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Col_3:4. And what a blissful future is connected with the ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν κεκρ . κ . τ . λ .! This bright, favourable side of the previous thought is the continuation of the proof of Col_3:2 begun in Col_3:3, detaching them thoroughly from earthly pursuits and elevating them to the courage of victory; vividly introduced without connecting particle ( καί ): “repentina luce percellit,” Bengel, which Hofmann fails to perceive, when he objects to the absence of δέ . The relation is not antithetical at all.
φανερωθῇ ] shall have become manifest, have come forth from His present concealment, namely, by His Parousia. See on Col_3:3.
ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν ] your life. Christ Himself is thus designated (comp. ἡ ἐλπίς in Col_1:27), because He is the personal author, possessor, and bearer of the eternal life of His believers (comp. Joh_14:6; Joh_11:25), and this, according to the context, inasmuch as they have entered into the fellowship of His resurrection: they are alive[141] with Him ( σὺν τ . Χ ., Col_3:3); His life is their life. The definite object of this apposition, moreover, is argumentative, for the following τότε κ . τ . λ .
καὶ ὑμεῖς ] as Christ, so also ye with Him. The two subjects have the emphasis.
φανερωθ . ἐν δόξῃ ] Comp. συνδοξασθῶμεν in Rom_3:17. It means nothing else than the glory of the Messianic kingdom, in which believers (also glorified bodily, 1Co_15:43; 2Co_5:1 ff.; Php_3:21) shall be manifested visibly. The offence which Holtzmann takes at the use of φανεροῦσθαι (instead of ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι , Rom_3:17 ff.) and ζωή , presupposes a too limited range for Paul’s manipulation of language. Our passage has nothing to do with 2Co_4:10 f. Nor does it even “almost look” (Holtzmann) as if the author were conceiving the readers as already dead at the Parousia. The φανερωθῆναι ἐν δόξῃ takes place in the case of those still alive through their being changed, as the reader was aware.
[141] Comp. Ignatius, Ephesians 3, where Christ is designated τὸ ἀδιάκριτον ἡμῶν ζῆν , also Magnes. 1, Smyrn. 4.