Abstract
It has already been established in section 1.2 that a substantial number of Jews were residents of the Lycus Valley and some of them were probably a part of the community of new believers. Not knowing exactly what Epaphras reported to the writer, the letter is the main indicator of the concern for specific teachings and the need to warn or inform against possible errors. This chapter serves to identify the audience of the letter and not to affirm any side. In the twentieth century, terms such as “opponents,” “errors,” “false teachers,” and “heresy” have become common when discussing this letter. However, the use of such terms in this book is not an attempt to place blame but only for identification purposes. The letter to the Colossians addresses teachings in the following areas that help to identify a Jewish audience:
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the Law
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circumcision and traditions
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Jesus Christ.
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Notes
Jacob Neusner, Children of the Flesh, Children of the Promise: A Rabbi Talks with Paul (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1995), 3.
E. P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, 1st Fortress Press ed. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 275–6.
Stuart E. Rosenberg, The Christian Problem: A Jewish View (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1986), 62–3.
Ben Zion Bokser, Judaism and the Christian Predicament, 1st ed. (New York: Knopf, 1967), 309.
Samuel Sandmel, Judaism and Christian Beginnings (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 335.
Samuel Sandmel, We Jews and you Christians (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1967) 19.
G. MacGregor, “Principalites and Powers: The Cosmic Background of Paul’s Thought” New Testament Studies vol. 1, no. 1 (1954), 22.
Aristides, J. Rendel Harris, and J. Armitage Robinson, The Apology of Aristides on Behalf of the Christians, from a Syriac Ms. Preserved on Mount Sinai, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: The University Press, 1893), 48.
John J. Gunther, St. Paul’s Opponents and Their Background. A Study of Apocalyptic and Jewish Sectarian Teachings (Leiden: Brill, 1973), 174–5.
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Ernst Percy, Die Probleme Der Kolosser-Und Epheserbriefe, Skrifter Utgivna Av Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet I Lund; 39 (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1946 ), 92.
Albert Vanhoye, Situation Du Christ, Hébreux 1–2 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1969), 131.
Andrew John Bandstra, The Law and the Elements of the World: An Exegetical Study in Aspects of Paul’s Teaching (Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1964), 152–3.
Jacob Neusner, Children of the Flesh, Children of the Promise: A Rabbi Talks with Paul (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1995), 2 1.
A. Powell Davies, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: New American Library, 1956), 89–92.
Michael Grant, From Alexander to Cleopatra: The Hellenistic World (New York: Scribner, 1982), 79. “The Jews of Asia Minor [who were accul-turated to Greek ideas] mostly rejected Paul because they regarded his doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ as a blasphemous betrayal of their tradition of monotheism.”
Günther Bornkamm, Jesus of Nazareth, 1st Fortress Press ed. ( Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995 ), 62.
Hyman Maccoby, “Christianity’s Break with Judaism,” Commentary, Aug. 1984, 39.
Samuel Sandmel, A Jewish Understanding of the New Testament (Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Pub., 2004), 33.
Bernd Janowski and Peter Stuhlmacher, The Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 in Jewish and Christian Sources (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2004), 89–90.
Heinrich Graetz, Bella Löwy, and Philipp Bloch, History of the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1891), 370–1.
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© 2013 Annie Tinsley
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Tinsley, A. (2013). Jews. In: A Postcolonial African American Re-reading of Colossians. Postcolonialism and Religions. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137326157_4
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