a Hellen (Grecian) or inhabitant of Hellas · noun — nominative singular masculine, a people or place name
nor
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
Jew
Ἰουδαῖος,Ioudaios
G2453
Judæan · noun — nominative singular masculine, a people name
circumcision
περιτομὴperitomē
G4061
circumcision (the rite · noun — nominative singular feminine
nor
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
uncircumcision
ἀκροβυστία,akrobustia
G203
the prepuce · noun — nominative singular feminine
Barbarian
βάρβαρος,barbaros
G915
a foreigner (i.e. non-Greek) · adjective — nominative singular masculine
Scythian
Σκύθης,Skuthēs
G4658
a Scythene or Scythian · noun — nominative singular masculine, a people or place name
bond
δοῦλος,doulos
G1401
a slave (literal or figurative · noun — nominative singular masculine
free
ἐλεύθερος,eleutheros
G1658
unrestrained (to go at pleasure) · adjective — nominative singular masculine
but
ἀλλὰalla
G235
properly · conjunction
Christ
Χριστός.¶Christos
G5547
anointed · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
all
πάνταpanta
G3956
all · adjective — nominative plural neuter
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
all
πᾶσινpasin
G3956
all · adjective — dative plural neuter
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
Galatians 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to d…
Romans 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
Ephesians 3:6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Ephesians 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Romans 9:24-26 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Romans 3:29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Colossians 3:8-11
As we are to mortify inordinate appetites, so we are to mortify inordinate passions (Col 3:8): But now you also put off all these, anger wrath, malice; for these are contrary to the design of the gospel, as well as grosser impurities; and, though they are more spiritual wickedness, have not less malignity in them. The gospel religion introduces a change of the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the dominion of right reason and conscience over appetite and passion. Anger and wrath are bad, but malice is worse, because it is more rooted and deliberate; it is anger heightened and settled. And, as the corrupt principles in the heart must be cut off, so the product of th…
Where--Translate, "Wherein," namely, in the sphere of the renewed man.
neither . . . nor . . . nor . . . nor--Translate as Greek, "There is no such thing as Greek and Jew (the difference of privilege between those born of the natural seed of Abraham and those not, is abolished), circumcision and uncircumcision (the difference of legal standing between the circumcised and uncircumcised is done away, Gal 6:15) --bondman, freeman." The present Church is one called out of the flesh, and the present world-course (Eph 2:2), wherein such distinctions exist, to life in the Spirit, and to the future first resurrection: and this because Satan has such power now over the flesh and the world. At Chris…
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew - In which new creation no inquiry is made what nation the persons belonged to, or from what ancestry they had sprung, whether in Judea or Greece.
Circumcision nor uncircumcision - Nor is their peculiar form of religion of any consideration, whether circumcised like the Jews, or uncircumcised like the heathens.
Barbarian, Scythian - Nor whether of the more or less tractable of the nations of the world; for although knowledge, and the most refined and sublime knowledge, is the object to be attained, yet, under the teaching and influence of the blessed Spirit, the most dull and least informed are perfectly capable of comprehending this Divine science, and b…
The Church Fathers
Now, if we all have one Master, with whom is no respect of persons, since Christ is all and in all, in barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, they ought to consider what they have done, wishing to preserve their own lives. They have drawn their fellow-servants to idolatry who would have been able to escape, had they given to them that which is just and equal, as again says the apostle.
But God will be all in all in the time of restitution; not in the sense that the Father alone will Be; and the Son be wholly resolved into Him, like a torch into a great pyre, from which it was reft away for a little space, and then put back (for I would not have even the Sabellians injured by such an expression); but the entire Godhead, when we shall be no longer divided (as we now are by movements and passions), and containing nothing at all of God, or very little, but shall be entirely like.
They moreover affirm that the Saviour is shown to be derived from all the Aeons, and to be in Himself everything by the following passage: "Every male that openeth the womb." For He, being everything, opened the womb of the enthymesis of the suffering Aeon, when it had been expelled from the Pleroma. This they also style the second Ogdoad, of which we shall speak presently. And they state that it was clearly on this account that Paul said, "And He Himself is all things;" and again, "All things are to Him, and of Him are all things;" and further, "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead;" and yet again, "All things are gathered together by God in Christ." Thus do they interpret these and any like passages to be found in Scripture.
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
Barbarian — A Greek word used in the New Testament (Rom. 1:14) to denote one of another nation. In Col. 3:11, the word more definitely designates those nations of the Roman empire that did not speak Greek. In 1…
Circumcision — Cutting around. This rite, practised before, as some think, by divers races, was appointed by God to be the special badge of his chosen people, an abiding sign of their consecration to him. It was…
Jew — The name derived from the patriarch Judah, at first given to one belonging to the tribe of Judah or to the separate kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 16:6; 25:25; Jer. 32:12; 38:19; 40:11; 41:3), in…
Scythian — The Scythians consisted of “all the pastoral tribes who dwelt to the north of the Black Sea and the Caspian, and were scattered far away toward the east. Of this vast country but little was anciently…
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew,.... That is, either in Christ, after whose image the new man is created; see Galatians 5:6 or in the new man, and with respect to
regeneration; or in the whole business of salvation: it matters not of what nation a man is; this has no influence on his new birth, either to forward or hinder it; for he is never the more a new creature, a regenerate man, and interested in salvation, because he is a Jew, which he may be outwardly, and not inwardly; and he may be born again, though he is a Greek or Gentile, as the Syriac version reads; for God of his own will, and abundant mercy, and not out of respect to nations and persons, begets souls again to a lively h…
Colossians 3:9-13
9. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
9. Ne mentiamini alii diversus alios, postquam exuistis veterem hominem cum actionibus suis:
10. And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
10. Et induistis novum, qui renovatur in agnitionem, secundum imaginem eius, qui creavit eum:
11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
11. Ubi non est Graecus nec Judaeus, circumcisio nec praeputium, barbarus, Scytha, servus, liber: sed omnia et in omnibus Christus.
12. Put on therefore, as th…
barbaric, uncivilized: Literally Barbarian, Scythian. The Greeks mocked people from other cultures for their inability to speak Greek well, claiming they could only say “bar bar” (hence the word barbarian). The Scythians were tribes that had settled on the north coast of the Black Sea and were widely viewed as fierce and crude (see Josephus, Against Apion 2.38). All such distinctions do not matter in our relationship with God through Christ.
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).
