πεπληρωμένοι] ‘being fulfilled’, with a direct reference to the preceding πλήρωμα; ‘Your fulness comes from His fulness; His πλήρωμα is transfused into you by virtue of your incorporation in Him’. So too John i. 16 ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἐλάβομεν, Ephes. iii. 19 ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ, iv. 13 εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, comp. Ign. Ephes. init. τῇ εὐλογημένῃ ἐν μεγέθει Θεοῦ πατρὸς πληρώματι. Hence also the Church, as ideally regarded, is called the πλήρωμα of Christ, because all His graces and energies are communicated to her; Ephes. i. 23 ἥτις ἐστὶν τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ, τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν πληρουμένου.
ὅς] For the various reading ὅ see the detached note. It was perhaps a correction made on the false supposition that ἐν αὐτῷ referred to the πλήρωμα. At all events it must be regarded as an impossible reading; for the image would be altogether confused and lost, if the πλήρωμα were represented as the head. And again ἡ κεφαλὴ is persistently said elsewhere of Christ; i. 18, ii. 19, Ephes. i. 22, iv. 15, v. 23. Hilary de Trin. ix. 8 (II. p. 264) explains the ὅ as referring to the whole sentence τὸ εἶναι ἐν αὐτῷ πεπληρωμένους, but this also is an inconceivable sense. Again it has been suggested that ὅ ἐστιν (like τουτέστιν) may be taken as equivalent to scilicet (comp. Clem. Hom. viii. 22); but this would require τῇ κεφαλῇ, even if it were otherwise admissible here.
II. 11]
[← ] ἐξουσίας· 11ἐν ᾧ καὶ περιετμήθητε περιτομῇ ἀχειροποιήτῳ, [ →]
ἡ κεφαλὴ] The image expresses much more than the idea of sovereignty: the head is also the centre of vital force, the source of all energy and life: see the note on ver. 19.
πάσης ἀρχῆς κ.τ.λ.] ‘of every principality and power’, and therefore of those angelic beings whom the false teachers adopted as mediators, thus transferring to the inferior members the allegiance due to the Head: comp. ver. 18 sq. For ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας, see the note on i. 16.
11. The previous verses have dealt with the theological tenets of the false teachers. The Apostle now turns to their practical errors; ‘You do not need the circumcision of the flesh; for you have received the circumcision of the heart. The distinguishing features of this higher circumcision are threefold. (1) It is not external but inward, not made with hands but wrought by the Spirit. (2) It divests not of a part only of the flesh, but of the whole body of carnal affections. (3) It is the circumcision not of Moses or of the patriarchs, but of Christ’. Thus it is distinguished, as regards first its character, secondly its extent, and thirdly its author.
περιετμήθητε] The moment at which this is conceived as taking place is defined by the other aorists, συνταφέντες, συνηγέρθητε, etc., as the time of their baptism, when they ‘put on Christ’.
ἀχειροποιήτῳ] i.e. ‘immaterial’, ‘spiritual’, as Mark xiv. 58, 2 Cor. v. 1. So χειροποίητος, which is used in the N. T. of material temples and their furniture (Acts vii. 48, xvii. 24, Heb. ix. 11, 24, comp. Mark l.c.), and of the material circumcision (Ephes. ii. 11 τῆς λεγομένης περιτομῆς ἐν σαρκὶ χειροποιήτου). In the LXX χειροποίητα occurs exclusively as a rendering of idols (אלילם, e.g. Lev. xxvi. 1, Is. ii. 18, etc.), false gods (אלהים Is. xxi. 9, where perhaps they read אלילים), or images (חמנים Lev. xxvi. 30), except in one passage, Is. xvi. 12, where it is applied to an idol’s sanctuary. Owing to this association of the word the application which we find in the New Testament would sound much more depreciatory to Jewish ears than it does to our own; e.g. ἐν χειροποιήτοις κατοικεῖ in St Stephen’s speech, where the force of the passage is broken in the received text by the interpolation of ναοῖς.