Colossians and Philemon. Michael F. Bird
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to Timothy in Rome during Paul’s imprisonment there, but we can place him easily in Ephesus.
• An imprisonment in Ephesus makes for a more plausible scenario regarding the movements of Onesimus and others to and from Colossae.
• Colossae may have been destroyed in 61–62 CE leaving Paul no one to even write to.
The marginally less problematic of these options then is the Ephesian provenance.44 I surmise that the epistle to Philemon was written by Paul himself during an imprisonment in Ephesus (ca. 55–57 CE) and Philemon subsequently discharged Onesimus to Paul’s service where he became thereafter part of Paul’s entourage. Colossians was written cooperatively by Paul and his coworkers (Col 1:1; 4:7–17) from Ephesus and was delivered by Tychicus and Onesimus. Ephesians was written by a secretary of Paul at Paul’s behest and composed on the basis of Colossians in order to be given to the Pauline churches of Asia Minor, including Ephesus and Laodicea, as the letter carriers passed through those regions on their way to deliver the correspondence to Colossae. In editorial language, Paul is the author of Philemon, the managing editor and chief contributor to Colossians, and the commissioning editor of Ephesians.
The Colossian Philosophy
Another confusing matter is the nature of the Colossian “philosophy.”45 We have no direct account of the philosophy by the teachers themselves, but are reliant entirely upon what Paul says about them, directly and indirectly, in Colossians. What Paul wrote against the philosophy is itself based on what he was told about them from others and is admixed with some general exhortations that could apply to many doctrinal intrusions among Christian groups. It is hard to determine the precise contours of the philosophy since Paul speaks of them explicitly only at limited points (2:4, 8, 16–23) and elsewhere perhaps only implicitly (1:15–20, 22–23; 2:2–3; 3:1–2).46 There is also the problem of trying to understand what kind of religious label the philosophy fits into. J. J. Gunther listed forty-four different identifications of Paul’s opponents in Colossae in his 1973 monograph, and more are continually added.47 Morna Hooker proposed that there actually was no heresy or false teachers in Colossae and Paul merely writes a general admonition to urge the congregation there not to conform to the beliefs and practices of their Jewish and pagan neighbors.48 But the portrayal of the philosophy seems far too specific and the use of the indefinite pronouns suggests that Paul genuinely did have some group or individual in mind (2:8, 16, 18). Others advocate not a Jewish or pagan threat to the Colossian church, but a Christian heresy based on the mystery religions,49 the Ebionites,50 or a syncretism involving the Christian gospel, Judaism, and Hellenistic cosmology.51 While there might be some grounds for suggesting that the philosophy has begun impacting the Colossians (e.g., 2:19), for the most part it seems that it remains an external and decidedly non-Christian threat. Paul would be unlikely to commend the Colossians’ faithfulness and steadfastness if they had succumbed to the philosophy (1:4; 2:5). Never are the “teachers” in Colossae charged with denying Jesus, perverting the gospel, or with being “false” as Paul alleges of his opponents elsewhere (see Gal 1:7; 2:4–5; 5:2–4; 2 Cor 11:4; cf. Jude 4; 1 John 4:1–2; Rev 2:2).
The philosophy was clearly indebted to Judaism in some form given the references to the Sabbath (2:16), circumcision (2:11), and food laws (2:21). However, the references to the “powers” (1:16; 2:8, 10, 15), the “worship of angels” (2:18), asceticism (2:21–23), festivals (2:16), and wisdom (1:9, 2:3, 23; 3:16) could derive from a number of different religious and philosophical systems. If we add to that the melting pot of religions, philosophies, and magic in Phrygia (interior Asia Minor) where syncretism was common and Jewish acculturation inevitable, it further complicates our ability to pin down concretely the philosophy to any one particular philosophical school or known religious movement. Even so, three main options present themselves for consideration.
First, the “philosophy” could have derived from one of the Hellenistic philosophical schools of Pythagoreanism,52 Middle Platonism,53 or even Cynicism.54 The problem is, however, that “philosophy” is such a broad category and many of the philosophies of the ancient world (Stoicism, Pythagoreanism, Cynicism, etc.) often overlapped in their metaphysical understanding of the world. Moreover, while it is conceivable that Jewish philosophers could admix Hellenistic philosophy to their system of belief, it is less likely that non-Jews would add Jewish rituals denoting Jewish identity to their religious practices, especially Sabbath keeping and circumcision.
Second, the philosophers might be advocating a syncretistic amalgam of Judaism and indigenous Phrygian practices of magic, mysteries, and angel veneration. Nearly all commentators regard the philosophy as a syncretism of some form.55 Philo appears to complain about the infiltration of syncretism among the Jews of Alexandria, which poses a similar analogy.56 Martin Hengel and Anna Maria Schwemer point out that around one third of the extant magical papyri and amulets are based on Jewish elements.57 We also know from later papyri and patristic evidence that even many Christians were willing to use magic spells for particular ends.58 Furthermore, some Jews were known to practice magic as evidenced by Bar-Jesus/Elymas who, according to Acts, was something of a personal attendant or chaplain to Sergius Paulus on the island of Cyprus (Acts 13:6–12). The second century Christian polemicist Celsus mentioned Jews “who worship angels and are addicted to sorcery of which Moses was their teacher.”59 Clinton Arnold has shown how angels were important in ancient magic for protection and petitions.60 There is an inscription from Phrygia concerning a Jewish lady, Julia Severa, who was a synagogue benefactor and a priestess of the imperial cult.61
At the same time, the argument for a syncretistic Judaism in Asia Minor can be overstated. Josephus records that most Jews in Asia Minor strictly observed the laws about food and festivals and came into conflict with their Gentile neighbors because of their faithfulness to the Jewish way of life.62 Paul Trebilco states, “No evidence has arisen from this study to suggest that Judaism in Asia minor was syncretistic or had been compromised by paganism.”63 Similar is F. F. Bruce: “Some outward conformity with pagan customs on the part of influential Jews in Phrygia may be taken as established; but it would be precarious to draw conclusions from this about forms of syncretism that might be reflected in the beliefs and practices deprecated in Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians.”64 We should also be aware of the looseness of the term “syncretism.” What counts as syncretism? For instance, according to the Mishnah tractate Abodah Zarah a Jew is permitted to make and sell idols for a living (m. Abod. Zar. 1.8). If one believes that Zeus is another name of Yahweh, is that syncretism or pluralism (Ep. Arist. 16)? Some Jewish apocalyptic writings could venerate angels like Metratron, the “little Yahwheh,” but without actually compromising their Jewish beliefs in toto (3 En. 10:3; 12:5; 17:1–3; 30:1; b. Sanh. 38b). In relation to Colossians, I would make two further