Colossians 2:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"This is a shadow of the future," he says, of the new covenant. "The body is in Christ." Some punctuate it in this way: "The body is in Christ," meaning that the truth was in Christ. Others punctuate it thus: "The body is in Christ. Let no one defraud you" (χαταβραβευέτω), that is, deprive you. The word χαταβραβευδήναι is used when one person wins the victory, but another receives the prize, when the victor is deceived. You have become higher than the devil and sin. Why, then, do you again submit to sin? For this reason he said, "He is bound to fulfill the whole law" (Gal 5:3). And again, "Is Christ then a minister of sin?" (Gal 2:17). He said this in the Epistle to the Galatians.

“Which are a shadow of things to come.” By “things to come” he means the blessings of the New Testament. They were future in relation to the Old Testament, which existed so long as its time endured.

“But the body is Christ’s.” “Let no one deceive you.” Some place the punctuation after “Christ’s,” so that the meaning is this: the Old Testament was a shadow, but the body, that is, the truth, is Christ’s.

What need is there to grasp at the shadow when the body is present? Others join these words to what follows, so that it may be understood thus: “the body of Christ,” that is, you, “let no one deprive.”

The Greek word is katabrabeueto, that is, “let no one deprive you.” For katabrabeuein means that one person wins the victory while another receives the prize.

Whoever strives to be estranged from this Judaism attached to the flesh must not only depart from observing those old rules.

With the appearing of the New Testament, after that came whose advent had been signified by them, they undoubtedly ceased to be necessary.

Therefore one is no longer judged in food, or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come.

But whatever is prescribed in the law as assisting the formation of the morals of the faithful must also be referred, however far one has progressed in it, not to oneself, but to the grace of God.

This grace was given through our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is, however, another life to which the Word calls us. Although our present days are evil (Eph 5:16), there are other days, good days, which are not interrupted by night.

For God Himself will be their eternal light, illumining them with the radiance of His glory. Therefore, when you hear of good days, do not think that the promise speaks to you of this present life.

The days produced by the perceptible sun are corruptible, and what is corruptible cannot be a fitting gift to the incorruptible. But if the soul is incorruptible, the gifts given to the soul must also be incorruptible.

For these, together with the Sabbath, are traces of the times to come. But the body to which they belong and to which they point is Christ, Whom we preach.

Shall we, then, honor the feasts by spending them in eating food and drinking? But let no one judge us in food, for “the law is spiritual, but I am carnal” (Rom 7:14).

“Let no one judge you in food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the body is in Christ.”

The voice of the Father from heaven revealed this body to us, as at the last trumpet, when the Jews cried out, “It thundered” (Jn 12:29).

The body of Christ, in turn, will be manifested to us at the last trumpet. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God.”

“And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess 4:16). “Where the corpse is, there the eagles will be gathered” (Lk 17:37). Where the body of Christ is, there is the truth.

The Apostle called the law "a shadow of things to come," teaching that the grace of the New Testament was prefigured by it. He added this also: "but the body is Christ's." That is, the evangelical way of life represents the body, and the law is the shadow. When light appears, the shadow precedes the body. The law is the shadow, grace is the body, and the Master Christ is the light.

Paul teaches that the law has been abolished, for Christ erased our handwritten bond (Col 2:14). The Apostle also teaches us that the evil one has fallen, for the Lord stripped and exposed the principalities and powers to shame (Col 2:15). He commands us no longer to obey those whom the working of Christ has abolished, and says: do not listen to the Jews who persuade you to keep the law. For the shadow runs ahead of the body, but has no existence by itself. Therefore the Apostle says: do not obey the law, and still less the Gentiles, who lead you to worship angels or the elements of this world (cf. Col 2:8, 18).

"Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ's." The Old and New Testaments, or better, the rites and laws of the Old Testament and the worship of the New Testament, stand in the relation of shadow and body. The Old Testament is the shadow; the New Testament is the body. And since the whole New Testament is understood in summary in Christ, this body is called Christ's.

The first warning: “Let no one judge you in food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or Sabbaths. These are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ’s” (Col 2:16-17).

The meaning of this instruction is as follows: do not agree to accept Jewish customs. For the false teachers of Colossae, despite all the mysticism of their philosophical speculations, considered circumcision and other prescriptions of the Jewish law necessary for attaining moral perfection.

Thus the Apostle’s words show us the ritual side of the Phrygian false teaching. They also indicate a fanatical attachment to the prescriptions of the ceremonial law of Moses.

Turning to the question of observing particular Old Testament ritual ordinances concerning fasting and feasts, the Apostle speaks very briefly. He says that one must not judge anyone for this.

At the same time he explains that all this had a preparatory significance for Christ and was no more than a shadow in relation to the body.

“The Apostle called the law a shadow of things to come,” says blessed Theodoret, “teaching that the grace of the New Testament was prefigured by it. The evangelical life is the body, and the law is the shadow.

A shadow, when light appears, precedes the body. The law is the shadow, grace is the body, and the Master Christ is the Light.”

“Which” points directly only to what was said before, to feasts and foods. Yet the Apostle’s thought is more general. He spoke as we do when we say, “all this.”

By that we mean not only the particular kinds named, but the whole class to which they belong. Here this means the whole law and all the Old Testament ordinances.

A shadow is the shadow of coming things, or of blessings, in general of what was to be and was expected.

When a man sees a shadow, he rightly concludes that there is a body casting that shadow. From the outlines of the shadow he forms conclusions about the form of the body itself.

By all this he kindles a desire to see the body itself. So the Old Testament ordinances were inscribed in such a way that they pointed to the future.

“Therefore let no one judge you in food or drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath.”

If what was legislated concerning distinctions in food, festivals, and the Sabbath preserved, like a shadow, the image of other true and mystical realities, then you will not be wrong to say this also.

The high priest was a symbol pointing to another High Priest. He was called an anointed one, a “Christ,” according to the image of another, the one true Anointed One, Christ.

Shadows and images truly reflect reality itself. They share in the same name and, for this reason, must be honored. Thus the high priest of the Old Testament can be called “christ,” that is, anointed one, because he is a real image and type of Christ Himself.