Colossians 2:9

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
For	ὅτι hoti	G3754	demonstrative · conjunction
in	ἐν en	G1722	"in · preposition
him	αὐτῷ autō	G846	the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative singular masculine
dwelleth	κατοικεῖ katoikei	G2730	to house permanently · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular
all	πᾶν pan	G3956	all · adjective — nominative singular neuter
fulness	πλήρωμα plērōma	G4138	repletion or completion · noun — nominative singular neuter
Godhead	θεότητος theotētos	G2320	divinity (abstractly) · noun — genitive singular feminine
bodily	σωματικῶς, sōmatikōs	G4985	corporeally or physically · adverb

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace a…
John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached…
John 14:9-10 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;…
John 10:38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is tr…
John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Colossians 2:4-12

The apostle cautions the Colossians against deceivers (Col 2:4): And this I say lest any man beguile you with enticing words; and Col 2:8, Lest any man spoil you. He insists so much upon the perfection of Christ and the gospel revelation, to preserve them from the ensnaring insinuations of those who would corrupt their principles. Note, 1. The way in which Satan spoils souls is by beguiling them. He deceives them, and by this means slays them. He is the old serpent who beguiled Eve through his subtlety, Co2 11:3. He could not ruin us if he did not cheat us; and he could not cheat us but by our own fault and folly. 2. Satan's agents, who aim to spoil them, beguile them with enticing words. Se…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Colossians 2:9

For--"Because." Their "philosophy" (Col 2:8) is not "after Christ," as all true philosophy is, everything which comes not from, and tends not to, Him, being a delusion; "For in Him (alone) dwelleth" as in a temple, &c. the fulness-- (Col 1:19; Joh 14:10). of the Godhead--The Greek (theotes) means the ESSENCE and NATURE of the Godhead, not merely the divine perfections and attributes of Divinity (Greek, "theiotes"). He, as man, was not merely God-like, but in the fullest sense, God. bodily--not merely as before His incarnation, but now "bodily in Him" as the incarnate word (Joh 1:14, Joh 1:18). Believers, by union with Him, partake of His fulness of the divine nature (Joh 1:16; Pe2 1:4;…

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Adam Clarke on Colossians 2:9

For in him dwelleth all the fullness - This is opposed to the vain or empty doctrine of the Gentile and Jewish philosophers: there is a fullness in Christ suited to the empty, destitute state of the human soul, but in the philosophy of the Jews and Gentiles nothing like this was found; nor indeed in the more refined and correct philosophy of the present day. No substitute has ever been found for the grace of the Lord Jesus, and those who have sought for one have disquieted themselves in vain. By the Godhead or Deity, Θεοτης, we are to understand the state or being of the Divine nature; and by the fullness of that Deity, the infinite attributes essential to such a nature. Bodily - Συματικως s…

The Church Fathers

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. .
— Severian of Gabala,

For God made his dwellings among men partly in the prophets, but has now made them wholly and uninterruptedly and universally in the Lord Christ, who according to the flesh was descended from Shem, in the same way as it is written concerning the Lord Christ according to the flesh: In whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. By these visions therefore Noah was privileged to predict what was fulfilled in the dispensation of the Lord Christ.
— Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 5

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.
— Augustine of Hippo,

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Fulness — (1.) Of time (Gal. 4:4), the time appointed by God, and foretold by the prophets, when Messiah should appear. (2.) Of Christ (John 1:16), the superabundance of grace with which he was filled. (3.) Of…
Godhead — (Acts 17:29; Rom. 1:20; Col. 2:9), the essential being or the nature of God.
Christ Is God · As possessed of the fulness of the God head — As possessed of the fulness of the God head
Perfection · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Types Of Christ · Tabernacle — Tabernacle

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Colossians 2:9

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Colossians 2:4-12

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Colossians 2:9

Adam Clarke on Colossians 2:9

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Colossians 2:9

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Colossians 2:4-12

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Colossians 2:9

Adam Clarke on Colossians 2:9

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Gill on Colossians 2:9

John Calvin on Colossians 2:8-12

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Colossians 2:8