Colossians 2:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They say the word "bodily" here means, as the body is in the head. Why then did he not add, "which is the Church"?

Others think that he speaks here of the Father, saying that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. But this is incorrect.

First, because the word "dwell" is not properly said of God. Second, because fullness is not what is received. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (Ps 23:1).

The Apostle also says, "until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in" (Rom 11:25). Here fullness means the whole. Then what does "bodily" mean? As in the head.

He was with it in the tomb, preserving it from corruption. He was with the soul in Hades, proclaiming and granting freedom to the captives.

In general, the union of soul and body existed even then, when they were separated during His voluntary death.

Nor do we say that the Word from God dwelt in the One born of the Holy Virgin as in an ordinary man. Let no one imagine Christ as a God-bearing man.

For although the Word dwelt among us (Jn 1:14), it is said that in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily (Col 2:9).

But we hold in mind and define that the Word, having become flesh, did not dwell in Christ in the same way as He is said to have dwelt in the saints.

Rather, having become one with human nature in hypostatic being, and without being changed into flesh, the Word established such a dwelling as the soul of a man may be said to have with its own body.

This was so that it might be manifest, and that we all might believe, that the Word was always God. He sanctified those to whom He came and ordered all things according to the Father's will.

At last, for our sake, the Word became man. As the Apostle says, the Godhead dwelt bodily in the flesh.

This means that the Word, being God, had His own body and used it as an instrument. For our sake He became man.

For, says the Apostle, Christ did not receive some partial grace, like Moses. He is the God-man, and with this visible one is united all the Godhead of the Only-begotten.

The following agrees with this understanding: "And you have fullness in Him, Who is the head of every principality and authority" (Col 2:10).

He did this to adorn them, to grant victory to the human race, to put the malicious demons to flight, to crush their leader who thinks highly of himself, and to fill the Church with countless gifts.

The Apostle says that the King became commander, not that a commander was adorned with royal dignity. The King, among the army, hid His rank in the form of a servant. It was not a soldier who appropriated royal dignity to himself.

The King was the lawgiver. It was not a soldier who assumed the right to legislate. It belongs to the King to say, "But I say to you" (Mt 5:22). It belongs to the Sovereign to say, "I will; be cleansed" (Mt 8:3).

It belongs to Him who has unlimited authority to say, "Let it be to you as you desire" (Mt 15:28). It belongs to the Master to say, "Peace, be still" (Mk 4:39). I leave aside the rest of this kind, lest I prolong the discourse by listing everything.

If the Passion troubles you, and if what was undertaken against God troubles you, though it touched only the flesh, then hear what the chief Apostle says: "Since Christ suffered in the flesh" (1 Pet 4:1).

Therefore, the one to whom the keys of heaven were entrusted said that the flesh, properly speaking, suffered, since it can suffer. The Godhead is impassible.

The Jews, as those who killed the Heir, suffered what surpasses every horror. Therefore let the Passion not trouble you. Rather, let it guide you to the greatest thanksgiving.

For the impassible King, who does not admit even a shadow of change, gave His flesh over to sufferings. He uttered many things as a weak man, so that by this stratagem He might capture the cunning one.

Having raised glorious trophies of victory, He ascended into heaven, clothed in the firstfruits of our nature.

If, as they say, He was a mere man adorned with divine grace, why did the Jews, after killing many holy men, suffer nothing like this? Yet what the Jews suffered for Him surpasses every suffering compared with it.

Clearly this is because those men were holy, while He who consented to become man is the Only-begotten Son of God.

The very fact that those who accepted suffering were not of one and the same dignity became the cause of unsparing punishment for the Jews. They were servants, but He is the Master.

"This is the heir" (Mt 21:38), said the workers of the vineyard. They rushed to kill the heir, not a servant like themselves. They killed the true Son of the Householder, not one from among themselves adorned with the dignity of adoption.

Why, then, was the Son sent after the servants, and why was He to be honored? Why is He called the second man from heaven (1 Cor 15:47)? Why did God come down and act in union with man?

Why did He humble Himself (Phil 2:8), being equal to God? Why did God send His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3)?

Why are the most pure Mysteries not diminished, when in appearance they are the Body and Blood of man? Why did He say, "A body hast Thou prepared for Me" (Ps 39:7)?

Why was it necessary that He also have something that He could offer? Why did He redeem the captives by His own Blood? Why was the Lord of glory crucified (1 Cor 2:8)?

Why did the Word become flesh (Jn 1:14)? Why did the Father, who spoke in many portions and many ways in the prophets, afterwards speak in the Son (Heb 1:1-2)? Why did the Son partake of the same things in like manner (Heb 2:14)?

But lest I burden your hearing by listing everything, I will say it all together. When God speaks humbly, this accords with the divine economy, is profitable, and in no way harms His most pure dignity.

For a mere man to say anything divine and above nature is a sign of the most extreme audacity. A king is permitted to speak and think modestly of himself. But it is not permitted to a soldier or commander to speak in royal fashion.

Therefore, if the One who became man was God, as indeed He is God, then the lowly expressions have their place. But if He was a mere man, then the exalted expressions have no place.

Do not listen to their empty talk. Their pleroma is an empty fullness, the fruit of a sick imagination, a fantasy. The true fullness is in Christ Jesus, not fancifully, but substantially.

Why is this so? Because in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. This is not some part of the Godhead, nor only a power of the Godhead, but the Godhead Himself in all His fullness.

And where the Godhead is, there is everything. The Godhead dwells in Him bodily, that is, incarnately. For Christ Jesus is God in the flesh, God the Word Who became flesh.

"This is said of Him as man, bearing in Himself all the Godhead. Christ did not receive some partial grace, like Moses.

He is the God-man, and with this visible one is united all the Godhead of the Only-begotten" (Blessed Theodoret).

"In Him," he says, "dwells God the Word. But do not think that He is enclosed in the body, contained or limited.

For He was wholly incarnate, and He is wholly with the Father, being circumscribed bodily and uncircumscribed in His Godhead. Bodily means substantially, not figuratively.

As the soul is in the body, so He dwells in the assumed man. And how does the soul dwell in the body? Without confusion and without division.

Because he said, 'dwells,' κατοικει, lest you think that God only acted in Him as in the prophets, the Apostle added, 'bodily.'

For God also dwelt in them, according to what is written: 'I will dwell,' ενοικησω, 'in them and walk among them' (2 Cor 6:16; Lev 26:12).

Thus 'bodily' means substantially, as the soul is in the body. St. Cyril also understands it so. Or perhaps by 'bodily' he means 'incarnately.'

He does not mean that, after living in Him, the Godhead again departed. Rather, it remains in Him incarnate, having one hypostasis with His flesh, though He consists of two distinct natures" (Oecumenius).

"The Apostle says that in Him is all the fullness of the Godhead so that the Colossians would be convinced of this. Whatever anyone might invent concerning the heavenly powers, all of it exists in Christ in the fullest way.

Therefore they should in no way incline to honor anyone else. Whatever may be imagined concerning another, incomparably more than that will be found in Him" (Ambrosiaster).