Colossians 2

Colossians 2:1

John Chrysostom: “For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea.”

Then lest this should seem owing to their peculiar weakness, he joined others also with them, and as yet condemned them not. But why does he say, “And as many as have not seen my face in the flesh”? He shows here after a divine manner, that they saw him constantly in the Spirit. And he bears witness to their great love. — Homily on Colossians 5

Colossians 2:2

Clement of Alexandria: For that the knowledge does not appertain to all, he expressly adds: “Being knit together in love, and unto all the riches of the full assurance of knowledge, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.”. And again in another place he says: “To the acknowledgment of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” — The Stromata Book 5

John Chrysostom: Now henceforward he is hastening and in pangs to enter upon the doctrine, neither accusing them, nor clearing them of accusation. “I strive,” he saith. To what end? That they may be knit together. What he means is something like this; that they may stand firm in the faith. He doth not however so express himself; but extenuates the matter of accusation. That is, that they may be united with love, not with necessity nor with force. For as I have said, he always avoids offending, by leaving it to themselves; and therefore “striving,” because I wish it to be with love, and willingly. For I do not wish it to be with the lips merely, nor merely that they shall be brought together, but “that their hearts may be comforted.”

“Being knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.” That is, that they may doubt about nothing, that they may be fully assured in all things. But I meant full assurance which is by faith, for there is a full assurance which cometh by arguments, but that is worthy of no consideration. I know, he saith, that ye believe, but I would have you fully assured: not “unto riches” only, but “unto all riches”; that your full assurance may be intense, as well as in all things. And observe the wisdom of this blessed one. He said not, “Ye do ill that ye are not fully assured,” nor accused them; but, ye know not how desirous I am that ye may be fully assured, and not merely so, but with understanding. For seeing he spoke of faith; suppose not, he saith, that I meant barely and unprofitably, but with understanding and love. “That they may know the mystery of God the Father and of Christ.” So that this is the mystery of God, the being brought unto Him by the Son. “And of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” But if they are in Him, then wisely also no doubt He came at this time. Wherefore then do some foolish persons object to Him, “See how He discourseth with the simpler sort.” “In whom are all the treasures.” He himself knows all things. “Hid,” for think not in truth that ye already have all; they are hidden also even from Angels, not, from you only; so that you ought to ask all things from Him. He himself giveth wisdom and knowledge. Now by saying, “treasures,” he shows their largeness, by “All,” that He is ignorant of nothing, by “hid,” that He alone knoweth. — Homily on Colossians 5

Colossians 2:3

Ambrose of Milan: On consideration, your Majesty, of the reason wherefore men have so far gone astray, or that many-alas!-should follow diverse ways of belief concerning the Son of God, the marvel seems to be, not at all that human knowledge has been baffled in dealing with superhuman things, but that it has not submitted to the authority of the Scriptures. What reason, indeed, is there to wonder, if by their worldly wisdom men failed to comprehend the mystery of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, that mystery of which not even angels have been able to take knowledge, save by revelation? — Exposition of the Christian Faith, Book 4

Augustine of Hippo: Herein is all the worth of grace, by which he saves those who believe, containing in itself deep treasures of wisdom and knowledge and steeping in faith the minds which it draws to the eternal contemplation of unchangeable truth. Suppose the omnipotent had created his humanity by forming it otherwise than in a mother’s womb and had presented himself suddenly to our sight. Suppose he had not passed through the stages from childhood to youth, had taken no food, no sleep: would he not have given ground for the erroneous opinion which believed that he had not really become a human being? And by doing everything miraculously, would he not have obscured the effect of his mercy? But now he has appeared as Mediator between God and men, in such a way as to join both natures in the unity of one Person. He has both raised the commonplace to the heights of the uncommon and brought down the uncommon to the commonplace. .

Augustine of Hippo: Pay attention, dearly beloved, and see how sound the apostle’s advice is, when he says, “As therefore you received Christ Jesus our Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and confirmed in the faith.” What we have to do, after all, is to abide firmly in him through the simplicity and assurance of this faith, so that he may open up to us, as faithful believers, the treasure that is hidden in him. The same apostle says, “In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.” He didn’t hide them in order to deny them to us but to rouse our desire for what is hidden. That is the value of secrets.

Jerome: Can the workman be ignorant of his work? We read of Christ in St. Paul: “In whom are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Note: “all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Not that some are and some are not in him but that they are hidden. That which is in him, therefore, is not lacking to him, even though it be hidden to us. If, moreover, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ, we must find out why they are hidden. If we men were to know the day of judgment, that, for example, it would not be for two thousand years, and if we knew it so long ahead of time, we would be more careless on that account. We would say, for instance, What is it to me if the day of judgment will not be here for two thousand years? Scripture says, therefore, for our benefit, that “the Son does not know the day of judgment,” because we do not know when the day of judgment will be upon us; and further: “Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is.” Not “we do not know” but “you do not know.” Homilies on Mark (x).

John Damascene: For, although he was impassible, he became subject to the experience of human passions and was made minister of our salvation. Now, they who say that he is a servant divide the one Christ into two, just as Nestorius did. But we say that he is Lord and Master of all creation, the one Christ, the same being at once God and man, and that he knows all things, “for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Colossians 2:4

Clement of Alexandria: I hear also those words of his, “And these things I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words, or one should enter in to spoil you.”. But seeking ends in finding, driving out the empty trifling, and approving of the contemplation which confirms our faith. “And this I say, lest any man beguile you with enticing words” — The Stromata Book 1

John Chrysostom: “This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.”

Seest thou that he saith, I have therefore said this, that ye may not seek it from men. “Delude you,” he saith, “with persuasiveness of speech.” For what if any doth speak, and speak persuasively? — Homily on Colossians 5

Methodius of Olympus: Blotted out the handwriting which was against us.

Colossians 2:5

Fulgentius of Ruspe: This love, which is from God and is God, cannot be separated from the being of God, because God and love are one. For since love, itself inseparable from its source, not only possesses human beings who can be separated from one another, but from many hearts and souls makes one heart and one soul, what madness is it to say that love which is accustomed to join separated minds in an inseparable love can be separated from the human beings who express it? Hence it is that Paul said, “For even if I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing as I observe your good order.” And in the Acts of the Apostles, it is written that the “community of believers was of one heart and mind” … something that was not brought about except by the Spirit of faith and love.

John Chrysostom: “For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit.”

The direct thing to have said here was, “even though I be absent in the flesh, yet, nevertheless, I know the deceivers”; but instead he has ended with praise, “Joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” “Your order,” he means, your good order. “And the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” This is still more in the way of encomium. And he said not “faith,” but steadfastness, as to soldiers standing in good order and firmly. Now that which is steadfast, neither deceit nor trial can shake asunder. Not only, he saith, have ye not fallen, but no one hath so much as thrown you into disorder. He hath set himself over them, that they may fear him as though present; for thus is order preserved. From solidity follows compactedness, for you will then produce solidity, when having brought many things together, you shall cement them compactedly and inseparably; thus a solidity is produced, as in the case of a wall. But this is the peculiar work of love; for those who were by themselves, when it hath closely cemented and knit them together, it renders solid. And faith, again, doeth the same thing; when it allows not reasonings to intrude themselves. For as reasonings divide, and shake loose, so faith causes solidity and compactness. — Homily on Colossians 5

Tertullian: If we also, in our diverse provinces, (but) present mutually in spirit, observe those very solemnities, whose then celebration our present discourse has been defending, that is the sacramental law. — On Fasting

Colossians 2:6

Clement of Alexandria: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith.”. “Beware lest any man spoil you of faith in Christ by philosophy and vain deceit “which does away with providence, “after the tradition of men; “for the philosophy which is in accordance with divine tradition establishes and confirms providence, which, being done away with, the economy of the Saviour appears a myth, while we are influenced “after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.” — The Stromata Book 1

John Chrysostom: Again, he takes hold on them beforehand with their own testimony, saying, “As therefore ye received.” We introduce no strange addition, he saith, neither do ye. “Walk ye in Him,” for He is the Way that leadeth to the Father: not in the Angels; this way leadeth not thither. “Rooted,” that is, fixed; not one while going this way, another that, but “rooted”: now that which is rooted, never can remove. Observe how appropriate are the expressions he employs. “And built up,” that is, in thought attaining unto Him. “And stablished” in Him, that is, holding Him, built as on a foundation. He shows that they had fallen down, for the word “built” has this force. For the faith is in truth a building; and needs both a strong foundation, and secure construction. For both if any one build not upon a secure foundation it will shake; and even though he do, if it be not firm, it will not stand. “As ye were taught.” Again, the word “As.” “Abounding,” he saith, “in thanksgiving”; for this is the part of well-disposed persons, I say not simply to give thanks, but with great abundance, more than ye learned, if possible, with much ambition. — Homily on Colossians 6

Colossians 2:8

Ambrosiaster: He calls that philosophy worldly by which men who desire to be wise in earthly terms are seduced. .

Clement of Alexandria: And again, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ; “. For Paul too, in the Epistles, plainly does not disparage philosophy; but deems it unworthy of the man who has attained to the elevation of the Gnostic, any more to go back to the Hellenic “philosophy “figuratively calling it the rudiments of this world”. So also to the Colossians, who were Greek converts, “Beware lest any man spoil you by philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of this world, and not after Christ”. It is the prerogative of the Gnostic, then, to know how to make use of speech, and when, and how, and to whom. And already the apostle, by saying, “After the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. “Now the wild olive is inserted into the fatness of the olive” — The Stromata Book 1

Cyprian: The principle of the philosophers and stoics is different, dearest brother, who say that all sins are equal, and that a grave man ought not easily to be moved. But there is a wide difference between Christians and philosophers. And when the apostle says, “Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,” we are to avoid those things which do not come from God’s clemency, but are begotten of the presumption of a too rigid philosophy. Concerning Moses, moreover, we find it said in the Scriptures, “Now the man Moses was very meek; " and the Lord in His Gospel says, “Be ye merciful, as your Father also had mercy upon you; " and again, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” What medical skill can he exercise who says, “I cure the sound only, who have no need of a physician? “We ought to give our assistance, our healing art, to those who are wounded; neither let us think them dead, but rather let us regard them as lying half alive, whom we see to have been wounded in the fatal persecution, and who, if they had been altogether dead, would never from the same men become afterwards both confessors and martyrs. — Epistle LI

Cyprian: Philosophers also profess that they pursue this virtue; but in their case the patience is as false as their wisdom also is. For whence can he be either wise or patient, who has neither known the wisdom nor the patience of God? since He Himself warns us, and says of those who seem to themselves to be wise in this world, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reprove the understanding of the prudent.” Moreover, the blessed Apostle Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, and sent forth for the calling and training of the heathen, bears witness and instructs us, saying, “See that no man despoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ, because in Him dwelleth all the fulness of divinity.” And in another place he says: “Let no man deceive himself; if any man among you thinketh himself to be wise, let him become a fool to this world, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, I will rebuke the wise in their own craftiness.” And again: “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are foolish.” Wherefore if the wisdom among them be not true, the patience also cannot be true. For if he is wise who is lowly and meek-but we do not see that philosophers are either lowly or meek, but greatly pleasing themselves, and, for the very reason that they please themselves, displeasing God-it is evident that the patience is not real among them where there is the insolent audacity of an affected liberty, and the immodest boastfulness of an exposed and half-naked bosom. — Treatise IX. On the Advantage of Patience.

Cyril of Jerusalem: True religion consists of these two elements: pious doctrines and virtuous actions. Neither does God accept doctrines apart from works, nor are works, when divorced from godly doctrine, accepted by God…. The knowledge of doctrines is a precious possession. There is need of a vigilant soul, since there are many who would deceive you by philosophy and vain deceit.

Hippolytus of Rome: For it seems expedient that we, making an onslaught upon the opinion which constitutes the prime source of (contemporaneous) evils, should prove what are the originating principles. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. — Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies Book IX

John Chrysostom: Seest thou how he shows him to be a thief, and an alien, and one that enters in softly? For he has already represented him to be entering in. “Beware.” And he well said “maketh spoil.” As one digging away a mound from underneath, may give no perceptible sign, yet it gradually settles, so do you also beware; for this is his main point, not even to let himself be perceived. As if some one were robbing every day, and he (the owner of the house) were told, “Beware lest there be some one”; and he shows the way-through this way-as if we were to say, through this chamber; so, “through philosophy,” says he.

Then because the term “philosophy” has an appearance of dignity, he added, “and vain deceit.” For there is also a good deceit; such as many have been deceived by, which one ought not even to call a deceit at all. Whereof Jeremiah speaks; “O Lord, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived” (Jer. xx. 7); for such as this one ought not to call a deceit at all; for Jacob also deceived his father, but that was not a deceit, but an economy. “Through his philosophy,” he saith, “and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Now he sets about to reprove their observance of particular days, meaning by elements of the world the sun and moon; as he also said in the Epistle to the Galatians, “How turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly elements?” (Gal. iv. 9.) And he said not observances of days, but in general of the present world, to show its worthlessness: for if the present world be nothing, much more then its elements. Having first shown how great benefits and kindnesses they had received, he afterwards brings on his accusation, thereby to show its greater seriousness, and to convict his hearers. Thus too the Prophets do. They always first point out the benefits, and then they magnify their accusation; as Esaias saith, “I have begotten children, and exalted them, but they have rejected me” (Isa. i. 2, Sept.); and again, “O my people, what have I done unto thee, or wherein have I grieved thee, or wherein have I wearied thee”? (Mic. vi. 3) and David; as when he says, “I heard thee in the secret place of the tempest” (Ps. lxxxi. 7, Sept.); and again, “Open thy mouth, and I will fill it.” (Ps. lxxxi. 10.) And everywhere you will find it the same.

That indeed were most one’s duty, not to be persuaded by them, even did they say aught to the purpose; as it is, however, obligations apart even, it would be our duty to shun those things. “And not after Christ,” he saith. For were it in such sort a matter done by halves, that ye were able to serve both the one and the other, not even so ought ye to do it; as it is, however, he suffers you not to be “after Christ.” Those things withdraw you from Him. Having first shaken to pieces the Grecian observances, he next overthrows the Jewish ones also. For both Greeks and Jews practiced many observances, but the former from philosophy, the latter from the Law. First then, he makes at those against whom lay the heavier accusation. How, “not after Christ”? — Homily on Colossians 6

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius: It is not therefore utility, but enjoyment, which they seek from philosophy. And this Cicero indeed testified. “Truly,” he says, “all their disputation, although it contains most abundant fountains of virtue and knowledge, yet, when compared with their actions and accomplishments, I fear lest it should seem not to have brought so much advantage to the business of men as enjoyment to their times of relaxation.” He ought not to have feared, since he spoke the truth; but as if he were afraid lest he should be arraigned by the philosophers on a charge of betraying a mystery, he did not venture confidently to pronounce that which was true, that they do not dispute for the purpose of teaching, but for their own enjoyment in their leisure; and since they are the advisers of actions, and do not themselves act at all, they are to be regarded as mere talkers. But assuredly, because they contributed no advantage to life, they neither obeyed their own decrees, nor has any one been found, through so many ages, who lived in accordance with their laws. Therefore philosophy must altogether be laid aside, because we are not to devote ourselves to the pursuit of wisdom, for this has no limit or moderation; but we must be wise, and that indeed quickly. — The Divine Institutes, Book 3, Chapter XVI

Pseudo-Clement: hese, moreover, are like “the blind man who leads the blind man, and they both fall into the ditch.” [Matthew 15:14] And they will receive judgment, because in their talkativeness and their frivolous teaching they teach natural wisdom and the “frivolous error of the plausible words of the wisdom of men,” “according to the will of the prince of the dominion of the air, and of the spirit which works in those men who will not obey, according to the training of this world, and not according to the doctrine of Christ.” But if you have received “the word of knowledge, or the word of instruction, or of prophecy,” [1 Corinthians 12:8-10] blessed be God, “who helps every man without grudging — that God who gives to every man and does not upbraid him.” [James 1:5] — Two Epistles on Virginity

Tertullian: The apostle, so far back as his own time, foresaw, indeed, that philosophy would do violent injury to the truth. This admonition about false philosophy he was induced to offer after he had been at Athens, had become acquainted with that loquacious city, and had there had a taste of its huckstering wiseacres and talkers. — A Treatise on the Soul

Tertullian: Writing to the Colossians, he says, “See that no one beguile you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, and contrary to the wisdom of the Holy Ghost.” He had been at Athens, and had in his interviews (with its philosophers) become acquainted with that human wisdom which pretends to know the truth, whilst it only corrupts it, and is itself divided into its own manifold heresies, by the variety of its mutually repugnant sects. — The Prescription Against Heretics

Tertullian: When, again, he warns them to “beware of subtle words and philosophy,” as being “a vain deceit,” such as is “after the rudiments of the world” (not understanding thereby the mundane fabric of sky and earth, but worldly learning, and “the tradition of men,” subtle in their speech and their philosophy), it would be tedious, and the proper subject of a separate work, to show how in this sentence (of the apostle’s) all heresies are condemned, on the ground of their consisting of the resources of subtle speech and the rules of philosophy. — Against Marcion Book V

Colossians 2:9

Ambrose of Milan: Oneness in Godhead the Law hath proved, which speaks of one God, as also the Apostle, by saying of Christ; “In Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” For if, as the Apostle saith, all the fulness of the Godhead, bodily, is in Christ, then must the Father and the Son be confessed to be of one Godhead; or if it is desired to sunder the Godhead of the Son from the Godhead of the Father, whilst the Son possesses all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, what is supposed to be further reserved, seeing that nothing remains over and above the fulness of perfection? Therefore the Godhead is one. — Exposition of the Christian Faith, Book 3

Ambrosiaster: All that the Father has, he has given to the Son when he begot him bodily in the fullness of divinity, so that as he is the head, the creation is his body. Therefore, whatever can be supposed to be a heavenly creature must be seen as fully subordinate to Christ, so that no lesser being may be thought worthy of worship. .

Athanasius of Alexandria: In the past Christ the Word was accustomed to come to the saints individually and to sanctify those who rightly received him. But neither, when these individuals were first born did people assert that he had become man in any of them, nor when they suffered, did anyone say that God himself suffered in them. But then he came among us from Mary once at the end of the ages for the abolition of sin (for so it was pleasing to the Father to send his own Son “made of a woman, made under the law”). And then it was said, that he took flesh and became man. It was in that flesh he suffered for us. His intention was to show, so that all might believe, that whereas he was ever God, and sanctified those to whom he came, and ordered all things according to the Father’s will, afterwards for our sakes he became man, and “bodily,” as the apostle says, the Godhead dwelt in the flesh. This was as much as to say, “Being God, he had his own body, and using this as an instrument, he became man for our sakes.” .

Augustine of Hippo: Speaking of him as our Head, the apostle says: “For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead corporally.” He does not say “corporally” because God is corporeal, but he either uses the word in a derived sense as if he dwells in a temple made by hands, not corporally but symbolically, that is, under prefiguring signs … or else the word corporally is certainly used because God dwells, as in his temple, in the body of Christ which he took from the Virgin.

Gregory of Nyssa: Since then it was impossible that our life, which had been estranged from God, should of itself return to the high and heavenly place, for this reason, as the apostle says, he who knew no sin is made sin for us and frees us from the curse by taking on him our curse as his own. Having taken up and, in the language of the apostle, “slain” in himself “the enmity” which by means of sin had come between us and God (in fact sin was the “enmity”) and having become what we were, he through himself again united humanity to God. For having by purity brought into closest relationship with the Father of our nature that new man which is created after God, in whom dwelled all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, he drew with him into the same grace all the nature that partakes of his body and is akin to him.

Hippolytus of Rome: There is also unquestionably a certain other (head of the hydra, namely, the heresy) of the Peratae, whose blasphemy against Christ has for many years escaped notice. And the present is a fitting opportunity for bringing to light the secret mysteries of such (heretics). These allege that the world is one, triply divided. And of the triple division with them, one portion is a certain single originating principle, just as it were a huge fountain, which can be divided mentally into infinite segments. Now the first segment, and that which, according to them, is (a segment) in preference (to others), is a triad, and it is called a Perfect Good, (and) a Paternal Magnitude. And the second portion of the triad of these is, as it were, a certain infinite crowd of potentialities that are generated from themselves, (while) the third is formal. And the first, which is good, is unbegotten, and the second is a self-producing good, and the third is created; and hence it is that they expressly declare that there are three Gods, three Logoi, three Minds, three Men. For to each portion of the world, after the division has been made, they assign both Gods, and Logoi, and Minds, and Men, and the rest; but that from unorigination and the first segment of the world, when afterwards the world had attained unto its completion, there came down from above, for causes that we shall afterwards declare, in the time of Herod a certain man called Christ, with a threefold nature, and a threefold body, and a threefold power, (and) having in himself all (species of) concretions and potentialities (derivable) from the three divisions of the world; and that this, says (the Peratic), is what is spoken: “It pleased him that in him should dwell all fulness bodily,” and in Him the entire Divinity resides of the triad as thus divided. For, he says, that from the two superjacent worlds-namely, from that (portion of the triad) which is unbegotten, and from that which is self-producing-there have been conveyed down into this world in which we are, seeds of all sorts of potentialities. What, however, the mode of the descent is, we shall afterwards declare. — The Refutation of All Heresies - Book 5

Hippolytus of Rome: The Peratae, however, viz., Ademes the Carystian, and Euphrates the Peratic, say that there is some one world,-this is the denomination they use,-and affirming that it is divided into three parts. But of the threefold division, according to them, there is one principle, just like an immense fountain, capable of being by reason divided into infinite segments. And the first segment, and the one of more proximity, according to them, is the triad, and is called a perfect good, and a paternal magnitude. But the second portion of the triad is a certain multitude of, as it were, infinite powers. The third part, however, is formal. And the first is unbegotten; whence they expressly affirm that there are three Gods, three Logoi, three minds, (and) three men. For when the division has been accomplished, to each part of the world they assign both Gods, and Logoi, and men, and the rest. But from above, from uncreatedness and the first segment of the world, when afterwards the world had attained to its consummation, the Peratic affirms that there came down, in the times of Herod, a certain man with a threefold nature, and a threefold body, and a threefold power, named Christ, and that He possesses from the three parts of the world in Himself all the concretions and capacities of the world. And they are disposed to think that this is what has been declared, “in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” And they assert that from the two worlds situated above-namely, both the unbegotten one and self-begotten one-there were borne down into this world in which we are, germs of all sorts of powers. And (they say) that Christ came down from above from uncreatedness, in order that, by His descent, all things that have been divided into three parts may be saved. For, says the Peratic, the things that have been borne down from above will ascend through Him; and the things that have plotted against those that have been borne down are heedlessly rejected, and sent away to be punished. And the Peratic states that there are two parts which are saved-that is, those that are situated above-by having been separated from corruption, and that the third is destroyed, which he calls a formal world. These also are the tenets of the Peratae. — The Refutation of All Heresies - Book 10

Irenaeus ((Reporting Valentinian Views)): They moreover affirm that the Saviour is shown to be derived from all the Aeons, and to be in Himself everything by the following passage: “Every male that openeth the womb.” For He, being everything, opened the womb of the enthymesis of the suffering Aeon, when it had been expelled from the Pleroma. This they also style the second Ogdoad, of which we shall speak presently. And they state that it was clearly on this account that Paul said, “And He Himself is all things;” and again, “All things are to Him, and of Him are all things;” and further, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead;” and yet again, “All things are gathered together by God in Christ.” Thus do they interpret these and any like passages to be found in Scripture. — Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 1

Leo the Great: Embracing then, dearly beloved, the sole pledge of the Christian hope, let us not be torn from our faithful bonding to the body of Christ, in whom, as the apostle says, “dwells the fullness of divinity in bodily manner, and you have been filled out in him.” Since the substance of God is incorporeal, how does it dwell in bodily manner in Christ unless the flesh of our race has been made the flesh of the divinity? We filled out in that God in whom we have been crucified, in whom we have been buried, in whom we have been even raised up.

Severian of Gabala: He calls the church that which is filled with the Father’s divinity. The church is full by dwelling bodily in Christ, that is, as the body is completed in the head, he says that Christ is everywhere the head of the church. And you are fulfilled in him, fulfilled for his sake and through him. .

Tertullian: For when you do not deny that the Creator’s Son and Spirit and Substance is also His Christ, you must needs allow that those who have not acknowledged the Father have failed likewise to acknowledge the Son through the identity of their natural substance; for if in Its fulness It has baffled man’s understanding, much more has a portion of It, especially when partaking of the fulness Now, when these things are carefully considered, it becomes evident how the Jews both rejected Christ and slew Him; not because they regarded Him as a strange Christ, but because they did not acknowledge Him, although their own. — Against Marcion Book III

Colossians 2:11

Ambrose of Milan: Therefore, the Lord permitted mortality to steal in [as an atonement], that guilt might cease. But so that the end set by nature might not also be in death, there was granted a resurrection from the dead, that the guilt might fail through death but the nature be continued through resurrection. And so death is a passage for all men, but you must pass with virtuous steadfastness—a passage from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, from disquiet to tranquillity…. What indeed is this death but the burial of vices and the awakening of virtues? For this reason “may my soul depart among the souls of the righteous,” that is, “may it be buried together with them,” that it may lay down its sins and take up the grace of the just, who “bear about the dying of Christ in their body” and soul.

Ambrose of Milan: This, too, is plain, that in him who is baptized the Son of God is crucified, for our flesh could not do away sin unless it were crucified in Jesus Christ. And then it is written that: “All we who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death.” And farther on: “If we have been planted in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing that our old man was fastened with Him to His cross.” And to the Colossians he says: “Buried with Him by baptism, wherein ye also rose again with Him.” Which was written to the intent that we should believe that He is crucified in us, that our sins may be purged through Him, that He, Who alone can forgive sins, may nail to His cross the handwriting which was against us. — Concerning Repentance, Book 2

Ambrosiaster: [Paul] says that the Gentiles were dead, because they refused to receive the law, which had been given as a witness to the Creator, and then as a means of condemning vice. With Christ has come the forgiveness of sin, since freedom from sin is impossible without this gift, which saves us from the “penalty of death.” .

Augustine of Hippo: After all, if we find these passing days, in which we recall Christ’s passion and resurrection with special devotion and solemnity, so exhilarating, how blessed and blissful will that eternal day make us, when we shall actually see him and stay with him, the one we now rejoice in merely by desiring and hoping for him! What exultant joy God will give to his church, from which as it is born again through Christ he has after a fashion removed the foreskin of its fleshly nature, that is, the reproach of its natural birth! That is why it says, “And you, while you were dead in transgressions and the foreskin of your flesh, he made alive in him, forgiving us all our debts.” ..

Clement of Alexandria: To attain the knowledge of God is impossible for those who are still under the control of their passions. Therefore they cannot attain the salvation they hope for as they have not obtained any knowledge of God. He who fails to attain this end is clearly subject to the charge of being ignorant of God, and ignorance of God is shown by a man’s manner of life. It is absolutely impossible at the same time to be a man of understanding and not to be ashamed to gratify the body. Nor can the view that pleasure is the supreme Good be reconciled with the view that only the beautiful is good, or that only the Lord is beautiful, and God alone is good and is alone to be loved. “You are circumcised in Christ with a circumcision not done with hands, which consists rather in the putting away of the carnal body, in the circumcision of Christ.” — The Stromata Book 3

Cyprian: That the first circumcision of the flesh is made void, and the second circumcision of the spirit is promised instead. In Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah, and to them who inhabit Jerusalem, Renew newness among you, and do not sow among thorns: circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart; lest my anger go forth like fire, and burn you up, and there be none to extinguish it.” Also Moses says: “In the last days God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God.” Also in Jesus the son of Nave: “And the Lord said unto Jesus, Make thee small knives of stone, very sharp, and set about to circumcise the children of Israel for the second time.” Paul also, to the Colossians: “Ye are circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands in the putting off of the flesh, but with the circumcision of Christ.” Also, because Adam was first made by God uncircumcised, and righteous Abel, and Enoch, who pleased God and was translated; and Noah, who, when the world and men were perishing on account of transgressions, was chosen alone, that in him the human race might be preserved; and Melchizedek, the priest according to whose order Christ was promised. Then, because that sign did not avail women, but all are sealed by the sign of the Lord. — Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews

Hippolytus of Rome: (And the object of this was,) when the Archon condemned his own peculiar figment (of flesh) to death, (that is,) to the cross, that that soul which had been nourished in the body (born of the Virgin) might strip off that body and nail it to the (accursed) tree. (In this way the soul) would triumph by means of this (body) over principalities and powers, — Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies Book VIII

Irenaeus: These things, then, were given for a sign; but the signs were not unsymbolical, that is, neither unmeaning nor to no purpose, inasmuch as they were given by a wise Artist; but the circumcision after the flesh typified that after the Spirit. For “we “says the apostle, “have been circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.” — Against Heresies Book IV

John Chrysostom: See how near he is come to the thing. He saith, “In the putting” quite away, not putting off merely. “The body of sins.” He means, “the old life.” He is continually adverting to this in different ways, as he said above, “Who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and reconciled us who were alienated,” that we should be “holy and without blemish.” (Col. i. 13, 21.) No longer, he saith, is the circumcision with the knife, but in Christ Himself; for no hand imparts this circumcision, as is the case there, but the Spirit. It circumciseth not a part, but the whole man. It is the body both in the one and the other case, but in the one it is carnally, in the other it is spiritually circumcised; but not as the Jews, for ye have not put off flesh, but sins. When and where? In Baptism. And what he calls circumcision, he again calls burial. Observe how he again passes on to the subject of righteous doings; “of the sins,” he saith, “of the flesh,” the things they had done in the flesh. He speaks of a greater thing than circumcision, for they did not merely cast away that of which they were circumcised, but they destroyed it, they annihilated it. — Homily on Colossians 6

Severian of Gabala: Through baptism comes the stripping away and circumcision of sins…. Those being baptized in the blood of Christ confess that they share in his death through baptism and that following this they enjoy the resurrection. Resurrection is used here in a twofold sense, the one spiritual and the other physical. All persons will rise through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Those, however, who have not been baptized in Christ but have died without faith will share in the general resurrection. However, they will not enjoy the promise of redemption…. As many as were baptized into Christ, these have freely benefitted before the general resurrection from the spiritual resurrection, for they have already risen from the death of sins. Thus, Paul also says: “in whom you were raised,” not “in whom you will be raised.” .

Tertullian: Thus, that which becomes a spoil when stripped off, was a vestment as long as it remained laid over. Hence the apostle, when he call circumcision “a putting off (or spoliation) of the flesh,” affirmed the skin to be a coat or tunic. — On the Resurrection of the Flesh

Tertullian: And so to the Law presently had to succeed the Word of God introducing the spiritual circumcision. Therefore, by means of the wide licence of those days, materials for subsequent emendations were furnished beforehand, of which materials the Lord by His Gospel, and then the apostle in the last days of the (Jewish) age, either cut off the redundancies or regulated the disorders. — To His Wife Book I

Colossians 2:12

John Chrysostom: But it is not burial only: for behold what he says, “Wherein ye were also raised with Him, through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” He hath well said, “of faith,” for it is all of faith. Ye believed that God is able to raise, and so ye were raised. Then note also His worthiness of belief, “Who raised Him,” he saith, “from the dead.”

He now shows the Resurrection. “And you who sometime were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did He quicken together with Him.” For ye lay under judgment of death. But even though ye died, it was a profitable death. Observe how again he shows what they deserved in the words he subjoins. — Homily on Colossians 6

Tertullian: The apostle indeed teaches, in his Epistle to the Colossians, that we were once dead, alienated, and enemies to the Lord in our minds, whilst we were living in wicked works; that we were then buried with Christ in baptism, and also raised again with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. “And you, (adds he), when ye were dead in sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. — On the Resurrection of the Flesh

Tertullian: " But some think as if God were under a necessity of bestowing even on the unworthy, what He has engaged (to give); and they turn His liberality into slavery. But if it is of necessity that God grants us the symbol of death, then He does so unwilling. — On Repentance

Colossians 2:13

Apostolic Constitutions: And redeem them from the snare of the devil, and the ill-usage of the demons, and free them from every unlawful word, and every absurd practice and wicked thought; forgive them all their offences, both voluntary and involuntary, and blot out that handwriting which is against them, — CONSTITUTIONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES

John Chrysostom: “Having forgiven us,” he saith, “all our trespasses,” those which produced that deadness. What then? Did He allow them to remain? No, He even wiped them out; He did not scratch them out merely; so that they could not be seen. “In doctrines” [ordinances], he saith. What doctrines? The Faith. It is enough to believe. He hath not set works against works, but works against faith. And what next? Blotting out is an advance upon remission; again he saith, “And hath taken it out of the way.” Nor yet even so did He preserve it, but rent it even in sunder, “by nailing it to His Cross.” “Having put off from himself the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Nowhere has he spoken in so lofty a strain.

Seest thou how great His earnestness that the bond should be done away? To wit, we all were under sin and punishment. He Himself, through suffering punishment, did away with both the sin and the punishment, and He was punished on the Cross. To the Cross then He affixed it; as having power, He tore it asunder. What bond? He means either that which they said to Moses, namely, “All that God hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Ex. xxiv. 3), or, if not that, this, that we owe to God obedience; or if not this, he means that the devil held possession of it, the bond which God made for Adam, saying, “In the day thou eatest of the tree, thou shalt die.” (Gen. ii. 17.) This bond then the devil held in his possession. And Christ did not give it to us, but Himself tore it in two, the action of one who remits joyfully.

“Having put off from himself the principalities and the powers.” He means the diabolical powers; because human nature had arrayed itself in these, or because they had, as it were, a hold, when He became Man He put away from Himself that hold. What is the meaning of “He made a show of them”? And well said he so; never yet was the devil in so shameful a plight. For whilst expecting to have Him, he lost even those he had; and when That Body was nailed to the Cross, the dead arose. There death received his wound, having met his death-stroke from a dead body. And as an athlete, when he thinks he has hit his adversary, himself is caught in a fatal grasp; so truly doth Christ also show, that to die with confidence is the devil’s shame.

For he would have done everything to persuade men that He did not die, had he had the power. For seeing that of His Resurrection indeed all succeeding time was proof demonstrative; whilst of His death, no other time save that whereat it happened could ever furnish proof; therefore it was, that He died publicly in the sight of all men, but He arose not publicly, knowing that the aftertime would bear witness to the truth. For, that whilst the world was looking on, the serpent should be slain on high upon the Cross, herein is the marvel. For what did not the devil do, that He might die in secret? Hear Pilate saying, “Take ye Him away, and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him” (John xix. 6), and withstanding them in a thousand ways. And again the Jews said unto Him, “If Thou art the Son of God, come down from the Cross.” (Matt. xxvii. 40.) Then further, when He had received a mortal wound, and He came not down, for this reason He was also committed to burial; for it was in His power to have risen immediately: but He did not, that the fact might be believed. And yet in cases of private death indeed, it is possible to impute them to a swoon, but here, it is not possible to do this either. For even the soldiers brake not His legs, like those of the others, that it might be made manifest that He was dead. And those who buried The Body are known; and therefore too the Jews themselves seal the stone along with the soldiers. For, what was most of all attended to, was this very thing, that it should not be in obscurity. And the witnesses to it are from enemies, from the Jews. Hear them saying to Pilate, “That deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre” (Matt. xxvi. 63, 64) be guarded by the soldiers. This was accordingly done, themselves also sealing it. Hear them further saying even afterwards to the Apostles, “Ye intend to bring this Man’s blood upon us.” (Acts v. 28.) He suffered not the very fashion of His Cross to be put to shame. For since the Angels have suffered nothing like it, He therefore doth everything for this, showing that His death achieved a mighty work. There was, as it were, a single combat. Death wounded Christ: but Christ, being wounded, did afterwards kill death. He that seemed to be immortal, was destroyed by a mortal body; and this the whole world saw. And what is truly wonderful is, that He committed not this thing to another. But there was made again a second bond of another kind than the former. — Homily on Colossians 6

Tertullian: Thanks to this simplicity of truth, so opposed to the subtlety and vain deceit of philosophy, we cannot possibly have any relish for such perverse opinions. Then, if God “quickens us together with Christ, forgiving us our trespasses,” we cannot suppose that sins are forgiven by Him against whom, as having been all along unknown, they could not have been committed. — Against Marcion Book V

Tertullian: For unto this end was manifested the Son of God, to undo the works of the devil: “for He has “undone” them withal, by setting man free through baptism, the “handwriting of death” having been “made a gift of” to him: and accordingly, “he who is being born of God doeth not sin, because the seed of God abideth in him; and he cannot sin, because he hath been born of God. — On Modesty

Colossians 2:14

Ambrose of Milan: But Christ, who was sold, is held by the assumption of the condition, not by the price of guilt, because He Himself did not commit sin. Therefore, He contracted our debt, not His own money; He took away the handwriting, removed the lender, stripped off the debtor: He alone paid what was owed by all. It was not lawful for us to escape from servitude. He undertook this for us, to repel the servitude of the world, restore the freedom of paradise, and bestow a new grace of His fellowship in honor. This is by way of mystery. — On Joseph the Patriarch

Ambrosiaster: Paul expounds here the nature of God’s gracious care through its various sources. He recalls the many deeds by which God has brought rescue to the human race, so that he has not only remitted our transgressions but also lifted that sin, which from Adam’s disobedience (which he calls the signed bond) did not allow us to rise from the dead…. Because death came from sin, when sin in fact was overcome, the resurrection of the dead became a reality. Indeed this could not have been done, if he had not nailed it to the cross. While the Savior conquers sin by not sinning, he holds man to be culpable and, being innocent, is killed by him: thus he crucifies sin. Sin being overcome is said to be put to death; the cross is not the death of the Savior, but of sin. .

Augustine of Hippo: This is the whole scheme of our salvation, by which the one who as God had made man himself became man, for the sake of finding lost man. This is the whole matter of Christ shedding for the forgiveness of our sins true, not false, blood, and with his blood, “obliterating the bond of our sins.” All this these damnable heretics strive to drain of all meaning. All this, so the Manichaeans believe, as it appeared to human eyes, was spirit and not flesh.

Augustine of Hippo: She [i.e., his mother, Monica] did not ask for such things but simply requested that remembrance be made for her at Thy altar, which she had attended without missing a single day. She knew that on it the Holy Victim is offered; by means of which “the decree against us, which was hostile to us” is canceled; by means of which the Enemy, adding up our offenses and seeking something to charge against us, and finding nothing in him in whom we conquer, was overcome. .

Augustine of Hippo: With good reason do we celebrate the Passover wherein the blood of the Lord was poured out, by which we are cleansed of every offense. Let us be assured; the devil was holding the bond of slavery against us, but it was blotted out by the blood of Christ. .

Ephrem the Syrian: At the birth of the Son the King was enrolling all men for the tribute money, that they might be debtors to him: the King came forth to us who blotted out our bills and wrote another bill in his own name that he might be our debtor.

Hippolytus of Rome: In order, then, to show the time when He is to come whom the blessed Daniel desired to see, he says, “And after seven weeks there are other threescore and two weeks,” which period embraces the space of 434 years. For after the return of the people from Babylon under the leadership of Jesus the son of Josedech, and Ezra the scribe, and Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel, of the tribe of David, there were 434 years unto the coming of Christ, in order that the Priest of priests might be manifested in the world, and that He who taketh away the sins of the world might be evidently set forth, as John speaks concerning Him: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” And in like manner Gabriel says: “To blot out transgressions, and make reconciliation for sins.” But who has blotted out our transgressions? Paul the apostle teaches us, saying, “He is our peace who made both one; " and then, “Blotting out the handwriting of sins that was against us.” — Hippolytus Exegetical Fragments

Irenaeus: And therefore David said beforehand, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin;” pointing out thus that remission of sins which follows upon His advent, by which “He has destroyed the handwriting” of our debt, and “fastened it to the cross;” so that as by means of a tree we were made debtors to God, [so also] by means of a tree we may obtain the remission of our debt. — Against Heresies Book 5.17.3

Irenaeus: Now those oblations are not according to the law, the handwriting of which the Lord took away from the midst by cancelling it; but they are according to the Spirit, for we must worship God “in spirit and in truth.” And therefore the oblation of the Eucharist is not a carnal one, but a spiritual; and in this respect it is pure. — Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, Fragment XXXVII

Severian of Gabala: When the law was given as a curse on transgressors, all the people of Israel stood crying aloud. For there was deposited with what was said a bond that bound them, as they received these things. This “bond” was the binding character of the law, which Christ transcended in his teachings, when he decreed against the observances of the law…. Retroactively he abolished the punishments of the law against sinners through the forgiveness of sins and repentance for salvation. .

Tertullian: But, to come now to Moses, why, I wonder, did he merely at the time when Joshua was battling against Amalek, pray sitting with hands expanded, when, in circumstances so critical, he ought rather, surely, to have commended his prayer by knees bended, and hands beating his breast, and a face prostrate on the ground; except it was that there, where the name of the Lord Jesus was the theme of speech-destined as He was to enter the lists one day singly against the devil-the figure of the cross was also necessary, (that figure) through which Jesus was to win the victory? Why, again, did the same Moses, after the prohibition of any “likeness of anything,” set forth a brazen serpent, placed on a “tree,” in a hanging posture, for a spectacle of healing to Israel, at the time when, after their idolatry, they were suffering extermination by serpents, except that in this case he was exhibiting the Lord’s cross on which the “serpent” the devil was “made a show of,” and, for every one hurt by such snakes-that is, his angels -on turning intently from the peccancy of sins to the sacraments of Christ’s cross, salvation was outwrought? For he who then gazed upon that (cross) was freed from the bite of the serpents. — An Answer to the Jews

Tertullian: But, to come now to Moses, why, I wonder, did he merely at the time when Joshua was battling against Amalek, pray sitting with hands expanded, when, in circumstances so critical, he ought rather, surely, to have commended his prayer by knees bended, and hands beating his breast, and a face prostrate on the ground; except it was that there, where the name of the Lord Jesus was the theme of speech-destined as He was to enter the lists one day singly against the devil-the figure of the cross was also necessary, (that figure) through which Jesus was to win the victory? Why, again, did the same Moses, after the prohibition of any “likeness of anything,” set forth a brazen serpent, placed on a “tree,” in a hanging posture, for a spectacle of healing to Israel, at the time when, after their idolatry, they were suffering extermination by serpents, except that in this case he was exhibiting the Lord’s cross on which the “serpent” the devil was “made a show of,” and, for every one hurt by such snakes-that is, his angels -on turning intently from the peccancy of sins to the sacraments of Christ’s cross, salvation was outwrought? For he who then gazed upon that (cross) was freed from the bite of the serpents. — An Answer to the Jews

Colossians 2:15

Athanasius of Alexandria: But if a man is gone down even to Hades and stands in awe of the heroes who have descended there, regarding them as gods, yet he may see the fact of Christ’s resurrection and victory over death. He may infer that among them also Christ alone is true God and Lord. For the Lord touched all parts of creation and freed and undeceived all of them from every illusion. As Paul says, “Having put off from himself the principalities and the powers, he triumphed on the cross”; that no one might by any possibility be any longer deceived but everywhere might find the true Word of God.

Augustine of Hippo: And where the devil could do something, there he met with defeat on every side. While from the cross he received the power to slay the Lord’s body outwardly, it was also from the cross that the inward power, by which he held us fast, was put to death. For it came to pass that the chains of many sins in many deaths were broken by the one death of the One who himself had no previous sin that would merit death. And, therefore, for our sake the Lord paid the tribute to death which was not his due, in order that the death which was due might not injure us. For he was not stripped of the flesh by any obligation to any power whatsoever, but he willed his own death, for he who could not die unless he willed doubtless died because he willed; and therefore he openly exposed the principalities and the powers, confidently triumphing over them in himself. .

Cyril of Jerusalem: Let us not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Let the cross, as our seal, be boldly made with our fingers upon our brow, and on all occasions; over the bread we eat, over the cups we drink; in our comings and in our goings; before sleep; on lying down and rising up; when we are on the way and when we are still. It is a powerful safeguard; it is without price, for the sake of the poor; without toil, because of the sick; for it is a grace from God, a badge of the faithful, and a terror to devils; for “he displayed them openly, leading them away in triumph by force of it.” For when they see the cross, they are reminded of the Crucified.

Leo the Great: As renowned victor over the devil and most powerful conqueror of hostile spirits, in an admirable spectacle, he carried the trophy of his “victory.” On the shoulders of his unconquered endurance, he bore the sign of salvation to be worshiped in every kingdom. Even then he encouraged all his imitators by the sight of his labor, saying, “Any who do not take up their cross and follow me do not deserve me.”

Severian of Gabala: Through the exposing and putting off of the flesh Christ subdued the opposing powers…. For until his cross and death it was not clearly known that Christ was their Lord, that he was both God and Son of God. This was because he exercised his wonderworking powers in a way that was hidden in his body. This is why Satan made an attempt on him, wishing to learn if he was truly the one proclaimed by the prophets. This was with the intention that if it was so, Satan might hinder the outworking of salvation [i.e., the “economy”]. But the evil one accomplished nothing, nor was he able to learn anything; for a while the Christ escaped his notice. But when Christ was beaten and died and was buried and rose, God’s plan of salvation was completed, his being unnoticed was over, his divinity became visible and was seen in his head and body. .

Colossians 2:16

Ambrose of Milan: What then? shall we esteem festival days by eating and drinking? But let no man judge us in respect of eating; “for we know that the Law is spiritual.” “Let no man therefore judge us in any meats or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or new moons, or a sabbath day, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.” Let us, then, seek the body of Christ which the voice of the Father, from heaven, as it were the last trumpet, has shown to you at the time when the Jews said that it thundered; the body of Christ, which again the last trump shall reveal; for “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven at the voice of the Archangel, and at the trump of God, and they that are dead in Christ shall rise again;” for “where the body is, there too are the eagles,” where the body of Christ is, there is the truth. — On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2

Augustine of Hippo: Whoever seeks to be a stranger to that carnal … Judaism which is justly repudiated and condemned must first consider as alien to himself those ancient observances which have clearly ceased to be necessary. This is so because the New Testament has been revealed, and the things which were prefigured by those others have come to pass. A person is not to be judged “in meat or drink or in respect of a festival day, or of the new moon or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come.” On the other hand, he must receive, embrace and observe, without any reserve, those commandments in the law which help to form the character of the faithful … [and] whatever progress he makes in them he must not attribute to himself but to “the grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord.” .

Basil of Caesarea: There is, however, a certain other life, to which these words call us; and, although at present our days are evil, yet some others are good, which night does not interrupt; for God will be their everlasting light, shining upon them with the light of his glory. Consequently, when you hear of the good days, do not think that it is your life here that is set forth in the promises. In fact, these present days are the destructible days, which the sensible sun produces; but nothing destructible could suitably be a gift for the indestructible. “This world as we see it is passing away.” Therefore, since the law has some shadow of the good things to come, consider I pray, present sabbaths to be pleasant and holy, as they have been brought from the eternal days, and new moons, and festivals. But look upon them, I pray you, in a manner proper to the spiritual law.

CS Lewis: As to the fabulous element in the Old Testament, I very much doubt if you would be wise to chuck it out. What you get is something coming gradually into focus. First you get, scattered through the heathen religions all over the world— but still quite vague and mythical—the idea of a god who is killed and broken and then comes to life again. No one knows where he is supposed to have lived and died; he’s not historical. Then you get the Old Testament. Religious ideas get a bit more focused. Everything is now connected with a particular nation. And it comes still more into focus as it goes on. Jonah and the Whale, Noah and his Ark, are fabulous; but the court history of King David is probably as reliable as the court history of Louis XIV. Then, in the New Testament the thing really happens. The dying god really appears—as an historical person, living in a definite place and time. It we could sort out all the fabulous elements in the earlier stages and separate them from the historical ones, I think we might lose an essential part of the whole process. — ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON CHRISTIANITY, from God in the Dock

Eusebius of Caesarea: “Let no man, therefore, judge you regarding food or drink, or with respect to a holy day, or the new moon, or sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come.” For if the laws relating to the difference of foods, and the holy days and the sabbath, like shadowy things, preserved a copy of other things that were mystically true, you will not say without reason that the high priest also represented the symbol of another High Priest, and that he was called Christ, as the pattern of that other, the only real Christ.

Irenaeus: The apostles ordained, that “we should not judge any one in respect to meat or drink, or in regard to a feast day, or the new moons, or the sabbaths.” Whence then these contentions? whence these schisms? We keep the feast, but in the leaven of malice and wickedness, cutting in pieces the Church of God; and we preserve what belongs to its exterior, that we may cast away these better things, faith and love. We have heard from the prophetic words that these feasts and fasts are displeasing to the Lord. — Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus

John Chrysostom: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or a sabbath day.” Seest thou how he depreciates them? If ye have obtained such things, he saith, why make yourselves accountable for these petty matters? And he makes light of them, saying, “or in the part of a feast day,” for in truth they did not retain the whole of the former rule, “or a new moon, or a sabbath day.” He said not, “Do not then observe them,” but, “let no man judge you.” He showed that they were transgressing, and undoing, but he brought his charge against others. Endure not those that judge you, he saith, nay, not so much as this either, but he argues with those persons, almost stopping their mouths, and saying, Ye ought not to judge. But he would not have reflected on these. He said not “in clean and unclean,” nor yet “in feasts of Tabernacles, and unleavened bread, and Pentecost,” but “in part of a feast”: for they ventured not to keep the whole; and if they did observe it, yet not so as to celebrate the feast. “In part,” he saith, showing that the greater part is done away. For even if they did keep sabbath, they did not do so with precision. — Homily on Colossians 7

Severian of Gabala: Paul teaches that the law is abolished, Christ having passed over the “bond” against us. He teaches that the evil one has fallen, Christ having exposed and made a parade of the evil powers. Thus, we are no longer to obey what has been abolished, and we are to reject Jews who would urge us to keep the law…. This law was the mere shadow of Christ, lacking the substance. Further, we are not to obey Greeks who would encourage us to worship angels or worldly elements. .

Tertullian: Now tell me, Marcion, what is your opinion of the apostle’s language, when he says, “Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath, which is a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ? " We do not now treat of the law, further than (to remark) that the apostle here teaches clearly how it has been abolished, even by passing from shadow to substance-that is, from figurative types to the reality, which is Christ. — Against Marcion Book V

Colossians 2:18

Ambrosiaster: It happens that persons become bound up with the worship of earthly things under the form of philosophy, so that, held by these, they do not rise…. They end up simulating true religion. They become inflated by watching the movements of the stars, which Paul calls angels, not by divine authority but by human superstition, which brings nothing but damnation. .

Augustine of Hippo: There is another even more obscure passage about which I ask you to pull me up out of deep water and set me in the shallows. In the epistle to the Colossians, I simply cannot see the connection where he says: “Let no man seduce you into taking pleasure in the humility and religion of angels, walking in the things which he has not seen; in vain puffed up by the sense of his flesh and not holding the head.” What angels does he mean? If he means the rebel and wicked angels, what is their religion or their humility, or who is the master of this seduction, who under cover of some angelic religion or other would teach what he does not see as something seen or experienced? Doubtless, the heretics, who follow the teachings of demons, who think up false systems under the impulse of their spirit, who give out that they have seen visions which they have not seen and by their deadly arguments sow their seed in foolish and credulous hearts—doubtless, these are the ones who do not hold the head, namely, Christ, the source of truth. .

Clement of Alexandria: Therefore there is nothing meritorious about abstinence from marriage unless it arises from love to God. At any rate the blessed Paul says of those who revile marriage: “In the last times some shall depart from the faith, turning to spirits of error and doctrines inspired by daemons, forbidding to marry and commanding abstinence from food.” And again he says: “Let no one disqualify you by demanding self-imposed ascetic practices and severe treatment of the body.” — The Stromata Book 3

Irenaeus: True knowledge, then, consists in the understanding of Christ, which Paul terms the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which “the natural man receiveth not,” the doctrine of the cross; of which if any man “taste,” he will not accede to the disputations and quibbles of proud and puffed-up men, who go into matters of which they have no perception. For the truth is unsophisticated; and “the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart,” as the same apostle declares, being easy of comprehension to those who are obedient. For it renders us like to Christ, if we experience “the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.” — Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus

John Chrysostom: “Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the Angels, dwelling in the things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.” When he had filled them with anger through saying, “adjudge away from you,” then he begins; “being a voluntary,” he saith, “in humility and worshiping of Angels, intruding into things he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.” How “in humility,” or how “puffed up”? He shows that the whole arose out of vainglory. But what is on the whole the drift of what is said? There are some who maintain that we must be brought near by Angels, not by Christ, that were too great a thing for us. Therefore it is that he turns over and over again what has been done by Christ, “through the Blood of His Cross”; on this account he says that “He suffered for us”; that “He loved us.” And besides in this very same thing, moreover, they were elevated afresh. And he said not “introduction by,” but “worshiping of” Angels. “Intruding into things he hath not seen.” For he hath not seen Angels, and yet is affected as though he had. Therefore he saith, “Puffed up by his fleshly mind vainly,” not about any true fact. About this doctrine, he is puffed up, and puts forward a show of humility. By his carnal mind, not spiritual; his reasoning is of man. — Homily on Colossians 7

Pseudo-Clement: Let us, therefore, fear the judgment which awaits teachers. For a severe judgment will those teachers receive “who teach, but do not,” [Matthew 23:3] and those who take upon them the name of Christ falsely, and say: We teach the truth, and yet go wandering about idly, and exalt themselves, and make their boast in the mind of the flesh. [Colossians 2:18] These, moreover, are like “the blind man who leads the blind man, and they both fall into the ditch.” [Matthew 15:14] — Two Epistles on Virginity

Severian of Gabala: What is selfabasement? Saying that we are selfabased [can only mean] that God is great and far above any service we can render to him. Since, then, we cannot get near him, it is through his angels that propitiation comes and we may draw near him. For this reason he spoke earlier of one “who is the head of every power and principality.” And now he says, “Why do you come to elements and angels, having renounced their head, who is Christ?” Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church.

Tertullian: The doctrine, however, of Simon’s sorcery, which inculcated the worship of angels, was itself actually reckoned amongst idolatries and condemned by the Apostle Peter in Simon’s own person. — The Prescription Against Heretics

Tertullian: But when he blames those who alleged visions of angels as their authority for saying that men must abstain from meats-“you must not touch, you must not taste”-in a voluntary humility, (at the same time) “vainly puffed up in the fleshly mind, and not holding the Head,” (the apostle) does not in these terms attack the law or Moses, as if it was at the suggestion of superstitious angels that he had enacted his prohibition of sundry aliments. — Against Marcion Book V

Colossians 2:19

Irenaeus: -this man will first of all “hold the head, from which the whole body is compacted and bound together, and, through means of every joint according to the measure of the ministration of each several part, maketh increase of the body to the edification of itself in love.”. by His blood; and “holding the Head, from which the whole body of the Church, having been fitted together, takes increase” — Against Heresies Book IV

John Chrysostom: “And not holding fast the Head,” he saith, “from whom all the body.” All the body thence hath its being, and its well-being. Why, letting go the Head, dost thou cling to the members? If thou art fallen off from it, thou art lost. “From whom all the body.” Every one, be he who he may, thence has not life only, but also even connection. All the Church, so long as she holds The Head, increaseth; because here is no more passion of pride and vainglory, nor invention of human fancy.

Mark that “from whom,” meaning the Son. “Through the joints and bands,” he says, “being supplied, and knit together, increases with the increase of God”; he means, that which is according to God, that of the best life. — Homily on Colossians 7

Severian of Gabala: The purpose and view of the epistle is here, as Paul mentions, to respond to the emphasis on angels urged by some. Christ is the head of all, just as the soul is the head of the body. Christ is head of all the cosmic elements. It makes no sense to be in submission to anything else. .

Colossians 2:20

Ambrose of Milan: Indeed, we are often deceived by sight, and we see things for the most part other than they really are. We are deceived by hearing too. And so, if we do not wish to be deceived, let us contemplate not what is seen but what is unseen…. On this account the apostle also cries out: “Do not touch, nor taste, nor handle, things which must all perish”; for things which are for the body’s indulgence are also for its corruption.

Ambrose of Milan: With the knowledge of what Paul had seen and heard in paradise, he cried out saying: “Why, as if still viewing the world do you lay down rules: ‘Do not touch; nor handle; nor taste!’—things which must all perish in their very use!” He wished us to be in the world in figure, not in actual possession and use of it. We are to use the world as if we did not use it, as if we were but passing through, not residing in it, walking through as in a dream, not with desire, so that with the speed of thought we might pass through the shadow of this world.

Ambrose of Milan: [Some] say that Paul was a teacher of wantonness. Pray, who will be a teacher of sobriety if he taught wantonness, for he chastised his body and brought it to subjection and by many fasts said that he had rendered the worship which is due to Christ. He did so not to praise himself and his deeds but to teach us what example we must follow. Did he give us instruction in wantonness when he said: “ ‘Do not touch; nor handle; nor taste!’ things that must all perish in their use”? And he also said that we must live “Not in indulgence of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying and love of the flesh, not in the lusts of error; but in the Spirit by whom we are renewed.”

Ambrosiaster: The problem is that the Colossians worship worldly things, put their hope in them, and not in Christ alone … so that these rules have been cut off from the head, who is Christ, and thus have become the basis of a pseudoreligion and a sacrilege. .

Augustine of Hippo: As to the words “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” they are not to be considered as a commandment of the apostle forbidding us to touch, taste or handle something or other. It is just the opposite, if I am not deluded by the obscurity of the passage. Surely he used these words in mockery of those by whom he did not want his followers to be deceived and led astray. They were the ones who made a distinction of foods according to the worship of angels and issued decrees for this life, saying: “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” although “all things are clean to the clean.” “For every creature of God is good,” as he assures us in another place. .

Augustine of Hippo: What is so praiseworthy as a show of wisdom, and what so detestable as the superstition of error? Humility, also, both pleasing to God and eminently praiseworthy in true religion, is given with a show of wisdom to those of whose teachings and actions we are told: “Touch not, taste not, handle not, which are unto destruction,” because they are not of God, and “all that is not of faith, is sin.” … I wish to know what this humility is and this show of wisdom which he says is in their superstition, which comes from the doctrines of men…. I think he is speaking of a pretended and useless abstinence such as heretics usually strive after … because they put on the appearance of a holy work, but, as they do not practice it in the fold of truth, they gain neither honor nor the reward of glory. .

Clement of Alexandria: It follows that celibacy is not particularly praiseworthy unless it arises through love of God. The blessed Paul says of those who show a distaste for marriage: “In the last times people will abandon the faith, attaching themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demonic powers that they should abstain from food, at the same time forbidding marriage.” Again he says, “Do not let anyone disqualify you in forced piety of self-mortification and severity to the body.” — The Stromata Book 3

Cyprian: That he who has attained to trust, having put off the former man, ought to regard only celestial and spiritual things, and to give no heed to the world which he has already renounced. In Isaiah: “Seek ye the Lord; and when ye have found Him, call upon Him. But when He hath come near unto you, let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him be turned unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy, because He will plentifully pardon your sins.” Of this same thing in Solomon: “I have seen all the works which are done under the sun; and, lo, all are vanity.” Of this same thing in Exodus: “But thus shall ye eat it; your loins girt, and your shoes on your feet, and your staves in your hands: and ye shall eat it in haste, for it is the Lord’s passover.” Of this same thing in the Gospel according to Matthew: “Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewith shall we be clothed? for these things the nations seek after. But your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Likewise in the same place: “Think not for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own evil.” Likewise in the same place: “No one looking back, and putting his hands to the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Also in the same place: “Behold the fowls of the heaven: for they sow not, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of more value than they? " Concerning this same thing, according to Luke: “Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning; and ye like unto men that wait for their lord, when he cometh from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him. Blessed are those servants, whom their lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.” Of this same thing in Matthew: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where He may lay His head.” Also in the same place: “Whoso forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple.” Of this same thing in the first to the Corinthians: “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.” Also in the same place: “The time is limited. It remaineth, therefore, that both they who have wives be as though they have them not, and they who lament as they that lament not, and they that rejoice as they that rejoice not, and they who buy as they that buy not, and they who possess as they who possess not, and they who use this world as they that use it not; for the fashion of this world passeth away.” Also in the same place: “The first man is of the clay of the earth, the second man from heaven. As he is of the clay, such also are they who are of the clay; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. Even as we have borne the image of him who is of the clay, let us bear His image also who is from heaven.” Of this same matter to the Philippians: “All seek their own, and not those things which are Christ’s; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and their glory is to their confusion, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven, whence also we expect the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall transform the body of our humiliation conformed to the body of His glory.” Of this very matter to Galatians: “But be it far from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Concerning this same thing to Timothy: “No man that warreth for God bindeth himself with worldly annoyances, that he may please Him to whom he hath approved himself. But and if a man should contend, he will not be crowned unless he fight lawfully.” Of this same thing to the Colossians: “If ye be dead with Christ froth I the elements of the world, why still, as if living in the world, do ye follow vain things? " Also concerning this same thing: “If ye have risen together with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Give heed to the things that are above, not to those things which are on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ your life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Of this same thing to the Ephesians: Put off the old man of the former conversation, who is corrupted, according to the lusts of deceit. But be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, him who according to God is ordained in righteousness, and holiness, and truth.” Of this same thing in the Epistle of Peter: “As strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; but having a good conversation among the Gentiles, that while they detract from you as if from evildoers, yet, beholding your good works, they may magnify God.” Of this same thing in the Epistle of John: “He who saith he abideth in Christ, ought himself also to walk even as He walked.” Also in the same place: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because everything which is in the world is lust of the flesh, and lust of the eyes, and the ambition of this world, which is not of the Father, but of the lust of this world. And the world shall pass away with its lust. But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever, even as God abideth for ever.” Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new dough, as ye are unleavened. For also Christ our passover is sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not in the old leaven, nor in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” — Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews

Cyprian: And to return to the praise of martyrdom, there is a word of the blessed Paul, who says; “Know ye not that they who run in a race strive many, but one receiveth the prize? But do ye so run, that all of you may obtain.” Moreover also elsewhere, that be may exhort us to martyrdom, he has called us fellow-heirs with Christ; nay, that he might omit nothing, he says, “If ye are dead with Christ, why, as if living in the world, do ye make distinctions? " Because, dearest brethren, we who bear the rewards of resurrection, who seek for the day of judgment, who, in fine, are trusting that we shall reign with Christ, ought to be dead to the world. For you can neither desire martyrdom till you have first hated the world, nor attain to God’s reward unless you have loved Christ. And he who loves Christ does not love the world. For Christ was given up by the world, even as the world also was given up by Christ; as it is written, “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” The world has been an object of affection to none whom the Lord has not previously condemned; nor could he enjoy eternal salvation who has gloried in the life of the world. That is the very voice of Christ, who says: “He that loveth his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come; but he that hateth his life in this world, shall find it in the world to come.” Moreover, also, the Apostle Paul says: “Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” And the same elsewhere says: “I wish that all of you, if it were possible, should be imitators of me.” — Pseudo-Cyprian On the Glory of Martyrdom

John Cassian: This is what the apostle said: “You make observations of the months and of the times and of the years.” Or again: “Do not touch, do not taste, do not pick up.” And there is no doubt that this is said about the superstitions of the law. To plunge into them is to be an adulterer from Christ.

John Chrysostom: “If ye died with Christ.” He puts that in the middle, and on either side, expressions of greater vehemence. “If ye died with Christ from the elements of the world,” he saith, “why as though living in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?” This is not the consequence, for what ought to have been said is, “how as though living are ye subject to those elements?” But letting this pass, what saith he? — Homily on Colossians 7

Severian of Gabala: These prohibitions about eating and drinking that you hear from the Greeks are based on their mistaken conviction that you should not partake of anything living. But all this has been given for consumption and nourishment. So, don’t pay attention to what has been given in accordance with their teaching. .

Tertullian: For he says in another passage also “How is it that you conduct yourselves as if you were even now living in the world?” where he is not writing to dead persons, but to those who ought to have ceased to live after the ways of the world — On the Resurrection of the Flesh

Colossians 2:21

John Chrysostom: “Handle not, nor taste, nor touch; all which things are to perish with the using; after the precepts and doctrines of men.” Ye are not in the world, he saith, how is it ye are subject to its elements? how to its observances? And mark how he makes sport of them, “touch not, handle not, taste not,” as though they were cowards and keeping themselves clear of some great matters, “all which things are to perish with the using.” He has taken down the swollenness of the many, and added, “after the precepts and doctrines of men.” What sayest thou? Dost thou speak even of the Law? Henceforth it is but a doctrine of men, after the time is come. Or, because they adulterated it, or else, he alludes to the Gentile institutions. The doctrine, he says, is altogether of man. — Homily on Colossians 7

Colossians 2:22

Tertullian: For Moses had evidently received the law from God. When, therefore, he speaks of their “following the commandments and doctrines of men,” he refers to the conduct of those persons who “held not the Head,” even Him in whom all things are gathered together; for they are all recalled to Christ, and concentrated in Him as their initiating principle -even the meats and drinks which were indifferent in their nature. — Against Marcion Book V

Colossians 2:23

John Chrysostom: “Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.” “Show,” he saith; not power, not truth. So that even though they have a show of wisdom, let us turn away from them. For he may seem to be a religious person, and modest, and to have a contempt for the body.

“Not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.” For God hath given it honor, but they use it not with honor. Thus, when it is a doctrine, he knows how to call it honor. They dishonor the flesh, he says, depriving it, and stripping it of its liberty, not giving leave to rule it with its will. God hath honored the flesh. — Homily on Colossians 7

Tertullian: That which springs from a virtue of the mind is perfected in the flesh; and, finally, by the patience of the flesh, does battle under persecution. If flight press hard, the flesh wars with the inconvenience of flight; if imprisonment overtake us, the flesh (still was) in bonds, the flesh in the gyve, the flesh in solitude, and in that want of light, and in that patience of the world’s misusage. — Of Patience