ACC ~ Colossians 2 v8

ORTHODOXY AND ORTHOPRAXY. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: True religion consists of these two elements: pious doctrines and virtuous actions. Neither does God accept doctrines apart from works, nor are works, when divorced from godly doctrine, accepted by God. … The knowledge of doctrines is a precious possession. There is need of a vigilant soul, since there are many who would deceive you by philosophy and vain deceit. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 4.2.

“VAIN” DECEIT. CHRYSOSTOM: Then because the term philosophy has an appearance of dignity, Paul added, “And vain deceit.” For there can also be a pious deceit, such as many have been deceived by, that one should not consider a genuine deception. Jeremiah notes that even God can seem to deceive. “O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived”; in this example we have nothing we can describe as deceit. For Jacob also deceived his father, but that was not finally a deceit but the proper way to act in the situation.HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 6.

HUMAN CONTRIVANCE. THEODORET OF CYR: “Philosophy” is smooth argumentation that persuades. “Empty deceit” refers to superfluous and noxious human tradition, that is, not the divine law itself but its intemperate and skewed observance.”Elements of the world” are the observation of cultic days. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

AMBROSIASTER: He calls that philosophy worldly by which men who desire to be wise in earthly terms are seduced. COMMENTARY ON THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

PELAGIUS: The enemy here is philosophy that believes that the power of God rises from natural things, that nothing can be made from nothing, that the soul cannot have a beginning or be mortal, that a virgin cannot conceive, or God be born of a man or die and rise again. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

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