Biblion Bible Commentary
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Triumphing Over Them
Colossians 2:15
15 Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. · WEB
The cross is described as a Roman victory parade, with the wrong party in chains.
Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
The ranks named are the same ones listed among created things in the hymn Colossians 1:16 and probably the same beings the Colossian teachers wanted venerated Colossians 2:18. The letter's answer is not that they do not exist. It is that they have been disarmed.
The first verb means to strip off, as of armor taken from a defeated enemy or clothing removed. The second is to display publicly, to expose to view.
And the third is the specific word for a Roman triumph — the procession granted to a victorious general, in which he rode through the city with his defeated enemies led behind him in chains for the crowds to see. Paul uses the same image of himself elsewhere, as one led in God's triumph 2 Corinthians 2:14.
What makes the verse extraordinary is the location. In it — in the cross. The event that looked like the total defeat of Jesus of Nazareth is described as the parade in which he displayed his enemies. Nothing in the sentence concedes that the crucifixion was a setback later reversed; it names the execution itself as the victory procession.
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