Lightfoot Colossians and Philemon

1. Auflage 1997
ISBN: 978-1-4335-1653-5
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 13, 144 Seiten

Reihe: Crossway Classic Commentaries

For hundreds of years Christendom has been blessed with Bible commentaries written by great men of God highly respected for their godly walk and their insight into spiritual truth. The Crossway Classic Commentaries present the very best work on individual Bible books, carefully adapted for maximum understanding and usefulness for today's believers. Christians throughout the centuries have marveled at the spiritual treasures in the apostle Paul's letters to the Colossians and to Philemon. Grand themes of the supremacy of Christ, the superiority of the Gospel over false belief systems, the joy of setting one's focus on things above, and the love-bonds between all followers of the Savior continue to inspire Christians today. This classic commentary will encourage and equip all who desire a deeper walk with God and a growing faith in him.

J. B. LIGHTFOOT (1828-1889) was an outstanding British New Testament scholar. He worked with F. J. A. Hort and B. F. Westcott at Cambridge University to produce a New Testament commentary based on a reliable Greek text. His work in demonstrating the first-century origin of the New Testament books helped demolish the Tübingen school of biblical criticism. Along with his Philippians, his commentaries on Galatians and Colossians/Philemon are still considered landmarks of biblical study and exposition.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lightfoot, J. B.

Leseproben

2

The Colossian
Heresy

From the language St. Paul wrote to the church of Colosse, we may infer the presence of two disturbing elements which threatened the purity of Christian faith and practice in that community. These elements can be differentiated from each other, though it does not follow that they present the teaching of two distinct parties.

Judaic Element

A mere glance at the letter suffices to detect the presence of Judaism in the teaching which the apostle combats. The observance of sabbaths and new moons is decisive in this respect. The distinction of meats and drinks points in the same direction (Colossians 2:16-17, 21ff.). Even the enforcement of the initiatory rite of Judaism may be inferred from the contrast implied in St. Paul’s recommendation of spiritual circumcision (Colossians 2:11).

Gnostic Element

On the other hand, a closer examination of the letter’s language shows that these Judaic features do not exhaust the scope of the heresy or heresies against which the letter is directed. We discern an element of theosophic speculation which is alien to the spirit of Judaism proper. We are confronted with a shadowy mysticism which loses itself in the contemplation of the unseen world. We discover a tendency to interpose certain spiritual agencies, intermediate beings, between God and man as the instruments of communication and the objects of worship (Colossians 2:4, 8, 18, 23). Anticipating the result which will appear more clearly later, we may say that along with its Judaism there was a Gnostic element in the false teaching which prevailed at Colosse.

Are These Combined or Separate?

Have we then two heresies here or only one? Were these elements distinct, or were they fused into the same system? In other words, is St. Paul opposing a phase of Judaism on the one hand and a phase of Gnosticism on the other, or did he find himself in conflict with a Judeo-Gnostic heresy which combined the two?

General Reasons for Supposing One Heresy Only,
in Which They Are Fused

On closer examination we find ourselves compelled to adopt the latter alternative. The letter itself contains no hint that the apostle has more than one set of antagonists in view; and the needless multiplication of people or events is always to be deprecated in historical criticism. Nor indeed does the hypothesis of a single complex heresy present any real difficulty. If the two elements seem irreconcilable, or at least incongruous, at first sight, the incongruity disappears on further examination. It will be shown in the course of this investigation that some special tendencies of religious thought among the Jews themselves before and about this time prepared the way for such a combination in a Christian community like the church of Colosse. Moreover, we shall find that the Christian heresies of the succeeding ages exhibit in a more developed form the same complex type which here appears in its nascent state. This later development not only shows that the combination was historically possible in itself but likewise presupposes some earlier state of its existence such as confronts us at Colosse.

St. Paul’s Language Is Decisive on This Point

The apostle’s language hardly leaves the question open. The two elements are so closely interwoven in his refutation that it is impossible to separate them. He passes backward and forward from the one to the other in such a way as to show that they are only parts of one complex whole. On this point the logical connection of the sentences is decisive:

Here the superior wisdom, the speculative element which is characteristic of Gnosticism, and the ritual observance, the practical element which was supplied by Judaism, are regarded not only as springing from the same stem but also as intertwined in their growth. And the more carefully we examine the sequence of the apostle’s thoughts, the closer the link will appear.

Gnosticism Must Be Defined and Described

Having described the speculative element in this complex heresy provisionally as Gnostic, I propose to inquire in the first place how far Judaism prior to and independently of Christianity had allied itself with Gnostic thinking, and then whether the description of the Colossians’ heresy is such as to justify us in thus classing it as a species of Gnosticism. But as a preliminary to these inquiries, some definition of the word, or at least some conception of the leading ideas which it involves, will be necessary.

The Intellectual Exclusiveness of Gnosticism

The name Gnosticism implies the possession of a superior wisdom which is hidden from others. It makes a distinction between the select few who have this higher gift and the common majority who are without it. Faith, blind faith, suffices the latter, while knowledge is the exclusive possession of the former. Thus it recognizes a separation of an intellectual caste in religion, introducing the distinction of an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine and interposing an initiation of some kind or other between the two classes. In short, it is animated by the exclusive aristocratic spirit which distinguishes the ancient religions and from which it was a main function of Christianity to deliver mankind.

Speculative Tenets of Gnosticism

This was its spirit. The intellectual questions on which its energies were concentrated and to which it professed to hold the key were mainly twofold: how can the work of creation be explained? and how can we account for the existence of evil? To reconcile the creation of the world and the existence of evil with the conception of God as the absolute Being was the problem which all the Gnostic systems set themselves to solve. It will be seen that the two questions cannot be treated independently but have a very close and intimate connection with each other.

The Gnostic argument ran as follows: Did God create the world out of nothing, evolve it from himself? Then, God being perfectly good and creation having resulted from his sole act without any opposing or modifying influence, evil would have been impossible; otherwise we are driven to the conclusion that God created evil.

This solution being rejected as impossible, the Gnostic was obliged to postulate some antagonistic principle independent of God by which his creative energy was thwarted and limited. This opposing principle, the kingdom of evil, he conceived to be the world of matter. Precisely how it operated varied in different Gnostic systems. It is sometimes thought of as a dead passive resistance, sometimes as a turbulent active power. But though the exact point of view might vary, the object contemplated is always the same. In some way or other evil is regarded as residing in the material, sensible world. Thus Gnostic speculation on the existence of evil ends in a dualism.

This point being conceded, the ulterior question arises: How then is creation possible? How can the Infinite communicate with the finite, the good with the evil? How can God act upon matter? God is perfect, absolute, incomprehensible.

This, the Gnostic went on to argue, could only have been possible by some self-limitation on the part of God. God must express himself in some way. There must be some evolution, some effluence, of deity. Thus the divine being germinates, as it were; and the first germination again evolves a second from itself in like manner. In this way we obtain a series of successive emanations which may be more or fewer as the requirements of any particular system demand. In each successive evolution the divine element is feebler. They sink gradually lower and lower in the scale as they are farther removed from their source, until at last contact with matter is possible, and creation ensues. These are the emanations, aeons, spirits, or...