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What is the difference between Deity and Divinity? What are the greek definitions and usages? I was trying to dig deep about the meaning of the fullness of deity here in Colossians 2:9. Does this mean that Jesus has all the attributes of God?

Colossians 2:9

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,

ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,

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These two words are very similar in the Greek - for example the Authorised Version (or the King James Version) translates both words as "Godhead" - and are theiotés (θειότης, divinity) and theotētos (θεότητος, Deity). One can observe that they look similar and this is because they are both from the Greek word theos, meaning "God".

To an extent divinity is a property that the deity has, but one cannot go too far with that as shown by the Colossians passage. Christ is not simply the binary "deity" but has all the fullness of deity. The two words are nearly synonymous.

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θειότης (theiotes - "divinity") and θεότητος (theotetos - deity) are both nouns referring to God, but:

  • theiotes derives from theios, which is an adjective for God
  • theotetos derives from theos, which is a noun meaning God

Each word--in this particular form--occurs only once in the New Testament.

Theios--the adjective--is used to describe God's nature/power several times. Theos--the noun--is used more than 1,000 times in the New Testament.

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