ACC ~ Colossians 2 v9

IN CHRIST IS THE FULLNESS. CHRYSOSTOM: “For in him dwells,” that is, for God dwells in him. But that you may not think him enclosed, as in a body, Paul writes, “All the fullness of the Godhead bodily: and you are made full in him.” Others say that Paul means the church filled by his Godhead, as he elsewhere says, “of him that fills all in all,” and that he employs the term bodily here, as the body in the head. But if this interpretation is true, why did he not add “which is the church”? HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 6.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: This “fullness” is said of the whole creation restored by him, for, in the sense that has been established earlier, all creation dwells in him, that is, is joined to him, so that he contains it in a bodily way. COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: Some teachers say that Christ is here being called the church, since the fullness of his divinity dwells in it. I am unsure, however, whether this interpretation suits the term bodily. I think that since he calls Christ the head of the church, it is clear that this refers to his humanity, by which he is our head, and that this is said about his human nature, which contained complete divinity within itself. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

ATHANASIUS: In the past Christ the Word was accustomed to come to the saints individually and to sanctify those who rightly received him. But neither, when these individuals were first born did people assert that he had become man in any of them, nor when they suffered, did anyone say that God himself suffered in them. But then he came among us from Mary once at the end of the ages for the abolition of sin (for so it was pleasing to the Father to send his own Son “made of a woman, made under the law”). And then it was said, that he took flesh and became man. It was in that flesh he suffered for us. His intention was to show, so that all might believe, that whereas he was ever God, and sanctified those to whom he came, and ordered all things according to the Father’s will, afterwards for our sakes he became man, and “bodily,” as the apostle says, the Godhead dwelt in the flesh. This was as much as to say, “Being God, he had his own body, and using this as an instrument, he became man for our sakes.” DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 3.26.31.

GREGORY OF NYSSA: Since then it was impossible that our life, which had been estranged from God, should of itself return to the high and heavenly place, for this reason, as the apostle says, he who knew no sin is made sin for us and frees us from the curse by taking on him our curse as his own. Having taken up and, in the language of the apostle, “slain” in himself “the enmity”which by means of sin had come between us and God (in fact sin was the “enmity”) and having become what we were, he through himself again united humanity to God. For having by purity brought into closest relationship with the Father of our nature that new man which is created after God, in whom dwelled all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, he drew with him into the same grace all the nature that partakes of his body and is akin to him. AGAINST EUNOMIUS 12.1.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Neither do we say that the Word of God dwelled, as in an ordinary man, in the one born of the holy Virgin, in order that Christ might not be thought to be a man bearing God. For even if the Word both “dwelt among us,” and it is said that in Christ “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” we do not think that, being made flesh, the Word is said to dwell in him just as in those who are holy, and we do not define the indwelling in him to be the same. But united kata phusin, and not changed into flesh, the Word produced an indwelling such as the soul of man might be said to have in its own body. LETTERS 17.9.

AMBROSE: The law has proved God’s oneness. It speaks of one God, as also the apostle when he says of Christ: “In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” For if, as the apostle says, all the fullness of the Godhead, bodily, is in Christ, then must the Father and the Son be confessed to be of one Godhead. Or if one desired to sunder the Godhead of the Son from the Godhead of the Father, as long as the Son possesses all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, what is supposed to be further reserved, seeing that nothing remains over and above the fullness of perfection? Therefore the Godhead is one. OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 3.12.102.

AMBROSIASTER: All that the Father has, he has given to the Son when he begot him bodily in the fullness of divinity, so that as he is the head, the creation is his body. Therefore, whatever can be supposed to be a heavenly creature must be seen as fully subordinate to Christ, so that no lesser being may be thought worthy of worship. COMMENTARY ON THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

AUGUSTINE: Speaking of him as our Head, the apostle says: “For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead corporally.” He does not say “corporally” because God is corporeal, but he either uses the word in a derived sense as if he dwells in a temple made by hands, not corporally but symbolically, that is, under prefiguring signs … or else the word corporally is certainly used because God dwells, as in his temple, in the body of Christ which he took from the Virgin. LETTERS 187.39.

LEO THE GREAT: Embracing then, dearly beloved, the sole pledge of the Christian hope, let us not be torn from our faithful bonding to the body of Christ, in whom, as the apostle says, “dwells the fullness of divinity in bodily manner, and you have been filled out in him.” Since the substance of God is incorporeal, how does it dwell in bodily manner in Christ unless the flesh of our race has been made the flesh of the divinity? We filled out in that God in whom we have been crucified, in whom we have been buried, in whom we have been even raised up. SERMONS 66.5.

IN THE CHURCH IS THE FULLNESS. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: He calls the church that which is filled with the Father’s divinity. The church is full by dwelling bodily in Christ, that is, as the body is completed in the head, he says that Christ is everywhere the head of the church. And you are fulfilled in him, fulfilled for his sake and through him. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

Col