Colossians 2:1

θέλω γὰρ ὑμᾶς εἰδέναι. St Paul is becoming more personal.

Having set them thinking about his contest he states the reason for his mentioning it. Part of it was for them and he wishes them to know this.
The formula γινώσκειν σε θέλω occurs frequently in the Papyri; see reff. in P. Ewald.

For εἰδέναι see also Colossians 3:24; Colossians 4:1; Colossians 4:6.

ἡλίκον, “how great.” Classical but not in LXX. In N.T. only James 3:5 bis, and a var. lect. in Galatians 6:11.

ἀγῶνα, see Colossians 1:29 note on ἀγωνιζόμενος.

ἔχω ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν. ὑπέρ (Colossians 4:12) is certainly right on external evidence; he contends on behalf of the Colossians, etc., whereas περί would indicate the more immediate subject of the fight; cf. Sir 4:28, ἕως τοῦ θανάτου�, καὶ Κύριος ὁ θεὸς πολεμήσει ὑπὲρ σοῦ. Cf. 1Ma 7:21; 2Ma 13:14.

καὶ τῶν ἐν Λαοδικίᾳ, Colossians 4:13; Colossians 4:15-16; Revelation 1:11; Revelation 3:14†; cf. Λαοδικεὺς, Colossians 4:16†. For Laodicea see Introd. p. x.

The cursives 10, 31, 73, 118 and the Harclean Syriac add καὶ τῶν ἐν Ἱερᾷ Πόλει from Colossians 4:13. The fact was doubtless true, but St Paul included the Hieropolitans as well as others in the following phrase.

καὶ ὅσοι. Including the two preceding sets of persons, and generalising. So Acts 4:6.

οὐχ ἑόρακαν. “We have ἑόρακα beside ἑώρων: in this case, however, the spelling ἑώρακα is very widely spread both in Attic and in the N.T.” Blass, § 15. 6 (p. 39, ed. 1898). On the 3 pl. perf. in -αν, see Moulton, Gram. Proleg. 1906, p. 52.

τὸ πρόσωπόν μου. Cf. Galatians 1:22, and 1 Thessalonians 2:17.

ἐν σαρκί. They might indeed have learned his spiritual lineaments from the teaching of Epaphras, but they had not had him living and teaching among them, and they would not so easily listen to his advice. “Vel aspectus Pauli habebat vim paracleticam, Colossians 2:2; Acts 20:38” (Beng.).

1 Corinthians 15:14; Ephesians 5:6; 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:16.

ἀπάτης. With the possible exception of James 1:26, ἀπατάω and ἀπάτη in the N.T. seem to regard not the intellectual but the moral result on those who are deceived. So Ephesians 4:20-22. Cf. also 2 Thessalonians 2:10; 2 Peter 2:13, and Ephesians 5:6.

Probably the same connotation lies also here, for, notwithstanding the rules for asceticism urged by the false teachers, St Paul does not believe in their practical value against sins of the flesh, but as it seems quite the contrary (Colossians 2:23). He therefore has to warn the Colossians strongly against these (Colossians 3:5 sqq.). Observe, however, that we have no evidence of the false teachers definitely permitting such sins; contrast 2 Peter 2:18-19.

κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν�. Not to be taken with συλαγωγῶν, for “the tradition of men” can hardly be the norm or standard of capture, but loosely appended to διὰ τῆς φιλ. κ. κεν. ἀπάτης as further defining the character and origin of the false teaching. Its standard is tradition received from men, in contrast to the message of God, Colossians 1:25 sqq., cf. Colossians 2:22 and Mark 7:5; 2 Thessalonians 3:6. See Mark 7:8, ἀφέντες τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ θεοῦ κρατεῖτε τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν�.

The phrase suggests the essentially Jewish character of the error, for the Jewish leaders always deprecate any supposition of originality, and, even in developing some startling detail of the Oral Law, claim that it is involved in what they have heard from their teachers.

κατὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου. The parallelism of the structure of the clause to the immediately preceding κατὰ τ. παρ. τ. ἀνθρ. leads us to expect an expansion of that clause. This is obtained by the usual explanation, viz. that St Paul says that the false teachers teach, after all, not only according to what they have heard from men, but also according to the elementary truths taught by the world, the world’s A, B, C. It is thus a contemptuous expression, denoting his surprise at any one being satisfied with rudiments when he can have the ideal Master and the ideal Lesson. On the subject see Additional Note, and cf. especially Deissmann, Encycl. Bibl. s.v. “Elements.”

τοῦ κόσμου. The visible world and its effects so far as these are anti-Christian, or, at best, non-Christian. It thus forms a convenient summary term for all that is outside the Christian Church; cf. 1 John 5:19, ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται.

The genitive is probably possessive, the rudiments belonging to and taught by the world.

καὶ οὐ κατὰ Χριστόν. The absence of the article shows that St Paul is thinking of the personal Christ, rather than of His office. “Christ Himself, the personal Christ, was the substance, end, and norma, of all evangelical teaching,” Ellicott.