Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Colossians 1:9

διὰ τοῦτο. The good report from Colossæ prompts Paul's prayer. Apparently the reference is to all that has been said in Colossians 1:4-8, though Haupt confines it to Colossians 1:8. καὶ ἡμεῖς : “we also,” i.e., as the Colossians had prayed for Paul, so he had made unceasing prayer for them. Similar assurances are common in the letters of the period, but their conventional character must not in the case of one of so intense a nature as Paul's lead us to degrade them into polite commonplaces. προσευχόμενοι καὶ αἰτούμενοι. The former verb is general, the latter special, referring to the definite request. Soden thinks the middle (αἰτούμενοι) is chosen to express Paul's personal interest, but there seems to have been no distinction between the middle and active of this verb in later Greek. ἴνα πληρωθῆτε τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν. After verbs of praying, etc., ἴνα is used in a weakened sense to express the content of the prayer. πληρ. with the accusative is not precisely the same as with the genitive or dative. So here “filled with respect to”. ἐπίγνωσις is stronger than γνῶσις. Meyer defines it as the knowledge which grasps and penetrates into the object. τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ. This does not mean God's counsel of redemption (Chrys., Beng., De W., Kl [4]), nor “the whole counsel of God as made known to us in Christ” (Findl.), but, as the context indicates (Colossians 1:10), the moral aspect of God's will, “His will for the conduct of our lives” (Mey., Sod., Haupt, Abb.). ἐν πάσῃ σοφίαᾳ καὶ συνέσει πνευματικῇ : to be taken with the preceding, not (as by Hofm.) with the following words. σοφία is general, σύνεσις special. σοφία embraces the whole range of mental faculties; σύνεσις is the special faculty of intelligence or insight which discriminates between the false and the true, and grasps the relations in which things stand to each other. The addition of πνευμ. shows that both are to proceed from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They thus stand in opposition to fleshly wisdom (2 Corinthians 1:12), and especially, it would seem, though Haupt denies this, to the false wisdom, by which the Colossians were in danger of being ensnared (Cf. τοῦ νοὸς της σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, Colossians 2:18). The repetition of πᾶς in this context should be noticed. The early part of the Epistle is strongly marked by repetition of particular words and phrases.

[4] Klöpper.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Colossians 1:9

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