The Jewish Annotated New Testament (280 page)

2
:
Love
(Gk “agapē”), Paul’s term for the virtue that holds diverse parts in a harmonious whole (1 Cor 13), becomes ubiquitous in post-Pauline letters, appearing ten times in Ephesians, and five more in Colossians (1.4,8,13; 2.2; 3.14).
Mystery
, see 1.26–27n.

5
:
Firmness
(Gk “stereoma”), normally refers to the “firmament” of creation, but in conjunction with “taxis” (“order,” NRSV “morale”) the image is military.

2.6
–15: Proper understanding of the crucifixion. 6–7
: The letter’s major concern is to promote a particular ecclesiology (understanding of the nature of the church or Christian community) and to oppose other views.

7
:
The faith
, see 1.23n.

8
:
No one
, the author likely is opposing church members interested in exploring new philosophical and religious traditions.
Philosophy
, except for 4 Macc (1.1; 5.11,22; 7.9,21), where the word occurs five times, this is the only use of the term in the Bible. Here philosophy is a negative concept, what Paul called “human wisdom” (1 Cor 2.5), and Colossians associates it with “human tradition” and “elemental spirits of the world.”
Human tradition
, the charge Jesus makes against Pharisees (Mk 7.8);
elemental spirits of the universe
occurs only here and in Gal 4.3, where it describes the powers that enslaved the Gentile Galatians before they received the good news about the Christ. The author thus simultaneously condemns Greek philosophical traditions, Jewish legal teaching, and pagan worship.

9
–10
:
Fullness
, see 1.19n.
Head
, see 1.18n.

11
:
Circumcision
, the author of Colossians, like Paul in Galatians, faces community members who want to observe “brit milah,” the sign for males of inclusion in God’s covenant. These church members want to behave like Jews, whether or not they want to be full-fledged members of the Jewish community.
Spiritual circumcision
, lit., “circumcision not done by hands.”
By putting off … flesh
, the author labors to draw analogies between baptism and circumcision, urging the former and forbidding the latter.
Putting off
(Gk “apekdusis”; cognate verb “apekduomai”) appears in Col 2.11,15; 3.9, but nowhere else in the NT; the NRSV translates each appearance differently. The words mean “undressing” as in NRSV 3.9, “stripped off the old self.”

12
:
You were buried … also raised
, unlike Paul’s authentic letters, Colossians speaks of resurrection in the present.

13
:
Uncircumcision
(Gk “akrobustia,” lit., “foreskin”), a traditional rendering, translates an indelicate word delicately. Paul (1 Cor 7.18) is the only biblical author to use the correct medical term for “uncircumcision.” Gentiles were dead with respect to baptism, and men among them were dead with respect to circumcision, i.e., their foreskins were intact.
Forgave us all our trespasses
, reminiscent of Mt 6.12; Lk 11.4.

14
:
Record … demands
(Gk “cheirographon”), normally refers to a bill, as in Tob 5.3 and 9.5; cf. Philem 19. Jesus’ crucifixion erased the believers’ debts.

15
:
Rulers and authorities
, see 1.16n.
Disarmed … triumphing
, a parade of vanquished enemies, an image familiar to Roman residents.
Disarmed
, better “stripped naked” (cf. 2.11n.).

2.16
–23: Warnings against Jewish observance. 16
: The author complains about the Colossians’ observance of Jewish dietary laws and calendar rituals. Arguments about dietary laws divided his churches (see Rom 14.15,17,20; 1 Cor 8.1–13). The Colossians want to eat, drink, and sanctify time like Jews.
Food and drink
probably imitates Rom 14.17.
Festivals
(Gk “heortē”; used in LXX chiefly for Heb “
ḥ
ag,” e.g., Ex 10.9), refers in general to a Jewish festival or to a specific one, Pesach (Mt 26.5) or Sukkot (Jn 7.8); it appears in no other NT letter.
New moons, or sabbaths
, one of this letter’s few direct echoes of the LXX (e.g. Ezek 4.17; Hos 2.11). Jewish rituals for “rosh chodesh,” the first day of the month (cf. Num 28.11) are never mentioned in the NT but are well known to Josephus (cf.
Ant
3.238) and the DSS (cf. 11Q5 27.7; 11Q19 43.20). In contrast to the Tanakh, Mishnaic references largely focus on legal questions involving the observation of the new moon, vital to establishing festival dates, rather than on special observance for the new moon festival, although
m. Zeb
. 10.1 describes “rosh chodesh” sacrifices in conjunction with Shabbat sacrifices. Paul never mentions Sabbath or “rosh chodesh” observance in his authentic letters; Gal 4.10 refers to pagan, not Jewish, ritual. For Paul, the church is a Gentile congregation gathering on the Lord’s Day (“the first day of the week” [1 Cor 16.2]).

17
:
Shadow … substance
, despite its negative view of philosophy, Colossians shares with Hebrews and Philo the Platonic view that perceptible reality is a shadow of ultimate reality (see e.g., Heb 8.5n.; 10.1; Philo,
Leg. all
. 3.96ff.).

18
:
Self-abasement
, if it refers to ascetic practice, this is the only place in the NT where it does so; in 2.23 the word means a degree of humility with which our author is uncomfortable, an outcome of following the Jews’ human traditions (cf. 3.12; Eph 4.2; Phil 2.3).
Worship of angels
, both Paul and the authors of the DSS believed that angels were present during the congregation’s worship (1 Cor 11.10; 1QSa 2.9; see “Divine Beings,” p.
544
).
Visions
, glimpses of the heavenly realm (see 2 Cor 12.1–10).
Puffed up
, see 1 Cor 4.6,18,19, etc.

19
:
Head … body
, see 1.18n.

20
:
Died to the elemental spirits
, no longer under their authority (vv. 8–15). See 2.8n.
As if … world
, continues the idea that believers are under the Christ’s rule, nonbelievers under the authority of heavenly powers that govern this world (cf. 1 Cor 15.12–28).

21
:
Handle … taste … touch
, the author mocks Jewish impurity laws as trivial. Paul had issues with the Torah but never viewed it as trivial.

22
:
Human commands and teachings
, another rare LXX reference (Isa 29.13), although a more proximate source for the quotation is

Mk 7.7 ||
Mt. 15.9. Colossians does not record the other part of Jesus’ legal ruling, that followers should observe only biblical laws, not human tradition.

23
:
Humility
, the same word translated “self-abasement” (see 2.18n.).
Self-indulgence
(Gk “plēsmonē”), a crux for translators, who have difficulty explaining how piety and humility fail to check self-indulgence. It is best to take the sentence as ironic, maintaining the mocking tone of the section.

3.1
–4.6: Paraenesis (moral exhortation).
NT letters, like other Greek letters, typically include moral exhortation, more or less tied to the letter’s situation. The epistolary situation of Colossians is very thin, and the moralizing therefore not especially particular to Colossae. In the authentic Pauline epistles, the paraeneses (exhortations) always refer to the situation at hand.

3.1
–4: Baptism confers new moral life.
The paraenesis picks up the theme of 2.12–14, that baptism allows believers to start a new life free of the debt of sin.

1
–3
:
Seated at the right hand
, possibly an echo of Ps 110.1, although this idea is already a NT motif, appearing twenty-five times (cf. Mk 12.36; 14.62; Acts 2.33–34; Rom 8.34; Eph 1.20; Heb 10.12).
Died
, see 2.20n.
Hidden
, a formulation, unique to the NT, whereby believers will be revealed at the fullness of time with the Christ.

3.5
–11: The old life. 5
: The author describes the pre-baptismal life of his audience in a vice-catalogue, a form of moral instruction common in the NT (Rom 1.29ff.; 1 Cor 5.10,11; 6.9ff.; Gal 5.19ff.; Eph 4.32; 1 Tim 1.9ff.; 2 Tim 3.2ff.; Titus 3.3; 1 Pet 2.1; (Mk 7.21ff. || Mt 15.19; Rev 21.8), but not in Q (the posited sayings source that presumably provided the words attributed to Jesus that are common to Mt and Lk but not found in Mk) or in the Johannine tradition (Jn and 1, 2, and 3 John). They are a feature of the moral instruction in 1QS 4.9ff. and Philo,
Spec. Laws
1.281, as well as Stoic catalogues of virtues and vices (e.g., Chrysippus,
Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
3.397).
Fornication
, prohibited sexual intercourse.
Idolatry
, connected to sexual vices (e.g., 1 Cor 10.7–8 and in Tanakh, e.g., Hos 1.2), but Col and Eph 5.5 emphatically connect it with greed.

6
:
Wrath
, a particular formulation describing God’s final judgment (see Rom 1.18; 5.9; etc., and 1 Thess 1.10; 2.16; 5.9). The idea of a “day of wrath” or a “day of YHWH” is at least as old as the pre-exilic Hebrew prophets (cf. Am 5.18–20).

8
:
Anger … abusive language
, there is no hint that the particular vices mentioned relate to the situation in Colossae.

9
–10
:
Stripped off … clothed
, this metaphor may indicate a baptismal context, or may remind the audience of their baptism, or may, given its frequency in this letter, be a metaphor for the new life brought by the gospel. Paul uses the verb “enduo,” “dress,” in a baptismal context (Gal 3.27), but also of putting on armor (Rom 13.12,14) and to describe believers dressing themselves in their new resurrection bodies (1 Cor 15.53ff.).
Old self … new self
…
image of its creator
, the power of the gospel or of baptism, causes believers to become new creations; an allusion to Gen 1.26.

11
:
Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised
, for this letter, these distinctions are different. Apparently (cf. 2.11n.) some (Gentile) members of the Colossian church want to become circumcised or have already become so.
Barbarian
, a person who speaks no Greek.
Scythian
, in Greek literature, the epitome of an uncivilized person; it is difficult to see the antithesis that the author intends. Taking “Scythian” as synonymous with “slave” only compounds the difficulty. The antitheses echo Gal 3.28 and 1 Cor 7.19, but, as they serve here to introduce the household codes (3.18–24), they lack the social leveling that Paul intends.