Ten Commandments Nailed to the Cross?

It is a common misunderstanding that Col 2:14-17 says that the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross. But that's not what Col 2:14-17 says. Because of the similarity in wording between this passage and the passage in Ephesians chapter 2, we need to look at both, starting with the Ephesians passage. But before getting to that, let's look at the word "ordinances".

The Word "Ordinances"

The word "ordinances" (dogmasin) in v. Col 2:14 is used in the "New Testament" five times, three of which clearly refer to human-uttered decrees, not God-uttered ones, and two of them being found here and in the sister passage of Eph 2:15. In the Greek Septuagint version of the "Old Testament", this word is only used in the book of Daniel, and only to refer to human decrees, not decrees from God. (A different word, dikaioma, is used ten times in the NT, and refers to God-uttered decrees and righteousness.) Paul knew his Greek, and he knew his Greek scriptures, and it seems odd that he would use the word "ordinances" to refer to God-uttered ordinances when it seems to only be used every where else in the scriptures for human-uttered ordinances.

The Ephesians Passage

WEB Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), 12 that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, 20 being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; 21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

If "ordinances" refers to human-uttered decrees rather than God-uttered ones, then Paul is saying here that whatever is abolished is contained in human-uttered decrees.

Whatever was abolished was abolished for the purpose of making one new man out of the two (Jew and Gentile), as well as for the purpose of reconciling that one new man with God. So whatever the hostility is that was abolished, it kept a middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. The God-uttered law of Moses (and/or the Ten Commandments) did not create this separation; in fact, the law repeatedly enjoins the Jew to treat the non-Jew as one of their own.

However, the human-uttered Oral Law of the scribes and Pharisees did create this wall between Jew and non-Jew. Some of their ancient documents refer to this wall as a "fence", and interestingly enough, in the Greek of the phrase "middle wall of separation" is the word for "fence'. When Peter visited the non-Jew, God-fearing Cornelius, he opened the discussion by saying it was not lawful for a Jew to visit a non-Jew, but God had made him to understand that God did not agree with this "law"; this law can not be found in the God-uttered scriptures, but it can be found in the human-uttered Oral Law of the ancient Pharisees.

The "law of commandments contained in ordinances" phrase seems to refer to human-uttered Oral Law that separated Gentile from Jew. God's law never made this separation, but the Pharisees with their traditions did make the separation.

By drawing Gentile believers into the commonwealth of Israel, and making them part of the Israelite family of God, this "fence" no longer applied to them. The Oral Law, with its fence, it's middle wall of separation, is untouched, but the people whom it would have affected is no longer affected by it, because they are no longer foreigners.

So in effect, the division, the hostility, the separation, enforced by these human-uttered ordinances was nailed to the cross, breaking down the middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. It was not a law, either the Oral Law or the Ten Commandments law, which was nailed to the cross, but rather the division between Jew and non-Jew that was nailed to the cross. This nailing is about peace between Jew and non-Jew, and then peace between that united new man and God; it is not about doing away with a legal system. On the cross, Jesus bore our sins against a legal system, not the legal system itself.

The Colossians Passage

WEB Col 2:11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. 15 Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 

The phrase here in Colossians is similar to the phrase in Ephesians, but it turns out to be an ancient Jewish idiom. As many Bible translations now render it, it refers to a "criminal record", a list of the laws we have broken, an "IOU", or a "mortgage debt". The Phillips version, while not at all a literal rendering, colors the meaning in quite nicely: "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".

Conclusion

This passage, Col 2:14-17, is not telling us that the Ten Commandments have been nailed to the cross. It's telling us that that the legal charges against us in a court of law, which normally would be nailed above the head of the person being executed on a cross (as Jesus' "charges" were nailed above his head on his cross - Luke 23:38), were nailed above Jesus' head instead of ours, freeing us from the charges and placing them on him.

The sister passage in Eph 2, also is not telling us that the Ten Commandments have been nailed to the cross. It's telling us that non-Jewish believers in the Messiah are just as Jewish as the native Jews, and that the separation between the two, as contained in human-uttered oral traditions, has been nailed to the cross.

Originally published at: https://kentwest.blogspot.com/2023/07/ten-commandments-nailed-to-cross.html