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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
10. ἀσπάζεται ὑμᾶς. Repeated Col 4:12; Col 4:14. In each case it introduces a fresh class, viz. (a) those of the Circumcision, Col 4:10-11. (b) Epaphras their fellow-townsman, etc., Col 4:12-13. (c) Luke and Demas who were perhaps Gentile Christians, Col 4:14. In Phm 1:23 the verb is used once to include all.
Observe that of the six who send greeting here all except Jesus Justus send greeting also to Philemon. Similar greetings by name are found in Rom 16:21-23; 1Co 16:19; 2Ti 4:21; 1Pe 5:13.
On the frequency of the expression in inscriptions and papyri see Nägeli, D. Wortschatz d. Ap. Paulus, 1905, p. 55.
Ἀρίσταρχος. A Hebrew-Christian (Col 4:11), of Macedonia (Act 19:29), of Thessalonica (Act 20:4), a fellow-traveller of St Paul, seized with Gaius by the Ephesian mob and carried into the theatre (Act 19:29), who afterwards followed St Paul, apparently from Greece, on his last journey to Jerusalem (Act 20:4). Two years later he was with St Paul on the ship of Adramyttium between Caesarea and Sidon, sailing with him as far as Myra, but, as it seems, going on it towards his own home without being transferred there to the Alexandrian ship sailing straight for Italy (Act 27:2; Act 27:6, see Lightfoot, Phil. p. 34, note). Some two years later we find him once more with St Paul at Rome (Phm 1:24), when, as our verse tells us, he is in some sense St Paul’s συναιχμάλωτος.
ὁ συναιχμάλωτός μου, “my fellow captive.” So of Andronicus and Junias, τοὺς συγγενεῖς μου καὶ συναιχμαλώτους μου, Rom 16:7, and of Epaphras in Phm 1:23, where it has the addition ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. The fact that in Phm. the title is not given to Aristarchus but to Epaphras instead, as it seems, suggests that one had been imprisoned instead of the other. Whether the imprisonment was compulsory, or voluntarily endured in order to cheer St Paul’s loneliness, cannot be determined. Observe that (a) It cannot possibly refer to the long past incident of Act 19:29; for that would not account for Epaphras; (b) As St Paul was literally a captive when he wrote this the captivity spoken of in the case of Aristarchus and Epaphras which they shared with him can hardly be metaphorical; (c) The employment of a term which properly means “captive by war” may possibly be due to St Paul’s vivid sense of the strife between the world and Christ being strictly warfare (cf. the contemporary Eph 6:11 sqq.).
καὶ Μάρκος. That it is rightly Μᾶρκος, the a being long (cf. Μάαρκος in certain inscriptions), see especially Swete, St Mark, p. ix., following Blass, Gram. § 4. 2.
ὁ ἀνεψιὸς†, “the cousin.” So in Num 36:11, the daughters of Zelophehad became wives of their “father’s brothers’ sons,” τοῖς ἀνεψιοῖς αὐτῶν; cf. Herod. 7:5, Μαρδόνιος ὁ Γωβρύεω, ὅς ἦν Ξέρξῃ μὲν ἀνεψιὸς Δαρείου δὲ ἀδελφεῆς παῖς, also VII. 82.
Βαρνάβα. Probably originally the word meant “son of Nebo” (Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 40, Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 307 sqq.), though interpreted in Act 4:36 υἱὸς παρακλήσεως as though it were connected with nabi (prophet).
It is evident that the connexion with so honoured a Christian worker as Barnabas is intended to do honour to Mark, and thus to lead the Colossians to receive him the more readily. To us it is of interest as explaining the warmth with which Barnabas espoused his cause and took him with him to Cyprus, Act 15:37-39.
περὶ οὖ. The antecedent is clearly Μᾶρκος, for the tone of superiority forbids the supposition that the following words refer to Barnabas.
ἐλάβετε ἐντολάς. “Mandata opponuntur literis,” Beng. Perhaps but not necessarily so. For the phrase see Act 17:15.
This can hardly be the epistolary aorist (Col 4:8), especially if Ellicott is right in limiting the epistolary aorist to the first person, but when and by whom they received the charge is quite unknown. Presumably it had been sent from St Paul. So also the reference of the plural ἐντολάς is purely a matter of conjecture; perhaps they received one charge through many persons or perhaps many through one.
ἐὰν ἔλθῃ πρὸς ὑμᾶς δέξασθε αὐτόν. It has been conjectured that St Mark gave up his plan of visiting Asia Minor and went to Egypt instead (Swete, St Mark, pp. xiv. sq.). Some unforeseen occurrence may indeed have brought this about, cf. probably 1Co 16:10, but our passage implies that when it was written he quite expected to be at least in the neighbourhood of Colossae, and had had this expectation for some time (ἐλάβ. ἐντ.). 1Pe 5:13 leads us to suppose that he had some connexion with Asia Minor before that was written. In 2Ti 4:11 he was at Ephesus or near there.
Bengel interprets ἐὰν ἔλθῃ κ.τ.λ. as the sum of the ἐντολαί. Δέξασθε will then be a sudden change to the oratio recta (cf. Luk 5:14; Act 1:4; Act 23:22). Although those copyists who read δέξασθαι instead of δέξασθε clearly understood it so, the simpler interpretation, making it St Paul’s present command, is preferable.
The only special reason (with which we are acquainted) for this charge respecting St Mark is his defection at Perga, Act 13:13; Act 15:38. But that was twelve years earlier and was probably quite unknown to the Colossian Christians, though important to the historian as supplying the occasion for St Paul’s independent journeys. If any special reason is required, it more probably lies in his attachment to the conservative party in the primitive Church (St Peter) rather than to St Paul’s. Hence it was possible that some at least of the Colossians would not greet him warmly, especially after receiving such an epistle as this, full of warning against Jewish tendencies.