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Drawing upon little-known angel inscriptions, magical texts, and archaeological evidence from Asia Minor, the author argues that the Colossians tried to combine Paul's teachings about Christ with local pagan and Jewish folk beliefs. The result was a syncr
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The Colossian Syncretism The Interface between and Folk Belief at Christianity Colossae Clinton E. Arnold OB BakerBooks A Division of Baker Book House Co. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49516 ©1996 by Clinton E. Arnold Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Book House Company P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 This book first appeared 1995 as volume 77 in Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 2d series, published by J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck). Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. ISBN 0-8010-2092-1 For information about academic books, resources for Christian leaders, and all new releases available from Baker Book House, visit our web site: http://www.bakerbooks.com To My Parents Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Arnold Acknowledgments The beginnings of this work reach back to my doctoral study at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland). Although my dissertation focused primarily on the letter to the Ephesians, the seeds of the present study were planted and took root there. Accordingly, I would like to express my appreciation to Professor I. Howard Marshall for his earlier guidance. Much of the research for this book was carried out in Tubingen during 1 9 9 1 . 1 am grateful to Biola University for granting m e the study leave and also to the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) for a research grant which made the trip to Germany possible. O u r time was m a d e particularly enjoyable by the hospitality of some very dear friends: Wilfried and Judith Sturm, Lienhard and Renate Pflaum, and Jurgen and Franziska Schwarz. I o w e a special debt of gratitude to Professor Peter Stuhlmacher for faithfully serving as m y "mentor" under the provisions of the A T S grant. I appreciate the many opportunities to discuss the chapters with him and for his numerous insightful comments. I also want to extend my thanks to Professor Robert M c L . Wilson (St. Andrews) for reading much of the manuscript and for the opportunity to discuss it with him in his h o m e . I have also benefitted significantly from the remarks of a great n u m b e r of scholars w h o commented on portions of this study given as papers in the regional and annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Evangelical Theological Society, and seminars in Aberdeen and Tubingen. I would like to thank Professor Martin Hengel for reading a portion of this manuscript at an early stage and providing helpful feedback. I am grateful that he has now included this work in the W U N T m o n o g r a p h series. It has been wonderful to serve at Talbot School of Theology with a group of colleagues that are encouraging and supportive friends. I want to express m y appreciation to three, in particular, w h o contributed to m e in a variety of ways toward the completion of this project: Dr. Michael J. Wilkins (my Department Chair), Dr. Dennis Dirks (my Dean), and D r . W . Bingham Hunter (my former Dean). I also want to thank Heather Johnson for her very careful proofreading of this manuscript. vi Acknowledgments I am exceedingly grateful to my family—my wife, Barbara, and o u r sons Jeffrey, Dustin, and Brandon—for participating with me in this project through the years. They packed up and moved to Germany for the sake