Colossians 2:2

παρακληθῶσιν. It is disputed what meaning should be attached to this. Meyer, Ellicott and others translate “may be comforted”. This seems to be the more usual sense in Paul, and is supported by the addition “knit together in love,” which favours an emotional reference. It is more probable, however, that we should translate “may be strengthened” (De W., Alf., Kl [10], Ol., Sod.), for this was more needed than consolation in face of heresy. Oltramare quotes Romans 1:12 (where, however, συμπαρ. is used), 1Th 3:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:17, where this verb is joined to στηρίζειν to show that this sense is Pauline, and in the latter we have παρακαλέσαι ὑμῶν τ. καρδίας καὶ στηρίξαι. Haupt, following Luther, thinks it means “may be warned,” but this does not suit καρδίαι, especially in Colossians 4:8. αἱ καρδίαι αὐτῶν. We might have expected ὑμῶν, but καὶ ὅσοι, while not excluding the Colossians, includes other Churches as well. καρδία implies more than our word “heart,” it embraces also the intellect and the will. συνβιβασθέντες agrees with αὐτοί, understood as the equivalent of αἱ κ. αὐτῶν. In the LXX the word means “to instruct” (so in 1 Corinthians 2:16, which is a quotation from Isaiah 40:14). But joined to ἐν ἀγ. it must have its usual sense, “knit together,” as in Colossians 2:19 and Ephesians 4:16. There may be a reference to the divisive tendencies of the false teaching. καὶ εἰς πᾶν πλοῦτος τῆς πληροφορίας τῆς συνέσεως : “and unto all riches of the fulness of understanding”. καὶ εἰς is to be taken with συνβιβ., “knit together in order to attain”. συνβιβ. is a verb implying motion, and therefore is followed here by εἰς. It is usual to take πληροφ. as “full assurance,” but the expression “all the riches of full assurance of understanding” has a strange redundance, which seems scarcely to be met, as Klöpper thinks, by De Wette's remark that πλοῦτ. is a quantitative but πληρ. a qualitative expression. Accordingly it seems better, with Grimm and Haupt, to translate “fulness,” a sense which is possible everywhere in N.T. except 1 Thessalonians 1:5. For συν. see on Colossians 1:9. Insight into Christian truth is meant here. εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ μυστηρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ. Probably this is in apposition to the previous clause, εἰς πᾶν κ. τ. λ., and further explains it; all the rich fulness of insight, which he trusts may be the fruit of their union in love, is nothing else than full knowledge of the Divine mystery, even Christ. The false teachers bid them seek knowledge in other sources than Christ, Paul insists on the contrary that full knowledge of the mystery of God is all the wealth of fulness of understanding, and is to be found in the knowledge of Christ alone. This makes it probable that the correct interpretation of the true reading is to take Χριστοῦ as in apposition to μυστηρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ (so Ell., Lightf., Findl., Hofm., Holtzmann, Haupt). It is true that this is curt and harsh, and that we should have expected ὅ ἐστιν, but it suits the context better than the translation “the mystery of the God of Christ” (Mey., Gess, Kl [11], Sod., Weiss and apparently Abb.). It is true that Paul uses a similar expression in Ephesians 1:17. But here it would emphasise the subordination of Christ, which is precisely what is out of place in a passage setting forth His all-sufficiency, and against a doctrine the special peril of which lay in its tendency to under-estimate both the Person and the Work of Christ. The grammatically possible apposition of Χ. with Θεοῦ (Hilary) is out of the question. Christ is the mystery of God, since in Him God's eternal purpose of salvation finds its embodiment. Hort's conjecture that the original reading was τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν Χριστῷ does not find sufficient support in the textual or exegetical difficulties of the clause.

[10] Klöpper.

[11] Klöpper.