And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
All Commentaries on Colossians 2:15 Go To Colossians 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
“Having put off from himself the principalities and the powers.” He means the diabolical powers; because human nature had arrayed itself in these, or because they had, as it were, a hold on human nature. When he became man he put away from himself that hold. What is the meaning of “he made a show of them”? Paul speaks well in these words. Never yet was the devil in so shameful a plight. For while expecting to have him, he lost even those he had; and when Christ’s body was nailed to the cross, the dead arose. At the cross death received his wound, having met his death stroke from a dead body. And as an athlete, when he thinks he has hit his adversary, himself is caught in a fatal grasp, so truly does Christ also show, that to die with arrogance is the devil’s shame.
