Creation/Lunar Sabbath Keepers

        WHAT DOES Colossians 2:14 MEAN?

 

Rather than showing disregard for the days God established as holy, Paul's comments in this passage confirm that the Colossian Christians—who were primarily gentiles (Colossians 2:13)—were observing the weekly Sabbath and Holy Days of God more than 30 years after Yahshua’s Christ's death and resurrection. Had they not been observing these days, the heretics would have had no basis for their objections to the eating and drinking aspects—the feasting portion—of the Sabbath and the Holy Days.

Note: Notice it says a "shadow of things to come," not a shadow of things that once was- future tense, not past tense.

5- Were they abolished at Yahshua’s death?  After Christ's crucifixion and all that was nailed to the cross, we read in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 referring to the Day's of Unleavened Bread,

 

 "7: Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:

 8: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

 

Note: Paul instructs the brethren to keep the feast [of Unleavened Bread] with [in addition too] sincerity and truth! This was instructed to believers after Yahshua’s death.

 

Copied below from the booklet: The New Covenant: Does it Abolish God's Laws? What Was 'Wiped Out' by Yahshua the Messiah's Death?

The inadequate and misleading translation of a passage in Colossians 2 in some Bible versions is often used to support the flawed belief that God's law was "wiped out" by Yahshua the Messiah who is improperly alleged to have "taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (using the words of verse 14).

 

The verse in question is Colossians 2:14, which refers to Christ "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

 

“Does this say that God's law was wiped out or nailed to the cross, as many contend?

 

Let us first note that God's law is not something that is "against us." On the contrary, it is “holy, and just and good" (Romans 7:12). Scripture always refers to it being a blessing to humankind (see "God's Law: Is It a Burden or a Blessing?").

 

Christ did indeed take out of the way something that was nailed to His cross; but that something was the second Law that was given Moses, the law that was added because of transgression…. Along with the record of our sins—our transgressions—not God's law.  A careful look at Paul's original wording in the Greek proves this to be true.

The Greek word translated as "having wiped out" or "blotting out" (KJV) or "having canceled" (NASB) in Colossians 2:14 is exaleipho. It means "to wash, or to smear completely . . . to wipe away, wipe off, obliterate" (Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, "blot out").

 

In Acts 3:19 Peter uses this word when he urges his listeners to “repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away" (NIV).

 

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word machah—translated "wipe out" or "blot out" is (like exaleipho) used for trespasses and sins. Isaiah quotes God saying, "I, even I, am He who blots out [machah] your transgressions for my own sake . . ." (Isaiah 43:25; compare Psalm 51:1, 9; Exodus 32:31-33).

This becomes clear as we examine the next phrase that Paul uses in Colossians 2:14.

 

The "handwriting of requirements"; The Romans nailed two things to the cross at the time of Yahshua the Messiah's crucifixion: Yahshua’s Himself and an inscription that He was “king of the Jews"—the charge of treason against Rome for which He was executed. But Paul adds that something else was also (figuratively) nailed to Yahshua’s cross—"the handwriting of requirements that was against us." This was the second Law that was added because of transgression of the first…

The phrase translated "handwriting of requirements" is cheirographon tois dogmasin in the original Greek. This is the only place it appears in the New Testament.

The Freiberg Lexicon explains cheirographon dogma as a "strictly handwritten document; in legal matters a promissory note, record of indebtedness, bond; figuratively in [Colossians] 2.14 not as the law itself, but as the record of charges . . .which stood against us and which God symbolically removed by 'nailing it to the cross'" (Bible Works software, emphasis added).

Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words further explain: "This means a memorandum of debt, 'a writing by hand' used in public and private contracts, and it is a technical word in the Greek papyri. A large number of ancient notes of hand have been published and of these Dr. Deissmann says, 'a stereotyped formula in these documents is the promise to pay back the borrowed money, "I will repay"; and they all are in the debtor's own hand, or, if he could not write, in the handwriting of another acting for him, with the express remark, "I have written for him"'. . .

"In the famous Florentine papyrus of A.D. 85, the governor of Egypt gives this order in the course of a trial,—'Let the hand-writing be crossed out,' which corresponds to the 'blotting out the hand-writing' of Colossians 2:14" (Graham Scroggie, forward to Vine's, Logos Library System, 1997).

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament adds: "The point of the metaphor of the note of indebtedness is rather to underline the previous statement . . . [that] God has forgiven sins; He has canceled the note of indebtedness by taking it and fixing it to the cross of Christ" (Gerhard Kittel, 1995, Vol. 9, p. 436, emphasis added).

The language of Paul's time associates this word with a handwritten legal debt or a penalty owed, not with God's law.

The last word we'll examine is "requirements" as used in "handwriting of requirements." The Greek word used here is dogmasin, which denotes "an opinion, (a public) decree" (Robert Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries, 1999). This expression was used of an official handwritten sentence or charge against someone for breaking a law. Thus the New Living Translation renders this verse as: "He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. (this was the second Law given to Moses after the transgression) He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to the Messiah’s cross."

The Contemporary English Translation translates this verse as: "God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross."

The New Testament in Modern English reads: "Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross."

What happened at the crucifixion?
A good way to visualize this is to consider a detail of what happened at Christ's crucifixion: "And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: THIS IS YAHSHUA THE KING OF THE JEWS"

 

(Matthew 27:37). The New Living Translation says: "A signboard was fastened to the cross above Yahshua’s' head, announcing the charge against him."

Jewish religious leaders accused Yahshua of having ambitions to replace Caesar as king of the Jews. Their precise charge before Pilate was, "Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar" (John 19:12).
This explains Pilate's question to Yahshua, "Are You the King of the Jews?" (Matthew 27:11). When Yahshua refused to defend Himself, Pilate consented to the charge brought to him by the leaders of the Jews and nailed it to Christ's cross at His crucifixion.

The handwritten decree that Pilate nailed above Christ's head stated publicly the official charge for which Yahshua was crucified. It falsely implied that Yahshua was guilty of committing treason against Caesar. Therefore, Yahshua was officially executed as a transgressor. That charge was false. But by accepting the death penalty for that false charge He became the substitute sin bearer for the legitimate charges that God has against us. He "wiped out" the charges that require our death for our transgressions by taking those charges on Himself. In so doing, He made possible the forgiveness of sin (Colossians 2:13).