Oecumenius likely was active in the late 10th century and ministered in the city of Trikka, in modern Greece. He is mostly known for his commentaries. His commentaries on the Pauline Epistles can be found in Staab’s 1933 work, Pauluskommentare aus der Griechischen Kirche aus Katenenhandschriften gesammelt und herausgegeben.
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[453]
Col 1,13
“Of the Son of his love,” a periphrasis for “of the beloved Son.”
Col 1,15
Some, having been led astray by the icons (εἰκόνων) among us, which are [made] from wood and wax, have thought the same concerning the Son of God. Just as…
[454]
…these, they say, preserve the form and likeness (ὁμοίωμα) of a man, but not the nature or substance (οὐσίαν), so also is the Son to the Father. This impiety is Arian, but to those who say this, one must oppose the passage in Genesis chapter 5, where it says: “Adam begot [a son] according to his image.” For it is much more fitting to accept for “image” what the scripture says concerning the son and father of men—since the present subject also pertains to the Father and Son of God—than to apply the idea of an image (εἰκόνος) made of wood and wax, which is not properly an image, but is called so by a misuse of language.
Col 1,19
Not relatively but essentially, as a soul in a body—not by becoming a soul for the body, but by being united in an ensouled body in the way a soul is united to a body.
Col 1,27
Christ, he says, is the wealth of the mystery. Therefore, believe that you are brought near through him, as he is in you through faith, through whom, he says, we hope to attain eternal glory.
Col 2,5
He says this at once praising them and hinting that faith, in the proper sense, is that which has certainty and stability.
Col 2,9
Let us conceive of something like what happens with light. But every image and every paradigm falls short of the truth; for how could sensible things signify divine things? Nevertheless, it must be said: just as the first-created light, being bodiless and immaterial in the beginning, was mixed into the solar body and became in a way embodied, yet even being in it, it is not confined or prevented from illuminating all things, so also God the Word, who was fleshless in the beginning, having become flesh, is not prevented from being united to the flesh hypostatically and not being enclosed in it, but fills all things. And for this reason, I think, the Lord calls himself light, and Malachi called him the sun of righteousness, and furthermore, the…
[455]
…psalmist says: “Fire fell upon them, and they did not see the sun.”
Or understand “bodily” as “enfleshed”; for having dwelt, he says, he does not move away again, but was enfleshed, henceforth having one nature with his own flesh, even if it was composed of two contraries.
Col 2,11
But see: sometimes he speaks of the circumcision of the Spirit, sometimes of Christ; for he knows one work and one energy of the Holy Trinity.
Col 2,13
Circumcision removes the superfluous, as the foreskin has the superfluous part. You too, he says, were therefore superfluous, doing things that were not fitting; for everything outside of what is proper is superfluous. Therefore, being dead in sins on account of your inaction toward the good, and being uncircumcised, he both circumcised you spiritually and made you alive.
Christ from sensible death, but you from both the sensible and the spiritual death of sins. But do not be amazed if he says the Father made Christ alive; for it is also said elsewhere that he raised himself; for the things that happen are common to the Father and the Son and the Spirit.
Col 3,17
Both “through him” and “with him” are well said; the one because he is equal and consubstantial with the Father, the other because he deigned to become our mediator and high priest, when the Word became flesh according to the scripture.
Col 3,20
Apart from things that lead to impiety.
Epilogue of Colossians
Not having found the paragraphs of the blessed John on the Epistle to the Colossians well-preserved in the copy, I wrote them down as I was able. If, therefore, anything is found in them that is either trivial or objectionable, let the reader know that such a fault is my own.
Greek Text
Source Link: https://archive.org/details/MN41481ucmf_2/page/n509/mode/2up
p. 453
Kol 1,13
Τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἀγάπης, περιφραστικῶς τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ υἱοῦ.
Kol 1,15
Τινὲς ἐκ τῶν εἰκόνων τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν πλανηθέντες, αἱ εἰσιν ἀπὸ σανίδων καὶ κηροῦ, οὕτως ἐνόμισαν καὶ περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ. ὥσπερ
p. 454
γάρ, φασίν, αὗται εἶδος μὲν καὶ ὁμοίωμα σώζουσιν ἀνθρώπου, οὐ μὴν φύσιν ἢ οὐσίαν, οὕτω καὶ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ πατρός. Ἀρειανικὸν δὲ τὸ δυσσέβημα ἀλλὰ τοῖς τοῦτο λέγουσιν ἀντιθετέον τὸ κείμενον ἐν τῇ Γενέσει τῇ η΄, ὅτι φησίν· ὁ Ἀδὰμ ἐγέννησε κατὰ τὴν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ· πολὺ γὰρ ἁρμοδιώτερον ἐκεῖνα δέξασθαι περὶ εἰκόνος ὅσα ἡ γραφή φησι περὶ υἱοῦ καὶ πατρὸς ἀνθρώπων, ἐπειδὴ καὶ τὸ προκείμενον θεώρημα εἰς πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν θεοῦ ἀνήκει, ἢ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀπὸ ξύλου καὶ κηροῦ εἰκόνος, ἥτις οὐκ ἔστι μὲν κυρίως, λέγεται δὲ καταχρηστικῶς εἰκών.
Kol 1, 19
Οὐ σχετικῶς ἀλλ᾽ οὐσιωδῶς ὡς ψυχὴ ἐν σώματι, οὐ ψυχὴ γενόμενος τῷ σώματι, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν σώματι ἐψυχωμένῳ ἑνωθεὶς ὃν τρόπον ἑνοῦται ψυχὴ σώματι.
Kol 1,27
Ὃς πλοῦτος μυστηρίου ἐστίν, φησίν, ὁ Χριστός. δι αὐτοῦ τοιγαροῦν καὶ πιστεύετε προσάγεσθαι ὡς ἐν ὑμῖν ὄντος διὰ τῆς πίστεως, δι οὗ, φησίν, ἐλπίζομεν τῆς αἰωνίου δόξης τυχεῖν.
Kol 2,5
Τοῦτο δέ φησιν ἅμα μὲν ἐγκωμιάζων, ἅμα δὲ αἰνιττόμενος ἐκείνην · εἶναι κυρίως πίστιν τὴν τὸ βέβαιον καὶ τὸ σταθερὸν ἔχουσαν.
Kol 2,9
Τοιοῦτόν τι γεγενῆσθαι νοήσωμεν ὅπερ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ φωτός. ἐλαττοῦται δὲ πᾶσα εἰκὼν καὶ ἅπαν παράδειγμα τῆς ἀληθείας· πῶς γὰρ ἂν τὰ αἰσθητὰ διασημαίνει τὰ θεῖα; πλὴν λεκτέον· ὥσπερ τὸ πρωτόγονον φῶς ἐν ἀρχῇ ἀσώματον καὶ ἄϋλον ὑπάρχον ἐνεκράθη τῷ ἡλιακῷ σώματι καὶ γέγονε τρόπον τινὰ ἐνσώματον, πλὴν καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ ὑπάρχον οὐ περιείργεται οὔτε κωλύεται καταφωτίζειν τὰ πάντα, οὕτω καὶ ὁ ἐν ἀρχῇ ἄσαρκος θεὸς λόγος σαρκωθεὶς οὐ κωλύεται καὶ σαρκὶ ἡνῶσθαι καθ᾽ ὑπόστασιν καὶ μὴ συγκεκλεῖσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ, ἀλλὰ τὰ πάντα πληροῖ. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, οἶμαι, αὐτός τε ἑαυτὸν ὁ κύριος φῶς ὀνομάζει καὶ ὁ Μαλαχίας αὐτὸν ἥλιον κέκληκεν δικαιοσύνης, ἔτι δὲ καὶ ὁ
p. 455
ψαλμώδης λέγει· ἔπεσε πῦρ ἐπ᾿ αὐτούς, καὶ οὐκ εἶδον τὸν ἥλιον.
Ἢ σωματικῶς νόει οἷον σεσαρκωμένος· οὐ γὰρ οἰκήσας, φησί, πάλιν μετοικεῖ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐσαρκώθη μίαν λοιπὸν μετὰ τῆς ἰδίας σαρκὸς φύσιν ἔχων, κἂν ἐκ δύο συνέστη τῶν ἐναντίων.
Kol 2,11
Ὅρα δέ· ποτὲ πνεύματος, ποτὲ Χριστοῦ τὴν περιτομὴν λέγει· ἓν γὰρ ἔργον καὶ μίαν ἐνέργειαν τῆς ἁγίας οἶδε τριάδος.
Kol 2, 13
Ἡ περιτομὴ τὸ περιττὸν διαιρεῖ, ὡς τῆς ἀκροβυστίας τὸ περιττὸν ἐχούσης. περιττοὶ οὖν, φησίν, ἦτε καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα ποιοῦντες· πᾶν γὰρ τὸ ἔξω τοῦ πρέποντος περιττόν ἐστιν. ὄντας οὖν νεκροὺς ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ καλὸν ἀνενεργησίαν καὶ ἀκροβύστους περιέτεμέν τε νοητῶς καὶ ἐζωοποίησεν.
Τὸν μὲν Χριστὸν ἐκ τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ θανάτου, ὑμᾶς δὲ καὶ τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ καὶ τοῦ νοητοῦ τοῦ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν. μὴ θαύμαζε δέ, εἰ τὸν πατέρα λέγει ἐζωοποιηκέναι τὸν Χριστόν· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ εἴρηται ὅτι ἑαυτὸν ἤγειρεν· κοινὰ γὰρ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ καὶ πνεύματος τὰ γινόμενα.
Kol 3, 17
Καὶ τὸ δι᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ καλῶς λέγεται· τὸ μὲν διὰ τὸ ἴσον καὶ ὁμοούσιον τῷ πατρί, τὸ δέ, ἐπειδὴ μεσίτης ἡμῶν καὶ ἀρχιερεὺς ἠξίωσεν γενέσθαι, ὅταν γέγονε σάρξ ὁ λόγος κατὰ τὴν γραφήν.
Kol 3,20
Δίχα τῶν εἰς ἀσέβειαν φερόντων.
Epilog zu Kol
Ἐκ τοῦ ἀντιγράφου μὴ εὑρὼν καλῶς τὰς παραγραφὰς τοῦ μακαρίου Ἰωάννου τῆς πρὸς Κολοσσαεῖς ἐπιστολῆς, συνέγραψα αὐτὰς ὅπως ἠδυνάμην. εἰ οὖν εὑρεθῇ τι ἐν αὐταῖς ἢ κοῦφον ἢ ἐπιλήψιμον, ἴστω ὁ ἀναγινώσκων ἐμὸν εἶναι τὸ τοιοῦτον πταῖσμα.
Institute for Colossians Studies 