ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Colossians 2.9-10

Book: Colossians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Verse

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ASV:

"9. for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 10. and in him ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power:" (Colossians 2:9-10, ASV)

WEB:

"9. For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, 10. and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;" (Colossians 2:9-10, WEB)

KJV:

"9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:" (Colossians 2:9-10, KJV)

YLT:

"9. because in him doth tabernacle all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 10. and ye are in him made full, who is the head of all principality and authority," (Colossians 2:9-10, YLT)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV:

"7. rooted and builded up in him, and established in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8. Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ: 9. for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 10. and in him ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power: 11. in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; 12. having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." (Colossians 2:7-12, ASV)

WEB:

"7. rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving. 8. Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ. 9. For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, 10. and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power; 11. in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; 12. having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." (Colossians 2:7-12, WEB)

KJV:

"7. Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." (Colossians 2:7-12, KJV)

YLT:

"7. being rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith, as ye were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving. 8. See that no one shall be carrying you away as spoil through the philosophy and vain deceit, according to the deliverance of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to Christ, 9. because in him doth tabernacle all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 10. and ye are in him made full, who is the head of all principality and authority, 11. in whom also ye were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ, 12. being buried with him in the baptism, in which also ye rose with [him] through the faith of the working of God, who did raise him out of the dead." (Colossians 2:7-12, YLT)

Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle, writing from imprisonment (with Timothy as co-sender per Col 1:1)
  • Audience: Christian believers in Colossae (Lycus Valley, Phrygia, Asia Minor), a church Paul did not personally found (Epaphras planted it, Col 1:7), facing a proto-Gnostic / Jewish-philosophical heresy
  • Location: composed during Paul's Roman imprisonment (or possibly Caesarean imprisonment, minority view)
  • Time period: composed c. AD 60-62
  • Narrative context: the anti-heresy theological response of Colossians. The Colossian church faced what is conventionally called the "Colossian heresy", a syncretistic mix of Jewish legalism (food laws, festivals, Sabbath, 2:16), proto-Gnostic mystic speculation (angelic worship, visions, 2:18), and ascetic-physical-discipline (severity to the body, 2:23). Paul's response in 2:8-15 is the Christological maximalism: do not be carried captive by philosophy and vain deceit, because in Christ dwells the full deity bodily (v. 9) and you are complete in Him (v. 10). The Christological fullness is the antidote to syncretistic accretions; no supplementation is needed.

Theological reading

Colossians 2:9-10 is the most explicit single-verse statement of the deity of Christ in the Pauline corpus. The Greek phrasing, en autō katoikei pan to plērōma tēs theotētos sōmatikōs, packs an enormous Christological claim into ten words: in him (locative) / dwells (present-tense, ongoing) / all the fullness / of the deity / bodily. The verse is foundational for the doctrine of the hypostatic union and for the rejection of any Christology that diminishes Christ's full divinity.

The Greek vocabulary, theotēs

The Greek theotētos (genitive of theotēs, Strong's G2320) is a NT hapax legomenon, it appears nowhere else in the NT (Col 2:9 alone). The word means deity, divine nature, the state of being God. It is distinguished from the related theiotēs (Rom 1:20) which means divinity / divine quality / godhead-ness in the more attributive sense. The Pauline choice of the rarer, stronger theotēs is deliberate: Paul claims that the absolute being-God-ness dwells in Christ, not merely god-like qualities.

The theotēs / theiotēs distinction matters apologetically. The JW reading sometimes treats Col 2:9 as claiming only god-like qualities for Christ, equivalent to angels or to "godly humans." The lexical distinction forecloses this: Paul chose the rarer, stronger word that means absolute deity, not the more diffuse divine-quality word he uses for general revelation in Rom 1:20.

The Greek vocabulary, plērōma

The Greek plērōma (Strong's G4138), "fullness, completeness, totality", is a key Pauline-Johannine term. The same term appears in John 1:16 ("of his fulness have all we received") and Eph 3:19 ("filled with all the fulness of God"). In Colossians the term carries special weight because the Colossian-heresy proto-Gnostics likely used plērōma in a technical sense referring to the totality of divine aeons / emanations between the high God and matter. Paul's claim is that the full plērōma, not a partial emanation, not an intermediate aeon, dwells in Christ. The entire divine fullness is concentrated bodily in one Person.

The adverb, sōmatikōs

The Greek sōmatikōs, "bodily, in bodily form", is the term that makes the verse incompatible with Docetism (the heresy that denied Christ's true bodily incarnation) and incompatible with any spiritualizing reduction. The deity dwells in Christ bodily, in the genuine human nature of the incarnate Son. The hypostatic union (one Person, two natures, divine and human, united but unconfused) is exactly what Col 2:9 affirms.

The three claims of Col 2:9-10

The verse contains three theologically loaded claims:

  1. Christ is fully divine (pan to plērōma tēs theotētos). The entirety of deity dwells in Him.

  2. Christ is genuinely incarnate (sōmatikōs). The deity is in Him bodily, not as a temporary visitation, not as an avatar-form, not as a partial-presence, but as the full deity in genuine bodily incarnation.

  3. Christ is sufficient for the believer (kai este en autō peplērōmenoi). Believers are complete / filled in Him. No supplementary teaching, mystic experience, ascetic practice, or angelic mediator is needed.

The third claim has profound apologetic and pastoral implications: any teaching that suggests Christ-plus-something-else (Christ plus Mary, Christ plus mystic experience, Christ plus correct rituals, Christ plus political ideology, etc.) is implicitly rejecting Paul's claim that the believer is already complete in Christ.

Patristic and Reformed reading

Tertullian (Against Praxeas, c. AD 213): the verse is a principal anti-Modalist text, the deity dwells in Christ, implying a real distinction between the Father (the source of deity) and the Son (the bodily-dwelling-place of deity). Yet against Arianism, the dwelling-place possesses all the deity, not a fraction.

Athanasius (Discourses Against the Arians, c. AD 358): the pan to plērōma, "all the fullness", is incompatible with the Arian reading. A created being cannot possess all the deity; only one who IS divine can.

Augustine (On the Trinity 2.8): the verse is foundational for the Trinitarian understanding of Christ's deity, the Son is homoousios with the Father, possessing the full divine nature.

John Calvin (Commentary on Colossians ad loc.): the verse establishes Christ's deity in the strongest possible terms, and Calvin draws the apologetic conclusion that any supplementation of Christ's mediatorial role compromises the truth that all fullness is in Him.

Apologetic deployment

The verse is the principal Pauline proof-text for Christ's deity alongside John 1:1, John 20:28, Romans 9:5, Titus 2:13, and 2 Peter 1:1. It defeats:

  1. Arian / JW Christology (Christ is a lesser, created being). Counter: all the fullness of deity dwells in Him. A created being cannot possess unmediated divine fullness.

  2. Mormon Christology (Christ is one of multiple gods in a polytheistic-by-progression framework). Counter: the theotēs (singular, absolute deity) dwells in Christ. The verse forecloses polytheistic readings.

  3. Liberal-Protestant Christology ("Jesus was a great moral teacher but not God"). Counter: Paul makes the deity-in-Christ claim in a non-debated, axiomatic register. The high Christology is not a late-development of post-NT theology but is already present in the AD 60s Pauline epistles.

  4. Docetic / spiritualizing Christology (Christ only seemed to be human; His body was illusory). Counter: the deity dwells in Christ bodily. The bodily reality of the incarnation is non-negotiable.

  5. Christ-plus religious traditions (Roman Catholic Mary-as-co-mediatrix; Eastern Orthodox icon-veneration extending past mere honor; various sectarian additions). Counter: believers are already complete in Christ. Supplementation implies insufficiency, which the verse explicitly denies.

Oneness Pentecostal reading

The Oneness reader takes Col 2:9 as one of the strongest proof-texts for the Oneness reading of God's identity. The fullness of the Godhead (singular theotēs) dwells in Christ (bodily). This means the one God is fully present in the Person of Jesus Christ, exactly the Oneness reading. The Father is not "external" to the Son; the Father-source is in the Son-manifestation in His bodily incarnation.

Trinitarian readers respond that the verse is equally compatible with the Trinitarian framing: the eternal Son possesses the full divine nature shared with the Father and Spirit; the bodily incarnation manifests this in space-time. See Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism for the multi-position discussion.

The verse is one of the texts where Oneness and Trinitarian readers converge on the Christ-is-fully-God conclusion; they differ in the metaphysical analysis.

Canonical-theological connections

  • Colossians 1:15-20, the Christological hymn (image of invisible God; firstborn over creation; fullness dwells)
  • John 1:1-14, Logos prologue (in the beginning was the Word; Word was God; Word became flesh)
  • John 1:16, "of his fulness have all we received"
  • Ephesians 1:22-23, Christ as head of all things; the Church His body, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all"
  • Ephesians 3:19, "filled with all the fulness of God"
  • Philippians 2:6-8, pre-incarnate equality with God + voluntary self-emptying
  • Hebrews 1:3, "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person"
  • 2 Corinthians 5:19, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself"

Key words

See also

Quoted in