is otherwise in 1Co_5:3; 2Co_10:1; 2Co_10:11; 2Co_13:2; 2Co_13:10; Php_1:27. Prom the similar expression in 1Co_5:3. Theodoret nevertheless infers that Paul ὡς θεασάμενος αὐτοὺς ἔγραψεν τὴν ἐπιστολήν .
σύν ὑμὶν ] in your society, among you. Comp. Luk_8:38; Luk_22:56; Php_1:23; 1Th_4:17; 2Pe_1:18, et al.
χαίρων κ . βλέπων ] There is here no illogical prefixing of the χαίρων in the lively feeling of joy (Huther, comp. de Wette); χαίρων rather expresses joy at the fact that he is with them spiritually, and καὶ βλέπων ὑμ . τὴν τάξιν κ . τ . λ . then adds what at this joyful being with the Colossians he sees in them, so that the description thus advances with κ . βλέπ .: in spirit I am along with you, rejoicing in this mental presence, and therewith seeing, etc. Comp. also Hofmann, who, however, imports into βλέπων the pregnant meaning not conveyed by the simple verb; it is as plainly present to my soul, as if I saw it with my eyes. This would be κ . ὡς βλέπων , or κ . ὡς ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς βλ . Renderings blending the ideas, such as gaudeo videns (Grotius, Wolf, Bähr, Baumgarten-Crusius, Bleek, and others), or beholding with joy (Bengel, Heinrichs, Flatt), are at variance with the words as they stand. Some erroneously cite Josephus, Bell. iii. 10. 2, where χαίρω καὶ βλέπων (not βλέπω ) means: I rejoice, when I even see it. Winer, p. 438 [E. T. 589], and Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 425, supply with χαίρων the words: concerning you. But the supplying of ἐφʼ ὑμῖν is not justified by the context, which naturally suggests joy at the being together with the readers, for χαίρ . stands alongside of this as an accompanying relation without any other definition of object. And according to this view there is no ground at all for an explicative rendering of καί , which Winer still admits (so also Böhmer and Olshausen).
The testimony, moreover, which is given to the readers by βλέπων κ . τ . λ . is not inconsistent with the anxious conflict in Col_2:1; but, on the contrary, makes the latter, in a psychological point of view, all the more conceivable, when the dangers which threatened a state of things still even now so good are considered.
ὑμῶν τ . τάξιν ] The prefixed pronoun owes this position to the favourable expectation which the Colossians, more than many others, have awakened in the apostle. The τάξις is order, orderly condition. Its antithesis is ἀταξία , Plato, Tim. p. 30 A. For the idea see Plato, Gorg. p. 504 A: τάξεως … καὶ κόσμου τυχοῦσα οἰκία , Polyb. i. 4. 6: ἡ σύμπασα σχέσις κ . τάξις τῆς οἰκουμένης , iii. 36. 6: ἡ … διαίρεσις κ . τάξις . It is often used of the organized condition of the state, Dem. 200. 4, Plat. Crit. p. 109 D; elsewhere also (see Sturz, Lex. Xen. IV. p. 245) of the army, sometimes to designate a section of it (a company of two λόχοι ), and sometimes to express its regular arrangement in rank and file (Thuc. iii. 87. 2, iv. 72. 2, 126. 4, viii. 69. 1). Hofmann[83] takes both ΤΆΞ . and ΣΤΕΡΈΩΜΑ in a military sense. But the two words have not in and of themselves the military sense; they would receive it from the context, which is not the case here. Moreover, the meaning fortress, military bulwark, is expressed not by στερέωμα generally, but by ἜΡΥΜΑ or ὈΧΎΡΩΝΑ , 2Co_10:4. Hence, if we would avoid arbitrariness, we can only abide by the view that here ΤΆΞΙς means the orderly state of the Christian church, which has hitherto not been disturbed by sectarian divisions or forsaken by the readers. Comp. 1Co_14:40. To this outward condition Paul then subjoins the inner one, by which the former is conditioned: and the solid hold of your faith in Christ. στερέωμα , firmamentum, that which has been made firm (Arist. partt. an. ii. 9; Theophr. H. pl. v. 7. 3), a late word, often found in LXX., Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus, and Apocrypha (see Schleusner, Thes. V. p. 102 f.), represents the stedfastness and immoveableness of faith in such a way, that the latter appears as protected by a strong work (with solid foundation, masonry, etc.) from injury (Eze_13:5; Psa_18:2; Psalms 3 Esdr. 8:81). On the subject-matter, comp. Act_16:5 : ἐστερεοῦντο τῇ πίστει , 1Pe_5:9 : ἈΝΤΊΣΤΗΤΕ ΣΤΕΡΕΟῚ Τῇ ΠΊΣΤΕΙ . The abstract firmness, however (Huther, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Bleek, and older expositors), which would be στερεότης , is never designated by the word. Chrysostom explains rightly: ὍΤΕ ΠΟΛΛᾺ ΣΥΝΑΓΑΓῺΝ ΣΥΓΚΟΛΛΉΣΕΙς ΠΥΚΝῶς ΚΑῚ ἈΔΙΑΣΠΑΣΤῶς , ΤΌΤΕ ΣΤΕΡΈΩΜΑ ΓΊΝΕΤΑΙ . The genitive τῆς πίστεως , finally, is not to be taken in such a way as to make faith the στερέωμα (Hofmann), which protects the readers, as if it were ΤῸ ὙΜῶΝ ΣΤΕΡΈΩΜΑ ; but as the genitive of the subject, in such a way that their faith has the στερέωμα securing it, which Paul spiritually sees.
To call in question the unseducedness here attested (Baumgarten-Crusius, who leaves it a question whether the sense is not merely: “if it is so”), or to refer it to only a part of the church (Flatt), is a quite arbitrary result of unduly pressing the general utterance of commendation.
[83] Whom Holtzmann, p. 177, has too rashly followed.