Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 42:1 (NA 1991)
Article: The Pattern Of Christ’s Sufferings: Colossians 1:24 And Philippians 3:10-11
Author: Andrew Perriman

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TynBul 42:1 (1991) p. 62

The Pattern Of Christ’s Sufferings: Colossians 1:24 And Philippians 3:10-11

Andrew Perriman

There are two passages in the corpus of Paul’s letters where he speaks explicitly and personally about his sharing in the sufferings of Christ, viz. Colossians 1:24 and Philippians 3:10-11. It is the suggestion of this essay that they have not been properly understood. In each case the difficulties for commentators have focused on an apparent and particular anomaly. How can Paul speak in Colossians 1:24 of making up the deficit of Christ’s afflictions? And why, in Philippians 3:11, does his expectation of coming to the resurrection of the dead suddenly become so uncertain? The purpose of the present exegetical investigation is to show how these anomalies might be resolved and how that resolution would then point towards a more distinctive attitude on Paul’s part towards his own suffering and death than most commentators have allowed for.1

I. Colossians 1:24

A recurrent peculiarity of the exegetical history of Colossians 1:24 is the displacement of the words ‘in my flesh’. To cite one of the more recent examples, P.T. O’Brien shifts the phrase to the beginning. Whereas the Greek reads, καὶ ἀνταναπληρῶ τὰ ὑστερήματα τῶν θλίψεων τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου ὑπὲρ τῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ, his ‘literal’ translation reads ‘And in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body. . .’.2 This tendency to associate the

TynBul 42:1 (1991) p. 63

phrase with ἀνταναπληρῶ points to one of the main reasons why commentators have taken a particular interpretation of this verse, supposing that the distinction Paul makes here is between those ‘afflictions of Christ’ that have occurred or will occur outside his own person and those which he proposes to undergo in his own flesh. The position of ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου however, suggests that a different interpretation is more probable, according to which the distinction educed by ἀνταναπληρῶ falls entirely within Paul’s experience, between those ‘afflictions of Christ’ which he has already...

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