[B-Greek] Colossians 1:16 TA PANTA ... EITE ... EITE

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Sun Feb 21 14:36:59 EST 2010


A few more comments on reference.

Col.   16 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες εἴτε ἀρχαὶ εἴτε ἐξουσίαι· τὰ πάντα δι᾿ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται· 

16 hOTI EN AUTWi EKTISQH TA PANTA EN TOIS OURANOIS KAI EPI THS GHS, TA hORATA KAI TA AORATA, EITE QRONOI EITE KURIOTHTES EITE ARCAI EITE EXOUSIAI· TA PANTA DI᾿ AUTOU KAI EIS AUTON EKTISTAI· 


In light what we know of the paganism that was threatening the EKKLHSIA at Colossae , the "hymn" in Col 1 appears to function like the Genesis 1, as a polemic against paganism. In Genesis the deities of pagan cosmology are listed among the elements of the created order. In Col 1 we see a similar pattern, the  EITE QRONOI EITE KURIOTHTES EITE ARCAI EITE EXOUSIAI are created beings, under ultimate authority of the Creator even though they are now hostile to the Creator.   C.E. Arnold  [1] "This list of angelic 'powers' should be viewed as an expansion of the preceding AORATA. Furthermore, these beings are evil and and hostile to the purposes of God. ... The author of this letter conceives of the powers as angelic beings in league with the authority of darkness (col 1:13). 

I am not convinced that we must read EITE QRONOI ... EXOUSIAI as referring **exclusively** to TA AORATA. But in light of the situation in Colossae, I think the primary reference would be to TA AORATA. The earthly authorities were considered to be representatives of the TA AORATA, or in some cases minor deities in their own right. But the main force of the polemic is focused not against earthly kings or lords, rather against the spiritual principalities that were behind the earthly authorities. 

Reconstruction of the religious cultural context at Colossae is always going to somewhat  tentative. However, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't consult the secondary literature when doing lexical semantics from terms like QRONOI, KURIOTHTES, ARCAI, EXOUSIAI. 

Elizabeth Kline

[1] C.E.Arnold Col. Sync. 1996 Baker pages 247-256
 
[2] Google search string for the DDD article on Thrones: 

"innumerable host and about to pronounce"





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