Colossians 3:11

Where

(οπου). In this "new man" in Christ. Cf. Galatians 3:28.There cannot be

(ουκ εν). Εν is the long (original) form of εν and εστιν is to be understood. "There does not exist." This is the ideal which is still a long way ahead of modern Christians as the Great War proved. Race distinctions (Greek Hελλην and Jew Ιουδαιος) disappear in Christ and in the new man in Christ. The Jews looked on all others as Greeks (Gentiles). Circumcision (περιτομη) and uncircumcision (ακροβυστια) put the Jewish picture with the cleavage made plainer (cf. Colossians 3:2). The Greeks and Romans regarded all others as barbarians (βαρβαρο, Romans 1:14), users of outlandish jargon or gibberish, onomatopoetic repetition (βαρ-βαρ).A Scythian

(Σκυθης) was simply the climax of barbarity, bar-baris barbariores (Bengel), used for any rough person like our "Goths and Vandals."Bondman

(δουλος, from δεω, to bind),freeman

(ελευθερος, from ερχομα, to go). Class distinctions vanish in Christ. In the Christian churches were found slaves, freedmen, freemen, masters. Perhaps Paul has Philemon and Onesimus in mind. But labour and capital still furnish a problem for modern Christianity.But Christ is all

(αλλα παντα Χριστος). Demosthenes and Lucian use the neuter plural to describe persons as Paul does here of Christ. The plural παντα is more inclusive than the singular παν would be.And in all

(κα εν πασιν). Locative plural and neuter also. "Christ occupies the whole sphere of human life and permeates all its developments" (Lightfoot). Christ has obliterated the words barbarian, master, slave, all of them and has substituted the word αδελφος (brother).