COLOSSIANS 2:14 HANDWRITTEN RECORD

Colossians 2:14 has been one of the most contentious passages in the New testament scriptures.  It is used by many to say that the Law was nailed to the cross.  But is that what it says?  As we explore this passage, I hope you a complex idiom will be explained; an idiom with roots in the Torah itself.   It is our hope that the reader is shown a perspective that will allow them to look at scripture with new eyes.  There are a few idioms that have this potential.

Let us first look at the passage in context.  I will use the Tree of Life Version from the Messianic Family Bible Society.  “11 In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision done not by hand, in the stripping away of the body of the flesh through the circumcision of Messiah. 12 You were buried along with Him in immersion, through which you also were raised with Him by trusting in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all our transgressions. 14 He wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against us, which was hostile to us. He took it away by nailing it to the cross.”

So what is Paul saying here?  “In Him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision done not by human hands” He is speaking to the Gentiles as they were circumcised Spiritually only “through circumcision of Messiah” “buried along with Him in immersion (or baptism)” and raised with Him. “God made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all (Gentile and Jew – he is now including himself) our transgressions. He goes on “He wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against US.  …He took it away by nailing it to the cross.”

​It looks like what was nailed to the cross was specifically charges and decrees against “us”.  Who is the “us” he refers to?  The Jew or both Jew and Gentile together?  Obviously it is both together.  The “Handwritten record of debts with the decrees” were charges and punishments.  Is there, in Torah or Talmud, something that is handwritten that includes both debts and decrees, charges and punishments, together that applies to either Hebrew or both Hebrew and Gentile, either one.

​cheirographon is the Greek for handwriting so it is something handwritten.

​dogmasin is the word decrees or ordinances.  It is definitely not Nomos or any form of it, which is the root word always used to mean the Old Testament Law or Torah so it can't refer to that.  Paul used Nomos to mean several different “laws” or “instructions” but always, ALWAYS, used a form of “Nomos” to refer to Torah.

There is one other place where the same word is used, Ephesians 2:15; also a terribly misunderstood passage that refers to decrees and mitzvot, contained in Torah. But there was not a “handwritten” before it.  They also certainly weren’t against “us” either.  The negative in this passage is the word for enmity between Jew and Gentile.  So this passage cannot be used for a proper reference.

So what does this mean, the “handwritten debts and decrees” against “us”?

Let’s turn to the cross since He said it (the cheirographon dogmasin or handwritten decrees) were nailed to it.  To get there though, we need to visit the Torah itself.  Then we will come back to how this relates to the cross and why it was nailed to it.  We have to find decrees that were specifically handwritten.  There is an allusion to decrees that are handwritten in Numbers 5:11-31.  It is further defined in the Talmud as the ordeal of bitter water.  In the “ordeal”, a woman suspected of adultery that has no witnesses has her proposed crimes and the decrees which stand against her handwritten on slate or a hard surface.  That surface with all of the writing is washed into a cup or water which becomes “bitter”, which the woman then drinks.  If she is guilty, she ordeals great distress as her thigh wastes away.   If she is innocent, then the water is just water.

Some will say, “the Talmud is not scripture”.  Correct!  It is not and cannot be held to the same level, true.  However, many times, the Talmud is referenced in the Brit Hadashah (New Testament) by both Yeshua and the apostolic writings.  When it is used to further explain what is already written in the Word, it lends contextual societal information, as in this case.  It is referencing, in this case, what had been occurring since the time of Moses as prescribed in the original oral traditions that were passed down from the time of Moses.  As with anything that is written about scripture, test it with scripture.  As stated, most of Talmud cannot be used, but there are many times it can to shed light on a topic.

Is anything mentioned at the cross that can relate to this record of debts being forgiven.  Matthew 27 has him tasting the mixed vinegar and bitter gall.  But it is expounded on in John 19 “28 After this, when Yeshua knew that all things were now completed, to fulfill the Scripture He said, “I am thirsty.” [g] 29 A jar full of sour wine was sitting there, so they put a sponge soaked with the sour wine on a hyssop branch and brought it to His mouth. 30 When Yeshua tasted the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

To fulfill scripture he said “I am thirsty”.  How would that fulfill scripture?  If the specific crime for the children of Abraham he had to take the punishment for was their great adultery, then it fits perfectly.  He drank the bitter water; he took the ordeal for His people’s adultery and possible the Gentiles for their adultery as well. 

So we see that he made clean the gentiles (also what Ephesians 2 is stating by the way) and took the penalty for sins of his own people.  I don’t know that this is perfect theology, but it fits.  But everything that our Lord did was for a purpose.  For years the “church” has taught that Yeshua was thirsty and that showed His humanity.  It did, but I prefer to think that everything He did was toward fulfilling prophesy. 

In conclusion, what was nailed to the cross as recorded in Colossian 2, the record of and punishment for the past adultery of the people against God.  This allows His people, that were divorced as the northern tribes were, to be His bride (or part of His bride) once again.  So, when Paul stated, “He wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against us, which was hostile to us. He took it away by nailing it to the cross”, Paul was stating referring to the charges of SINS against all people, or potentially specifically adultery, and expecting those reading to understand that Yeshua also took the punishment for those SINS, nailing them to the cross. 

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All scripture references are from the Tree of Life version, from the Messianic Bible Society.