Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
COLOSSAL
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: CLI-COM
del.icio.us it!
|
COLOSSAL CAVERN
See also:KENTUCKY d.
From survey by See also:Edgar See also:Vaughan See also:Dome and W.L. See also:Marshall. with additions by See also: Even the worship of angels, not only as mediators of See also:revelation and visions, but also as cosmical beings, is a well-known fact in See also:late Judaism (Apoc. See also:Bar. lv. 3; Ethiopic See also:Enoch, lx. r1, lxi. ro; See also:Col. ii. 8, 20; Gal. iv. 3). As for the word " See also:philosophy " (ii. 8), it is not necessary to take it in the technical See also:Greek sense when the usage of See also:Philo and See also:Josephus permits a looser meaning. Finally the references to See also:circumcision, paradosis (ii. 8) and dogmata (ii. 20), directly suggest a Jewish origin. If we resort solely to Judaism for explanation, it must be a Judaism of the Diaspora type. (4) The difficulty with the last-mentioned position is that it under-estimates the speculative tendencies of the errorists and ignores the See also:direct See also:influence of See also:oriental See also:theosophy. It is quite true that See also:Paul does not directly attack the speculative position, but rather indicates the See also:practical dangers inherent therein (the denial of the supremacy of See also:Christ and of full salvation through Him); he does not say that the errorists hold Christ to be a See also:mere See also:angel or an See also:aeon, or that words like pleroma (borrowed perhaps from their own vocabulary) involve a rigorous See also:dualism. Yet his characterization of the movement as an arbitrary See also:religion (ii. 23), a philosophy which is empty deceit (ii. 8), according to elemental See also:spirits and not according to Christ, and a higher knowledge due to a mind controlled by the flesh (ii. 18); his repeated emphasis on Christ, as supreme over all things, over men and angels, See also:agent in creation as well as in redemption, in whom dwelt bodily the fulness of the Godhead; and his See also:constant stress upon knowledge,—all these combine to reveal a See also:speculation real and dangerous, even if naive and regardless of consequences, and to suggest (with Julicher and See also:McGiffert) that in addition to Jewish influence there is also the direct influence of Oriental See also:mysticism. To meet the pressing need in See also:Colossae, Paul writes a See also:letter and entrusts it to Tychichus, who is on his way to Colossae with Onesimus, See also:Philemon's slave (iv. 7, 9). (On the relation of this letter to See also:Ephesians and to the letter to be sent from See also:Laodicea to Colossae, see EPHESIANS, See also:EPISTLE TO THE.) His attitude is prophylactic, rather than polemic, for the " philosophy " has not as yet taken deep See also:root. His purpose is to restore in the See also:hearts of the readers the joy of the Spirit, by making them see that Christ fulfils every need, and that through faith in Him and love from faith, the advance is made unimpeded unto the perfect See also:man. He will eliminate See also:foreign accretions, that the See also:gospel of Christ may stand forth in its native purity, and that Christ Himself may in all things have the pre-See also:eminence. The letter begins with a thanksgiving to See also:God for the spiritual growth of the See also:Colossians, and continues with a See also:prayer for their See also:fuller knowledge of the divine will, for a more perfect See also:Christian See also:life, and for a spirit of thanksgiving, seeing that it is God who guarantees their salvation in Christ (i. 1-14). It is Christ who is supreme, not angels, for He is the agent in creation; and it is solely on the basis of faith in Him, a faith expressing itself in love, that redemption is appropriated, and not on the basis of any further requirements such as ascetic practices and the worship of angels (i. 15-23). It is with a full See also:message that Paul has been entrusted, the message of Christ, who alone can See also:lead to all the riches of fulness of knowledge. And for this adequate knowledge the readers should be thankful (i. 23-ii. 7). Again he urges, that since redemption is in Christ alone, and that, too, full redemption and on the basis of faith alone, the demand for asceticism and meaningless ceremonies is folly, and moreover robs Christ, in whom dwells the divine fulness, of His rightful supremacy (ii. 8-23). And he exhorts them as members of the Body of Christ to See also:manifest their faith in Christian love, particularly in their domestic relations and in their contact with non- Christians (iii. 1-iv. 6). He closes by saying that Tychichus will give them the See also:news. Greetings from all to all (iv. 7-18). A letter like this, clear cut in its thought, teeming with ideas emanating from an unique religious experience, and admirably adjusted to known situations, bears on the See also:face of it the marks of genuineness even without recourse to the unusually excellent See also:external See also:attestation. It is not See also:strange that there is a growing consensus of See also:opinion that Paul is the author. With the See also:critical See also:renaissance of the See also:early See also:part of the 19th See also:century, doubts were raised as to the genuineness of the letter (e.g. by E. T. Mayerhoff, 1838). Quite apart from the difficulties created by the See also:Tubingen theory, legitimate difficulties were found in the See also:style of the letter, in the speculation of the errorists, and in the See also:theology of the author. (r) As to style, it is replied that if there are peculiarities in Colossians, so also in the admittedly genuine letters, See also:Romans, See also:Corinthians, See also:Galatians. Moreover, if See also:Philippians is Pauline, so also the stylistically similar Colossians (cf. von Soden). (2) As to the speculation of the errorists, it is replied that it is explicable in the lifetime of Paul, that some of the elements of it may have their source in pre-Christian Jewish theories, and that recourse to the See also:developed See also:gnosticism of the 2nd century is unnecessary. (3) As to the Christology of the author, it is replied that it does not go beyond what we have already in Paul except in emphasis, which itself is occasioned by the circumstances. What is implicit in Corinthians is explicit in Colossians. H. J. See also:Holtzmann (1872) subjected both Colossians and Ephesians to a rigorous examination, and found in Colossians at least a See also:nucleus of Pauline material. H. von Soden (1885), with well-considered principles of See also:criticism, made a similar examination and found a much larger nucleus, and later still, (1893), in his commentary, reduced the non-Pauline material to a negligible minimum. See also:Harnack, Julicher and McGiffert, however, agree with See also:Lightfoot, See also:Weiss, Zahn (and early tradition) in holding that the letter is wholly Pauline—a position which is proving more and more acceptable to contemporary scholarship.
Ephesians " in See also: C. M'Giffert (1897) and O. See also:Pfleiderer (Urchristentum, 1902); and the commentaries of J. B. Lightfoot (1875), H. von Soden (1893) T. K. See also:Abbott (1897), E. See also:Haupt (1902), Peake (1903) and P. See also:Ewald (1905). (J. E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] COLOSSAE |
[next] COLOSSAL CAVERN |