More plausible is the attempt to find in Col. an attack on the 1st cent. Gnosticism of Cerinthus (so, e.g., R. Scott). Here we find both the emphasis on Judaism, though the Jewish angels have taken the position later occupied by the Gnostic teons, and the reduced Christology in which the Christ is supposed to have descended upon the man Jesus at His baptism. This has clear affinities with the Colossian heresy ; but, as Lightfoot has shown (Col. p. 108 ff.), it is difficult to think that the teaching at Colossae had as yet taken so definite a form. St. Paul would surely have made a more definite and incisive reply. And, further, the angelic powers could still be regarded as objects of worship. They are not yet either ignorant of or hostile to the Supreme God. And the emphasis on the identity of Jesus with the Christ (2®), while it would have point against Cerinthus, is hardly an attack upon him. It is thus more natural to see in this heresy that tendency of thought which led up to Cerinthus than the direct outcome of his teaching.
It has been suggested, especially by Lightfoot and Klopper, that there was some connexion with the Jewish ascetic sect known as Essenes. But (a) before A.D. 70 there is no trace of Essenism except on the shores of the Dead Sea. The some- what similar Therapeut;e, in Egypt, are only known from Philo, de Vit. contempL, a much- disputed treatise. Lightfoot tries to find parallels in Acts for the use of magic (cf. Ac 19'* with Jos. BJ 11. 8. 6 ad Jin.) and in the fourth book of the Sibylline Oracles, probably written in Asia c. A.D. 80. Neither parallel amounts to much, (b) The Essenes jealously guarded the names of the angels (Jos. BJ II. viii. 7). This is a poor parallel for the Colossian cult, which more probably arose through a syncretistic admixture with Phrygian ideas, (c) The evidence that the Essenes forbade flesh and wane is disputable (see Zahn, op. cit. p. 376), though they certainly had extremely rigid ceremonial rules as to food. Of the specific Essene prohibition of marriage there is no trace at Colossae. (d) There is no sign in Col. of the alleged Essene sun-worship, of their communal life, their ablutions, their very severe probation and initiation, (e) The allusions
230 COLOSSIANS, EPISTLE TO THE
COLOSSIANS, EPISTLE TO THE
to ' sabbaths ' and circumcision in Col, are merely Judaistic. There is no hint of the very strict Sab- batarian rules of the Essenes. It is true that Lightfoot and Klopper, especially the latter, argue merely for Esseuistic tendencies at Colossae. Jiut even this can hardly be said to be proved. The real value of the suggestion is that it shows that within Judaism itself it was possible for strange esoteric cults to appear. (For the Essenes see esp. Jos. BJlI. viii. ; Lightfoot, Col. pp. 82 ti'., 115 fi'. ; Zahn, op. cit. p. 376 f.)
We are thus driven to the conclusion that the Colossian heresy found its stimulus in contemporary Judaism, doubtless with syncretistic Phrygian features. Hort {Judaistic Christianity, 11611'.) has shown that there is nothing in the language which need imply any other source. The one surprising point is the worship of angels. But even if this is not derived from some local Phrygian cult, it was quite a natural application of contemporary Juda- ism. In the later Jewish view all God's activity in Nature was mediated by angels, and, though angel-worship among the Jews is not known at this date, it certainly sprang up within a short time, being alluded to in the Evangeliiim Petri, by Celsus, and several times in the Talmud. No objection to the authenticity of the Epistle need therefore be maintained upon this ground.
6. The theology of the Epistle. — It has been ob- jected to Col. that it is un-Pauline in its Christo- logy. It is true that there is a speculative advance with regard to the Person of Christ. St. Paul is now opposing a speculative ' philosophy,' and, as has been shown in dealing with the contents of the letter, he is forced to draw out the speculative implications of his own position. And in the advance made there is nothing to cause surprise. That Christ is prior to, and the principle of, all creation (1^^'") is the thought implicit in 1 Co 8® and in the whole doctrine of the Man from Heaven (15^^) regarded as pre-existent. That Christ is re- garded also as the goal of creation (Col V^) is only in form an advance upon 1 Co 15-^ for it is only when the consummation in Christ is reached that Ke is to surrender all things to the Father ; and even so, in virtue of His unity with the Father, they remain His own (cf. Ph 2^- 1»). In Col. St. Paul is especially emphasizing the indwelling in Christ of the whole Godhead (V^ 2% And, indeed, in 1^ the most natural rendering implies exactly the doctrine of 1 Co 15-^ Ro 11^. In any case, even if there is a real advance here, it is one that St. Paul might easily have made, and which was the natural answer to teachers who were assigning cosmic significance to angelic beings.
This raises the question of St. Paul's angel- ology. Here again objection has been taken to Colossians. There is certainly little direct refer- ence to angels in the other Pauline Epistles. But yet such references do occur, and, so far as they go, they tend to confirm the view that St. Paul might naturally have taken up the position adopted here. Further, the Rabbinism of the period was full of speculations about the angels, and there is no reason why St. Paul should have abandoned such speculations upon his conversion. They must have been taken up into his Christianity, even though, in preaching to Gentiles, it was seldom necessary to dwell upon them. The principal features found in Col. are these :