Cf. Thielman 2003.
44. I have changed my mind on this since Bird 2008a: 65. Note also the hesitancy of Moule 1957: 24; and Dunn 1996: 41.
45. I prefer the term “philosophy” since that is the word used to describe the viewpoint that Paul is opposing in Colossians (2:8) and other terms like “error” or “heresy” presuppose later standards of orthodoxy.
46. On the methodology for trying to identify Paul’s opponents in Colossae see Sumney 1993; Wolter 1993: 156; DeMaris 1994: 41–45; Arnold 1996: 4; Stettler 2005: 172.
47. Gunther 1973; and see surveys in Francis 1975; Stettler 2005; Smith 2006: 19–38.
48. Hooker 1973; but see response by Gnilka 1980: 163–64 n. 4. Calvin (1979a: 132–33) saw Paul confronting worldly philosophy on the one hand with its reference to “stars, fate, the trifles of a like nature” and the Jews on the other hand who urged “observance of their ceremonies” and “had raised up many mists with a view of throwing Christ into the shade.” These Jews are clearly Jewish Christians for Calvin, and he says that they tried to “mix up Christ with Moses, and might retain the shadows of the law along with the gospel.” Throughout the commentary he calls them “false apostles.” At the same time Calvin saw these false teachers as Hellenistic to some extent and concerned with speculations contained in the books of Dionysius on the Celestial Hierarchy stemming from the Platonic school. Calvin emphasizes at length Paul’s critique of Jewish ceremonies (1979a: 181–82, 188–89), which he sees pregnant even in the “elements” (2:8) and “written code” (2:14).
49. Cf. e.g., Dibelius 1975: 99.
50. Baur 2003 [1873–75]: 2.28–32.
51. Cf. e.g., Lincoln (2000: 567) who writes: “[T]he proponent(s) of the teaching have taken a number of elements from Judaism and the Christian gospel and linked these with typical cosmological concerns from the Hellenistic world. It is quite plausible that a Hellenistic Jew who had left the synagogue to join a Pauline congregation or a Gentile convert who had had some previous contact with the synagogue would advocate such a philosophy, and the writer evidently was concerned that it might appeal to others among his preponderantly Gentile Christian readers.” Similarly, see Arnold 1996: 228–29.
52. Schweizer 1982: 81, 129–33, 136–37, 151.
53. DeMaris 1994; Kooten 2003: 143–46.
54. Martin 1996.
55. Cf. Bruce 1957: 166–67; Lohse 1971: 18, 128; Martin 1973: 18–19; O’Brien 1982: xxxviii; Barth and Blanke 1994: 38; Lincoln 2000: 563–68; and esp. Arnold 1996.
56. Philo Spec. 1.315–16.
57. Hengel and Schwemer 1997: 70.
58. Cf. Meyer and Smith 1994; Arnold 1996: 83–97, 238–43; Busch 2007.
59. Origen Cels. 1.26.
60. Arnold 1996: 20–31.
61. See discussion and references in Bruce 1984a: 7; Trebilco 1991: 58–59.
62. Cf. e.g., Josephus Ant. 14.261.
63. Trebilco 1991: 142; cf. Dunn 1995: 156.
64. Bruce 1984a: 7.
65. 4 Macc 5:22; Ep. Arist. 30–31.
66. J. W. 2.119, 166; Ant. 18.11, 25.
67. Ant. 1.18; 16.398; Ag. Ap. 1.181; 2.47.
68. Cf. Opif. 8.128; Migr. 34; Somn. 1.226; 2.244; Mos. 2.2; Spec. 1.32, 37; 3.185–91; Legat. 156, 245, 318.
69. Cf. e.g., Bruce 1957: 166; Lohse 1971: 129; Bornkamm 1975: 130; Pokorný 1991: 117–21.
70. Lightfoot 1879: 82–114; but see criticisms in Yamauchi 1964; Lohse 1971: 128–29; Barth and Blanke 1994: 379; Smith 2006: 21–24.
71. Benoit 1968: 17.
72. Cf. e.g., Francis 1975; Evans 1982; O’Brien 1982: xxxviii; Rowland 1983; Bruce 1984c; Sappington 1991; Sumney 1993: 387–88; Dunn 1995; 1996: 174; Garland 1998: 27; Roberts 1998; Smith 2006; Talbert 2007: 219; Witherington 2007: 165–66.
73. Bruce 1984c: 201–4.
74. Cf. discussion in Smith 2006: 38–73.
75. CD 16.4–6 and the “Angel of Obstruction”; Jub. 15:28–32 and the spirits who “rule so that they might be led astray.” According to Hippolytus (Haer. 9.11) a Jewish Christian group called the Elchasai urged keeping the Sabbath because “There exist wicked stars of impiety . . . Honour the day of thee Sabbath, since that day is one of those during which prevails (the power) of these stars.” Note also the incantation of 4Q510 1:4–6 for warding off evil angels and spirits: “And I, the Sage, declare the grandeur of his radiance in order to frighten and terr[ify] all the spirits of the ravaging angels and the bastard spirits, demons, Liliths, owls, and [jackals . . .].”
76. Or else thelōn is adverbial and means “intentionally disqualifying” (BDF § 148.2).
77. Apoc. Ab. 17–18; 2 Bar. 2:2; 3:1–2; T. Levi 3:4–8; T. Job 48–50; Apoc. Zeph. 8:3–4; Ascen. Isa. 7:37; 8:17; 9:28–34 (Smith 2006: 126).
78.
