Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
For in him dwelleth all the fullness - This is opposed to the vain or empty doctrine of the Gentile and Jewish philosophers: there is a fullness in Christ suited to the empty, destitute state of the human soul, but in the philosophy of the Jews and Gentiles nothing like this was found; nor indeed in the more refined and correct philosophy of the present day. No substitute has ever been found for the grace of the Lord Jesus, and those who have sought for one have disquieted themselves in vain.
By the Godhead or Deity, , we are to understand the state or being of the Divine nature; and by the fullness of that Deity, the infinite attributes essential to such a nature.
Bodily - signifies truly, really; in opposition to typically, figuratively. There was a symbol of the Divine presence in the Hebrew tabernacle, and in the Jewish temple; but in the body of Christ the Deity, with all its plenitude of attributes, dwelt really and substantially: for so the word means; and so it was understood by the ancient Greek fathers, as is fully shown by Suicer, in his Thesaurus, under the word.
"The fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ ' bodily,' as opposed to the Jewish tabernacle, or temple; truly and really, in opposition to types and figures; not only effectively, as God dwells in good men, but substantially or personally, by the strictest union, as the soul dwells in the body; so that God and man are one Christ." See Parkhurst.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Genesis 3:22
Exodus 3:2
2 Corinthians 5:19
Ephesians 1:23
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