Themelios: Issue 35-1, April 2010

Top Highlights

“What does it mean to be circumcised with a circumcision made without hands? The use of the aorist passive περιετμήθητε demonstrates that the Colossians were the object of the circumcision with God as implied agent and that in context Paul views the action as a single past constative action at the time of conversion.” (Page 21)

“Thus, Paul links the sign and the thing signified closely together. The NT connects faith, repentance, the gift of the Spirit, and baptism closely together, implying the presence of all of them in each instance.⁹⁴ Such is the functional unity in Paul between these things that it is difficult to see how one could occur without the presence of the others.” (Pages 27–28)

“It is reasonable, therefore, to suppose that there was some sort of Jewish element present within the ‘philosophy.’ Thus the inclusion of rites-language within the ‘polemical core’ may well have been a direct response to opponents, or at least a preemptive strike against false teachers imposing certain rites as essential. Paul’s purpose is not to discuss baptism or circumcision per se, but rather to include them within the section highlighting the fullness already possessed in Christ through all he has accomplished.” (Page 17)

“Therefore the relative pronoun (ἐν ᾧ) in v. 12 refers to baptism, and thus baptism signifies both a ‘burial’ and a ‘resurrection.’ The use of the aorist tense for συνηγέρθητε, as with the previous verbs in vv. 11–12, highlights the present reality of the Colossians’ new life in Christ.” (Page 25)

“There are three main possibilities. First, it could be an objective genitive, speaking of Christ’s death under the metaphor of circumcision.’” (Page 24)