Irenaeus — Commentary on Scripture

Colossians 1:14

Plainly indicating one God, who did by the prophets make promise of the Son, and one Jesus Christ our Lord, who was of the seed of David according to His birth from Mary; and that Jesus Christ was appointed the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, as being the first begotten in all the creation;.
By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins."

Against Heresies Book V

Colossians 1:16

The rule of truth which we hold, is, that there is one God Almighty, who made all things by His Word, and fashioned and formed, out of that which had no existence, all things which exist. Thus saith the Scripture, to that effect "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the might of them, by the spirit of His mouth." And again, "All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." There is no exception or deduction stated; but the Father made all things by Him, whether visible or invisible, objects of sense or of intelligence, temporal, on account of a certain character given them, or eternal; and these eternal things He did not make by angels, or by any powers separated from His Ennoea.

Against Heresies Book 1.22.1

Colossians 1:16

This being was endowed with all power by the Father, who placed everything under his authority, the Aeons doing so likewise, so that "by him were all things, visible and invisible, created, thrones, divinities, dominions." He then was sent to her along with his contemporary angels.

(Reporting Valentinian Views) Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 1

Colossians 1:18

Then, at last, He came on to death itself, that He might be "the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence".
and that He might have the pre-eminence over those things which are under the earth, He Himself being made "the first-begotten of the dead; "

Against Heresies Book II

Colossians 1:21

And for this cause the apostle, in the Epistle to the Colossians, says, "And though ye were formerly alienated, and enemies to His knowledge by evil works, yet now ye have been reconciled in the body of His flesh, through His death, to present yourselves holy and chaste, and without fault in His sight."

Against Heresies Book V

Colossians 2:9

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.

(Reporting Valentinian Views) Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 1

Colossians 2:11

These things, then, were given for a sign; but the signs were not unsymbolical, that is, neither unmeaning nor to no purpose, inasmuch as they were given by a wise Artist; but the circumcision after the flesh typified that after the Spirit. For "we "says the apostle, "have been circumcised with the circumcision made without hands."

Against Heresies Book IV

Colossians 2:14

Now those oblations are not according to the law, the handwriting of which the Lord took away from the midst by cancelling it; but they are according to the Spirit, for we must worship God "in spirit and in truth." And therefore the oblation of the Eucharist is not a carnal one, but a spiritual; and in this respect it is pure.

Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, Fragment XXXVII

Colossians 2:14

And therefore David said beforehand, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin;" pointing out thus that remission of sins which follows upon His advent, by which "He has destroyed the handwriting" of our debt, and "fastened it to the cross;" so that as by means of a tree we were made debtors to God, [so also] by means of a tree we may obtain the remission of our debt.

Against Heresies Book 5.17.3

Colossians 2:16

The apostles ordained, that "we should not judge any one in respect to meat or drink, or in regard to a feast day, or the new moons, or the sabbaths." Whence then these contentions? whence these schisms? We keep the feast, but in the leaven of malice and wickedness, cutting in pieces the Church of God; and we preserve what belongs to its exterior, that we may cast away these better things, faith and love. We have heard from the prophetic words that these feasts and fasts are displeasing to the Lord.

Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus

Colossians 2:18

True knowledge, then, consists in the understanding of Christ, which Paul terms the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which "the natural man receiveth not," the doctrine of the cross; of which if any man "taste," he will not accede to the disputations and quibbles of proud and puffed-up men, who go into matters of which they have no perception. For the truth is unsophisticated; and "the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart," as the same apostle declares, being easy of comprehension to those who are obedient. For it renders us like to Christ, if we experience "the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings."

Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus

Colossians 2:19

-this man will first of all "hold the head, from which the whole body is compacted and bound together, and, through means of every joint according to the measure of the ministration of each several part, maketh increase of the body to the edification of itself in love.".
by His blood; and "holding the Head, from which the whole body of the Church, having been fitted together, takes increase"

Against Heresies Book IV

Colossians 3:5

This same, therefore, was what the Lord came to quicken, that as in Adam we do all die, as being of an animal nature, in Christ we may all live, as being spiritual, not laying aside God's handiwork, but the lusts of the flesh, and receiving the Holy Spirit; as the apostle says in the Epistle to the Colossians: "Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth." And what these are he himself explains: "Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence; and covetousness, which is idolatry." The laying aside of these is what the apostle preaches; and he declares that those who do such things, as being merely flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 5

Colossians 3:9

, "earthly"], which, when the apostle commands us to lay aside, he says in the same Epistle, "Cast ye off the old man with his deeds."

Against Heresies Book V

Colossians 3:10

For what other visible fruit is there of the invisible Spirit, than the rendering of the flesh mature and capable of in corruption? If then

Against Heresies Book V

Colossians 3:11

And they state that it was clearly on this account that Paul said, "And He Himself is all things; "

Against Heresies Book I

Colossians 4:14

From this he shows that he was always attached to and inseparable from him. And again he says, in the Epistle to the Colossians: "Luke, the beloved physician, greets you."

Against Heresies Book III