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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Colossians 3:17 - 3:17
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17. καὶ πᾶν, “and everything.” As he thinks of the song going up in the heart to God he passes on to the spirit that should animate the whole life. No detail is to be excluded as common, but each and all to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Parts of this thought are expressed in Col 3:23 (τῷ κυρίῳ), and 1Co 10:31 (εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ).
The construction of τᾶν κ.τ.λ. is probably, to quote Meyer, “the absolute nominative, placed at the beginning with rhetorical emphasis, and syntactically independent.”
ὅτι ἐὰν ποιῆτε. Wider than ὁ͂ ἐὰν ποιῆτε, Col 3:23. Cf. 1Co 16:2.
On ἐάν for ἄν see Blass, Gram. § 65. 7, and in particular Moulton, Gram. Proleg. 1906, pp. 42 sq.
πάντα. (1) This takes up the preceding πᾶν ὅτι ἐάν, and regarding the sense rather than the form is naturally plural.
(2) It is accusative governed by ποιεῖτε understood from ποιῆτε. Cf. 2Co 5:13; Mar 14:29. See Blass, Gram. § 81. 1.
ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου Ἰησοῦ. The exact phrase appears to occur here only. (1) It probably means “as representing” Christ. Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 197 sq., quotes a papyrus of 37 A.D. in which an oath of fealty to the Emperor Caligula taken by the inhabitants of Assos in Troas is signed by five πρεσβευταί, after which group of names occur the concluding words: οἵτινες καὶ ὑπὲρ τῆς Γαίου Καίσαρος Σεβαστοῦ Γερμανικοῦ σωτηρίας εὐξάμενοι Διὶ Καπιτωλίῳ (sic) ἔθυσαν τῷ τῆς πόλεως ὀνόματι, i.e. as representing the city. (2) Chrysostom explains it as in every act calling on Christ for help (αὐτὸν καλῶν βοηθόν).
Observe ἐν ὀνομ. κυρίου Ἰησοῦ. For ἐν ὀνομ. χριστοῦ would not equally have suggested the personal life of Jesus of Nazareth as our pattern (cf. St Paul’s use of “Jesus” in 2Co 4:10-14; 1Th 4:14), and ἐν ὀνόμ. Ἰησοῦ would not have suggested His unique character and His present claim and power (cf. 2Co 4:14).
εὐχαριστοῦντες, Col 1:3; Col 1:12; cf. Col 3:15.
τῷ θεῷ πατρὶ. Cf. Col 1:3,note.
Here probably the Fatherhood has no primary reference to Christ, but to the Colossians. They are to thank Him who is both God and Father, the object of all reverence and the source of all love.
διʼ αὐτοῦ. Thus this clause means that St Paul will have the joyful tone of the Colossians’ lives (Col 3:16), and their performance of every act in Jesus’ name, united to conscious reference to God who gives all, this thanksgiving itself being only acceptable by means of the Lord Jesus. Cf. Heb 13:15.