SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:18
Que nadie os gobierne a su voluntad con pretexto de humildad y religin de ngeles, metindose en lo que no ha visto, andando hinchado en el vano sentido de su carne,
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Colossians 2:18
Verse 18. Let no man beguile you] mhdeiv umav katabrabeuetw? Let no man take the prize from you which the brabeuv, brabeus, or judge in the contests, has assigned you, in consequence of your having obtained the victory. This any reader will see, is an allusion to the Olympic and Isthmian games, and to the prizes assigned to these who had obtained the victory in one or more of the contests which there took place. The Colossians had fought and conquered under the direction of Christ, and he, as the sole judge in this contest, had assigned to them the prize; the false teachers, affecting great modesty, humility, and sanctity, endeavoured to turn them aside from the Gospel, and to induce them to end in the flesh who had begun in the Spirit. Against these the apostle warns them. In a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels] This is a difficult passage, and in order to explain it, I shall examine the meaning of some of the principal terms of the original. The word qelein, to will, signifies also to delight; and tapeimofrosunh signifies not only lowliness or humility of mind, but also affliction of mind; and tapeinoun thn yuchn, Lev. xvi. 20, 31, and in many other places, signifies to afflict the soul by fasting, and self- abnegation; and qrhskeia signifies reverence and modesty.
Hence the whole passage has been paraphrased thus: Let no man spoil you of the prize adjudged to you, who delights in mortifying his body, and walking with the apparent modesty of an angel, affecting superior sanctity in order to gain disciples; intruding into things which he has not seen; and, notwithstanding his apparent humility, his mind is carnal, and he is puffed up with a sense of his superior knowledge and piety. It is very likely that the apostle here alludes to the Essenes, who were remarkably strict and devout, spent a principal part of their time in the contemplation of the Divine Being, abstained from all sensual gratifications, and affected to live the life of angels upon earth. With their pretensions all the apostle says here perfectly agrees, and on this one supposition the whole of the passage is plain and easy. Many have understood the passage as referring to the adoration of angels, which seems to have been practised among the Jews, who appear (from Tobit, xii. 15; Philo, in lib. de Somn.; Josephus, War. lib. ii. cap. 8, sec. 7) to have considered them as a sort of mediators between God and man; presenting the prayers of men before the throne; and being, as Philo says, megalou basilewv ofqalmoi kai wta, the eyes and ears of the great King. But this interpretation is not so likely as the foregoing.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward , etc.] Or prize; the allusion is to the Olympic games, one of which was running races; in which the stadium, or race plot was fixed, a mark set up to look and run unto, a corruptible crown proposed to be run for, and which was held by one who sat as judge, and determined who got the victory, and to whom the crown belonged; these judges sometimes acted the unfair part, and defrauded the victors of their proper right, and to such the apostle compares the false teachers: the Christian's reward, or prize he is running for, is the incorruptible and never fading crown of glory, life, and righteousness; the race plot is the Christian life, spent in the exercise of grace, and discharge of duty, and in holding fast, and holding out in a profession of faith unto the end; the mark he looks at, and presses towards, is Jesus Christ; and his great concern, the apostle by this metaphor suggests should be, lest by false teachers he should be defrauded of the prize of the high calling of God, through their removing the mark Christ from him, by denying his person and Godhead; or by intercepting his sight of him, placing other objects before him, such as angels, to be worshipped and adored; or by darkening of it, joining Moses and Christ, law and Gospel, works and grace together, in the business of salvation; whereby he might seem to come short, or be in danger of coming short of the heavenly glory: in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels ; these things the apostle instances in, as in what lay their danger of being beguiled of their reward, or prize. True humility is an excellent grace; it is the clothing and ornament of a Christian; nor is there anything that makes a man more like Christ, than this grace; but in these men here respected, it was only the appearance of humility, it was not real; it was in things they devised and willed, not in things which God commanded, Christ required, or the Scriptures pointed at; they would have been thought to have been very lowly and humble, and to have a great consciousness of their own vileness and unworthiness to draw nigh to Christ the Mediator immediately, and by him to God; wherefore in pretence of great humility, they proposed to make use of angels as mediators with Christ; whereby Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, would be removed out of sight and use; and that humble boldness and holy confidence with God at the throne of grace, through Christ, which believers are allowed to use, would be discouraged and destroyed, and the saints be in danger as to the outward view of things, and in all human appearance of losing their reward: worshipping of angels was a practice which very early prevailed among some that were called Christians, and for a long time continued in Phrygia and Pisidia; some make Simon Magus, and others Cerinthus, the author of this idolatry; but was not only a branch of the Platonic philosophy, and so a part of that philosophy and vain deceit before mentioned, ( Colossians 2:8), which these men might have borrowed from the Gentiles, but was a notion and practice of the Jews: before the Babylonish captivity, the names of angels were not known, nor are they ever mentioned by name in Scripture; hence they say f42 , that the names of angels came up with them, or by their means from Babylon: after this they began to talk much of them, and to have too high a veneration for them, and ascribe too much to them; and observing that the law was ordained, spoken, and given by them, and that the administration of things under the former dispensation was greatly by their means, they fell to worshipping of them f43 ; and the believing Jews were hereby in great danger of falling into the same practice: hence the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, writing to the Jewish church, largely insists on the proof of Christ being superior to angels; showing that he has a more excellent name than they had; that he was the Son of God in such sense as they were not the sons of God; that they were worshippers of him, yea, that they were creatures made by him, and even ministering spirits to his saints, the heirs of salvation: and very rightly, is worshipping of angels condemned here by the apostle, since God only is the object of worship; since these are creatures, and so not to be adored; are worshippers of God and Christ themselves, and have refused adoration when it has been offered to them: that the Jews did, and do worship angels, and make use of them as mediators and intercessors, is clear from their liturgy, or prayer books, where they say f44 ymjr ykalm , O ye angels of mercies, or ye merciful angels, ministers of the most High, entreat now the face of God for good: and elsewhere f45 , they say three times, let Juhach keep us, let Juhach deliver us, and let Juhach help us: now Juhach was the name of an angel, who they supposed had the care of men, and is taken from the final letters of those words in ( Psalm 91:11), for he shall give his angels charge over thee: so they speak of an angel whom they call Sandalphon, who they say is appointed over the prayers of the righteous f46 : with this notion the judaizing and false teachers seem to have been tinctured, and against which the apostle here cautions the saints, lest, under a show of humility, they should be drawn into it: and to preserve them from it, he observes, that such an one who should spread and propagate such a notion, was one that was intruding into those things which he hath not seen ; thrusting himself in a bold and daring manner into an inquiry and search after, debate upon, and affirmation of things he could have no certain knowledge of; as of angels, whose nature, qualities, works, and ministrations, he had never seen with his bodily eyes; nor could ever discern with the eyes of his understanding any such things in the Scriptures, which he ascribed to them; but they were the birth of his own mind, the fruits of his own fancy and imagination, things devised in his own brain: being vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind ; judging of things not according to the word of God, and with a spiritual judgment, and according to a spiritual sense and experience, but according to his own carnal reason, and the vanity of his mind; being puffed and swelled with an high opinion of himself, of his great parts and abilities, of his knowledge of things above others, and of his capacity to penetrate into, and find out things which were not seen and known by others: this shows that his humility was forced, and only in outward appearance, and was not true and genuine.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 18-23 - It looked like humility to apply to angels, as if men were conscious of their unworthiness to speak directly to God. But it is not warrantable it is taking that honour which is due to Christ only, and giving it to a creature. There really was pride in this seeming humility. Those wh worship angels, disclaim Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man. It is an insult to Christ, who is the Head of the church, to use any intercessors but him. When men let go their hold of Christ they catch at what will stand them in no stead. The body of Christ is growing body. And true believers cannot live in the fashions of the world. True wisdom is, to keep close to the appointments of the gospel in entire subjection to Christ, who is the only Head of his church Self-imposed sufferings and fastings, might have a show of uncommo spirituality and willingness for suffering, but this was not "in an honour" to God. The whole tended, in a wrong manner, to satisfy the carnal mind, by gratifying self-will, self-wisdom, self-righteousness and contempt of others. The things being such as carry not with them s much as the show of wisdom; or so faint a show that they do the soul n good, and provide not for the satisfying of the flesh. What the Lor has left indifferent, let us regard as such, and leave others to the like freedom; and remembering the passing nature of earthly things, le us seek to glorify God in the use of them __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
μηδεις 3367 υμας 5209 καταβραβευετω 2603 5720 θελων 2309 5723 εν 1722 ταπεινοφροσυνη 5012 και 2532 θρησκεια 2356 των 3588 αγγελων 32 α 3739 μη 3361 εωρακεν 3708 5758 εμβατευων 1687 5723 εικη 1500 φυσιουμενος 5448 5746 υπο 5259 του 3588 νοος 3563 της 3588 σαρκος 4561 αυτου 846
Vincent's NT Word Studies
18. Beguile of reward (katabrabeuetw). Only here in the New Testament. From kata against, brabeuw to act as a judge or umpire. Hence to decide against one, or to declare him unworthy of the prize. Bishop Lightfoot's rendering rob you of your prize, adopted by Rev., omits the judicial idea, 199 which, however, I think must be retained, in continuation of the idea of judgment in ver. 16, "let no man judge," etc. The attitude of the false teachers would involve their sitting in judgment as to the future reward of those who refused their doctrine of angelic mediation. Paul speaks from the standpoint of their claim.
In a voluntary humility (qelwn en tapeinofrosunh). Render delighting in humility. This rendering is well supported by Septuagint usage. See 1 Sam. xviii. 22; 2 Sam. xv. 26; 1 Kings x. 9; 2 Chronicles ix. 8. 200 It falls in, in the regular participial series, with the other declarations as to the vain conceit of the teachers; signifying not their purpose or their wish to deprive the Christians of their reward, but their vain enthusiasm for their false doctrine, and their conceited self-complacency which prompted them to sit as judges. The worship of angels involved a show of humility, an affectation of superior reverence for God, as shown in the reluctance to attempt to approach God otherwise than indirectly: in its assumption that humanity, debased by the contact with matter, must reach after God through successive grades of intermediate beings. For humility, see on Matt. xi. 29.
Worship of angels (qrhskeia). See on religious, Jas. i. 26. Defining the direction which their humility assumed. The usage of the Septuagint and of the New Testament limits the meaning to the external aspects of worship. Compare Acts xxvi. 5; Jas. i. 27.
Intruding (embateuwn). Rev., dwelling in. Only here in the New Testament. It is used in three senses: 1. To step in or upon, thence to haunt or frequent. So Aeschylus: "A certain island which Pan frequents on its beach" ("Persae," 449). 2. To invade. So in Apocrypha, 1 Macc. xii. 25; xiii. 20; xiv. 31; xv. 40. 3. To enter into for examination; to investigate or discuss a subject. So 2 Macc. ii. 30, and so Philo, who compares truth-seekers to well-diggers. Patristic writers use it of searching the heart, and of investigating divine mysteries. Byzantine lexicographers explain it by zhtew to seek; ejxereunaw to track out; skopew to consider. In this last sense the word is probably used here of the false teachers who professed to see heavenly truth in visions, and to investigate and discuss philosophically the revelation they had received.
Which he hath not seen. Not must be omitted: which he imagines or professes that he has seen in vision. Ironical. "If, as we may easily imagine, these pretenders were accustomed to say with an imposing and mysterious air, 'I have seen, ah! I have seen,' - in relating alleged visions of heavenly things, the Colossians would understand the reference well enough" (Findlay).
Vainly puffed up (eikh fusioumenov). Vainly characterizes the emptiness of such pretension; puffed up, the swelling intellectual pride of those who make it. See on 1 Cor. iv. 6; and compare 1 Corinthians viii. 1. The humility is thus characterized as affected, and the teachers as charlatans.
By his fleshly mind (upo tou noov thv sarkov autou). Lit., by the mind of his flesh. The intellectual faculty in its moral aspects as determined by the fleshly, sinful nature. See on Rom. viii. 23. Compare Rom. vii. 22-25; viii. 7. The teachers boasted that they were guided by the higher reason. Paul describes their higher reason as carnal. 201
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:18 {Rob you of your prize} (katabrabeuetw). Late and rare compound (kata, brabeuw, #Col 3:15) to act as umpire against one, perhaps because of bribery in Demosthenes and Eustathius (two other examples in Preisigke's _Worterbuch_), here only in the N.T. So here it means to decide or give judgment against. The judge at the games is called brabeus and the prize brabeion (#1Co 9:24; Php 3:14). It is thus parallel to, but stronger than, krinetw in verse #16. {By a voluntary humility} (qelwn en tapeinofrosunei). Present active participle of qelw, to wish, to will, but a difficult idiom. Some take it as like an adverb for "wilfully" somewhat like qelontas in #2Pe 3:5. Others make it a Hebraism from the LXX usage, "finding pleasure in humility." The Revised Version margin has "of his own mere will, by humility." Hort suggested en eqelotapeinofrosunei (in gratuitous humility), a word that occurs in Basil and made like eqeloqreskia in verse #23. {And worshipping of the angels} (kai qreskeiai twn aggelwn). In #3:12 humility (tapeinofrosunen) is a virtue, but it is linked with worship of the angels which is idolatry and so is probably false humility as in verse #23. They may have argued for angel worship on the plea that God is high and far removed and so took angels as mediators as some men do today with angels and saints in place of Christ. {Dwelling in the things which he hath seen} (ha heoraken embateuwn). Some MSS. have "not," but not genuine. this verb embateuw (from embates, stepping in, going in) has given much trouble. Lightfoot has actually proposed kenembateuwn (a verb that does not exist, though kenembatew does occur) with aiwra, to tread on empty air, an ingenious suggestion, but now unnecessary. It is an old word for going in to take possession (papyri examples also). W. M. Ramsay (_Teaching of Paul_, pp. 287ff.) shows from inscriptions in Klaros that the word is used of an initiate in the mysteries who "set foot in" (enebateusen) and performed the rest of the rites. Paul is here quoting the very work used of these initiates who "take their stand on" these imagined revelations in the mysteries. {Vainly puffed up} (eikei fusioumenos). Present passive participle of fusiow, late and vivid verb from fusa, pair of bellows, in N.T. only here and #1Co 4:6,18f.; 8:1. Powerful picture of the self-conceit of these bombastic Gnostics.
