SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:20
Pues si sois muertos con el Cristo a los elementos del mundo, ¿por qu como si vivieseis al mundo, decretis ritos:
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Colossians 2:20
Verse 20. If ye be dead with Christ] See the notes on Rom. vi. 3, 5. From the rudiments of the world] Ye have renounced all hope of salvation from the observance of Jewish rites and ceremonies, which were only rudiments, first elements, or the alphabet, out of which the whole science of Christianity was composed. We have often seen that the world and this world signify the Jewish dispensation, or the rites, ceremonies, and services performed under it.
Why, as though living in the world] Why, as if ye were still under the same dispensation from which you have been already freed, are ye subject to its ordinances, performing them as if expecting salvation from this performance?
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ , etc.] Or seeing ye are dead with Christ; for these words do not signify any doubt about it, but suppose it, and press what is taken for granted. They were dead with Christ by virtue of union to him; they being one with him, and considered in him as their head and representative, died in him, and with him; they were crucified with him, as they are said to be buried with him, and risen with him; they were dead with him, by having communion with him in his death; they partook of the benefits of it, as redemption, pardon, justification, and reconciliation; and they were planted together with him in the likeness of his death, not merely partakers of his sufferings, or suffered with him, and were conformable unto his death, by undergoing such like things as he did, but as he died unto sin, and lived unto God, so did they; and through the virtue and efficacy of his death were dead to sin, so as that it was not imputed to them, so as to be freed and discharged from it, that it could not damn and destroy them; yea, so as that itself was crucified with him, and destroyed by him: and also to the law, to the moral law; not but that they lived according to it, as in the hands of Christ, in their walk and conversation, but did not seek for life, righteousness, and salvation by it; they were dead unto it as to justification by it, and even to obedience to it in a rigorous and compulsive way; and to all its terrors and threatenings, being moved to a regard to it from a principle of love to Christ; and to all its accusations and charges, its curses and condemnation, and as a ministration of death, fearing neither a corporeal, nor an eternal one: they were dead also to the ceremonial law, and were free from the rudiments , or elements of the world : the ordinances of a worldly sanctuary, the rites and ceremonies of the world, or state of the Jews, in opposition to, and distinction from, the Gospel dispensation, or times of the Messiah, called, and that by them, abh lw[ , the world to come: these were like letters to a language, or like the grammar, which contains the rudiments of it; these were the first principles of the oracles of God, which led to Christ, and had their accomplishment and end in him; and so believers were dead unto them, and delivered from them, as they were also to the world, the Jewish state, and were entered into the world to come; and even to this present evil world, and to the men and things of it, being by Christ crucified to it, and that to them: upon all which the apostle thus reasons, why, as though living in the world ; since ye are dead unto it, and from the rudiments of it, why should ye be as though ye lived in it? his meaning is not, that they should not live in the world, nor among the men of it, for then they must needs go out of the world; saints may live in the world, though they are not of it, and among the inhabitants of it, though they do not belong to them, but to another and better country: nor does he suggest, that they lived according to the course of the world, as they did in their unregenerate state; but what he seems to blame them for, and reason with them about, was, that they acted as if they sought for life and righteousness in the rudiments of the world, or by their obedience to ceremonial rites, or human inventions: for he adds, are ye subject to ordinances ? not civil and political ones, which are for the better and more orderly government of kingdoms, states, and cities, for these the saints ought to be subject to, both for the Lord's sake, and conscience sake; nor Gospel ordinances, as baptism, and the Lord's supper, for such all believers ought to submit unto; but either legal ones, the weak and beggarly elements, the yoke of bondage, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, the handwriting of ordinances, which some were desirous of conforming to; or rather the ordinances and appointments of the Jewish fathers, the traditions of the elders, their constitutions and decrees, which are collected together, and make up their Misna, or oral law; and so the argument is from the one to the other, from the greater to the less, that if they were delivered by Christ from the burdensome rites of the ceremonial law, which were originally appointed by God, it must be great weakness in them to be subject to the ordinances of men; or both the institutions of the ceremonial law, and the decrees of the Jewish doctors about them, which were devised by them, and added to them, and imposed as necessary to be observed, may be intended; of which the apostle gives some particulars in ( Colossians 2:21).
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
ει 1487 ουν 3767 απεθανετε 599 5627 συν 4862 τω 3588 χριστω 5547 απο 575 των 3588 στοιχειων 4747 του 3588 κοσμου 2889 τι 5101 ως 5613 ζωντες 2198 5723 εν 1722 κοσμω 2889 δογματιζεσθε 1379 5743
Vincent's NT Word Studies
20. Ye be dead (apeqanete). Rev., more correctly, ye died; the aorist tense indicating a definite event. Paul uses the word died in many different relations, expressing that with which death dissolves the connection. Thus, died unto sin, unto self, unto the law, unto the world.
Rudiments of the world. Elementary teachings and practices the peculiar sphere of which is the world. World (kosmou) has its ethical sense, the sum-total of human life in the ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from, and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God. See on John i. 9.
Are ye subject to ordinances (dogmatizesqe). Only here in the New Testament. Rev., subject yourselves. Better passive, as emphasizing spiritual bondage. Why do ye submit to be dictated to? See on 1 Corinthians i. 22, where the imperious attitude of the Jews appears in their demanding credentials of the Gospel as sole possessors of the truth. The ordinances include both those of the law and of philosophy.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:20 {If ye died} (ei apeqanete). Condition of the first class, assumed as true, ei and second aorist active indicative of apoqneskw, to die. He is alluding to the picture of burial in baptism (#2:12). {From the rudiments of the world} (apo twn stoiceiwn tou kosmou). See #2:8. {As though living in the world} (hws zwntes en kosmwi). Concessive use of the participle with hws. The picture is that of baptism, having come out (F. B. Meyer) on the other side of the grave, we are not to act as though we had not done so. We are in the Land of Beulah. {Why do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?} (ti dogmatizesqe?). Late and rare verb (three examples in inscriptions and often in LXX) made from dogma, decree or ordinance. Here it makes good sense either as middle or passive. In either case they are to blame since the bond of decrees (#2:14) was removed on the Cross of Christ. Paul still has in mind the rules of the ascetic wing of the Gnostics (#2:16ff.).
