Colossians 2:9: The Fulness of Deity

"For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form." (Colossians 2:9) 

The archaic translation "fulness of the Godhead," is not useful and communicates nothing meaningful to a modern English audience. The modern day Modalists even use it to claim that the entire Triad somehow dwells in the person of Christ to deny the distinctions of the persons. The substantive θεότητος should rightly be translated as “deity,” or “divinity,” and most modern translations now recognize this, it is a form of θειότης meaning “divine nature” or “divinity,” and it signifies the quality which makes one “God," θεὸς, which Jesus Christ of course is. (Joh. 1:1; 20:28 et al) In Rom. 1:20 θειότης is used of the divine essence itself. The Vulgate renders elegantly translates the passage quia in ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter, and from this Latin text St. Hilary says, qui nos ad divinitatis suae naturam trahens, non etiamnum corporali praeceptorum observatione distrinxerit, "My soul judged of Him as One Who, drawing us upward to partake of His own Divine nature, has loosened henceforth the bond of bodily observances." But the Arian has a Christ who is neither fully God nor fully man, and the Sabellian has a Son-Father who could hardly be considered a human at all. The Nicene Creed does not expressly assert the singleness or numerical unity of the divine essence (unless it be in the first article: “We believe in one God”); and the main point with the Nicene fathers was to urge against Arianism the strict divinity and essential equality of the Son and Holy Ghost with the Father.” St. Gregory of Nyssa appeals primarily to the unity of operation and will not to a numeric identity of essence in Not Three Gods to establish monotheism within the Triad. 

Philip Schaff: “The term homoousion, in its strict grammatical sense, differs from monoousion or toutoousion, as well as from heteroousion, and signifies not numerical identity, but equality of essence or community of nature among several beings. It is clearly used thus in the Chalcedonian symbol, where it is said that Christ is “consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father as touching the Godhead, and consubstantial with us (and yet individually, distinct from us) as touching the manhood.” — History of the Christian Church, Vol. III. III: Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity, A.D. 311-600, printed by Hendrickson Publishers, 2006, §130, p. 672.

If θεότητος at Col. 2:9 is qualitative and expresses that Jesus has the same divine nature as the Father, it is unclear which sense to give to the noun. Vincent asserted that this divine fulness mentioned in Col. 2:9 has past-eternally dwelled in Christ, 

Marvin R. Vincent: “That the fullness of the Godhead eternally dwells in Christ. The present tense κατοικεῖ dwelled, this used like ἐστιν is (the image), Colossians 1:15, to denote an eternal and essential characteristic of Christ's being. The indwelling of the divine fullness in Him is characteristic of Him as Christ, from all ages and to all ages. Hence the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him before His incarnation, when He was “in the form of God” (Philemon 2:6). The Word in the beginning, was with God and was God (John 1:1). It dwelt in Him during His incarnation. It was the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and His glory which was beheld was the glory as of the Only begotten of the Father (John 1:14; compare 1 John 1:1-3). The fullness of the Godhead dwells in His glorified humanity in heaven.” — Word Studies Vol. III., The Epistles of Paul (Grand Rapids, Michigan: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Reprinted 1946, by William B. Eerdmans), p. 487.