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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
7. μάτην. Freq. in LXX., but not found in N.T., except in this quotation. St Paul has εἰς κενόν. see on 2Co 6:1.
διδάσκοντες διδασκαλίας ἐντ. ἀνθ. Here again Mk and Mt. differ from LXX., which has διδάσκοντες ἐντάλματα ἀνθρώπων καὶ διδασκαλίας. One is inclined to translate “teaching for teachings,” reserving “doctrine” for διδαχή. But this would be no improvement, for διδαχή is teaching as a whole, while διδασκαλία (freq. in Past. Epp.) is a particular part of teaching, a doctrine. But the distinction is not always sharply made.
ἐντάλματα ἀνθρώπων. In apposition with διδασκαλίας, teaching doctrines (which are) commands of men. This was the source of the evil; their doctrines were of their own devising. They burdened the conscience with external details which had no spiritual value. We must distinguish in translation between ἔνταλμα, “command,” or “precept,” and ἐντολή, “commandment.” Vulg. praeceptum and mandatum. Ἔνταλμα is used of the Divine commands Job 23:11-12; the word is not found in profane writers. Lightfoot thinks that St Paul had this discourse in his mind when he wrote Col 2:21-23.