Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Colossians 3:3 - 3:3

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Colossians 3:3 - 3:3


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

3. ἀπεθάνετε γάρ. To be taken up with things on earth is unreasonable, for dead men have no more to do with such things. For the tense cf. Col 2:12; Col 2:20, notes.

καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν. I.e. the life that followed on their death. Therefore not the future life as such but the real and spiritual life to which believers have already risen; cf. Col 3:1, Col 2:12, notes.

κέκρυπται. More like ἀποκεκρυμμένος, Col 1:26, than ἀπόκρυφος, Col 2:3 (see notes). For the thought is primarily not that of security but of concealment. Your life does not belong to the sphere of the visible (why then be taken up by the visible?) but is in God.

“The Apostle’s practical aim is to direct the Christian away from the visible, mechanical, routine of Pharisaic or Essenic observance to the secrets of holiness which are as invisible to natural sight as is Christ Himself, in Whom they reside” (Moule).

There seems to be no close parallel to ζωὴ … κέκρυπται. Cf. perhaps Rev 2:17, τοῦ μάννα τοῦ κεκρυμμένου.

The perfect of course brings out the abiding state of things, in contrast to the definite action of dying (ἀπεθάνετε).

σὺν (Col 2:5; Col 2:13) τῷ χριστῷ. Not as well as Christ, in the sense that both believers and Christ have true life in God. But in intimate fellowship with Christ. Their life is bound up with Christ. He is invisible, and with Him is their life; cf. Joh 14:19.

ἐν τῷ θεῷ. God is the very antithesis to the material and visible, and the believer’s life is in God; contrast Col 2:20, ὡς ζῶντες ἐν κοσμῷ.

Observe, by the way, the extraordinary rarity of the phrase ἐν τῷ θεῷ. It seems to occur only here and in Rom 5:11; 1Jn 4:15-16 (absolutely); and in Eph 3:9; 1Th 2:2 (with additions); similarly ἐν θεῷ, Rom 2:17; Joh 3:21†; ἐν θεῷ πατρί, 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; Jud 1:1†.