Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Ye were also circumcised (kai perietmhqhte). First aorist passive indicative of peritemnw, to circumcise. But used here as a metaphor in a spiritual sense as in Romans 2:29 "the circumcision of the heart."
Not made with hands (axeiropoihtw). This late and rare negative compound verbal occurs only in the N.T. (Mark 14:58; II Corinthians 5:1; Colossians 2:11) by merely adding a privative to the old verbal xeiropoihtov (Acts 7:48; Ephesians 2:11), possibly first in Mark 14:58 where both words occur concerning the temple. In II Corinthians 5:1 the reference is to the resurrection body. The feminine form of this compound adjective is the same as the masculine.
In the putting off (en th apekdusei). As if an old garment (the fleshly body). From apekduomai (Colossians 2:15, possibly also coined by Paul) and occurring nowhere else so far as known. The word is made in a perfectly normal way by the perfective use of the two Greek prepositions (apo, ek), "a resource available for and generally used by any real thinker writing Greek" (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary). Paul had as much right to mint a Greek compound as any one and surely no one ever had more ideas to express and more power in doing it.
Of Christ (tou Xristou). Specifying genitive, the kind of circumcision that belongs to Christ, that of the heart.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Colossians 2:11:
Mark 14:58
Romans 2:29
2 Corinthians 5:1
Ephesians 2:11
Philippians 3:3
Colossians 1:22
Colossians 2:11
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