Colossians 2:14

Having blotted out

(εξαλειψας). And so "cancelled." First aorist active participle of old verb εξαλειφω, to rub out, wipe off, erase. In N.T. only in Acts 3:19 (LXX); Revelation 3:5; Colossians 2:14. Here the word explains χαρισαμενος and is simultaneous with it. Plato used it of blotting out a writing. Often MSS. were rubbed or scraped and written over again (palimpsests, like Codex C).The bond written in ordinances that was against us

(το καθ' ημων χειρογραφον τοις δογμασιν). The late compound χειρογραφον (χειρ, hand, γραφω) is very common in the papyri for a certificate of debt or bond, many of the original χειρογραφα (handwriting, "chirography"). See Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 247. The signature made a legal debt or bond as Paul says in Philemon 1:18: "I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it." Many of the papyri examples have been "crossed out" thus X as we do today and so cancelled. One decree is described as "neither washed out nor written over" (Milligan, N. T. Documents, p. 16). Undoubtedly "the handwriting in decrees" (δογμασιν, the Mosaic law, Ephesians 2:15) was against the Jews (Exodus 24:3; Deuteronomy 27:14-26) for they accepted it, but the Gentiles also gave moral assent to God's law written in their hearts (Romans 2:14). So Paul says "against us" (καθ' ημων) and adds "which was contrary to us" (ο ην υπεναντιον ημιν) because we (neither Jew nor Gentile) could not keep it. Hυπεναντιος is an old double compound adjective (υπο, εν, αντιος) set over against, only here in N.T. except Hebrews 10:27 when it is used as a substantive. It is striking that Paul has connected the common word χειρογραφον for bond or debt with the Cross of Christ (Deissmann, Light, etc., p. 332).And he hath taken it out of the way

(κα ηρκεν εκ του μεσου). Perfect active indicative of αιρω, old and common verb, to lift up, to bear, to take away. The word used by the Baptist of Jesus as "the Lamb of God that bears away (αιρων) the sin of the world" (John 1:29). The perfect tense emphasizes the permanence of the removal of the bond which has been paid and cancelled and cannot be presented again. Lightfoot argues for Christ as the subject of ηρκεν, but that is not necessary, though Paul does use sudden anacolutha. God has taken the bond against us "out of the midst" (εκ του μεσου). Nailing it to the cross (προσηλωσας αυτο τω σταυρω). First aorist active participle of old and common verb προσηλοω, to fasten with nails to a thing (with dative σταυρω). Here alone in N.T., but in III Macc. 4:9 with the very word σταυρω. The victim was nailed to the cross as was Christ. "When Christ was crucified, God nailed the Law to His cross" (Peake). Hence the "bond" is cancelled for us. Business men today sometimes file cancelled accounts. No evidence exists that Paul alluded to such a custom here.