What Does Colossians 2:11 Mean?
In him you were also circumcised, with a cutting not made by hands, in the stripping away of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Anointed One.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:THE KEY
The verse’s own explanation turns circumcision from a bodily mark into a stripping away done “without hands” in Christ.
THE MEANING
In Christ, you are described as circumcised by an act made without human hands. The fleshly body and its missings are put off; the verse frames this change as removal rather than an achievement added by human effort. Its language locates the decisive act in Christ.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a human-made bodily sign accomplishes the decisive change: the verse locates that change in Christ and calls it a putting off “without hands.”
THE ROOT
ἀπέκδυσις
apekdysis
GROWS FROM
ἐκδύω (ekdyō; ἐκδυ-)
To take off or strip away, especially clothing.
“stripping away” in this verse is apekdysis. This word pictures something being stripped away, not a generic change. Its word family also describes putting clothing on, so the verse’s choice emphasizes what is shed: the fleshly body with its missings.
ALSO GROWS
ekdyō: To take off clothing; to strip.
ἐκδύω
This verb supplies the clothing-removal image behind “putting off.”
endyō: To put on clothing; to clothe.
ἐνδύω
It shares the verbal base but turns the action toward clothing oneself, highlighting that this verse specifically describes removal.
apekdyomai: To strip off; to disarm.
ἀπεκδύομαι
This related form appears in Colossians 2:15, connecting the passage’s stripping language with Christ’s action there.
περιτομή
peritomē
GROWS FROM
τεμ- (tem-), from τέμνω (temnō)
To cut or divide.
“cutting not made by hands” in this verse is peritomē. The word’s parts carry the sense of “cut around.” Beside the word for stripping off, it presents circumcision through the language of removal, while “without hands” locates the decisive act beyond human craft.
ALSO GROWS
peritemnō: To cut around; to circumcise.
περιτέμνω
This verb makes the “cut around” structure of circumcision visible.
tomē: A cutting or incision.
τομή
This related noun keeps the basic image of cutting present beneath the English word “circumcision.”
ἁμαρτιῶν
hamartiōn
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
To miss or fail to reach the mark.
The verse’s “sins” carries the sense of missings, and describes them as what is put off from the fleshly body. This frames them as something shed, not the reader’s unchangeable name.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb shows the action carried by the same word family as the verse’s “sins.”
hamartēma: An error; a missing.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun presents a specific instance of missing, matching the verse’s image of what is put off.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures decisive inward change as circumcision of the heart, accomplished by God beyond visible human marks.
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your living soul, that you may live.But the one in what is covered is a Jew, and the cutting around of the heart is in breath, not in the scratched letter, whose praise is not from humans but from God.THE THREAD
Do not lie to one another, since you have stripped off the old human with his deeds.Colossians 3:9 uses the same verb family for “put off” as the “putting off” in this verse. The shared word connects inward circumcision with shedding the old human pattern and its deeds.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us