Colossians 2:18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Let no man beguile you— This verse is differently understood. Dr. Doddridge translates and paraphrases it as follows: "Let no one, therefore, who may ever so eagerly desire it, or ever so artfully attempt it, deprive you of your great prize, for which, as Christians, you contend, by an [affected] humility, and the worship of angels, which some Jewish zealots, as well as heathen philosophers, so eagerly inculcate; intruding officiously and presumptuously into that which he hath not seen, while pretending to tell us wonderful secrets relating to the various ranks, subordinations, and offices of these angels. This may render a man the admiration of the ignorant and inconsiderate; but it is indeed the result of his being vainly puffed up by his corrupt and fleshly mind, with the conceit of things which it is impossible he should understand, and a desire of introducing novelties into religion." Mr. Peirce's paraphrase is this: "And since Christ has thus divested principalities and powers, let no man take upon him to condemn you, while he pleases himself with an humility and worshipping of angels of his own devising; boldly prying into and dictating about matters whereof he knows nothing: and this he is led to by his Jewish temper, which puffs him up with a vain conceit that he knows and is fit to judge of every thing." It seems much more probable that the Apostle refers to this opinion, than to that of Tertullian, who explains it of "worship taught by angels," or persons pretending to receive revelations from them. It is uncertain whether the heathens began so early as this to call those celestial spirits angels whom they before had called good demons; but it is evident that very soon after the Apostle's days, they speak of angels, and archangels, and recommend the worship of them, under those names. Bishop Burnet justly observes, "That if it had been the Apostle's intention to give the least encouragement to any religious addresses to saints and angels, this would have been a very natural occasion of introducing the subject, and adjusting its proper boundaries."