Verse 6
In the whole world; i.e. a great part of it. (Witham) --- This epistle was written in the year 62, at which time the gospel had spread itself through the whole world by the preaching not only of the apostles, but of their disciples, and by the noise which this new religion made. (Calmet) --- St. Augustine sheweth with St. Paul, that the Church and Christ's gospel was to grow daily, and to spread all over the world; which cannot stand with what heretics allude of the failure of the Church, nor with their own obscure conventicles. (ep. lxxx. ad finem.)
Verse 7
Of Epaphras, who seems to have been their first apostle, and their bishop. (Witham)
Verse 8
Your love. Your charity for all men, founded on the love of God. Others understand it of the affection which they had for St. Paul. (St. John Chrysostom)
Verse 9
In all wisdom. He begins by an admonition against false teachers, who it is likely, says St. John Chrysostom, with their philosophical notions mixed errors and fables. (Witham)
Verse 10
Worthy of God: Greek: axios tou kuriou. So St. Ambrose and the Greek doctors; or thus, worthily, pleasing God, and this not by faith only, but fruitful in every good work. (Ibid.) --- God, in (1) all things pleasing him. This is the construction of the Latin by the Greek. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Ut ambuletis digne Deo per omnia placentes; Greek: axios tou Kuriou eis pasan areskeian.
Verse 14
is through the blood of Christ, and not by the law of Moses, that we are freed from the power of death. If the law could have saved us, the coming of Christ would have been useless. See then, he says, if it be proper to engage under a law which is so inefficacious. (Calmet) --- From this verse and from ver. 12, et alibi passim, we are taught that we are not only by imputation made partakers of Christ's benefits, but are by his grace made worthy thereof, and deserve our salvation condignly, ex condigno. (Bristow)
Verse 15
The first (2) born of every creature. St. John Chrysostom takes notice against the Arians, that the apostle calls Christ the first-begotten, or first-born, not the first created, because he was not created at all. And the sense is, that he was before all creatures, proceeding from all eternity from the Father; though some expound the words of Christ as man, and that he was greater in dignity. See Romans viii. 29. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Primogenitus omnis creaturæ; Greek: prototokos pases ktiseos. St. John Chrysostom, Greek: log. g. p. 103. Greek: ou protoktistos, alla prototokos....oukoun ektistai.
Verse 16
Thrones, &c. are commonly understood to refer to the celestial hierarchy of Angels, though as to their particular rank, &c. nothing certain is known. We may here observe, that the Holy Spirit proportions itself and speaks according to our ideas of a temporal kingdom, in which one authority is subject to another. In the same manner the Angels seem subordinate to one another. (St. Dionysius in Calmet) --- All things were created by him, and in him, and (3) consist in him. If all things that are were made by him, he himself was not made. And his divine power is also signified, when it is said all things consist or are preserved by him. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
In ipso constant; Greek: en auto sunesteke. See St. John Chrysostom.
Verse 18
He is the head of the body, the church. He now speaks of what applies to Christ as man. --- The first-born from the dead; i.e. the first that rose to an immortal life. (Witham)
Verse 19
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
In ipso complacuit. We may rather understand Deo than Patri. So St. John Chrysostom, p. 105. Greek: ten thelesin tou Theou, touto gar estin oti en auto eudokese.
Verse 20
To reconcile all things unto himself,...through the blood of his cross, (i.e. which Christ shed on the cross) both as to the things on earth, and....in heaven: not that Christ died for the Angels, but, says St. John Chrysostom, the Angels were in a manner at war with men, with sinners, as they stood for the cause and glory of God; but Christ put an end to this enmity, by restoring men to his favour. (Witham) --- In heaven. Not by pardoning the wicked angels did Christ reconcile the things in heaven, but by reconciling good Angels to man, who were enemies to him before the birth of Christ. (St. Augustine)
Verse 24
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Adimpleo quæ desunt; Greek: ta usteremata. See St. John Chrysostom and St. Augustine in Psalm lxxxvi. tom. 4. p. 922. B. restabant Christi passiones in corpore, vos autem estis Christi Corpus, et membra. See St. John Chrysostom, Greek: om. d. p. 109.
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Verse 25
According to the dispensation of God; i.e. to the appointment of his divine providence. (Witham)
Verse 26
The mystery of Christ's incarnation, which hath been hidden, &c. See Ephesians i. 12. and v. 4, &c. (Witham)