whole body, but not necessarily all individuals (Rom. 11:25); "the pleroma of the Godhead," i.e.,
the fulness or plenitude of all Divine attributes and energies (Col. 1:19; 2:9); "the pleroma of Christ,"
which is the church as the body of Christ (Eph. 1:23; comp. 3:19; 4:13).
In the Gnostic systems, especially that of Valentinus, "pleroma" signifies the intellectual
and spiritual world, including all Divine powers or aeons, in opposition to the "kenoma," i.e., the
void, the emptiness, the material world. The distinction was based on the dualistic principle of an
eternal antagonism between spirit and matter, which led the more earnest Gnostics to an extravagant
asceticism, the frivolous ones to wild antinomianism. They included in the pleroma a succession
of emanations from the Divine abyss, which form the links between the infinite and the finite; and
they lowered the dignity of Christ by making him simply the highest of those intermediate aeons.
The burden of the Gnostic speculation was always the question: Whence is the world? and whence
is evil? It sought the solution in a dualism between mind and matter, the pleroma and the kenoma;
but this is no solution at all.
In opposition to this error, Paul teaches, on a thoroughly monotheistic basis, that Christ is
"the image of the invisible God" (εῖκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτουCol. 1:15; comp. 2 Cor. 4:4—an
expression often used by Philo as a description of the Logos, and of the personified Wisdom, in
Wisd. 7:26); that he is the preëxistent and incarnate pleroma or plenitude of Divine powers and
attributes; that in him the whole fulness of the Godhead, that is, of the Divine nature itself,^1157 dwells
bodily-wise or corporeally (σωματικῶς), as the soul dwells in the human body; and that he is the
one universal and all-sufficient Mediator, through whom the whole universe of things visible and
invisible, were made, in whom all things hold together (or cohere, συνέστηκεν) , and through whom
the Father is pleased to reconcile all things to himself.
The Christology of Colossians approaches very closely to the Christology of John; for he
represents Christ as the incarnate "Logos" or Revealer of God, who dwelt among us "full (πλήρης)
of grace and truth," and out of whose Divine "fulness" (ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτοῦ) we all have
received grace for grace (John 1:1, 14, 16). Paul and John fully agree in teaching the eternal
preëxistence of Christ, and his agency in the creation and preservation of the world (Col. 1:15–17;
John 1:3). According to Paul, He is "the first-born or first-begotten" of all creation (πρωτότοκος
πάσης κτίσεως,Col. 1:15, distinct from πρωτόκτιστος,first-created), i.e., prior and superior to the
whole created world, or eternal; according to John He is "the only-begotten Son" of the Father.
(ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός^1158 John 1:14, 18; comp. 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9), before and above all created
children of God. The former term denotes Christ’s unique relation to the world, the latter his unique
relation to the Father.
The Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Colossians will be discussed in the next section
in connection with the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Theme: Christ all in all. The true gnosis and the false gnosis. True and false asceticism.
Leading Thoughts: Christ is the image of the invisible God, the first-begotten of all creation
(Col. 1:15).—In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:3).—In him
dwelleth all the fulness (τὸ πλήρωμα) of the Godhead bodily (2:9).—If ye were raised together(^1157) Col2:9 τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος ,deitas, Deity, not θειότητος,divinitas, divinity. Bengel remarks: " Non modo divinae
virtutes, sed ipsa divina natura." So also Lightfoot.
(^1158) Or, according to the other reading, which is equally well supported, μονογενὴς θεός , one who is only-begotten God.
A.D. 1-100.