Awakening - Part 3

Colossians 3:11–12 declares that distinctions are dissolved because the Messiah now holds the dominion once exercised by the Sons of God and therefore governs both Jews and Gentiles as one renewed humanity.

Paul builds toward this climax in two parallel streams.

Five Jewish Elements Leading to the Climax

1. Inheritance language placed in the Son (1:12–14)

2. The Image of God revealed in the Messiah (1:15)

3. Circumcision redefined as participation in the Messiah’s dominion-death (2:11–12)

4. Torah accusations annulled by the dominion-transfer at the cross (2:14–15)

5. Jewish sacred times are fine under Messiah (2:16–17)

The phrase meris tou klērou (share of the inheritance) invokes Israel’s traditional land and tribal inheritance. Paul shifts that inheritance into the kingdom of the beloved Son. For Jews, dominion is no longer tied to ethnicity but to union with the Messiah. This removes the covenantal advantage that later dissolves in 3:11.

2. The Image of God restored in the Messiah (1:15)

For Jews, Adam and Israel were the appointed imagers of God. When Paul calls Christ eikōn tou theou, he relocates that vocation into the Messiah alone. As the true image, Christ receives the dominion Adam lost (Genesis 1:26–28). This prepares 3:10 where the new humanity is being renewed into that same image.

3. Circumcision redefined as participation in the Messiah’s dominion-death (2:11–12)

Paul uses peritomē acheiropoiētos. This is explicitly Jewish-coded. By linking circumcision to Christ’s death and resurrection, Paul shows that true covenant identity is now grounded in the ruler who has received dominion over nations and cosmic powers. Thus, Jewish identity markers cannot survive in 3:11.

4. Torah accusations annulled by the dominion-transfer at the cross (2:14–15)

Paul says Christ stripped the rulers and authorities (archai kai exousiai) and displayed them publicly. This is dominion language. The Messiah has taken authority from the heavenly beings who governed Israel’s oppressors and the Gentile nations. Because of this dominion-shift, Torah can no longer serve as the boundary separating Jews from Gentiles.

5. Jewish sacred times lose defining power under the Messiah’s rule (2:16–17)

Terms like sabbaton, heortē, noumēnia mark Israel’s covenantal rhythms. Paul says these are shadows of the sōma tou Christou, the embodiment found in the Messiah. Since the Messiah now rules the nations (dominion transfer), Jewish calendar distinctions cannot determine rank within the new humanity. This readies the statement that circumcision and uncircumcision do not matter (3:11).

Five Gentile Elements Leading to the Climax

6. Gentile dominions displaced by the Messiah’s cosmic rule (1:16–17)

7. Gentiles reconciled from the rule of hostile cosmic powers (1:21–22)

8. Freedom from Gentile elemental rulers (2:8)

9. The defeat and disarmament of the cosmic powers at the cross (2:15)

10. The stripping off of the Gentile “old humanity” tied to cosmic powers (3:5–10)

Paul names the cosmic rulers: thronoi, kyriotētes, archai, exousiai. These are the dominion-holding beings of Deut 32 and Daniel 10. By stating that all things were created in and through Christ, Paul is declaring that the Messiah has received legal dominion over all those beings and therefore over all nations. This prepares for the removal of Greek superiority (3:11).

7. Gentiles reconciled from the rule of hostile cosmic powers (1:21–22)

Paul describes Gentiles as once apallotriōmenoi (alienated) and under hostile thinking. This aligns with the nations assigned to the Sons of God who led them astray (Psalm 82). Christ’s reconciling death rescues Gentiles from their former celestial administrators. This prepares 3:11 where barbarian and Scythian distinctions cannot remain.

8. Freedom from Gentile elemental rulers (2:8)

Paul warns against stoicheia tou kosmou, the “elemental powers” connected in ancient worldview to planetary, astral, and national powers. Gentiles once lived under these supernatural dominions. Christ has now overridden their authority. Therefore Gentile philosophical or mystical systems cannot provide identity within the Messiah’s kingdom.

9. The defeat and disarmament of the cosmic powers at the cross (2:15)

Paul says Christ apekdysamenos (stripped) the archai and exousiai. This is direct dominion-transfer language. He seized the authority they once governed with. Since Gentiles were under these powers, their ethnic, national, or spiritual distinctions have no place in the new humanity. Thus Greek identity must dissolve in 3:11.

10. The stripping off of the Gentile “old humanity” tied to cosmic powers (3:5–10)

Paul’s vice list uses categories common in Greco-Roman moral philosophy. Gentiles once embodied the values of their cosmic rulers. Now they have taken off the palaios anthrōpos (old humanity), the humanity formed under the failed dominion of the Sons of God. This sets up the creation of a single new humanity in Christ, which reaches its climax in 3:11–12.

Integrating Dominion into the Climax (3:11–12)

The logic of Colossians is this:

• Israel lost dominion through rebellion and exile to the Gentiles • Gentiles lived under dominion of hostile heavenly rulers • Christ has inherited the dominion of the heavens and the earth • Christ has taken the dominion once held by the Sons of God • Christ now exercises dominion over all nations and all cosmic powers

Therefore:

There cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian or Scythian, slave or free. Christ is all and in all. (Col 3:11)

Paul is intentionally stacking terms in increasing degrees of cultural distance and perceived inferiority from a first century Mediterranean perspective.

Gentile (Ἕλλην, “Greek”)

In Colossians the word used is Ἕλλην. It does not simply mean “Gentile” in a general sense. It means Greek-speaking, culturally Hellenized, educated, civilized non-Jew.

To a Jew in Paul’s world, there were two big categories: • Jew • Greek (everyone else who was part of the Greco-Roman cultural sphere)

To a Greek, however, this term meant something narrower: • A Greek was a person who shared the language, philosophy, education, literature, cities, and social refinement of the Hellenistic world.

In short: Greek = the highest status non-Jewish people group in the Mediterranean world.

Barbarian (βάρβαρος)

The term barbarian does not mean “violent person.” In Greek usage it meant a person who does not speak Greek.

The word imitates the sound of unintelligible speech: Greek speakers said foreign language sounded like “bar-bar-bar,” so they coined the term barbaros.

A barbarian was: • a foreigner • non-Greek-speaking • culturally unrefined • outside the philosophical and educational world of the Greeks

In the Greco-Roman worldview: Barbarian = outsider to Greek speech and culture, lower status than Greek.

This included people like: • Thracians • Gauls • Germans • Libyans • Phoenicians • Egyptians and many others.

They were not inferior in Paul’s mind, but they were viewed that way in the surrounding culture.

Scythian (Σκύθης)

The Scythian was viewed as the lowest category of all. A Scythian was a member of the nomadic tribes from the Black Sea region and the Asian steppes.

The Greeks and Romans stereotyped Scythians as: • uncivilized • violent • nomadic • the furthest edge of the known world • outside all social norms • outside philosophy • outside education • outside political order

To a Greek writer: Scythian = the extreme example of “the most uncivilized human beings we know of.”

They represented the farthest possible cultural and social “distance” from Greek civilization.

Why Paul uses all three

Paul stacks the terms intentionally:

Greek the highest status Gentile

Barbarian the non-Greek-speaking outsider to civilization

Scythian the human being considered least civilized and furthest from Greek culture

He uses these three to say:

In the Messiah, every cultural hierarchy collapses. From the most respected non-Jewish position (Greek) to the middle outsider (barbarian) to the extreme outsider (Scythian) every dividing line is erased.

This lines up perfectly with dominion reading.

By placing Christ above the cosmic rulers, Paul shows that Christ also collapses all earthly ranking systems, whether Jewish (circumcision) or Gentile (Greek superiority).

In other words:

The dominion-shift creates a new humanity where the Messiah alone defines identity. All other dominions and distinctions collapse. This is what Colossians 3:11–12 is summing up.

The Most Logical Conclusion

“Christ is all and in all” means that the Messiah alone defines the identity and worth of every member of the new humanity, because he now holds the dominion once exercised by both earthly hierarchies and heavenly rulers.

In other words:

Christ is the only legitimate source of status. Christ is the only legitimate boundary. Christ is the only legitimate life that fills the people of God.

Everything else is dismantled.

This is not a statement of universal salvation. It is a statement of covenantal identity and dominion transfer.

Why this is the correct reading within Paul’s argument

Paul has just spent two full chapters dismantling every system of human or cosmic ranking:

• Jewish religious privilege (circumcision, sabbath, festivals) • Gentile cultural privilege (Greek superiority) • Barbarian inferiority • Scythian extreme inferiority • Social class superiority (slave, free) • Cosmic heavenly rulers (archai, exousiai, kyriotētes) • Earthly rulers who claimed divine authority • The dominion of the elemental spirits • The dominion the Sons of God exercised over the nations

In this world, identity was not personal. Identity was assigned by dominion. Your group determined your worth.

Paul is making a single, radical claim:

All dominion has been transferred to the Messiah. Therefore no dominion-based hierarchy remains.

Because he is:

• the Image (1:15) • the Creator (1:16) • the Sustainer (1:17) • the Head (1:18) • the Firstborn from the dead (1:18) • the one in whom all the divine fullness dwells (1:19) • the reconciler of heaven and earth (1:20) • the ruler over the powers and principalities (2:10, 2:15)

Therefore:

Christ is all meaning he is the sole measure of value, status, identity, purpose, and authority.

Christ is in all meaning he now fills all members of the renewed humanity with the same life and status, regardless of previous ranking.

This is covenantal and ecclesial, not metaphysical universalism.

What Paul is actually saying

Paul is declaring:

Within the people of the Messiah, no human category has ruling power. No culture has superiority. No nation has priority. No cosmic power has claim. Christ alone defines who you are.

Therefore in the body of Messiah:

• Jews do not outrank Greeks • Greeks do not outrank barbarians • Barbarians do not outrank Scythians • Scythians are not beneath anyone • The free do not outrank slaves • The educated do not outrank the uneducated • The cosmically empowered beings no longer outrank any nation • The former cosmic dominion over the nations is over • The Messiah fills everyone with the same life and identity

The phrase in one sentence

Paul means that within the covenant people, the Messiah alone is the identity, life, and authority of every believer, so that every hierarchy of ethnicity, culture, social rank, and cosmic dominion is abolished.

That is the climax of the letter up to 3:11–12.

At Babel (Gen 11):

• God scattered the nations • God divided humanity • God assigned them to spiritual rulers

In Colossians 3:11:

• Christ unifies the nations • Christ dissolves the divisions • Christ takes dominion over all peoples

Thus:

Christ is all and in all means The Messiah now holds the dominion of every nation, so every human distinction created by the Babel judgment is undone within his people.

Having donned the new man, who is renewed in full knowledge, according to the image of the one creating him, where there is no Greek and Judaean, Circumcision and Foreskin, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman; rather, the Anointed (Christ) is all things and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on inward compassion, goodheartedness, humility, gentleness, magnanimity, upholding one another and forgiving one another if anyone should have a complaint against anyone just as the Lord [Anointed] forgave you, so you also. (Col 3:10-17)

Above all of these, love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the Anointed’s peace rule in your hearts, to which you were indeed called in one body; and become thankful. Let the word of the Anointed dwell within you richly, teaching and admonishing each other in all wisdom, in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing in grace within your hearts to God; and everything you do whatsoever, in word or in deed, do all things in Lord Jesus’s name, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3:10-17)

Awakening - Part 3