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The introduction of literary intertextuality into biblical studies has led to both discovery and dilemma. This study proposes new definitions of 'allusion' and 'echo' and a methodology on how to detect them, using the neglected letter of Colossians as a test case.

Abstract The interpretation of the Christology of Colossians in modern scholarship has depended to a certain extent upon an analysis of Stoic philosophy as a potential conceptual background for the affirmation in Col 1:18a that Christ is \"the head of the body.\" If the \"body\" spoken of here is the body of the cosmos as the Stoics understood it, then Christ must be its \"cosmic head.\" This article examines whether this works on Stoicism's own terms; that is, would a Stoic have advanced the notion that the cosmic body has a head?

This paper summarizes the current research on the letter to Colossians. It proposes the status quaestionis of the most significant interpretations concerning the identity of the addressees, archaeological research, epistolary introduction, Christology and theology of the letter. Comparative studies of the cities in the Lycus Valley suggest that the recipients of the letter were people scattered throughout the region, but unlike Laodicea and Hierapolis, only the humblest city in the valley was mentioned in the initial greetings. Numismatics and epigraphy highlight Colossae’s secondary role. However, since the tell of ancient Colossae had not yet been excavated, scholars await further archeological evidence. Regarding the epistolary introduction, current studies focus on the understanding of hope and the use of memory. The various attempts made to identify the opponents and the error of Colossians illustrate the methodological difficulties in studying the letter. For a suitable historical reconstruction of Paul’s opponents, they may need a more balanced approach, distinguishing thoroughly both the historical situation and rhetorical situation. The exegetical-theological studies on the Christological Hymn of the last twenty years are fewer in number than those of a socio-historical nature. However, among the former, those that focus on the rhetoric and argumentation theory offer a holistic perspective more suited to understanding the letter. Rhetorical studies on the Christological Hymn of Col 1:15-20 have made it possible to overcome the one-sided perspective based on the correction of a possible heresy contained in the letter. Recent rhetorical and theological studies have also contributed greatly to identifying the features of the Christological μυστήριον. The study of the Christology of universal lordship has helped researchers to clarify the distinctive aspects of the letter’s soteriology and eschatology. If diachronic exegesis has multiplied the hypotheses about the composition of the letter, the synchronic approach has offered a better articulated perspective on the mystery of Christ.

Pauline Allen translates Frederick Field's text of John Chrysostom's twelve homilies on Paul's Letter to the Colossians. Chrysostom concentrates in part on the apparently prevalent angel worship in Colossae (in modern Turkey). These homilies provide many details about everyday life in the late Roman period, such as the position of slaves and their treatment as well as various aspects of raising healthy, educated children. The themes of conflict between pagans, Jews, and Christians in the community, as well as the distinction between rich and poor in late antiquity, run throughout the homilies. This latest text and translation volume from WGRW is an essential resource for scholars and students interested in the history of the church.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) isset to revolutionise global knowledge domains and biblical hermeneutics is no exception. At face value, in Zimbabwe, AI has been stigmatised as a humanistic and profane technological system with an immense propensity to cause general religious backsliding, degeneracy, vain philosophising and secularisation of the Gospel of Christ. This article isolated Colossians 2:8 as a lens to investigate the congruency of Artificial Intelligence to the pericope’s scope of ‘philosophy, vain deceit, tradition of men and rudiments of the world’. The Zimbabwean setting was used to examine whether the Colossian Christian Church’s philosophical aspersions bear any semblances to how AI is viewed among the clergy, theologians, Christian believers and academics of religious studies. The qualitative methodological paradigms of African Biblical Hermeneutics and Exegetical Method were employed in the study. The study mainly established that AI, like a tool in the hands of a workman, can either build or destroy, enhance or adulterate biblical hermeneutics depending on how it is viewed and used.ContributionThe article reflects on how the world’s most nascent technological development, Artificial Intelligence, impacts on biblical interpretation generally, but, more particularly, in the Zimbabwean context.

Two hymns that focus on God (and Christ in the New Testament text) as the creator are Psalm 148 and Colossians 1:15-20. In both texts, an interesting chiastic pattern is noticeable concerning A-heaven-B-earth-B-earth-A-heaven. The imagery concerning heaven and earth can be spatially interpreted, as in both these texts, the creation and its inhabitants are understood in relation to, and their position towards God. This article analyses Psalm 148, and then makes a spatial comparison between the Old Testament text of Psalm 148 and the New Testament text of Colossians 1:15-20. The article indicates the importance of the chiastic structure in both of these texts, as it indicates not only a cosmic whole, but also contributes to the interpretive relation of God (and Christ) as creator to the creation and his people.

This essay gives a brief overview of the authorship debate of Colossians and Ephesians, and argues that the letters, authored mainly by his co-workers, were written as an attempt to compromise between Paul’s controversial views and the congregations of Asia Minor. The household code of Colossians is analysed as a possible accompaniment to the letter to Philemon and the sending back of Onesimus, using the Pauline passage on submission in Ro- mans 13 as a basis, complemented by known Graeco-Roman traditions on the household. Slaves, and not women were the primary addressees of this probably earliest Christian household code, but undoubtedly then the status of women became an issue of contention. The essay argues that Ephesians was written as a modification to the Colossians letter, which had left out key controversial Pauline terms. The letter to the Ephesians pleads for unity, re- introduces Pauline terms in formulations acceptable to the mainstream con- gregations, and carefully formulates a position on women in the household, which was to become dominant in the early church. It is argued that the household codes were regarded as a necessary compromise at the time but were not  initially intended to suppress the participation and leadership of women. However, the controversy heated up and became more bitter, leading to the later Pastoral Letters and other early Christian writings, completely suppressing women’s leadership in the church.

The so-called ‘disputed’ Pauline letters – Ephesians and Colossians – are significantly different from the ‘undisputed’ Pauline letters. Since the beginning of the historical critical movement, it has been recognised that Ephesians and Colossians are more similar to each other than any other Pauline letter. Scholars debated about these letters’ dependency upon each other, and many focussed on the similarities between Ephesians and Colossians. This article is an approach to contribute to the debate by comparing Ephesians and Colossians with regard to their characterisations of God. The attributes of God in these letters were interpreted within the letter structures as part of persuasion strategies, keeping in mind the socio-historical background and purpose of the letters. Where necessary, word studies were done. Finally, the attributes of God in Ephesians and Colossians were compared. It was concluded that these two letters were written each with a specific purpose in mind and that the attributes of God (as Father or Son or Holy Spirit) featured in these letters as shaped by the purpose. This article indicates that the similarities in the attributes of God do not speak louder than the differences and that these letters are unique in similarities as well as differences.ContributionAs New Testament Studies fit perfectly in the scope of In die Skriflig, this article on the attributes of God in Ephesians and Colossians is relevant. The research results reported in this manuscript, fill a theoretical research gap, as it offers a comparison between the attributes of God in Ephesians and Colossians and serves as a contribution to the debate on the similarities and differences between the two letters.

Interpretation of Ephesians and Colossians has often proceeded on the basis that the stance of the original authors and recipients towards Israel is supersessionist, i.e., that the church has entirely replaced or superseded Israel as the locus of divine scriptural promises. By contrast, this article presents a post-supersessionist reading of Ephesians and Colossians. The reading strategy seeks to read the letters as situated within the dynamics of the apostolic mission to proclaim the gospel of Jesus as the Jewish christos/messiah to the nations. This mission is envisaged in Acts as a priestly dynamic in which the blessings of salvation in the christos/messiah began within a distinctly Israelite original community and proceeded to the nations without necessarily negating Jewish distinctiveness. The reading highlights key instances of this Israel-centered missionary dynamic in Ephesians and Colossians. It also seeks to demonstrate how this dynamic helps to provide satisfactory answers to key exegetical questions in the letters. Furthermore, it offers alternative non-supersessionist readings of critical passages concerning circumcision, law, and Jewish identity in the two letters. The article is a distillation and summary of research in the author’s previously published book Reading Ephesians and Colossians After Supersessionism: Christ’s Mission through Israel to the Nations.

As the first comparative study of Colossians and 1 Peter, the book fills a lacuna by exploring each author's understanding of the new existence and the means to righteous living. If the epistles end up offering almost identical paraenesis, why do they have such distinctive theological patterns of thought? The conventional starting point in Colossian and 1 Peter studies centers on the recipients' needs. Much has been learned from these investigations and is kept in view. However, the extent to which each epistle's theology reflects an underlying pattern of ideas within each author's worldview is less well understood. Setting the author's views in the context of the literature of early Judaism throws fresh light on his thought-world and understanding of the new existence and moral enablement. Evidence exists which indicates that streams of traditions in Early Judaism Literature, factors other than the recipients' needs, contribute to the theology within each epistle and may account for distinctive aspects identified between Colossians and 1 Peter. Exploration of 4QInstruction and the Hodayot, texts discovered at Qumran, provides precedents, precursors, and parallels for the distinctive emphases investigated. Thus, they shed new light on each epistle.