GNOSTICISM AND THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS

GNOSTICISM AND THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANS

Virgil Warren, PhD

                             spirit = good                                             Evil/sin was defined as a kind of being/

1.     Dualism                                                                     “stuff” rather than a way of acting.

                             matter = evil

2.     Mankind is a mixture of spirit and matter and                  Two attitudes toward  the  flesh  were  then

        therefore of good and evil.                                            adopted:  asceticism,  which  deprived   the

                                                                                         flesh;  and   hedonism,  which   satiated  the

                                                                                         flesh.

3.     Salvation became the  task  of  “unmixing”  the               In   Christianity   the   task   is    overcoming

        the evil and good in man by unmixing the spirit               separation    between    persons    and   other

        and   the   flesh   (matter).  This   process    was               undesirable effects by overcoming the effect

        accomplished by knowing the  secret  informa-               of  past  evil  actions  and by  changing  such

        tion  that  certain  ones  claimed   to   know   so               actions into good  ones.  The  change  occurs            

        that  a  human  being  could  move  into  higher               by    acting—specifically    repentance    and

        realms  that  had  progressively higher  propor-               forgiveness   and   commitment  to  changed

        tions   of    spirit   to   matter   until   the   realm               behavior.

        of pure spirit was entered.                                            

        When Gnostic thought tried to mix Christianity into its scheme of things, it made Jesus the ruler (ἄρχων; 1:16, 18) of one of the realms, or aeons, within the full pleroma. Another aberration was that morality ceased to be a “theological” concern since state of being rather than manner of behavior became the issue.

        What Paul does in imaging the gospel in the functional equivalents of Gnosticism includes the use of mystery (μυστήριον). According to Paul, the real mystery was that Gentiles as Gentiles have access to fellowship with God through Jesus Christ (1:26-27; 2:2; 4:3). This use of mystery appears also in the companion letter to the Ephesians (3:4-6). The mystery religions, which played on the Gnostic theme (γνῶσις; 1:9-10, 27), catered to intellectual/informational exclusivism; but Christ is for all people (Ephesians 3:14-16; cp. Isaiah 55; 60:1-3; the Book of Jonah; and Acts 15:16-18 < Amos 9:11-12).

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