Colossians 2:11

Implying that they did not need, as the Judaizers taught, the outward rite of circumcision, since they had already the inward spiritual reality of it.

are--rather, as the Greek, "Ye were (once for all) circumcised (spiritually, at your conversion and baptism, Rom 2:28-29; Phi 3:3) with a (so the Greek) circumcision made without hands"; opposed to "the circumcision in the flesh made by hands" (Eph 2:11). Christ's own body, by which the believer is sanctified, is said to be "not made with hands" (Mar 14:58; Heb 9:11; compare Dan 2:45).

in putting off--rather as Greek, "in your putting off"; as an old garment (Eph 4:22); alluding to the putting off the foreskin in circumcision.

the body of the sins of the flesh--The oldest manuscripts read, "the body of the flesh," omitting "of the sins," that is, "the body," of which the prominent feature is fleshiness (compare Rom 8:13, where "flesh" and "the body" mutually correspond). This fleshly body, in its sinful aspect, is put off in baptism (where baptism answers its ideal) as the seal of regeneration where received in repentance and faith. In circumcision the foreskin only was put off; in Christian regeneration "the body of the flesh" is spiritually put off, at least it is so in its ideal conception, however imperfectly believers realize that ideal.

by--Greek, "in." This spiritual circumcision is realized in, or by, union with Christ, whose "circumcision," whereby He became responsible for us to keep the whole law, is imputed to believers for justification; and union with whom, in all His vicarious obedience, including HIS CIRCUMCISION, is the source of our sanctification. ALFORD makes it explanatory of the previous, "a circumcision made without hands," namely, "the circumcision brought about by your union with Christ." The former view seems to me better to accord with Col 2:12; Col 3:1, Col 3:3-4, which similarly makes the believer, by spiritual union with Christ, to have personal fellowship in the several states of Christ, namely, His death, resurrection, and appearing in glory. Nothing was done or suffered by our Mediator as such, but may be acted in our souls and represented in our spirits. PEARSON'S view, however, is that of ALFORD. JOSHUA, the type (not Moses in the wilderness), circumcised the Israelites in Canaan (Jos 5:2-9) the second time: the people that came out of Egypt having been circumcised, and afterwards having died in the wilderness; but those born after the Exodus not having been so. Jesus, the Antitype, is the author of the true circumcision, which is therefore called "the circumcision of Christ" (Rom 2:29). As Joshua was "Moses' minister," so Jesus, "minister of the circumcision for the truth of God" unto the Gentiles (Rom 15:8).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(11) The circumcision made without hands.—This abrupt introduction of the idea of circumcision would be difficult to understand, were it not for the knowledge of the enforcement of Jewish observance so strangely mixed with this “philosophy” at Colossæ. (Comp. Eph_2:11, “Ye who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made with hands.”) The phrase “made without hands” is so constantly used of heavenly realities (as in Mar_14:58; 2Co_5:1; Heb_9:11; Heb_9:24), as opposed to earthly symbols, that it comes to have the positive sense of “spiritual.” It is defined below as “the circumcision of Christ”—that which Christ has given us in Himself—in contradistinction to the old circumcision which is now “nothing.” (On the treatment of this subject in the Epistles of this period, comp. with this passage Eph_2:11-12; Php_3:2-3, and see Notes there.)

In putting off the body . . .—The words “of the sins” are not found in the best MSS. They are, no doubt, an explanatory gloss to soften the harshness of the phrase “the body of the flesh.” (1) What “the body of the flesh” is we see clearly by Col_3:9, “having put off the old man.” It is, like the “body of sin” (in Rom_6:6) and the “body of death” (in Rom_7:24), the body so far as it is, in the bad sense of the word “flesh,” fleshly. The body itself is not “put off:” for it is not evil; it is a part of the true man, and becomes the temple of God. It is only so far as in it the flesh rebels against the spirit, and the “old man is gradually corrupted by the lusts of deceit” (Eph_4:22), that it is to be “put off.” (2) But why the “body of the flesh,” and not the “flesh” simply? The answer is, no doubt, that which Chrysostom here gives, that the bodily circumcision was but of one member, in mere symbolism of one form of purity; the spiritual circumcision is the putting away of the whole of the power of the flesh, and that, too, not in symbol, but in reality.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In whom also ye are circumcised,.... This is said to prevent an objection that might be made to the perfection of these Gentile believers, because they were not circumcised; for the Jews thought that perfection lay in circumcision, at least that there could be no perfection without it:

"great is circumcision (say they (x)), for notwithstanding all the commands which Abraham our father did, he was not called perfect until he was circumcised; as it is written, Gen 17:1; "walk before me, and be thou perfect:"

which objection the apostle anticipates, by observing, that they were circumcised in Christ their head, who is made unto them sanctification; and by him as the meritorious and efficient cause of their regeneration and conversion, or internal circumcision, the antitype and perfection of circumcision in the flesh; for the former, and not the latter, is here meant: these believers were circumcised in Christ, or by him; not with external circumcision, which was peculiar to the Jews, the natural seed of Abraham, prefigured Christ, and had its accomplishment in him, the body and substance of all the shadows of the ceremonial law; and so was now nothing, either to Jew or Gentile: as for the Gentiles, they never were obliged unto it; and as for the Jews, it was an insupportable yoke to them, binding them to keep the whole law of Moses, which they could not do, and so it made nothing perfect; but Christ the substance of that, and the end of the whole law, has, the head of the body the church, in whom all the members of it are complete, and are circumcised:

with the circumcision made without hands: which is that of the heart, in the spirit; every man, though he may be circumcised in the flesh, is uncircumcised in heart, until he is circumcised by Christ and his Spirit; which is done, when he is pricked to the heart, and thoroughly convinced of sin, and the exceeding sinfulness of it; when the callousness and hardness of his heart is taken off and removed, and the iniquity of it is, laid open, the plague and corruption in it discerned, and all made naked and bare to the sinner's view; and when he is in pain on account of it, is broken and groans under a sense of it, and is filled with shame for it, and loathing and abhorrence of it: now this is effected not "by the hand of man", as the Ethiopic version reads it, as outward circumcision was; this is not done by any creature whatever; not by angels, who rejoice at the repentance of sinners, but cannot produce it; nor by ministers of the Gospel, who at most are but instruments of regeneration and conversion; nor by men themselves; this is not by might or power of man, by the strength of his free will, but by the Spirit of God: for though men are sometimes exhorted to circumcise themselves, as in Deu 10:16, in order to convince them of the corruption of their nature, and the need they stand in of spiritual circumcision; yet whereas there is an utter disability in them to effect it, and they need the power and grace of God for that purpose, the Lord has graciously promised his people to do it himself for them, Deu 30:6; so that this circumcision is in the name sense made without hands, as the human nature of Christ is said to be a tabernacle not made with hands, that, is of men, but of God, being what God has pitched, and not man; and it stands opposed to circumcision in the flesh, which was made with hands, Eph 2:11; and by some instrument, as a sharp knife or stone:

in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. The Vulgate Latin version leaves out the word "sins", and so the Alexandrian copy and some others; and the Syriac version the word "body": by "the flesh" is meant corrupt nature, which is born of the flesh, and propagated in a carnal way, and is the source and spring of all sin; by "the sins" of it are intended the works of the flesh, the inward motions of sin in the members, and the outward actions of it: these are said to be a "body", because sin consists of various parts and members, as a body does; and these united together, and which receive frequent and daily additions; and which are committed and yielded to by the members of the natural body; and which body and bulk of sins arising from the corruption of nature are compared to a garment, and a very filthy one it is; in the putting off of which lies spiritual circumcision: this is done several ways; partly by Christ's wrapping himself in the sins of his people, bearing them in his body, and becoming a sacrifice for them, whereby the old man was crucified, and the body of sin destroyed; and by an application of his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, to the consciences of his people, whereby their iniquities are caused to pass from them, and they are clothed with change of raiment; and by the power of his Spirit, laying sin under the restraints of grace, not suffering it to have dominion, but causing grace to reign through righteousness; and by the saints themselves, under the influence of grace, who put off the old man with his deeds, according to the former conversation:

by the circumcision of Christ; not that with which Christ was circumcised at eight days old, that he might appear to be truly man, and a son of Abraham, and under the law, and to fulfil all the righteousness of it, but that which he by his Spirit is the author of, and what is before expressed,

(x) Misn. Nedarim, c. 3. sect. 11.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

In whom - In connection with whom, or in virtue of whose religion.

Ye are circumcised - You have received that which was designed to be represented by circumcision - the putting away of sin; Notes, Phi 3:3.

With the circumcision made without hands - That made in the heart by the renunciation of all sin. The Jewish teachers insisted on the necessity of the literal circumcision in order to salvation (compare Eph 2:11); and hence, this subject is so often introduced into the writings of Paul, and he is at so much pains to show that, by believing in Christ, all was obtained which was required in order to salvation. Circumcision was an ordinance by which it was denoted that all sin was to be cut off or renounced, and that he who was circumcised was to be devoted to God and to a holy life. All this, the apostle says, was obtained by the gospel; and, consequently they had all that was denoted by the ancient rite of circumcision. What Christians had obtained, moreover, related to the heart; it was not a mere ordinance pertaining to the flesh.

In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh - That is, in renouncing the deeds of the flesh, or becoming holy. The word “body,” here, seems to be used with reference to circumcision. In that ordinance, the body of the FLesH was subjected to the rite; with Christians, it is the body of Sin that is cut off.

By the circumcision of Christ - Not by the fact that Christ was circumcised, but that we have that kind of circumcision which Christ established, to wit, the renouncing of sin. The idea of the apostle here seems to be, that since we have thus been enabled by Christ to renounce sin, and to devote ourselves to God, we should not, be induced by any plausible arguments to return to an ordinance pertaining to the flesh, as if that were needful for salvation.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands: he removes what they who are addicted to superstition might suggest, as if there were somewhat defective to a completeness in Christ, by showing there was no need of any addition to what he required in the gospel; for that they might most plausibly urge of circumcision, as being the seal of the old covenant, and an obligation to the whole law, Gal 5:3, which some pressed as necessary to salvation, Act 15:1,24, he here shows was altogether needless now, that they were sanctified and had the thing signified by it, the circumcision of the heart, Rom 2:28,29; Php 3:3, and were complete in Christ without it; yea, that the urging of that and other ceremonies now, was a pernicious error, tending to annihilate the cross of Christ, and overthrow the whole mystery of his grace. It is true it was appointed to the Jews, a figure of a thing absent; they therefore who retain that figure after the coming of Christ, deny that to be complete which it doth figure, and so abolish the presence of the truth; by stickling for the shadow, they let go the substance, viz. the circumcision not made by the operation of man, but of God; not with the knife of Moses, but the word of Christ, sharper than any two-edged sword, Heb 4:12; and if we compare this with the verse following, and Phi 3:3, the apostle intimates that baptism is the same to us Christians which circumcision was to the Jews; and that is often ascribed to the external administration, that is only the internal operation of the Spirit, as Rom 6:3,4; Ga 3:27,28; Tit 3:5; 1Pe 3:21. Now though there was during the shadow of it, Heb 10:1, under the Old Testament, the circumcision of the heart, as well as under the New, Deu 10:16; 30:6; Jer 4:4; yet under the New Testament Christ the substance (who was only before in the promise) being now exhibited, having abolished the old symbol and instituted baptism in the room of it; that with the hands in the flesh, Eph 2:11, which they who received not the promise, i.e. the Messiah promised, used, Heb 11:39, was to be no more urged, now the benefit by the merit of his obedience unto the death of the cross, whereby he circumciseth from sin, might be enjoyed, as was signified by baptism, appointed to this end, Mat 28:19; Act 2:38; Rom 6:3,4; Ga 3:27; 1Pe 3:21.

In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh: hence he doth illustrate this spiritual circumcision by describing the parts of it, beginning with the mortification of the old man, corrupted nature, containing not only the body and senses, but the soul tainted with the defilements of sin, Col 3:5; Rom 6:6; Gal 5:19-21,24; Eph 4:22. The body of sins which do mostly exert themselves in the flesh, every member and power while unregenerate being active in the committing of sin, till the new man be put on, Eph 4:24, and the dominion of it be subdued; not by any natural part which a man hath of himself for that purpose, but by the circumcision of Christ, not properly that whereby he himself was circumcised in the flesh the eighth day, but that which he hath indispensably required to have admission into his kingdom, Joh 3:3, and which he himself is the worker of, doth procure by his merit, and effect by his Spirit, which all the suasion of the sublimest philosophers, and devotion of superstitious ones, cannot do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Col_2:11-12

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.

Christian circumcision

I. Is inward and spiritual.

II. Is complete. Manual circumcision was the cutting away of only a small part of the flesh. But the spiritual circumcision consists in putting off the whole body of our corrupt nature--the entire fleshly principle.

III. Is Divine. By the circumcision of Christ. It is wrought, without hands, by the inward power of the Divine Spirit of Christ.

IV. Is realized by the thorough identification of the believer with Christ in His death and resurrection.

V. Is wrought in the soul by a spiritual baptism. Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him.

VI. Is received by faith. Through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. Faith is not a natural product of the human heart. It is a Divine gift, bestowed on man by a Divine operation. (G. Barlow.)

The circumcision of Christ

I. Every real Christian has experienced the true circumcision. The argument is that circumcision was unnecessary, since the Colossians had undergone the new birth which it signified.

1. It is spiritual, and plainly distinguished from that which was made with hands. The idea was not a novel one (Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6; Jer_9:26; Eze_44:7; Act_7:51; Rom_2:28-29).

2. The true character of the operation is the putting off of the body of the flesh, the old man, corrupt human nature, with all its carnal instincts and tendencies. Manual circumcision cut off only a small part of the flesh, the spiritual is an entire transformation of the whole man. Old habits are abandoned, evil associations forsaken, and the soul is ushered into a new life, with new thoughts, affections, etc. It is a putting on of the new man.

3. It is Divine, the circumcision of Christ, ordained and communicated by Him, with Him for its author and model.

II. This true circumcision is realized only in union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

1. The Saviour died for us, and when the anxious sinner trusts Christ he is regarded as having died with Him.

2. The reality of death is evinced by burial, and the death of the believer with Christ is the casting off of the body of the flesh. The old man is sepulchred.

3. The soul in regeneration arises with Christ to a new and holy life.

III. This union is realized in the baptism. It is generally assumed that the allusion here is to immersion.

1. But it is difficult to see any resemblance between this and the depositing of Christs body in a rock-hewn sepulchre. The reference is to the baptism of the Spirit--the Washing of regeneration (1Co_12:13, cf. 1Co_1:14). The theory of immersion is that it is the profession of a regeneration which has already taken place; but with St. Paul the burial and resurrection are coincident with the baptism. It is quite possible to die and rise with Christ without water baptism, but not without the baptism of the Spirit.

2. Why does Paul speak disparagingly of hand-wrought circumcision, and proclaim its needlessness, if he is to pass immediately to speak of the efficacy of hand-wrought baptism? To introduce that would be to introduce the very element of ceremonialism which he is denouncing.

IV. The principle through which this spiritual baptism is received--through faith.

1. It is surprising that so many should regard the baptism in which the disciple is said to rise with Christ as that of water. No one is raised out of water by faith, but by the arms which immersed him. The baptism of the Spirit is received by faith: an unbeliever cannot receive it.

2. In the operation of God does not mean that that is the origin but the object of faith. If I believe in the power that raised Christ, I believe in the power which has accepted His suretyship for me. This faith regards Christs resurrection as the keystone of Christianity, the centre of confidence, the only basis of hope. (J. Spence, D. D.)

The true circumcision

There are two tendencies ever at work to corrupt religion. One is of the intellect, the temptation of the cultured few, which turns religion into theological speculation; the other of the senses, that of the vulgar many, which turns religion into a theatrical spectacle. But opposite as these are they were united at Colossae. To the teaching of the necessity of circumcision--

I. The apostle opposes the position that all Christian men by virtue of their union with Christ have received the true circumcision, of which the outward rite was the shadow, and therefore now obsolete.

1. The language points to a definite past time. When they became Christians a change passed over them parabled by circumcision,

(1) It is not made with hands, i.e., it is not a rite but a reality, not transacted in the flesh but in the Spirit, not a removal of ceremonial impurity, but a cleansing of the heart (Deu_30:6).

(2) It consists in the putting off of the body of the flesh the sins of is an interpolation--a complete stripping off from oneself, as of clothes, in contrast with a removal of a small part of the body. It is true that Christian men, alas! realize this by slow degrees; but on the Divine side it is complete. Christ gives perfect emancipation, and if it is only partial it is because we have not taken the things that are freely given. The foe may keep up a guerilla warfare after he is substantially defeated, but his entire subjugation is certain if we keep hold of the strength of Christ.

(3) It is of Christ; not that He submitted to it, but instituted it.

2. What is the bearing of this statement on the apostles purpose? That circumcision is an anachronism, as if a flower should shut, and be a bud again.

(1) The true centre of gravity, of Christianity, then, is in moral transformation. Surely Christ who gives men a new life by union with Himself by faith has delivered man from the yoke of bondage, if He has done anything at all. How far away from Pauls conception, then, are those which busy themselves with punctilios of observance! But the hatred of forms may be as completely a form as the most elaborate ritual. We need to have our eyes turned away to the far higher thing, the service of the transformed nature.

(2) The conquest of the animal nature is the certain outcome of union with Christ and that alone. Paul did not regard matter as evil, as the Colossian teachers did, nor the body as the source of all sin. But he knew that the fiercest temptations came from it, and that the foulest stains upon the conscience were splashed from the mud which it threw. It is a matter of life and death to find some means of taming the animal that is in us all. We all know of wrecked lives which have been driven on the rocks by the wild passions of the flesh; and when we come to add its weaknesses, limitations, and needs, and remember how high purposes are frustrated by its shrinking from toil, and how often mists born from its undrained swamps darken the vision of truth and God, we do not need to be Gnosties to believe that goodness requires the flesh to be subdued. But no asceticisms or resolves will do what we want. Much repression may be affected by force of will, but it is like a man holding a wolf by the jaws. The arms begin to ache and the grip to grow slack, and he feels his strength ebbing, and knows that as soon as he lets go the brute will be at his throat. Nothing tames the wild beast in us but Christ. He binds it in a silken lash, and that gentle constraint is strong because the fierceness is gone. Christianity would be easy were it a round of observances. Anybody can fast or wear a hair shirt, but the putting off of the body of the flesh is a harder thing. Emotion, theology, ceremonial, may have their value, but a religion that includes them all and leaves out the subjugation of the flesh is worthless. If we are in Christ we shall not live in the flesh.

II. Paul meets the false teaching by a reference to Christian baptism as being the Christian sign of the inward change.

1. The form of expression in the Greek implies that the circumcision and burial with Christ in baptism are contemporaneous. You have been baptized--does not that express all that circumcision meant and more?

(1) This reference is quite consistent with the subordinate importance of ritual. Some forms are necessary to a visible Church, and Christ has given us two: one symbolizing the initial spiritual act of Christian life, and the other the constantly repeated process of Christian nourishment.

(2) The form here presupposed is immersion.

(3) There are but two theories: the one is that baptism effects the change, and elevates it into more than the importance of which Paul sought to deprive circumcision, confuses the distinction between the Church and the world, lulls men into a false security, obscures the central truth of Christianity that faith makes a Christian, gives the basis for a portentous sacer-dotalism, and is shivered to pieces against the plain facts of daily life. But it is conclusively disposed of by the words, through faith in the operation, etc. What remains, then, but that baptism is associated with the change, because in the Divine order it is meant to be its outward symbol?

2. Note the thoroughness of the change. It is more than a circumcision; it is burial and resurrection.

(1) We partake of Christs death inasmuch as--

(a) we ally ourselves to it by our faith as the sacrifice for our sins;

(b) by the power of His Cross we are drawn to slay our old nature, dying to the habits, desires, etc., in which we lived.

(2) If we are thus made conformable to His death, we shall know the power of His resurrection.

(a) It will be a guarantee of our own.

(b) The seal of His perfect work on the Cross, and shall know it as a token of Gods acceptance;

(c) the type of our spiritual resurrection now. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Buried with Him.

The believers identification with Christ

It was with St. Paul a principle that the whole Christian life is a following of the blessed steps of one holy life, an imitation of Christ. We are in Him--

I. Conceived and born (Gal_4:19).

II. Crucified (Gal_2:20; Rom_6:5).

III. Dead (Rom_6:3; Rom_7:4; cf. 1Pe_4:1).

IV. Buried (Rom_6:4).

V. Risen (Rom_6:5; Col_3:1).

VI. Ascended and reigning (Eph_2:4-6).

What is done or suffered by Him historically is done in us analogously and mystically now, and will be completed historically and actually hereafter. This is the underlying principle of the order of the Christian year. (Bishop Alexander.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col 2:11-12. In whom also ye are circumcised — Ye have received the spiritual blessings signified of old by circumcision; with the circumcision made without hands — Namely, an internal, spiritual circumcision; in putting off — Not a little skin, but the whole body of the sins of the flesh — All the sins proceeding from your corrupt nature; by the circumcision of Christ — The circumcision of the heart, which Christ requires and effects. Buried with him, &c. — That is, which he wrought in you when you were, as it were, buried with him in baptism — The ancient manner of baptizing by immersion is as manifestly alluded to here, as the other manner of baptizing by sprinkling, or pouring of water, is, Heb 10:22. But no stress is laid on the age of the baptized, or the manner of performing it, in one or the other place; but only on our being quickened, or renewed, through the powerful operation of his Spirit in the soul, which we cannot but know assuredly, if we really are so: and if we do not experience this, our baptism has not answered the end of its institution. Wherein — Or rather, by which; ye are risen with him — From the death of sin, to the life of righteousness; through the faith of the operation of God — Faith wrought in you by God: see on Eph 2:8; or, through faith in the energy of God, as some render δια της πιστεως της ενεργειας του Θεου; who raised him from the dead — They who put this latter sense upon the passage explain it thus: “The circumcision which Christ performs being accomplished by the influence of the doctrines of the gospel upon the minds of believers, and their belief of these doctrines being founded on their belief of the resurrection of Christ, their belief of that great miracle is justly represented as the means whereby they are made new creatures.” The doctrines of the gospel, however, will produce no such effect, unless they be accompanied by the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. The advantage offered already obtained in Christ, Col_2:11-13.

11. Ye are circumcised—The aorist were. The “philosophy” enjoined certain Jewish legal observances, of which circumcision is taken as the representative. But in their union with Christ, they had, at their conversion and baptism, already received the real, spiritual circumcision in their regeneration, of which the outward rite was only a symbol. The former was without hands, and divine; the latter with hands, and human. In the latter a small portion of flesh was cut off; in the former the whole body of the…

flesh, spiritually speaking, was put off in the solemn renunciation of a life of carnality and sin. The circumcision of Christ is that which he works in our spiritual renewal through union with himself.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In whom also ye were circumcised, with a circumcision not wrought by hands (Eph_2:11; Php_3:3; Gal_5:2-6 Gal_6:12-15; Rom_2:25-29 Rom_4:9-12; 1Co_7:18 Act_15:1, Act_15:5; Deu_30:6) Circumcision was insisted on by the new "philosophical" teacher as necessary to spiritual completeness; but from a different standpoint, and in a manner different from that of the Pharisaic Judaizers of Galatia and of Act_15:1. By the latter it was preached as matter of Law and external requirement, and so became the critical point in the decision between the opposing principles of "faith" and "works." By the philosophical school it was enjoined as matter of symbolic moral efficiency. So Philo speaks of circumcision ("On the Migration of Abraham," as "setting forth the excision of all the pleasures and passions, and the destruction of impious vain opinion" (see also his treatise "On Circumcision"). From this point of view, baptism is the Christian circumcision, the new symbolic expression of the moral change which St. Paul and his opponents alike deemed necessary, though they understood it in a different sense from him (see vers. 20-23). In this respect the Christian is already complete, for his circumcision took place in the stripping off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ (Col_3:5, Col_3:8, Col_3:9; Eph_4:22-25; Rom_6:6 Rom_7:18-25 Rom_13:12 1Pe_2:1 1Pe_4:1, 1Pe_4:2) The inserted "of the sins" is an ancient Ap ek dusiv, a double compound, gloss. JAp ek dusiv found only in this Epistle (see corresponding verb in ver. 15; (Col_3:9) denotes both "stripping off" and "putting away." "The stripping off of the body" was the ideal of the philosophical ascetics (see note on "body," ver. 23, and quotations from Philo). The apostle adds "of the flesh;" i.e. of the body in so far as it was the body of the flesh (vers. 13, 18, 23; Col_3:5) "The flesh" in Col_1:22 that which Christ had put on; here that which the Christian puts off: comp. (Rom_8:3) is "the flesh of sin," Rom_8:3; Gal_5:19; Eph_2:3, etc. "The body," while identified with this "flesh," is "the body of sin" and "of death"; Rom_6:6 Rom_7:24; see Meyer, Godet, or Beet) sin inhabits it, clothes itself with it, and presents itself to us in its form; and this being the normal condition of unregenerate human nature, the sinful principle is naturally called the flesh. So "the (bodily) members" become "the members that are upon the earth," employed in the pursuit of lust and greed, till they become practically one with these vices. (Col_3:5, see note; also Rom_7:5, Rom_7:23) Yet "the body" and "the (sinful) flesh," while in the natural man one in practice, are in principle distinguishable (ver. 23: comp., (Col_1:22) and separable. (Rom_6:12) The deliverance from the physical acts and habits of the old sinful life, experienced by him who is "in Christ" (ver. 10; Rom_8:1-4; 2Co_5:17) is "the circumcision according to the Christ," or here more pointedly "of Christ a real and complete, instead of a partial and symbolic, putting away of the organic life and domination of sin which made the body its seat and its instrument. The genitive" of Christ "is neither objective ("undergone by Christ"), nor subjective ("wrought by Christ"), but stands in a mere general relation to Christ," "the Christian circumcision." The occasion of this new birth in the Colossians was their baptism

The true circumcision.

The Colossians did not need the rite of circumcision to make them complete, for they had received the spiritual circumcision, of which the rite was only a type. "In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ." The apostle censures the ritualistic ideas of the false teachers by showing what is the nature and effect of the true circumcision.

I ITS NATURE. It is not external, but internal, wrought by the Spirit and not by the hands of men. It is "of the heart in the spirit, and not in the letter". (Rom_2:29) It is "the circumcision of the heart," so often spoken of even in Old Testament times (Deu_10:16 Deu_30:6; Eze_44:7; Act_7:51) which ought to have accompanied the external rite. The Colossians, as Gentiles, were circumcised in this spiritual sense on the day of their conversion.

II ITS EXTENT. "In the putting off the body of the flesh; "not in the mere cutting off of a part of the body, as in the external rite of Judaism. This language marks the completeness of the spiritual change and its effects upon both body and soul.

1. The body of flesh is more than the mere body, which is not "put off," for it is not evil, but becomes "the temple of the Holy Ghost". (1Co_3:16 1Co_6:19) It is the body in its fleshliness, regarded as the seat of the lusts which war against the soul and bring forth fruit unto death. The expression is similar to "the old man which is corrupt", (Eph_4:22) "the body of sin", (Rom_6:6) and "sinful flesh," or, literally, "the flesh of sin". (Rom_8:3) The spiritual circumcision implies, not the mere putting off of one form of sin, but the putting off the whole of the power of the flesh.

2. The putting off of the body of flesh implies deliverance from the dominion of sin dying to sin as a controlling and regulating power, so that the body, hitherto "the instrument of unrighteousness," becomes "an instrument of righteousness unto God". (Rom_6:13)

III ITS AUTHOR. "In the circumcision of Christ;" that is, the circumcision wrought by Christ through his Spirit. Its Author is not Moses or Abraham, but Christ himself, by virtue of our union with him. The formation of Christ in the soul as the Author of a new spiritual life is "the circumcision of Christ;" it is the new birth, which, under the power of the Holy Spirit, casts off the power of corruption. It is wrought by the Lord the Spirit, (2Co_3:18) and is the result of Christ dwelling in us by faith (Gal_2:20; Eph_2:5-8) This is the true circumcision, "whose praise is not of man, but of God. T. C.

Vers. 11-15.

Purity, pardon, and victory through Christ.

Errors in religion, when taught sincerely, are intended to secure spiritual blessings (e.g. purity by austerities; peace of conscience and assurance of pardon by confession and priestly absolution). But the truth of our completeness in Christ strikes at the root of all such errors, for it assures us that all the blessings we can need may be gained direct from him. In ver. 10 we learn that the headship of Christ is our guarantee that we are not dependent upon any intermediate superhuman power. In vers. 11-15 we are reminded that the personal blessings which external rites were designed to secure are ours if we are Christ"s.

I PURITY. Judaizing teachers taught the necessity of circumcision even by Gentile converts as a means of purification and salvation. St. Paul teaches the Colossians that they have no need of this, because, by union with Christ, they receive that inward purity of which circumcision was a type. (ver. 11; Rom_2:28, Rom_2:29) Moses and the prophets had seen through the type (Deu_10:16 Deu_30:6; Jer_4:4) The believer"s circumcision is distinguished from that which was typical of it in these particulars:

1. In its character; spiritual, not external, wrought not by bands but by theSpirit himself.

2. In its extent; it puts off, not a mere morsel of the flesh, but "the body ofthe flesh," the whole body of carnal affections.

3. Its Author; it is the circumcision, not of Moses (Joh_7:22) for a nation, but of Christ for all believers. (Php_3:3) And as Paul speaks here of spiritual circumcision, so does he also of spiritual baptism. His argument is not, "You need not be circumcised because you have been baptized." Here he speaks highly of some baptism "wherein ye were also raised," etc. Elsewhere he clearly denies the doctrine of regeneration by baptism. (cf. 1Co_1:13-17 with 1Co_4:15) It would be strange if here he spoke disparagingly of "hand-wrought" circumcision, and then passed on immediately to speak of the spiritual efficacy of "handwrought" baptism. This would be to introduce the very element of ceremonialism and ritualism which he is here denouncing. Many, never baptized with water, are now "in Christ," in glory. It is the spiritual baptism alone in which we are buried and raised with Christ. (Rom_6:3-5) The one great baptism of the New Testament is that of the Holy Spirit (Mar_1:8; Act_1:5) Of that, baptism by water is a beautiful emblem. But in Paul"s Epistles he generally speaks of that "one baptism" rather than of baptism with water. Here he speaks of a spiritual circumcision, a spiritual death and burial and resurrection, and a spiritual baptism. The baptism by the Holy Spirit is that purification of the soul from the love and dominion of sin by which we are set apart, consecrated to a course like Christ"s, to a spiritual history of which our Lord"s earthly history was typical as well as causal. By union with him we are "crucified with Christ," "dead to the Law," "dead with Christ," "buried with him," "risen with him," "sitting with him in the heavenly places." If the apostle here makes an allusion to water baptism, which was symbolic of the higher baptism, his argument does not rest on, but is opposed to, the supposition that" it is in that font, and when we are in it, that the first breath of the new life is drawn." Nor can we see that the lowering of a body into a bath and the lifting it up again is a significant and striking symbol of the burial and resurrection of Christ, especially when we remember how different the customs of burial among Jews and Romans were from our own. However, the main truth of these verses is clearly that in Christ we have purity. "He is made unto us of God sanctification." Every pure motive, every good resolution, every holy impulse is from him. Our entire renunciation of sin ("the putting off of the body of the flesh") is through the power of his purifying Spirit. (Gal_2:19, 20 6:14, 15) By faith in God, who by his Divine power raised the dead body of our Saviour from the tomb, (Eph_1:19, Eph_1:20) we too are "raised with him," etc. (ver. 12).

Whatever he who has raised us prescribes as means of attaining greater purity, we will revere and observe; but we reject new fangled methods of holiness "after the tradition of men". (Psa_119:128)

II "JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE." This Pauline phrase (Rom_5:18) sums up the blessings described in vers. 13, 14. We regard Christ as the Subject of the whole sentence. He is one with his Father in the work of quickening (Joh_5:21; Eph_2:1-5) and of pardoning (Col_3:13; Eph_4:32) But in order to accomplish this Divine work of giving life, there needed the no less Divine work of providing justification. For there was what Paul describes as a document in existence, which was a barrier to our pardon. It was God"s Law, not merely for the Jews, (Rom_3:19) but for the Gentiles, (Rom_2:14, Rom_2:15) which "worketh wrath". (Rom_4:15) But Jesus Christ, in whom "dwelleth," etc. (ver. 9), has removed the barrier, he had power to forgive sins "on earth", (Mar_2:10) and has it still. (Act_5:31) The value of Christ"s obedience unto death as an atonement for sin is constantly taken for granted by the apostle. He was not sent to prove it, but to "deliver" it and testify to it (1Co_15:3; 1Ti_2:6) By Christ"s vicarious sacrifice the ransom is given, the bond is cancelled, the document is annulled, and our sins may be blotted out (Isa_43:25; Mat_18:21-35 Mat_20:28) We are redeemed from the curse of the Law. As the instrument of our condemnation, it is taken out of the way; it is crucified with Christ, nailed to his cross. According to Paul"s allegory in Rom_2:1-4, the Law, a holy but inexorable husband, is dead, and we are joined to a no less holy but a loving Lord and Saviour. The conditions of acceptance with God and final salvation are no longer "The man that doeth these things shall live by them," but "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Heb_3:14; 1Pe_1:9) What need have we of other means of forgiveness? of angelic intercessors or absolving priests or eucharistic sacrifices? "In him ye are made full.

III DELIVERANCE FROM OUR INFERNAL FOES. Christ in his fleshly nature was exposed to the assaults of sin and of the evil one throughout his life. (Mat_4:1-11; Luk_4:13) till the last day (Luk_22:53; Joh_14:30) But on the cross his life of humiliation and strife came to an end. (Rom_6:10) His cry, "It is finished!" declared that his work of conflict, as well as his work of atonement, was ended. He put off from himself once for all and forever the hostile principalities and powers. (cf. Joh_12:31; Heb_2:14; 1Jn_3:8) The entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, commonly called his triumphal entry, is nowhere called his triumph in the New Testament. His triumph was on the cross. The powers of darkness plotted his death, and by his death they received their deadly blow. The malefactor"s cross became the victor"s car (Rom_14:9; Php_2:7-11; Rev_1:18) This victory is for us who are "in Christ." Satan and all his allies (Eph_6:11, Eph_6:12) who work through the world and the flesh are conquered foes; they know it, and we do too (Rom_6:14 Rom_8:37-39 Rom_16:20; 1Co_15:55-57; Gal_6:14) We need no other allies in this conflict, no mystic methods of exploring the secrets or annulling the power of our spiritual foes. (Php_4:13)

E.S.P.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Col_2:11. In whom also ye are circumcised … by the circumcision of Christ.—What to the Jew was a bodily act, at best symbolical and of no value otherwise, was to the Colossian disciple a spiritual renovation, so complete as to render the old symbol of it inadequate.

Col_2:12. Buried … risen.—Referring to the definite acts when, as Christian converts, they went beneath the baptismal waters and emerged to live the faith thus publicly confessed. Through the faith of the operation of God.—An obscure phrase. The R.V. is clear: “Through faith in the working of God.”

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_2:11-12

Christian Circumcision.

There were two principal errors lying at the root of the heresy that was doing so much damage at Colossæ. One was the theological error of substituting inferior and created angelic mediators for the divine Head Himself. The other was a practical error, in insisting upon ritual and ascetic observances as the foundation of moral teaching. Thus their theological speculations and ethical code alike were at fault. Both errors flowed from a common source—the false conception that evil resides in matter, a fruitful source of many fatal heresies. Some contended the Colossians could not be complete in Christ without submitting to the Jewish rite of circumcision; but the apostle showed that they were the subjects of a superior circumcision.

I. Christian circumcision is inward and spiritual.—“Ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands” (Col_2:11). The hand-wrought circumcision of the Jews was simply an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. This is abundantly clear in the language of the Old Testament: “No stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary.” “The Lord Thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul.” The argument of the apostle is that the Colossians had secured all the spiritual results aimed at in the ancient rite, and that by a better circumcision, even that made without hands, by the spiritual and almighty power of Christ, so that it was unnecessary for them or any other Gentiles to submit to the abrogated Hebraic ordinance. The true circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (Rom_2:28-29).

II. Christian circumcision is complete.—“In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh” (Col_2:11); or, as Bengel translates, putting off the body of the sins—that is to say, the flesh. Manual circumcision, according to the law of Moses, was the cutting away of only a small part of the flesh. But the true spiritual circumcision consists in putting off, renouncing, and casting away with disgust the whole body of our corrupt nature—the entire fleshly principle. The whole bulk of sin is fitly compared to a body, because of the weight of guilt there is in it (Rom_7:24), and the soul is completely compassed by it, as it is with our natural body (Gen_6:5). When the heart is circumcised, the total mass of sin is put off, as the porter puts off his burden, the beggar his rags, the master his false servant, and the serpent its skin. Old things pass away; all things become new.

III. Christian circumcision is divine.—“By the circumcision of Christ” (Col_2:11). It is wrought, without hands, by the inward, invisible power of the divine Spirit of Christ. It supersedes the external form of the circumcision of the law, and fulfils all its spiritual designs in a far more perfect manner than even the spiritually-minded Jew could adequately conceive. What can never be effected by the moral law, by external, ascetic ceremonies, or by philosophic speculations, is accomplished by the circumcision of Christ. The whole body of sin is mortified, the soul is quickened and renewed, and brought into the possession of the highest moral perfection.

IV. Christian circumcision is realised by the thorough identification of the believer with Christ in His death and resurrection.—“Buried with Him, wherein also ye are risen with Him” (Col_2:12). Burial implies previous death; and to secure the true circumcision we must be spiritually identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. It is the familiar teaching of the New Testament that he who believes in Christ is said to die with Him, to be buried with Him, and to rise with Him (Col_2:13; Rom_6:11; Eph_2:5). A circumcised heart, a new nature, cannot be obtained by mere human effort, by stern resolutions, painful processes of self-mortification, or by the most advanced and rigorous mental culture. It is secured only by a complete, vital union and incorporation with Christ, and a sympathetic participation with Him in all He has done and suffered. With Christ the believer enters the grave where the vast body of sin dies, and is buried; and with Christ he emerges into a new and heavenlier life that transforms the soul into a diviner beauty, and fills it with unutterable rapture and melodious praise.

V. Christian circumcision is wrought in the soul by a spiritual baptism.—“Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him” (Col_2:12). Baptism by water, like legal circumcision, is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. But it does not appear that there is any allusion here to the ordinance of baptism. The leading ideas and figures used in these two verses refer to spiritual realities: the death, burial, and resurrection, the circumcision without hands, and the putting off of the body of the flesh, are all spiritual; and the baptism is evidently of the same character. It is by the baptism of the Spirit—the quickening and renewing power of the Holy Ghost—that the soul is so united to and identified with Christ that the believer may be said to be buried and to rise with Him. It is possible to die with Christ and to rise with Him without being baptised with water; but it is impossible to do either without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Spiritual baptism is the grave of the old man and the birth of the new. As he sinks beneath the baptismal waters, the believer buries there all his corrupt affections and past sins; as he emerges thence, he rises regenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life.

VI. Christian circumcision is received by faith.—“Through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead” (Col_2:12). Faith is not a natural production of the human heart. It is a divine gift, and is bestowed on man by a divine operation. Man can believe because God has given him the power to believe. No unbeliever can receive the baptism that effects the spiritual resurrection. The faith specially referred to is to be fixed on the power of God as exerted and displayed in the resurrection of Christ from the tomb. The same power is employed in that mysterious baptismal process by which the soul throws off its mass of moral vileness and rises into newness of life. Faith opens every gateway of the soul, so that it gratefully welcomes and exults in the transforming operations of the divine energy.

Lessons.—

1. All external ordinances are powerless to change the heart.

2. The true circumcision is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

3. To realise the renewing power of God faith is indispensable.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Col_2:11. The True Circumcision—

I. Is not an outward rite, but an inward change.

II. Is an excision of the body of sin by our union with Christ, who has conquered sin.

III. Is not an external observance, but a spiritual experience and a holy life.

Col_2:12. The True Baptism—

I. Is spiritual regeneration.

II. Is being buried and raised again with Christ.

III. Is secured by an active, realising faith in the power of God.

IV. Renders circumcision and all outward rites valueless as means of salvation.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 2 Part 4

THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION

Col_2:11-13 (R.V.)

THERE are two opposite tendencies ever at work in human nature to corrupt religion. One is of the intellect; the other of the senses. The one is the temptation of the cultured few; the other, that of the vulgar many. The one turns religion into theological speculation; the other, into a theatrical spectacle. But, opposite as these tendencies usually are, they were united in that strange chaos of erroneous opinion and practice which Paul had to front at Colossae. From right and from left he was assailed, and his batteries had to face both ways. Here he is mainly engaged with the error which insisted on imposing circumcision on these Gentile converts.

I. To this teaching of the necessity of circumcision, he first opposes the position that all Christian men, by virtue of their union with Christ, have received the true circumcision, of which the outward rite was a shadow and a prophecy, and that therefore the rite is antiquated and obsolete. His language is emphatic and remarkable. It points to a definite past time-no doubt the time when they became Christians-when, because they were in Christ, a change, passed on them which is fitly paralleled with circumcision. This Christian circumcision is described in three particulars: as "not made with hands"; as consisting in "putting off the body of the flesh"; and as being "of Christ."

It is "not made with hands," that is, it is not a rite, but a reality; not transacted in flesh, but in spirit. It is not the removal of ceremonial impurity, but the cleansing of the heart. This idea of ethical circumcision, of which the bodily rite is the type, is common in the Old Testament, as, for instance, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart". {Deu_30:6} This is the true Christian circumcision.

It consists in the "putting off the body of the flesh"-for "the sins of" is an interpolation. Of course a man does not shuffle off this mortal coil when he becomes a Christian, so that we have to look for some other meaning of the strong words. They are very strong, for the word "putting off" is intensified so as to express a complete stripping off from oneself, as of clothes which are laid aside, and is evidently intended to contrast the partial outward circumcision as the removal of a small part of the body, with the entire removal effected by union with Christ. If that removal of "the body of the flesh" is "not made with hands," then it can only be in the sphere of the spiritual life, that is to say, it must consist in a change in the relation of the two constituents of a mans being, and that of such a kind that, for the future, the Christian shall not live after the flesh, though he live in the flesh. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit," says Paul, and again he uses an expression as strong as, if not stronger than that of our text, when he speaks of "the body" as "being destroyed," and explains himself by adding "that henceforth we should not serve sin." It is not the body considered simply as material and fleshly that we put off, but the body considered as the seat of corrupt and sinful affections and passions. A new principle of life comes into mens hearts which delivers them from the dominion of these, and makes it possible that they should live in the flesh, not "according to the lusts of the flesh, but according to the will of God." True, the text regards this divesting as complete, whereas, as all Christian men know only too sadly, it is very partial, and realised only by slow degrees. The ideal is represented here, -what we receive "in Him," rather than what we actually possess and incorporate into our experience. On the Divine side the change is complete. Christ gives complete emancipation from the dominion of sense, and if we are not in reality completely emancipated, it is because we have not taken the things that are freely given to us, and are not completely "in Him." So far as we are, we have put off "the flesh." The change has passed on us if we are Christians. We have to work it out day by day. The foe may keep up a guerilla warfare after he is substantially defeated, but his entire subjugation is certain if we keep hold of the strength of Christ.

Finally, this circumcision is described as "of Christ," by which is not meant that He submitted to it, but that He instituted it.

Such being the force of this statement, what is its bearing on the Apostles purpose? He desires to destroy the teaching that the rite of circumcision was binding on the Christian converts, and he does so by asserting that the gospel has brought the reality, of which the rite was but a picture and a prophecy. The underlying principle is that when we have the thing signified by any Jewish rites, which were all prophetic as well as symbolic, the rite may-must go. Its retention is an anachronism, "as if a flower should shut, and be a bud again." That is a wise and pregnant principle, but as it comes to the surface again immediately hereafter, and is applied to a whole series of subjects, we may defer the consideration of it, and rather dwell briefly on other matters suggested by this verse.

We notice, then, the intense moral earnestness which leads the Apostle here to put the true centre of gravity of Christianity in moral transformation, and to set all outward rites and ceremonies in a very subordinate place. What had Jesus Christ come from heaven for, and for what had He borne His bitter passion? To what end were the Colossians knit to Him by a tie so strong, tender, and strange? Had they been carried into that inmost depth of union with Him, and were they still to be laying stress on ceremonies? Had Christs work, then, no higher issue than to leave religion bound in the cords of outward observances? Surely Jesus Christ, who gives men a new life by union with Himself, which union is brought about through faith alone, has delivered men from that "yoke of bondage," if He has done anything at all. Surely they who are joined to Him should have a profounder apprehension of the means and the end of their relation to their Lord than to suppose that it is either brought about by any outward rite, or has any reality unless it makes them pure and good. From that height all questions of external observances dwindle into insignificance, and all question of sacramental efficacy drops away of itself. The vital centre lies in our being joined to Jesus Christ-the condition of which is faith in Him, and the outcome of it a new life which delivers us from the dominion of the flesh. How far away from such conceptions of Christianity are those which busy themselves on either side with matters of detail, with punctilios of observance, and pedantries of form? The hatred of forms may be as completely a form as the most elaborate ritual-and we all need to have our eyes turned away from these to the far higher thing, the worship and service offered by a transformed nature.

We notice, again, that the conquest of the animal nature and the material body is the certain outcome of true union with Christ, and of that alone.

Paul did not regard matter as necessarily evil, as these teachers at Colossae did, nor did he think of the body as the source of all sin. But he knew that the fiercest and most fiery temptations came from it, and that the foulest and most indelible stains on conscience were splashed from the mud which it threw. We all know that too. It is a matter of life and death for each of us to find some means of taming and holding in the animal that is in us all. We all know of wrecked lives, which have been driven on the rocks by the wild passions belonging to the flesh. Fortune, reputation, health, everything are sacrificed by hundreds of men, especially young men, at the sting of this imperious lust. The budding promise of youth, innocence, hope, and all which makes life desirable and a nature fair, are trodden down by the hoofs of the brute. There is no need to speak of that. And when we come to add to this the weaknesses of the flesh, and the needs of the flesh, and the limitations of the flesh, and to remember how often high purposes are frustrated by its shrinking from toil, and how often mists born from its undrained swamps darken the vision that else might gaze on truth and God, we cannot but feel that we do not need to be Eastern Gnostics to believe that goodness requires the flesh to be subdued. Everyone who has sought for selfimprovement recognises the necessity. But no asceticisms and no resolves will do what we want.

Much repression may be effected by sheer force of will, but it is like a man holding a wolf by the jaws. The arms begin to ache and the grip to grow slack, and he feels his strength ebbing, and knows that, as soon as he lets go, the brute will fly at his throat. Repression is not taming. Nothing tames the wild beast in us but the power of Christ. He binds it in a silken lash, and that gentle constraint is strong, because the fierceness is gone. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them." The power of union with Christ, and that alone, will enable us to put off the body of the flesh. And such union will certainly lead to such crucifying of the animal nature. Christianity would be easy if it were a round of observances; it would be comparatively easy if it were a series of outward asceticisms. Anybody can fast or wear a hair shirt, if he have motive sufficient; but the "putting off the body of the flesh" which is "not made with hands," is a different and harder thing. Nothing else avails. High flown religious emotion, or clear theological definitions, or elaborate ceremonial worship, may all have their value; but a religion which includes them all, and leaves out the plain moralities of subduing the flesh, and keeping our heel well pressed down on the serpents head, is worthless. If we are in Christ, we shall not live in the flesh.

II. The Apostle meets the false teaching of the need for circumcision, by a second consideration; namely, a reference to Christian Baptism, as being the Christian sign of that inward change. Ye were circumcised, says he-being buried with Him in baptism. The form of expression in the Greek implies that the two things are contemporaneous. As if he had said-Do you want any further rite to express that mighty change which passed on you when you came to be "in Christ"? You have been baptised; does not that express all the meaning that circumcision ever had, and much more? What can you want with the less significant rite when you have the more significant? This reference to baptism is quite consistent with what has been said as to the subordinate importance of ritual. Some forms we must have, if there is to be any outward visible Church, and Christ has yielded to the necessity, and given us two, of which the one symbolises the initial spiritual act of the Christian life, and the other the constantly repeated process of Christian nourishment. They are symbols and outward representations, nothing more. They convey grace, in so far as they help us to realise more clearly and to feel more deeply the facts on which our spiritual life is fed, but they are not channels of grace in any other way than any other outward acts of worship may be.

We see that the form of baptism, here presupposed is by immersion, and that the form is regarded as significant. All but entire unanimity prevails among commentators on this point. The burial and the resurrection spoken of point unmistakably to the primitive mode of baptism, as Bishop Lightfoot, the latest and best English expositor of this book, puts it in his paraphrase: "Ye were buried with Christ to your old selves beneath the baptismal waters, and were raised with Him from these same waters, to a new and better life."

If so, two questions deserve consideration-first, is it right to alter a form which has a meaning that is lost by the change? second, can we alter a significant form without destroying it? Is the new thing rightly called by the old name? If baptism be immersion, and immersion express a substantial part of its meaning, can sprinkling or pouring be baptism?

Again, baptism is associated in time with the inward change, which is the true circumcision. There are but two theories on which these two things are contemporaneous. The one is the theory that baptism effects the change; the other is the theory that baptism goes with the change as its sign. The association is justified if men are "circumcised," that is, changed when they are baptised, or if men are baptised when they have been "circumcised." No other theory gives full weight to these words.

The former theory elevates baptism into more than the importance of which Paul sought to deprive circumcision, it confuses the distinction between the Church and the world, it lulls men into a false security, it obscures the very central truth of Christianity-namely that faith in Christ, working by love, makes a Christian-it gives the basis for a portentous reproduction of sacerdotalism, and it is shivered to pieces against the plain facts of daily life. But it may be worth while to notice in a sentence, that it is conclusively disposed of by the language before us-it is "through faith in the operation of God" that we are raised again in baptism. Not the rite, then, but faith is the means of this participation with Christ in burial and resurrection. What remains but that baptism is associated with that spiritual change by which we are delivered from the body of the flesh, because in the Divine order it is meant to be the outward symbol of that change which is effected by no rite or sacrament, but by faith alone, uniting us to the transforming Christ? We observe the solemnity and the thoroughness of the change thus symbolised. It is more than circumcision. It is burial and a resurrection, an entire dying of the old self by Union with Christ, a real and present rising again by participation in His risen life. This and nothing less makes a Christian. We partake of His death, inasmuch as we ally ourselves to it by our faith, as the sacrifice for our sins, and make it the ground of all our hope. But that is not all. We partake of His death, inasmuch as, by the power of His cross, we are drawn to sever ourselves from the selfish life, and to slay our own old nature; dying for His dear sake to the habits, tastes, desires, and purposes in which we lived. Self-crucifixion for the love of Christ is the law for us all. His cross is the pattern for our conduct, as well as the pledge and means of our acceptance. We must die to sin that we may live to righteousness. We must die to self, that we may live to God and our brethren. We have no right to trust in Christ for us, except as we have Christ in us. His cross is not saving us from our guilt unless it is moulding our lives to some faint likeness of Him who died that we may live, and might live a real life by dying daily to the world, sin, and self.

If we are thus made conformable to His death, we shall know the power of His resurrection, in all its aspects. It will be to us the guarantee of our own, and we shall know its power as a prophecy for our future. It will be to us the seal of His perfect work on the cross, and we shall know its power as Gods token of acceptance of His sacrifice in the past. It will be to us the type of our spiritual resurrection now, and we shall know its power as the pattern and source of our supernatural life in the present. Thus we must die in and with Christ that we may live in and with Him, and that twofold process is the very heart of personal religion. No lofty participation in the immortal hopes which spring from the empty grave of Jesus is warranted, unless we have His quickening power raising us today by a better resurrection; and no participation in the present power of His heavenly life is possible, unless we have such a share in His death, as that by it the world is crucified to us, and we unto the world.

III. The Apostle adds another phase of this great contrast of life and death, which brings home still more closely to his hearers the deep and radical change which passes upon all Christians. He has been speaking of a death and burial followed by a resurrection. But there is another death from which Christ raises us, by that same risen life imparted to us through faith - a darker and grimmer thing than the self-abnegation before described.

"And you, being dead through your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh." The separate acts of transgression of which they had been guilty, and the unchastened, unpurified, carnal nature from which these had flowed, were the reasons of a very real and awful death; or, as the parallel passage in Ephesians {Eph_2:2} puts it with a slight variation, they made the condition or sphere in which that death inhered. That solemn thought, so pregnant in its dread emphasis in Scripture, is not to be put aside as a mere metaphor. All life stands in union with God. The physical universe exists by reason of its perpetual contact with His sustaining hand, in the hollow of which all Being lies, and it is, because He touches it. "In Him we live." So also the life of mind is sustained by His perpetual inbreathing, and in the deepest sense "we see light" in His light. So, lastly, the highest life of the spirit stands in union in still higher manner with Him, and to be separated from Him is death to it. Sin breaks that union, and therefore sin is death, in the very inmost centre of mans being. The awful warning, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," was fulfilled. That separation by sin, in which the soul is wrenched from God, is the real death, and the thing that men call by the name is only an outward symbol of a far sadder fact-the shadow of that which is the awful substance, and as much less terrible than it as painted fires are less than the burning reality.

So men may live in the body, and toil and think and feel, and be dead. The world is full of "sheeted dead," that "squeak and gibber" in "our streets," for every soul that lives to self and has rent itself away from God, so far as a creature can, is "dead while he liveth." The other death, of which the previous verse spoke, is therefore but the putting off of a death. We lose nothing of real life in putting off self, but only that which keeps us in a separation from God, and slays our true and highest being. To die to self is but "the death of death."

The same life of which the previous verse spoke as coming from the risen Lord is here set forth as able to raise us from that death of sin. "He hath quickened you together with Him." Union with Christ floods our dead souls with His own vitality, as water will pour from a reservoir through a tube inserted in it. There is the actual communication of a new life when we touch Christ by faith. The prophet of old laid himself upon the dead child, the warm lip on the pallid mouth, the throbbing heart on the still one, and the contact rekindled the extinguished spark. So Christ lays His full life on our deadness, and does more than recall a departed glow of vitality. He communicates a new life kindred with His own. That life makes us free here and now from the law of sin and death, and it shall be perfected hereafter when the working of His mighty power shall change the body of our humiliation into the likeness of the body of His glory, and the leaven of His new life shall leaven the three measures in which it is hidden, body, soul, and spirit, with its own transforming energy. Then, in yet higher sense, death shall die, and life shall be victor by His victory.

But to all this one preliminary is needful-"having forgiven us all trespasses." Pauls eagerness to associate himself with his brethren, and to claim his share in the forgiveness, as well as to unite in the acknowledgment of sin, makes him change his word from "you" to "us." So the best manuscripts give the text, and the reading is obviously full of interest and suggestiveness. There must be a removal of the cause of deadness before there can be a quickening to new life. That cause was sin, which cannot be cancelled as guilt by any self-denial however great, nor even by the impartation of a new life from God for the future. A gospel which only enjoined dying to self would be as inadequate as a gospel which only provided for a higher life in the future. The stained and faultful past must be cared for. Christ must bring pardon for it, as well as a new spirit for the future. So the condition prior to our being quickened together with Him is Gods forgiveness, free and universal, covering all our sins, and given to us without anything on our part. That condition is satisfied. Christs death brings to us Gods pardon, and when the great barrier of unforgiven sin is cleared away, Christs life pours into our hearts, and "everything lives whithersoever the river cometh."

Here then we have the deepest ground of Pauls intense hatred of every attempt to make anything but faith in Christ and moral purity essential to the perfect Christian life. Circumcision and baptism and all other rites or sacraments of Judaism or Christianity are equally powerless to quicken dead souls. For that, the first thing needed is the forgiveness of sins, and that is ours through simple faith in Christs death. We are quickened by Christs own life in us, and He "dwells in our hearts by faith."

All ordinances may be administered to us a hundred times, and without faith they leave us as they found us-dead. If we have hold of Christ by faith we live, whether we have received the ordinances or not. So all full-blown or budding sacramentarianism is to be fought against to the uttermost, because it tends to block the road to the City of Refuge for a poor sinful soul, and the most pressing of all necessities is that that way of life should be kept clear and unimpeded. We need the profound truth which lies in the threefold form which Paul gives to one of his great watchwords: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." And how, says my despairing conscience, shall I keep the commandments? The answer lies in the second form of the saying-"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." And how, replies my saddened heart, can I become a new creature? The answer lies in the final form of the saying -"In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh." Faith brings the life which makes us new men, and then we can keep the commandments. If we have faith, and are new men and do Gods will, we need no rites but as helps. If we have not faith, all rites are nothing.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

2:11 Christ performed a spiritual circumcision: Spiritual conversion to Christ is the Christian counterpart to physical circumcision. • the cutting away of your sinful nature (literally the cutting away of the body of the flesh): Just as Jewish boys have the flesh of their foreskin cut off to mark their initiation into the people of God, so believers have metaphorical flesh (translated sinful nature) cut off when they come to Christ.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Col 2:11. Καὶ) also. Paul now enumerates the steps in the progress of those, who have become partakers of the fulness of Christ.—περιετμήθητε, ye are circumcised) As circumcision, so baptism, refers to initiation.—περιτομῇ, with the circumcision) of the heart.—ἀχειροποιήτῳ, not made with hands) An epithet very suitable for the New Testament; comp. Eph 2:11; Heb 9:11; Heb 9:24.—ἀπεκδύσει) a word most significant; Col 2:15.—τοῦ σώματος, of the body) This, as a whole, is opposed to the part, uncircumcision: ἀπέκδυσις σώματος, the putting (stripping) off the body, a mild definition of death. It is different therefore from baptism: it is the circumcision of the heart; it is death spiritual, in a good sense, whereas baptism is compared to burial. [Communion with (joint participation in) the death and burial and resurrection of Christ is described in this and the following verse.—V.g.]—τῆς σαρκὸς, of the flesh) There is an apposition between the body of sins and the flesh [not the body of the sins of the flesh, as Engl. Vers., but the body of the sins, that is to say, the flesh].—ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ) by the circumcision of Christ, which accords with the New Testament; a circumcision, to which that of Moses, in the flesh, gives place.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col_2:11. Respecting the connection and its reference to the false teachers, so far as they Iegem evangelio miscebant (Calvin), see on Col_2:10.

ἐν ᾧ] like ἐν αὐτῷ in Col_2:10 : on whom it also causally depends that ye, etc. This applies to the point of time of their entrance into the union with Christ, as is clear from the historical περιετμ., which took place on them through their conversion (comp. Col_2:12).

καί] also circumcised were ye. The καί is the simple also, which, however, does not introduce an element included under πεπληρωμ. ἐστε (Hofmann), but to the previous relative statement (ὅς ἐστιν κ.τ.λ.) appends another; comp. Col_2:12. Hofmanns objection, that the foregoing relative statement has indeed reference to the readers, but is made without reference to them, is an empty subtlety, which is connected with the erroneous rendering of πάσης ἀρχῆς κ. ἐξουσ.

περιτομῇ ἀχειροπ.] is not supplementary and parenthetical (Hofmann), as if Paul had written περιτομῇ δὲ ἀχειροπ., but appends immediately to περιετμηθ. its characteristic, whereby it is distinguished from what is elsewhere meant by circumcision; hence the thought is: in your union with Christ there has also taken place a circumcision upon you (Gentiles), which is not (like the Jewish circumcision) the work of hands; comp. Eph_2:11. On the word ἀχειροπ. itself (which is similar to ἀχειρούργητος, Poll. ii. 154), in analogous antithetical reference, comp. Mar_14:58; 2Co_5:1; and on the idea of the inner ethical circumcision, of which the bodily is the type, comp. Deu_10:16; Deu_30:6; Eze_44:7; Act_7:51. See Michaelis in loc., and the expositors on Rom_2:29; Schoettgen, Hor. I. p. 815.

ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει κ.τ.λ.] This characteristic περειτμήθητε περιτ. ἀχειρ. took place by means of the putting off of the body of the flesh, which was accomplished in your case (observe the passive connection), i.e. in that the body, whose essence and nature are flesh, was taken off and put away from you by God.[96] With reference to ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει κ.τ.λ., which is to be coupled not merely with ΠΕΡΙΕΤΜΉΘΗΤΕ (Hofmann), but with the entire specifically defined conception of circumcision ΠΕΡΙΕΤΜ. ΠΕΡΙΤ. ἈΧΕΙΡΟΠ., it is to be noticed: (1) that the genitive Τῆς ΣΆΡΚΟς is the genitivus materiae, as in Col_1:22; (2) that the σάρξ here is not indifferent, but means the flesh as the seat of sin, and of its lusts and strivings (Rom_7:23; Rom_7:25; Rom_8:3; Rom_8:13; Gal_5:16; Eph_2:3; Col_3:5, et al.); so that Paul (3) might have conveyed the idea of τὸ σῶμα τῆς σαρκ. also by ΤῸ ΣῶΜΑ Τῆς ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑς (Rom_6:6), but the description by Τῆς ΣΑΡΚΌς was suggested to him by the thought of the circumcision (Rom_2:28; Eph_2:11). (4) The significant and weighty expression ἈΠΕΚΔΎΣΕΙ (the substantive used only here, the verb also in Col_2:15; Col_3:9; Josephus, Antt. vi. 14. 2) is selected in contrast to the operation of the legal circumcision, which only wounded the σῶμα τ. σαρκός and removed a portion of one member of it; whereas the spiritual circumcision, divinely performed, consisted in a complete parting and doing away with this body, in so far as God, by means of this ethical circumcision, has taken off and removed the sinful body from man (the two acts are expressed by the double compound), like a garment which is drawn off and laid aside. Ethically circumcised, i.e. translated by conversion from the estate of sin into that of the Christian life of faith and righteousness (see Col_2:12), consequently born again as καινὴ κτίσις,[97] as a καινὸς ἄνθρωπος created after God (Eph_4:24), man has no longer any σῶμα τῆς σαρκός at all, because the body which he has is rid of the sinful ΣΆΡΞ as such, as regards its sinful quality; he is no longer ἘΝ Τῇ ΣΑΡΚΊ as previously, when lust ἘΝΗΡΓΕῖΤΟ ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ΜΈΛΕΣΙΝ (Rom_7:5; comp. Col_2:23); he is no longer ΣΆΡΚΙΝΟς, ΠΕΠΡΑΜΈΝΟς ὙΠῸ ΤῊΝ ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑΝ (Rom_7:14), but is dead for sin (Rom_6:11); he has crucified the ΣΆΡΞ (Gal_5:24), and no longer walks ΚΑΤᾺ ΣΆΡΚΑ, but ἘΝ ΚΑΙΝΌΤΗΤΙ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΟς (Rom_7:6); by the law of the Holy Spirit he is freed from the law of sin and death (Rom_8:2), ἘΝ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΙ (Rom_8:9), dead with Christ (Gal_2:19; 2Co_5:14; Col_3:3), and risen, so that his members are ὍΠΛΑ ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗς Τῷ ΘΕῷ (Rom_6:13). This Christian transformation is represented in its ideal aspect, which disregards the empirical imperfection, according to which the σάρξ is still doubtless even in the regenerate at variance with the ΠΝΕῦΜΑ (Gal_5:17). Our dogmatists well describe regeneration as perfecta a parte Dei, but as imperfecta a parte hominum recipientium. To take σῶμα in the sense of massa or aggregate (Calvin, Grotius, Calovius, and others, including Steiger and Bähr[98]), is opposed as well to the context, in which the discourse turns upon circumcision and (Col_2:12) upon burial and resurrection, as also to the linguistic usage of the N. T. In classic authors it expresses the notion in question in the physical sense, e.g. Plat. Tim. p. 32 C: τὸ τοῦ κόσμου σῶμα (comp. p. 31 B, Hipp. maj. p. 301 B), and in later writers may also denote generally a whole consisting of parts (comp. Cicero, ad Att. 2:1. 4). In opposition to the erroneous assumption that σῶμα must have a figurative meaning here, as Julius Müller, v. d. Sünde, I. p. 459 f., still in the 5th ed., thinks,[99] see on Rom_6:6; comp. also Hofmann, Schriftbew. I. p. 560 f.

ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ τοῦ Χ.] by means of the circumcision of Christ, parallel to the previous ἐν τῇ ἀπεκσύσει κ.τ.λ., naming specifically (as different from that of the Old Testament) the circumcision described previously according to its nature. The genitive τοῦ Χριστοῦ is to be rendered: the circumcision, which is produced through Christ. The context requires this by the further explanation of the thing itself in Col_2:12. Comp. above, ἐν ᾧ. But Christ is not conceived of as Himself the circumciser, in so far, namely, as by baptism (Theophylact, Beza, and others), or by His Spirit (Bleek), He accomplishes the cleansing and sanctification of man (see on Col_2:12); but as the One through whom, in virtue of the effective living union that takes place in conversion between man and Himself, this divine περιτομή, in its character specifically different from the Israelite circumcision, is practically brought about and rendered a reality, and in so far it is based on Christ as its αἴτιος (Theodoret). It is not, however, baptism itself (Hofmann, following older expositors) that is meant by the circumcision of Christ, although the predicate ἀχειροπ. would not be in opposition to this view, but the spiritual transformation, that consecration of a holy state of life, which takes place in baptism; see Col_2:12 : ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι. According to Schneckenburger, in the Theol. Jahrb. 1848, p. 286 ff., the ἀπέκδυσις τ. σώμ. τ. σαρκ. is meant of the death of Christ, and also the περιτομὴ τοῦ Χ. is meant to denote this death, so that the latter is an explanation by way of application of the former, in opposition to the heretical recommendation of a bodily or mystical περιτομή. It may be decisively urged against this view, that after τῆς σαρκός there is no αὐτοῦ, (comp. Col_1:22), which was absolutely necessary, if the reader was to think of another subject than that of περιετμήθητε; further, that τῇ ἀκροβυστίᾳ τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν, in Col_2:13, stands in significant retrospective reference to the ἀπέκδυσις τ. σώμ. τῆς σαρκός; and that συνταφέντες κ.τ.λ. in Col_2:12 is synchronous with περιετμήθητε κ.τ.λ., and represents substantially the same thing. Moreover, the description of the death of Christ as His circumcision would be all the more inappropriate, since, in the case of Christ, the actual circumcision was not absent. According to Holtzmann, the entire clause: ἐν τ. ἀπεκδ. τοῦ σώμ. τ. σαρκ., ἐν τ. περιτ. τ. Χ., should be deleted as an addition of the interpolator, because the expression σῶμα τῆς σαρκός has occurred at Col_1:22 in quite anothernamely, an indifferent, genuinely Paulinereference. This reason is incorrect, because in Col_1:22 it is not τῆς σαρκός, but τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, and this αὐτοῦ makes the great essential difference between the expression in that passage and that employed in our present one.

[96] Compare Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 171. The same writer, however, now objects that ἀπέκδυσις cannot have passive significance. But this it is not alleged to have: God is the ἀπεκδύων i.e. He who, as author of regeneration, puts off from man the body of flesh.

[97] The epoch of this transformation is baptism (see Weiss, Bibl. Theol. p. 439, ed. 2; comp. Holtzmann, p. 178), by which, however, the baptism of Christian, children is by no means assumed as the antitype of circumcision (Steiger, Philippi). Comp. on 1Co_7:14; Act_16:15.

[98] Comp. also Philippi, Glaubensl. V. 2, p. 225, who declares my explanation to be forced, without proof, and contrary to the Scripture; and Reiche, Comm. crit. p. 274, who understands σῶμα of the toto quasi vitiositatis (τ. σαρκός) corpore, so that the putting away of all immorality is denoted. Similarly Dalmer.

[99] Müller also holds that Paul here conceives the old sinful nature as a body which, in regeneration, the Christian puts off; and that σάρξ is to be understood only of the earthly-human life.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col 2:11 . The reference to circumcision seems to come in abruptly. But probably it stands in close connexion with what has gone before. For the return to the principalities and powers in Col 2:15 shows that Paul is not passing here to a new section of his subject. Judaism, of which circumcision was the most characteristic feature, was regarded as under angelic powers, and the removal of them meant its abolition. It seems probable that the false teachers set a high value on circumcision, and urged it on the Colossians, not as indispensable to salvation, in which case Paul would have definitely attacked them on this point, but as conferring a higher sanctity. There seems to be no suggestion that it was regarded as a charm against evil spirits. The Apostle does not merely leave them with the statement that they have been made full in Christ, which rendered circumcision unnecessary, but adds that they have already received circumcision, not material but spiritual, not the removal of a fragment of the body, but the complete putting off of the body of flesh. ἐν ᾧ καὶ περιετμήθητε . A definite historical fact is referred to, as is shown by the aorist. This was their conversion, the inward circumcision of the heart, by which they entered on the blessings of the New Covenant. The outward sign of this is baptism, with which Paul connects it in the next verse. But it cannot be identified with it, for it is not made with hands. The circumcision of the heart is a prophetic idea (Deu 10:16 ; Deu 30:6 , Jer 4:4 ; Jer 9:25 , Eze 44:7 ; Eze 44:9 ). In Paul it occurs Rom 2:28-29 , Phi 3:3 . περιτομῇ ἀχειροποιήτῳ : “with 2 circumcision not wrought by hands,” i.e. , spiritual, ethical ( cf. Eph 2:11 , οἱ λεγόμενοι ἀκροβυστία ὑπὸ τῆς λεγομένης περιτομῆς ἐν σαρκὶ χειροποιήτου ). ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός : “in the stripping from you of the body of the flesh”. The expression σῶμα τ . σαρκὸς is unusual. It means the body which consists of flesh, and of flesh as the seat of sin. By the removal of the home in which sin dwelt sin itself was removed. It is one of those cases in which the sense of σῶμα approximates to that of σάρξ . This body of flesh is removed from the Christian at his conversion. ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ . This cannot be the circumcision endured by Christ in His infancy, for that was wrought by hands, and such a reference would be most unfortunate for the polemic against ceremonies and altogether un-Pauline. Usually it is explained as the circumcision of our hearts which comes from Christ. But this has no parallel in the N.T.; further, it practically repeats ἐν ᾧ κ . περιετ .; and, coming between the removal of the body of the flesh and the burial with Christ, breaks the connexion. Accordingly Schneckenburger (followed by Kl [13] , Sod., Haupt) suggested that it was really an expression for the death of Christ. (His view that ἀπεκ . τ . σ . τ . σ . was to be taken similarly has met with no acceptance.) In favour of this it may be said that in the immediate context Paul goes on to speak of burial and resurrection with Christ, and a reference to the death would naturally precede. And circumcision is a happy metaphor for Christ’s death to sin (Rom 6:10 ). Meyer’s objection that it is inappropriate since Christ endured actual circumcision is not serious, for, if sound, it should have excluded the choice of these ambiguous words altogether, which naturally suggest a circumcision suffered by Christ. But what creates a grave difficulty is that the thought does not seem to run on connectedly. There is a transition from the death of Christ on the cross to the burial of Christians with Him in their own personal experience. Perhaps this interpretation involves taking περιετμήθητε of the death of Christians with Christ on the cross (2Co 5:14 ), for it doubles the difficulty if Paul passes from the personal experience of the Christian to the cross, and from the cross back to personal experience. This suggests the possibility that περ . Χ . might be interpreted on the analogy of θλίψεων τ . Χριστοῦ (Col 1:24 ) as the circumcision of Christ in the believer. This would give a good connexion, and one that would suit the apparent identification of the circumcision of Christ with the putting off of the body of the flesh. The phrase, however, is so strange, and the idea that Christ dies with us so questionable (we die with Him), that it seems unsafe to adopt it. It is, therefore, best to mitigate the difficulty by the view that in these words Paul interpolates, in a concise and obscure expression, a reference to the great fact which underlay the spiritual experiences of which he is speaking. This circumcision, he would say, that is the removal of the flesh, was first experienced by Christ on the cross, and what happened to you ideally then is realised though union with Him now.

[13] Klöpper.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. ἐν ᾧ. He now states in some detail what believers obtained in Christ.

καὶ περιετμήθητε. The suddenness of the reference to circumcision can only be accounted for by its being advocated by the false teachers (who were evidently Jewish), not (at any rate chiefly, cf. Col 2:14) because they desired the Law to be observed, as in the case of St Paul’s opponents in Galatia, but because (a) they regarded it as a prophylactic against sins (cf. Philo in Haupt), especially sins of the flesh (cf. Col 2:23) as well as probably, (b) they thought that it removed those who were circumcised out of the power of evil spirits into the jurisdiction of better and higher spirits, and also perhaps because (c) it was held that the higher angels were themselves created circumcised (Bk of Jubilees, XV. 27), and these their worshippers would be like them.

But St Paul says that the reality denoted by the symbol of circumcision already belongs to believers, and he will bring out even more clearly in Col 2:15 than in Col 2:10 the fact that in Christ they are superior to all spirits, bad or good.

For circumcision, starting, probably, with the thought of the consecration of the sexual powers, had long symbolised the consecration of the whole of the man to God (hence the metaphor of the circumcision of ear (Jer 6:10), lips (Exo 6:12), and heart (Lev 26:41) was common in the O.T. writings). But even this reality (καὶ emphatic) believers had in Christ, and St Paul cannot understand why the Colossians should go back to the symbol when they had this. Indeed, as he says in Php 3:3, ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν ἡ περιτομή, οἱ πνεύματι θεοῦ λατρεύοντες κ.τ.λ.

Observe the aorist, which refers to a definite time, in this case apparently when the faith of an individual believer was consummated in baptism.

περιτομῇ ἀχειροποιήτῳ, “with a circumcision made without hands.”

ἀχειρ., Mar 14:58 (of Christ’s resurrection body, compared to the Temple) and 2Co 5:1 (of the believer’s resurrection body, compared to a building)†. Not in the LXX.

But χειροποίητος occurs 15 times in the LXX. always of idols (except perhaps Isa 16:12 of an idol’s temple). It is also fairly common in the N.T., in each case with some notion of contempt, Mar 14:58 (the Temple); Act 7:48; Act 17:24 (temples generally; cf. Heb 9:24).

In Heb 9:11 the tabernacle of Christ’s body, or rather perhaps the antitypical and heavenly tabernacle of which He is High-priest, is called οὐ χειροποίητος. In Eph 2:11 it is used of circumcision.

ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει, “in the putting off” or perhaps better “in the stripping off,” see Col 2:15, Col 3:9, notes.

ἐν marks that in which the περιτομή consisted. ἀπεκδ. subst. here only in the Greek Bible, the verb only in Col 2:15 and Col 3:9. Both subst. and verb are very rare and do not appear to have been discovered as yet in any passage earlier than this. ἐκδύω occurs in Mat 27:28; Mat 27:31 (|| Mar 15:20); Luk 10:30; 2Co 5:4†. But the compound is stronger. Cf. Chrys. Ὅρα πῶς ἐγγὺς γίνεται τοῦ πράγματος. Ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει, φησίν, οὐκ εἷπεν ἐκδύσει.

A somewhat unnecessary question has been raised as to who “puts off.” For it is urged that as the circumcised person endures, not acts, he ought to be said to be stripped of τοῦ σώματος κ.τ.λ., and as on the other hand ἀπέκδυσις must be active not passive in meaning, the subject must be God. But this is hypercritical. If a man gets himself circumcised it is he virtually who puts off.

τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός. “Of the body of the flesh,” Col 1:22†. There however the phrase has not the connotation of evil that it evidently has here. For though σάρξ need not be sinful, yet in the case of all others than Christ it is so.

Observe that the phrase is very strong. Literal circumcision puts off a fragment, true circumcision puts off the body (cf. Rom 7:5; Rom 8:8-9). But this is what is done at death! Quite so, for, as St Paul will say clearly in the next two verses, the believer passed through a crisis of no less a magnitude. He has obtained the benefits of circumcision in the highest degree, for he has put off his old nature and obtained new life.

ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ τοῦ χριστοῦ. A unique and difficult phrase.

(1) In itself its most obvious reference would be to the historical circumcision of Christ (Luk 2:21), but this is unsatisfactory here. Not because (a) as has been urged, περιτομῇ ἀχειροποιήτῳ forbids such a reference to literal circumcision, for this would not affect the spiritual circumcision of the Colossians “in” it, but because (b) there is no analogy to the believer sharing, ex hypothesi, in the actions and sufferings of Christ before His Passion.

Besides, while it is true that the circumcision of Christ was the first stage in His carrying out the precepts of the Law for us and so freeing us from them, this thought does not belong to the present context (contrast Col 2:14).

(2) Hence we must understand τοῦ χριστοῦ as the genitive of cause and origin, and the phrase to be in silent contrast to “the circumcision of Moses.” Thus it nearly = “Christian circumcision,” but points out more definitely than that the personal relation of Christ to this spiritual action.

Compare 1Co 10:2 where, in reverse fashion, “baptized unto Moses” stands in silent contrast to Christian baptism.

The ἐν is, apparently, precisely parallel to the ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδ., again defining the nature of the περιτομή.

(3) Other, but very improbable, interpretations are (a) τοῦ χριστοῦ is strictly subjective, meaning that He performs the circumcision (rather the Spirit, as Chrys.). (b) ἡ περιτ. τ. χρ. is a metaphor for Christ’s death.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11.] (nor do you need the rite of circumcision to make you complete, for you have already received in Him the spiritual substance, of which that rite is but the shadow) in whom ye also were circumcised (not as E. V. ‘are circumcised,’—the reference being to the historical fact of their baptism) with a circumcision not wrought by hands (see Eph 2:11, and Rom 2:29. The same reference to spiritual (ethical) circumcision is found in Deu 10:16; Deu 30:6: Eze 44:7: Act 7:51), in (consisting in—which found its realization in) your putting off (= when you threw off: ἀπεκδ., the putting off and laying aside, as a garment: an allusion to actual circumcision,—see below) of the body of the flesh (i.e. as ch. 1:22, the body of which the material was flesh: but more here: so also its designating attribute, its leading principle, was fleshliness—the domination of the flesh which is a σὰρξ ἁμαρτίας, Rom 8:3. This body is put off in baptism, the sign and seal of the new life. “When ethically circumcised, i.e. translated by μετάνοια out of the state of sin into that of the Christian life of faith, we have no more the σῶμα τῆς σαρκός: for the body, which we bear, is disarrayed of its sinful σάρξ as such, quoad its sinful quality: we are no more ἐν τῇ σαρκί as before, when lust ἐνηργεῖτο ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν (Rom 7:5, cf. ib. ver. 23): we are no more σάρκινοι, πεπραμένοι ὑπὸ τήν ἁμαρτίαν (Rom 7:14), and walk no more κατὰ σάρκα, but ἐν καινότητι πνεύματος (Rom 7:6), so that our members are ὅπλα δικαιοσύνης τῷ θεῷ (Rom 6:13). This Christian transformation is set forth in its ideal conception, irrespective of its imperfect realization in our experience.” Meyer. To understand τὸ σῶμα to signify ‘the mass,’ us Calv. (‘corpus appellat massam ex omnibus vitiis conflatam, eleganti metaphora’), Grot. (‘omne quod ex multis componitur solet hoc vocabulo appellari’), al.,—besides that it is bound up very much with the reading τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, is out of keeping with N. T. usage, and with the context, which is full of images connected with the body),—in (parallel to ἐν before—then the circumcision without hands was explained, now it is again adduced with another epithet bringing it nearer home to them) the circumcision of Christ (belonging to, brought about by union with, Christ: nearly =, but expresses more than ‘Christian circumcision,’ inasmuch as it shews that the root and cause of this circumcision without hands is in Christ, the union with whom is immediately set forth. Two other interpretations are given: 1) that in which Christ is regarded as the circumciser: ὁ χρ. περιτέμνει ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι, ἀπεκδύν ἡμᾶς τοῦ παλαιοῦ βίου, Thl., but not exactly so Chrys., who says, οὐκέτι φησὶν ἐν μαχαίρᾳ ἡ περιτ., ἀλλʼ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ χρ.· οὐ γὰρ χεῖρ ἐπάγει, καθὼς ἐκεῖ, τ. περιτομὴν ταύτην, ἀλλὰ τὸ πνεῦμα. Beza combines both—‘Christus ipse nos intus suo spiritu circumcidit.’ 2) that in which Christ is the circumcised—so Schöttg.: “per circumcisionem Christi nos omnes circumcisi sumus. Hoc est: circumeisio Christi qui se nostri causa sponte legi subjecit, tam efficax fuit in omnes homines, ut nulla amplius circumcisione carnis opus sit, præcipue quum in locum illius baptismus a Christo surrogatus sit” (i. p. 816). The objection to both is, that they introduce irrelevant elements into the context. The circumcision which Christ works, would not naturally be followed by συνταφέντες αὐτῷ, union with Him: that which was wrought on Him might be thus followed, but would not come in naturally in a passage which describes, not the universal efficacy of the rite once for all performed on Him, but the actual undergoing of it in a spiritual sense, by each one of us),

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. ἐν ὧ καὶ περιετμήθητε. “In whom also ye were (not ‘are,’ as AV.) circumcised.” “Ye have received the circumcision of the heart, by which ye have put off the whole body of the flesh, and therefore ye have no need of the symbolical circumcision of the flesh.”

The aorists point to the time of their reception into the Christian Church by baptism.

περιτομῇ, “with a circumcision,” not “the circumcision.”

ἀχειροποιήτῳ, “not wrought by hands,” not physical: cf. Mar 14:58; 2Co 5:1; and Eph 2:11, where we have the other side of the contrast, οἱλεγόμενοι ἀκροβυστία ὑπὸ τῆς λεγομένης περιτομὴ ἐν σαρκι χειροποιήτου. The idea of spiritual circumcision is frequent in the O.T.; see note on the passage in Eph. In St. Paul, compare Rom 2:28; Php 3:3. At first sight it might appear from this clause that the Colossians had been tempted like the Galatians to submit to circumcision. But in that case we should find, as in the Epistle to the Galatians, some direct condemnation of the practice; whereas in 16-23 there is no reference to it. Possibly the allusion here is to some claim to superiority on the part of the false teachers.

ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει. ἐν specifies that in which the περιτομή consisted. The substantive ἀπέκδυσις has not been found in any earlier writer (for the verb, see ver. 15). It expresses a complete putting off and laying aside, and was probably chosen with reference to the figure of circumcision. The connexion requires it to be understood passively, not “ye have put off,” but “was put off from you.”

τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός, i.e. “the body which consists in the flesh,” “the fleshly body,” so that we are no more ἐν τῇ σαρκι (Rom 7:5, Rom 7:8:8, Rom 7:9). The change is ideally represented as complete, which it is in principle.

Some expositors take σῶμα in the sense of “mass, totality” (Calvin, Grotius, al.); but this is against N.T. usage, and does not agree so well with the context, the images in which are connected with the body, “buried, raised.” The expression σῶμα τῆς σαρκός, 1:22, has a different meaning.

The Rec. Text after σώματος adds τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, with אc Dbc K L and most MSS., Syr., Chrys., etc.

The words are absent from א* A B C D* G P some good cursives, Old Lat. Vulg., Boh., etc. They are clearly a gloss.

ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ. The simplest and most natural interpretation is: “the circumcision which belongs to Christ, and is brought about by union with Him,” in contrast to the circumcision of Moses and of the patriarchs. Thus it is nearly equivalent to “Christian circumcision,” but expresses the idea that the source of this circumcision is in Christ.

Some commentators have taken Χριστοῦ as the genitive of the object, the thought being supposed to be that in the circumcision of Christ we are circumcised. So Schöttgen: “Circumcisio Christi qui se nostri causa sponte legi subjecit, tam efficax fuit in omnes homines, ut nulla amplius circumcisione carnis opus sit, praecipue quum in locum illius baptismus a Christo surrogatus sit.” This is not only without support from Scripture analogy, but is foreign to the context, in which the circumcision spoken of is ἀχειροποίητος. The baptism mentioned in ver. 12, in which we are buried with Him, is our baptism. Soden also takes Χριστοῦ as an objective genitive, understanding, however, περιτομή in the sense of ἀπέκδυσις τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός just specified, which echoes 1:22.

Chrysostom and Theophylact understand the genitive as subjective, ὁ Χριστὸς περιτέμνει ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι ἀπεκδύων ἡμᾶς τοῦ παλαίου βίου, Theoph. This does not harmonise with the following συνταφέντες αὐτῷ.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Not made with hands. Compare Mr 14:58; 2Co 5:1. In allusion to the literal circumcision insisted on by the false teachers. In the putting off [εν τη απεκδυσει] . Only here in the New Testament; and the kindred verb ajpekduomai to put off only ver. 15 and ch. 3 9. The verb ejkduomai means to strip off from one's self, as clothes or armor; ejk out of, having the force of getting out of one's garments. By the addition to the verb of ajpo from, there is added to the idea of getting out of one's clothes that of getting away from them; so that the word is a strong expression for wholly putting away from one's self. In the putting off, is in the act or process of. Not by.

The body of the sins of the flesh [του σωματος των αμαρτιων της σαρκος] . Omit of the sins. The body of the flesh (compare on ch. 1 22) is the body which consists of the flesh, flesh having its moral sense of that material part which is the seat and organ of sin, "the flesh with its passions and lusts" (Gal 5:24; compare 1Jo 2:16). See on ch. Col 1:24. For the distinction between swma body and sarx flesh, see on flesh, Rom 7:5, sec. 3.

In the circumcision of Christ [εν τη περιτομη του χριστου] . The spiritual circumcision effected through Christ. See Eph 2:11; Phi 3:3; Rom 2:29. In, as above. The fleshly circumcision removed only a portion of the body. In spiritual circumcision, through Christ, the whole corrupt, carnal nature is put away like a garment which is taken off and laid aside.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Now he dealeth perfecty against the third kind, that is to say, against them which urged the Jewish religion: and first of all, he denieth that we have need of the Circumcision of the flesh, seeing that without it we are circumcised within, by the virtue of Christ.

These many words are used to show what the old man is, whom Paul in other places calleth the body of sin.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 11. In whom also ye are circumcised] All that was designed by circumcision, literally performed, is accomplished in them that believe through the Spirit and power of Christ. It is not a cutting off of a part of the flesh, but a putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, through the circumcision of Christ; he having undergone and performed this, and all other rites necessary to qualify him to be a mediator between God and man; for, being made under the law, he was subject to all its ordinances, and every act of his contributed to the salvation of men. But by the circumcision of Christ, the operation of his grace and Spirit may be intended; the law required the circumcision of the flesh, the Gospel of Christ required the circumcision of the heart. The words των αμαρτιων, of the sins, are omitted by ABCD*EFG, several others, by the Coptic, AEthiopic, Armenian, Vulgate, and Itala; and by Clement, Athanasius, Basil, Cyril, and several others. Griesbach has omitted them.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. In whom ye also are circumcised. From this it appears, that he has a controversy with the false apostles, who mixed the law with the gospel, and by that means made Christ have, as it were, two faces. He specifies, however, one instance by way of example. He proves that the circumcision of Moses is not merely unnecessary, but is opposed to Christ, because it destroys the spiritual circumcision of Christ. For circumcision was given to the Fathers that it might be the figure of a thing that was absent: those, therefore, who retain that figure after Christ’s advent, deny the accomplishment of what it prefigures. Let us, therefore, bear in mind that outward circumcision is here compared with spiritual, just as a figure with the reality. The figure is of a thing that is absent: hence it puts away the presence of the reality. What Paul contends for is this — that, inasmuch as what was shadowed forth by a circumcision made with hands, has been completed in Christ, there is now no fruit or advantage from it. Hence he says, that the circumcision which is made in the heart is the circumcision of Christ, and that, on this account, that which is outward is not now required, because, where the reality exists, that shadowy emblem vanishes, inasmuch as it has no place except in the absence of the reality.

By the putting off of the body. He employs the term body, by an elegant metaphor, to denote a mass, made up of all vices. For as we are encompassed by our bodies, so we are surrounded on all sides by an accumulation of vices. And as the body is composed of various members, each of which has its own actings and offices, so from that accumulation of corruption all sins take their rise as members of the entire body. There is a similar manner of expression in Romans 6:13.

He takes the term flesh, as he is wont, to denote corrupt nature. The body of the sins of the flesh, therefore, is the old man with his deeds; only, there is a difference in the manner of expression, for here he expresses more properly the mass of vices which proceed from corrupt nature. He says that we obtain this through Christ, so that unquestionably an entire regeneration is his benefit. It is he that circumcises the foreskin of our heart, or, in other words, mortifies all the lusts of the flesh, not with the hand, but by his Spirit. Hence there is in him the reality of the figure.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

11. in whom] The truth of the holy Union of members and Head is again in view. What he is about to speak of was done by the fact of, by virtue of, their oneness with Christ.

are circumcised] Better, were circumcised, when you entered “into Christ.” They already had that Divine Reality, the sacred but obsolete type of which the new teachers now pressed upon them. As regarded order, ceremonial, deed and seal of conveyance, they acquired this in their Baptism; as regarded inward and ultimate reality they acquired it by believing on the name of the Son of God. See Joh_1:12; cp. 1Jn_5:1.—Baptism is the Sacrament of Faith, and never, in principle and idea, to be dissociated from its Thing (Res), as if its work was done where the Thing is not truly present.

made without hands] It is a thing of the spiritual, eternal, order, the immediate work of the will of God.—Cp. 2Co_5:1.—Is this “circumcision” simply holy Baptism? No, surely, but that “inward and spiritual grace” of which Baptism is the sacramental Seal, “a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness” (Church Catechism). It is vital union with Christ, through faith, by the Holy Spirit (see 1Co_6:17), viewed as our separation from the condemnation (Rom_6:11) and power (ib., 12, 13) of sin, and so our real entrance into a position of covenanted peace (Rom_5:1) and a condition of covenanted grace. In both these aspects it is the Antitype of the type Circumcision, and the Reality under the seal Baptism.

the putting off] The Greek is one strong compound word; “the entire stripping off.” It was, in principle and as regarded the call and grace of God, a total break with the old position and condition; not a reform but a revolution of the man’s standing and state.—The physical imagery is drawn of course from the severe Abrahamic rite.

the body of the sins of the flesh] Omit, on good evidence, the words “of the sins” which appear to be a (very intelligible) gloss or comment.

What is “the body of the flesh”? Elsewhere in St Paul the word “body” appears never to mean anything but the physical frame, save in passages referring to the Church; but (in passages at all akin to this) it is that frame viewed as in some sense the vehicle of sin, or rather of temptation. Cp. Rom_6:6; Rom_7:24; Rom_8:10-11; Rom_8:13. As God’s handiwork, the body is good, and on its way, in Christ, to glorification. As the body of man in the Fall, and as man’s means of contact with a sinful external world, if in no other way, it is so conversant with and affected by evil as to be (in that respect) an evil. As such it is “the body of the flesh,” that is, the body conditioned by, and reacting upon, our nature fallen and unregenerate.—See our notes on Rom_8:4 and Eph_2:3, on the word “flesh.”

In Christ, “by the Spirit,” the Christian is empowered to “mortify the practices of the body” (Rom_8:13). In Christ, “the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (1Co_6:13). In this respect the man, while still liable to physical weakness and weariness, and truly capable of temptation, and as a fact never so using his “fulness” in Christ as to be wholly free (whatever his consciousness) from the burthen of evil in and through “the body of the flesh,” yet stands on such a ground of vantage over the power of that body as to find by faith a noble practical reality in the strong words of this verse.—See further, on the other hand, notes on Col_3:5.

by the circumcision of Christ] Lit., in &c.; “as united to, interested in.”—What is this circumcision? that given by Christ, or that undergone by Christ? Much may be said for the latter. Our Lord was “circumcised for man,” as the sacramental Seal of His “subjection to the law for man”; and so His historical Circumcision has a deep connexion with our possession, through Him, of acceptance and sanctification, the fruit of His Righteousness and Merits. But in this context the other reference is preferable. We have but just read of a “circumcision not made with hands”; surely the same is in view here. Christ, Messiah (the word here is not Jesus, which might have better suggested the historical reference), gives us spiritual circumcision when He joins us to Himself (see notes above), and so the circumcision is “His.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

Ver. 11. Made without hands] Oh, how honourable (saith an interpreter) is the work of mortification, even as to make those huge heavens, &c.

By the circumcision of Christ] Which circumciseth our hearts, pulling off that wretched foreskin.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By whom also ye have been circumcised - Ye have received the spiritual blessings typified of old by circumcision. With a circumcision not performed with hands - By an inward, spiritual operation. In putting off, not a little skin, but the whole body of the sins of the flesh - All the sins of your evil nature. By the circumcision of Christ - By that spiritual circumcision which Christ works in your heart.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

the sins of

Omit "the sins of."

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The apostle had asserted before, that we are complete in Christ: He proves it now, thus; we want not circumcision: Why? Because we have in Christ the thing signified by circumcision, namely, the spiritual circumcision of the heart, which consists in putting off, by the power of Christ’s Spirit, the body of natural corruption; which done, there was no need of the outward circumcision made with hands, or the cutting off the flesh of the fore-skin.

Observe, Original corruption is a body, or, as a body to us, it cleaves as close to the soul as the flesh to the bones. This body, with all its members, we must be cutting daily by spiritual circumcision or real mortification; and, where that is done, God is well pleased: He regards not that cirumcision which is outward in the flesh, which is made with hands, but that which is inward, the circumcision of the heart, and of the Spirit, whose praise is not of man, but of God.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 10

CIRCUMCISION, BAPTISM, AND SANCTIFICATION SYNONYMOUS

11. As physical birth in Judaism emblematized regeneration, circumcision, following quickly, typified sanctification. (Deu 30:6.) Here we know it is spiritual, as it is “made without hands;”

12. As the baptism here mentioned is in grammatical and logical apposition to circumcision, and only separated by a comma, it is synonymous with it. The resurrection mentioned is by the Spirit, as it is by the same power that raised the body of Christ from the dead; i.e., the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. It is parallel with Rom 6:4-6, where the crucifixion of the old man, his burial into the death of Christ, and the resurrection of the new man, are all imputed to baptism. It is none other than the one baptism (Eph 4:5) in the glorious plan of salvation. Is that baptism a burial? Not so revealed. We are buried by baptism; i.e., the burial of the old body of sin is one of the effects of baptism, like the crucifixion; but the baptism is the agent, while the crucifixion and burial are the wonderful work wrought by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. In whom ye are circumcised. Are there those who say that you ought to be circumcised? In him is the true circumcision, not done by hands, not the cutting off of a little flesh, but the putting off of the entire body of the sins of the flesh.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

ἡ κεφαλὴ] The image expresses much more than the idea of sovereignty: the head is also the centre of vital force, the source of all energy and life: see the note on ver. 19.

πάσης ἀρχῆς κ.τ.λ.] ‘of every principality and power’, and therefore of those angelic beings whom the false teachers adopted as mediators, thus transferring to the inferior members the allegiance due to the Head: comp. ver. 18 sq. For ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας, see the note on i. 16.

11. The previous verses have dealt with the theological tenets of the false teachers. The Apostle now turns to their practical errors; ‘You do not need the circumcision of the flesh; for you have received the circumcision of the heart. The distinguishing features of this higher circumcision are threefold. (1) It is not external but inward, not made with hands but wrought by the Spirit. (2) It divests not of a part only of the flesh, but of the whole body of carnal affections. (3) It is the circumcision not of Moses or of the patriarchs, but of Christ’. Thus it is distinguished, as regards first its character, secondly its extent, and thirdly its author.

περιετμήθητε] The moment at which this is conceived as taking place is defined by the other aorists, συνταφέντες, συνηγέρθητε, etc., as the time of their baptism, when they ‘put on Christ’.

ἀχειροποιήτῳ] i.e. ‘immaterial’, ‘spiritual’, as Mark xiv. 58, 2 Cor. v. 1. So χειροποίητος, which is used in the N. T. of material temples and their furniture (Acts vii. 48, xvii. 24, Heb. ix. 11, 24, comp. Mark l.c.), and of the material circumcision (Ephes. ii. 11 τῆς λεγομένης περιτομῆς ἐν σαρκὶ χειροποιήτου). In the LXX χειροποίητα occurs exclusively as a rendering of idols (אלילם, e.g. Lev. xxvi. 1, Is. ii. 18, etc.), false gods (אלהים Is. xxi. 9, where perhaps they read אלילים), or images (חמנים Lev. xxvi. 30), except in one passage, Is. xvi. 12, where it is applied to an idol’s sanctuary. Owing to this association of the word the application which we find in the New Testament would sound much more depreciatory to Jewish ears than it does to our own; e.g. ἐν χειροποιήτοις κατοικεῖ in St Stephen’s speech, where the force of the passage is broken in the received text by the interpolation of ναοῖς.

For illustrations of the typical significance of circumcision, as a symbol of purity, see the note on Phil. iii. 3.

ἐν τῇ κ.τ.λ.] The words are chosen to express the completeness of the spiritual change. (1) It is not an ἔκδυσις nor an ἀπόδυσις, but an ἀπέκδυσις. The word ἀπέκδυσις is extremely rare, and no earlier instances of it are produced; see the note on ver. 15 ἀπεκδυσάμενος. (2) It is not a single member but the whole body, which is thus cast aside; see the next note. Thus the idea of completeness is brought out both in the energy of the action and in the extent of its operation, as in iii. 9 ἀπεκδυσάμενοι τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον .

J. B. Lightfoot, St Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon: a revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations (London: Macmillan, 1875) — public domain. Electronic text from Project Gutenberg (ebook #50857). Covers Colossians and Philemon only (the verse-by-verse notes; introductions and dissertations are omitted); Lightfoot's companion Galatians and Philippians volumes are not included, as the available public-domain scans carry garbled Greek that cannot be faithfully reproduced.