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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Colossians 3:25 - 3:25
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25. ὁ γὰρ ἀδικῶν κομίσεται δ ἠδίκησεν. Does St Paul here desire (1) to encourage the slaves by reminding them that if they are illtreated their masters will be punished in due course by God, or (2) to warn them that even if a slave does wrong his ill action will not be overlooked by God, or (3) to definitely include both objects?
Of these (2) alone seems to carry on the thought of the preceding verses; for St Paul has bid them obey their masters according to the flesh, and that with simplicity of aim and willingness of purpose, with an eye all the time to the great Master, who will reward, and (Col 3:25) will punish. In this ease ἀδικῶν, ἠδίκησε = wrong doing, i.e. towards the master (cf. Phm 1:18, εἰ δέ τι ἠδίκησέν σε), though the object is not expressed. The participle is hardly absolute as in Rev 22:11. It is quite possible that St Paul’s words in Phm. suggested to him this phrase in what was almost the covering letter.
κομίσεται. “κομίζομαι often in all Greek and always in the N.T. means not simply to receive but to receive back, to get what has belonged to oneself but has been lost, or else promised but kept back, to get what has come to be one’s own by earning” (Hort on 1Pe 1:9). Cf. 2Co 5:10. Also || Eph 6:8. For the thought of Col 3:25 a we might compare 2Pe 2:12-13 if we could be sure of the text either in the T.R. or W.H., ἐν τῇ φθορᾷ αὐτῶν καί φθαρήσονται, ἀδικούμενοι (κομιούμενοι T.R.) μισθὸν ἀδικίας, but see Bigg there.
ὅ ἠδίκησεν. Aorist as looking back from time of κομίσεται.
καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν προσωπολημψία, “and there is no respect of persons.” He thus clinches his argument as to the need of the most conscientious obedience. But who are they of whom he is thinking? Primarily, as it seems, the various classes and individuals among the slaves. For slaves throughout the Roman Empire and perhaps especially in the East were not like the negro slaves of America in a uniformly low position, but were of all kinds, holding some high, some low, places in the household. And, again, some were heathen, some Christian. It is quite intelligible that some might presume on their earthly position, others on their spiritual privileges, and serve with less thoroughness. He warns them against doing so.
But having said οὐκ ἔστιν προσωπολημψία the phrase itself reminds him of its applicability to masters also. He therefore naturally passes on to Col 4:1. In his later epistle to the “Ephesians” he arranges his material rather differently, and after stating that good actions shall be repaid to each, whether δοῦλος or ἐλεύθερος (not κύριος), warns the masters to treat their slaves properly, knowing that the Master of both parties is in heaven, and is absolutely impartial (Eph 6:8-9).
On the word προσωπολημψία see especially Mayor’s note on Jam 2:1, who says “in its strict sense the Greek would mean to accept the outside surface for the inner reality, the mask for the person,” thus giving a secondary meaning to the word πρόσωπον. Hence perhaps it is that the compound has always a bad sense in the N.T. (it does not occur as a compound in the LXX.), but it is a fair literal translation of the Hebrew מַשּׂא פָנִים, strictly “lifting up” or “accepting the face,” which itself has a bad sense in 2Ch 19:7†, as has also the verbal phrase in Job 32:21; Deu 10:17, al. Probably in the first instance the reference was to permitting a prostrate suppliant to literally lift up his face. The permission in an individual case would often seem arbitrary, and in many cases would be due in fact to other reasons than pure justice. Compare Mal 2:9, ἀνθʼ ὧν ὑμεῖς οὐ φυλάσσεσθε τὰς ὁδούς μου ἀλλὰ ἐλαμβάνετε πρόσωπα ἐν νόμῳ.
Before leaving this verse it is perhaps worth calling attention to the possibility that Col 3:24-25 contain reminiscences of Sirach 32(35):13–16: ὅτι Κύριος ἀνταποδιδούς ἐστιν, καὶ ἑπταπλᾶ ἀνταποδώσει σοι. (14) μὴ δωροκόπει, οὐ γὰρ προσδέξεται. (15) καὶ μὴ ἕπεχε θυσίᾳ. ἀδίκῳ ὅτι Κύριος κριτής ἐστιν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν παρʼ αὐτοῦ δόξα προσώπου. (16) οὐ λήμψεται πρόσωπον ἐπὶ πτωχοῦ, καὶ δέησιν ἠδικημένου εἰσακούσεται. The Greek is a sufficiently close translation of the Hebrew.