Colossians 3:11

Context

Colossians has traditionally been regarded as a letter from Paul to the church at Colossae in Asia Minor, although since the modern period some scholars have held that it was written by a disciple of Paul. Chapter 2 warns against teaching that gives priority to philosophy and ordinances. Colossians 3:1–17 exhorts believers who have been raised with Christ to put off the "old man" and put on the "new man." The immediately preceding verse, Colossians 3:10, says that the new man "is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." The verse itself reads: "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all" (Colossians 3:11). The word "where" is understood to refer to that new man, that is, the community newly created in Christ.

The pairs listed are distinctions that divided people at the time:

• Greek and Jew: an ethnic distinction.
• Circumcision and uncircumcision: a distinction based on whether one followed the tradition of the Law.
• Barbarian (one who did not speak Greek) and Scythian: a cultural distinction. The Scythians were a nomadic people living north of the Black Sea, known to have been regarded by Greeks and Romans as especially uncivilized.
• Bond and free: a distinction of social status.

Interpretation

• Ecclesiological reading: Many commentators read this verse as a declaration that no background serves as grounds for superiority or inferiority within the church. Some interpreters also connect the surrounding imagery of putting off and putting on garments with baptism.
• Christological reading: This reading links "Christ is all, and in all" with the preeminence of Christ celebrated in Colossians 1:15–20. The expression is understood not as pantheism, the view that all things are God, but as a confession that Christ is the whole and the center of the new community.
• Ethical reading: This reading takes the verse as a basis for moving beyond racial and class discrimination. It frequently appears in discussions of relationships within the church and of social ethics.

Questions Concerning Application

In Colossians 3:22–4:1, the same letter contains a household code exhorting servants to obey their masters. This raises the question of whether the statement that there is neither "bond nor free" extends to the abolition of social institutions. One view holds that the statement changes only the significance such distinctions carry in Christ; another sees it as a seed that undermines the hierarchy of status from within. The story of Onesimus, who is mentioned in the same letter (Philemon and Onesimus), is also taken up in this discussion.

Scholars also note that the pair "male nor female" found in Galatians 3:26–29 is absent from this verse. Interpreters explain the reason for this omission in different ways.

In Korean Bible translation, the New Korean Revised Version revised the wording of the earlier Korean Revised Version, replacing the word for "distinction" with one meaning "discrimination," and the term rendered "circumcision party" with one meaning "circumcision faction."

Related Passages

• Galatians 3:26–29
• 1 Corinthians 12:13
• Colossians 3:10
• Ephesians 2:14–17
• Galatians 6:15