[B-Greek] Colossians 1:16 TA PANTA ... EITE ... EITE
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Sun Feb 21 23:57:44 EST 2010
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth Kline" <kline_dekooning at earthlink.net>
To: "greek B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 21. februar 2010 22:36
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Colossians 1:16 TA PANTA ... EITE ... EITE
>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
Yes, I am not against consulting the secondary literature. What I don't want to
do is to let it usurp the place of the primary literature. Based on Colossians
2, the major threat to the young church were certain Jews who wanted to draw
them into Judaistic rules. Of course, they were also surrounded by pagan
philosophies and emperor worship, but Paul does not address these problems with
quite the same force as the primary threat to them. Col 1:15-18 is primarily a
praise to Jesus and his lordship over all powers in heaven and on earth, whether
they are visible or not.
Iver Larsen
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