τοῦ μέσου, προσηλώσας αὐτὸ τῷ σταυρῷ· ^{15}ἀπεκδυσάμενος
προσηλώσας κ.τ.λ.] ‘The abrogation was even more emphatic. Not only was
the writing erased, but the document itself was torn up and cast aside.’
By προσηλώσας is meant that the law of ordinances was nailed to the
cross, rent with Christ’s body, and destroyed with His death: see the
notes on Gal. vi. 14 δι’ οὗ [τοῦ] σταυροῦ ἑμοὶ κόσμος (the world, the
sphere of material ordinances) ἐσταύρωται κἀγὼ κόσμῳ, where the idea is
the same. It has been supposed that in some cities the abrogation of a
decree was signified by running a nail through it and hanging it up in
public. The image would thus gain force, but there is no distinct
evidence of such a custom.
15. ἀπεκδυσάμενος κ.τ.λ.] This word appears not to occur at all before
St Paul, and rarely if ever after his time, except in writers who may be
supposed to have his language before them; e.g. Hippol. _Hær._ i. 24
ἀπεκδυσάμενον τὸ σῶμα ὃ περικεῖται. In Joseph. _Ant._ vi. 14. 2 ἀπεκδὺς
is only a variation for μετεκδὺς which seems to be the correct reading.
The word also appears in some texts of Babrius _Fab._ xviii. 3, but it
is merely a conjectural emendation. Thus the occurrence of ἀπεκδύεσθαι
here and in iii. 9, and of ἀπέκδυσις above in ver. 11, is remarkable;
and the choice of an unusual, if not a wholly new, word must have been
prompted by the desire to emphasize the _completeness_ of the action.
The force of the double compound may be inferred from a passage of
Lysias, where the two words ἀποδύεσθαι and ἐκδύεσθαι occur together; _c.
Theomn._ i. 10 (p. 117) φάσκων θοιμάτιον ἀποδεδύσθαι ἢ τὸν χιτωνίσκον
ἐκδεδύσθαι. Here however the sense of ἀπεκδυσάμενος is difficult. The
meaning generally assigned to it, ‘having spoiled, stripped of their
arms’, disregards the middle voice. St Jerome is chiefly responsible for
this common error of interpretation: for in place of the Old Latin
‘exuens se’, which was grammatically correct, he substituted
‘exspolians’ in his revised version. In his interpretation however he
was anticipated by the commentator Hilary, who read ‘exuens’ for ‘exuens
se’ in his text. Discarding this sense, as inconsistent with the voice,
we have the choice of two interpretations.
(1) The common interpretation of the Latin fathers, ‘_putting off_ the
body’, thus separating ἀπεκδυσάμενος from τὰς ἀρχὰς κ.τ.λ. and
understanding τὴν σάρκα or τὸ σῶμα with it; comp. 2 Cor. v. 3
ἐνδυσάμενοι. So Novat. _de Trin._ 16 ‘exutus carnem’; Ambros. _Expos.
Luc._ v. § 107 (I. p. 1381) ‘exuens se carnem’, comp. _de Fid._ iii. 2
(II. p. 499); Hilar. _de Trin._ i. 13 (II. p. 10) ‘exutus carnem’ (comp.
ix. 10, p. 265), x. 48 (p. 355) ‘spolians se carne’ (comp. ix. 11, p.
266); Augustin. _Epist._ 149 (II. p. 513) ‘exuens se carne’, etc. This
appears to have been the sense adopted much earlier in a Docetic work
quoted by Hippol. _Hær._ viii. 10 ψυχὴ ἐκέινη ἐν τῷ σώματι τραφεῖσα,
ἀπεκδυσαμένη τὸ σῶμα καὶ προσηλώσασα πρὸς τὸ ξύλον καὶ θριαμβεύσασα
κ.τ.λ. It is so paraphrased likewise in the Peshito Syriac and the
Gothic. The reading ἀπεκδυσάμενος τὴν σάρκα καὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας (omitting
τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ), found in some ancient authorities, must be a corruption
from an earlier text, which had inserted the gloss τὴν σάρκα after
ἀπεκδυσάμενος, while retaining τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ, and which seems to have
been in the hands of some of the Latin fathers already quoted. This
interpretation has been connected with a common metaphorical use of
ἀποδύεσθαι, signifying ‘to strip’ and so ‘to prepare for a contest’;
e.g. Plut. _Mor._ 811 E πρὸς πᾶσαν ἀποδύομενοι τὴν πολιτικὴν πρᾶξιν,
Diod. Sic. ii. 29 ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίαν ἀποδύντες. The serious objection to
this rendering is, that it introduces an isolated metaphor which is not
explained or suggested by anything in the context.
(2) The common interpretation of the Greek fathers; ‘_having stripped
off and put away the powers_ of evil’, making ἀπεκδυσάμενος govern τὰς
ἀρχὰς κ.τ.λ. So Chrysostom, Severianus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and
Theodoret. This also appears to have been the interpretation of Origen,
_in Matt._ xii. § 25 (III. p. 544), _ib._ § 40 (p. 560), _in Ioann._ vi.
§ 37 (IV. p. 155), _ib._ xx. § 29 (p. 356), though his language is not
explicit, and though his translators, e.g. _in Libr. Ies. Hom._ vii. § 3
(II. p. 413), make him say otherwise. The meaning then will be as
follows. Christ took upon Himself our human nature with all its
temptations (Heb. iv. 15). The powers of evil gathered about Him. Again
and again they assailed Him; but each fresh assault ended in a new
defeat. In the wilderness He was tempted by Satan; but Satan retired for
the time baffled and defeated (Luke iv. 13 ἀπέστη ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ ἄχρι
καιροῦ). Through the voice of His chief disciple the temptation was
renewed, and He was entreated to decline His appointed sufferings and
death. Satan was again driven off (Matt. xvi. 23 ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου,
Σατανᾶ, σκάνδαλον εἶ ἐμοῦ: comp. Matt. viii. 31). Then the last hour
came. This was the great crisis of all, when ‘the power of darkness’
made itself felt (Luke xxii. 53 _ἡ ἐξουσία_ τοῦ σκότους; see above
i. 13), when the prince of the world asserted his tyranny (Joh. xii. 30
_ὁ ἄρχων_ τοῦ κόσμου). The final act in the conflict began with the
agony of Gethsemane; it ended with the cross of Calvary. The victory was
complete. The enemy of man was defeated. The powers of evil, which had
clung like a Nessus robe about His humanity, were torn off and cast
aside for ever. And the victory of mankind is involved in the victory of
Christ. In His cross we too are divested of the poisonous clinging
garments of temptation and sin and death; τῷ ἀποθέσθαι τὴν θνητότητα,
says Theodore, ἣν ὑπὲρ τῆς κοινῆς ἀφεῖλεν εὐεργεσίας, ἀπεδύσατο κἀκείνων
(i.e. τῶν ἀντικειμένων δυνάμεων) τὴν αὐθεντείαν ᾗπερ ἐκέχρηντο καθ’
ἡμῶν. For the image of the garments comp. Is. lxiv. 6, but especially
Zech. iii. 1 sq., ‘And he showed me Joshua the high-priest standing
before the angel of the Lord and _Satan standing at his right hand to
resist him_. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O
Satan.... Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments.... And He
answered and spake unto those that stood before Him saying _Take away
the filthy garments_ from him. And unto him He said Behold, _I have
caused thine iniquity to pass from thee_’. In this prophetic passage the
image is used of His type and namesake, the Jesus of the Restoration,
not in his own person, but as the high-priest and representative of a
guilty but cleansed and forgiven people, with whom he is identified. For
the metaphor of ἀπεκδυσάμενος more especially, see Philo _Quod det. pot.
ins._ 13 (I. p. 199) ἐξαναστάντες δὲ καὶ διερεισάμενοι τὰς ἐντέχνους
αὐτῶν περιπλοκὰς εὐμαρῶς _ἐκδυσόμεθα_, where the image in the
context is that of a wrestling bout.
This interpretation is grammatical; it accords with St Paul’s teaching;
and it is commended by the parallel uses of the substantive in ver. 11
ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός, and of the verb in iii. 9
ἀπεκδυσάμενοι τὸν πάλαιον ἄνθρωπον κ.τ.λ. The ἀπέκδυσις accomplished in
us when we are baptized into His death is a counterpart to the ἀπέκδυσις
which He accomplished by His death. With Him indeed it was only the
temptation, with us it is the sin as well as temptation; but otherwise
the parallel is complete. In both cases it is a divestiture of the
powers of evil, a liberation from the dominion of the flesh. On the
other hand the common explanation ‘spoiling’ is not less a violation of
St Paul’s usage (iii. 9) than of grammatical rule.
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