[B-Greek] PAS in Colossians 1:15-20 and tense in v.20

Harold Holmyard hholmyard3 at earthlink.net
Tue Feb 12 11:31:28 EST 2008


kramer kramer wrote:
> B-Greekers,
>    
>   A friend of mine recently wrote me the following:
>    
>   Col 1:20 KJV And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
>   
> Notice the phrase “to reconcile...” The verb is an infinitive which indicates present action going into the future. What is to be reconciled? All things. And if He has to reconcile all things, they are not already reconciled. It is NOT written that all things HAVE BEEN reconciled. 
>    
>   Is my friend correct?
>   

HH: It is debatable. The verb "reconcile" is an aorist infinitive 
parallel to "dwell" in verse 19:

hOTI EN AUTWi EUDOKHSEV PAN TO PLHRWMA KATOIKNSAI KAI DI'AUTOU 
APOKATALLAXAI TA PANTA EIS AUTON

It describes a past action. He was pleased for all the fulness to dwell 
in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself,

HH: At this point we don't know whether reconciliation is an ongoing 
process or a completed one. The next participle suggests that in this 
context it may be a complete one:

EIRHNOPOIHSAS DIA TOU hAIMATOS TOU STAUROU AUTOU

The participle is aorist and points to a past action. It modifies 
KATOIKHSAI, I think, suggesting that the way God reconciled all things 
was to make peace through the blood of Jesus' cross.

However, if one were to separate the action of reconciling from the 
action of making peace, then the reconciliation could be an ongoing 
process. Other Pauline texts may suggest that in one sense God is 
already reconciled, even though there is a human part of the 
reconciliation process that is necessary as well (2 Cor 5:17-20). At 
least we can say from Col 1:22 that for Christians this reconciliation 
process has occurred.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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