Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 179:714 (Apr 2022)
Article: “Renewed Unto Knowledge”: The Restoration Of The Image Of God In Colossians 3:9–10
Author: Eric R. Montgomery

BSac 179:714 (April-June 2022) p. 201

“Renewed Unto Knowledge”: The Restoration Of The Image Of God In Colossians 3:9–10

Eric R. Montgomery

Eric R. Montgomery is Professor of Biblical Studies, the International Graduate School of Leadership, Manila, Philippines.

Abstract

This study examines the words “renewed unto knowledge according to the image” in Colossians 3:10, and it seeks to answer two questions: what did Paul mean by “renewed unto knowledge,” and what is the relationship between knowledge and the image of God? It argues that Paul utilized a well-known Jewish creation tradition in Colossians 3:9–10 to demonstrate that Jesus, as the image of God, is the fullness of divine wisdom and that the Colossian believers are progressively becoming images of God like Jesus as they grow in their knowledge of Christ.

Introduction

In Colossians 3:9–10, Paul1 exhorts his audience by saying, “Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man together with his practices and have put on the new [man], the one being renewed unto knowledge according to the image of the one who created him”2 (μὴ ψεύδεσθε εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἀπεκδυσάμενοι τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐνδυσάμενοι τὸν νέον τὸν ἀνακαινούμενον εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν κατ’ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν). The focus of this article is the phrase in verse 10: τὸν ἀνακαινούμενον εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν κατ’ εἰκόνα (“the one being renewed unto knowledge according to the image”). This study will answer two questions about this phrase: (1) What did Paul mean by ἀνακαινούμενον

BSac 179:714 (April-June 2022) p. 202

εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν (“renewed unto knowledge”) and (2) What is the relationship between knowledge and the image of God?

While most interpreters have observed that the terms “knowledge” and “image” in 3:10 are both related to a believer’s “renewal,” scholars have seldom connected the two words with each other in a convincing manner that makes sense wi...