Notes

1. See, e.g., John Callow, A Semantic and Structural Analysis of Colossians (Dallas: SIL International, 2002), who sees in 3:1 “a change of topic from the previous section, and indeed there is, the previous section being concerned with warnings against the false teaching.” Some have further made a distinction between the practical moral imperatives and the theoretical discussion of the legal matters as this section is considered to focus primarily on the “ethical,” without “reflections or implications of actual halakha” (Peter J. Tomson, Paul and the Jewish Law: Halakha in the Letters of the Apostle to the Gentiles [CRINT 3.1; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990], 91).

2. These two sections that build around the death and resurrection of Christ remind one of a similar set of arguments presented in Rom 6:1–14; see Louw, “Reading a Text as Discourse,” 29.

3. The sections that follow, which explicate that which is “above,” also make clear that “attending to heavenly things is not an otherworldly fixation on spiritual matters” (Michael Barram, “Colossians 3:1–17,” Int 59 [2005]: 189).

4. Wedderburn, “The Theology of Colossians,” 41. This connection is explicitly secured with the allusion to 1:20 in 3:15.

5. Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet, 127.

6. See comments on 2:20.

7. Meeks, “ ‘To Walk Worthily of the Lord,’ ” 46.

8. Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet, 123. Cf. Sumney, “The Argument of Colossians,” 350.

9. A prepositional phrase that modifies the auxiliary verb rules out the possibility of this being a periphrastic participle.

10. Beetham, Echoes of Scripture, 226.

11. Cf. Beale, “Colossians,” 864.

12. E.g., Dan 7:10; 1 En. 14:22; 39:12; 2 En. 21:2; 2 Bar. 21:6; 4 Ezra 8:21; see Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 163–64, who further points to the saying, “on high there is no sitting” (b. Ḥag. 15a; Gen. Rab. 65:1).

13. Bauckham, God Crucified, 31.

14. Cf. BDAG, 1065–66. Although “keep thinking about things above” (NET; cf. NAB) may be a more literal translation, this rendering may give the false impression that Paul is focusing simply on the mental act.

15. The call to submit to God’s will with a transformed mind in Rom 12:1–2 is followed by calls “to think” (φρονεῖν) through the mind of Christ (12:3, 16).

16. This use of “the earth” (τῆς γῆς) may draw ultimately from Gen 3:17 (LXX ἐπικατάρατος ἡ γῆ), where “the earth” is seen as “the primary setting of fallen creation” (Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet, 126).

17. Schweizer, Letter to the Colossians, 175.

18. Cf. BDF §140.

19. BDAG, 571.

20. See, in particular, O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon, 166.

21. Thus Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet, 129; Smith, Heavenly Perspective, 182.

22. MacDonald, Colossians and Ephesians, 128.

23. Cf. Barth and Blanke, Colossians, 396.

24. Dunn, Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 207.

25. Gerhard Swart, “Eschatological Vision or Exhortation to Visible Christian Conduct? Notes on the Interpretation of Colossians 3:4,” Neot 33 (1999): 175.

26. Talbert, Ephesians and Colossians, 226; cf. Bevere, Sharing in the Inheritance, 153–61.

27. Some manuscripts read “our” (ἡμῶν) instead of “your” (ὑμῶν), but the later reading is supported by the earliest () and the more diverse manuscript traditions; cf. Metzger, Textual Commentary, 557.

28. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 210, italics his.

29. Wright, Colossians and Philemon, 133.

30. Outside of NT letters, only a few vice (e.g., Mark 7:21–22) and virtue (e.g., Matt 5:3–11) lists can be identified.

31. Burton Scott Easton, “New Testament Ethical Lists,” JBL 51 (1932): 1–12.

32. James L. Bailey and Lyle D. Vander Broek, Literary Forms in the New Testament: A Handbook (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992), 65–66.

33. Schweizer, Letter to the Colossians, 188.

34. Based on formal considerations that both the vice and virtue lists in Colossians contain a fivefold enumeration, some (e.g., Lohse, Colossians and Philemon, 137) have further pointed to an Iranian tradition that emphasizes five good and five evil deeds.

35. Troels Engberg-Pedersen, “Paul, Virtues and Vices,” in Paul in the Greco-Roman World: A Handbook (ed. J. Paul Sampley; Harrisburgh, PA: Trinity International, 2003), 608–9. For the influence of Stoic thoughts on Paul, see also his Paul and the Stoics (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000).

36. Engberg-Pedersen, “Paul, Virtues and Vices,” 628: “He did radicalize what he found by extending it to what may well be called its logical end: now was the time, not only when what should be done could be done, but also when it could be done in such a way that any relic of the individual, bodily person would be wiped out completely by an exclusive directedness toward Christ.”

37. Robert M. Grant, “The Decalogue in Early Christianity,” HTR 40 (1947): 1–17.

38. See comments on v. 5 for a discussion of the individual vices in this list.

39. Cannon, Use of Traditional Materials in Colossians, 63.

40. See Bevere, Sharing in the Inheritance, 190–93, who further points to the Jewish two-way tradition (Deut 30:15–16; Ps 1:6; Prov 2:12–13; 4:18–19; Jer 21:8; cf. Did. 1–6).

41. Sexual immorality, a vice that tops a number of the lists (v. 5; cf. Rom 1:26–27; 13:13; 1 Cor 5:10–11; Eph 5:3; 1 Tim 1:10), often symbolizes the sins of the Gentiles. These sexual rules therefore reflect a concern to preserve “social boundaries” (Mary Douglas, Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology [London: Routledge, 1996], 74).

42. Some consider the lists of “qualifications” for church leaders noted in the Pastoral Letters (1 Tim 3:1–7, 8–13; Titus 1:6–16) as a reaction to the lifestyle of those threatening the church; cf. William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles (WBC 46; Nashville: Nelson, 2000), 155–60.

43. Cannon, Use of Traditional Materials in Colossians, 244.

44. Wolfgang Schrage, The Ethics of the New Testament (trans. David E. Green; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), 250.

45. See also Gal 5:17–24; Eph 5:3–14; David E. Aune, The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (LEC 8; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1987), 195.

46. It is in this sense that these lists point to the sectarian nature of the early church as it distinguishes itself from the wider world; cf. Wayne A. Meeks, The Moral World of the First Christians (LEC 6; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1987), 79–80.

47. Lohse, Colossians and Philemon, 137.

48. Moule, Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 115. A NT example can be found in Matt 5:29–30, and Rom 6:13 can also be understood in such terms. Barth and Blanke, Colossians, 399, further point to the later rabbinic assertion that the various commandments correspond to the 248 members of the human body.

49. One should not expect any vice list to provide a comprehensive catalogue of vices, but only those that characterize certain aspects of one’s moral inclinations; cf. Abraham J. Malherbe, Moral Exhortation: A Greco-Roman Sourcebook (LEC 4; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986), 138.

50. See also Gal 5:19, where “sexual immorality” also tops the list for “acts of the flesh” (cf. Eph 5:3).

51. In light of the use of the term in Rom 1:24, Ed. L. Miller (“More Pauline References to Homosexuality?” EvQ 77 [2005]: 131) has further suggested that this term is to be distinguished from “sexual immorality,” as “impurity” is used instead “as a condensed and perhaps euphemistic expression” in reference to homosexual behavior as described in 1 Cor 6:10. The wider use of this term in both the OT and NT does not support this reading, however.

52. BDAG, 748.

53. While the Greek verb “covet” (ἐπιθυμήσεις) recalls the tenth commandment in the LXX, “covetousness” (πλεονεξίαν) in this Colossian list uses a different word group.

54. See comments in “In Depth: Vice and Virtue Lists,” above.

55. For a further discussion of allusions to the Ten Commandments in Col 3, see also Lars Hartman, “Code and Context: A Few Reflections on the Parenesis of Col 3:6–4:1,” in Tradition and Interpretation in the New Testament: Essays in Honor of E. Earle Ellis for His 60th Birthday (ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne and Otto Betz; Grand Rapid: Eerdmans, 1988), 240–41.

56. David Noel Freedman, The Nine Commandments: Uncovering the Hidden Pattern of Crime and Punishment in the Hebrew Bible (ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 2000), 155.

57. This is made explicit by the use of the future tense in some versions: “For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come” (NASB; cf. NLT).

58. “The sons of disobedience” is a Semitic way of turning a noun into an adjectival modifier of another noun: “the disobedient ones.”

59. B.

60. Grammatically, it could be read as a masculine pronoun if “upon the sons of disobedience” is adopted as part of the text: “among whom you once walked” (cf. Wilson, Colossians and Philemon, 248). But even if this were the reading, the relative pronoun should be taken to refer to the sinful behavior of their former lives in light of the parallel in Eph 2:1–2.

61. In Ephesians, the contrast between the former and present lives is marked by references to light and darkness: “For you were once [ποτε] darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live [lit., walk] as children of light” (Eph 5:8).

62. Many label the two parts of this verse as “tautology”; cf. Pokorný, Colossians, 167. See also Sumney, Colossians, 194, who sees this as serving an emphatic purpose.

63. Harris, Colossians and Philemon, 149. See also Wright, Colossians and Philemon, 136, who sees “the actual conduct” as revealing “the settled state of existence.”

64. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 213.

65. See also Schweizer, Letter to the Colossians, 193, who considers the verb as marking the “transition to the image of clothing (vv 9–12).”

66. Moo, Letters to the Colossians and Philemon, 263.

67. See comments on 1:3 and 1:12. See also Pao, Thanksgiving, 86–118.

68. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 214.

69. BDAG, 500; cf. Xenophon, Mem. 1, 2, 28; Aristotle, Rhet. 2, 6.

70. Epictetus, Diatr. 4.4.46. For a discussion of this word group especially in relation to slander, see also Jeremy F. Hultin, The Ethics of Obscene Speech in Early Christianity and Its Environment (NovTSup 128; Leiden: Brill, 2008), 157–60, 166, 208.

71. Instead of the well-supported reading of the negated present imperative (μὴ ψεύδεσθε), the early and usually reliable has the negative present subjunctive instead (μὴ ψεύδησθε). This use is attested in at least one other early papyrus and may well represent the original reading (cf. Stanley E. Porter, “P.Oxy. 744.4 and Colossians 3,9,” Bib 73 [1992]: 565–67). This does not affect the meaning of this verse, however.

72. Dunn, Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 219; cf. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon, 188.

73. Thus Schweizer, Letter to the Colossians, 193.

74. Roy Yates, “The Christian Way of Life: The Paraenetic Material in Colossians 3:1–4:6,” EvQ 63 (1991): 247.

75. Cf. Rudolf Schnackenburg, Present and Future: Modern Aspects of New Testament Theology (Notre Dame, IN: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1966), 90.

76. Some have argued for an either/or option here and deny the significance of the baptismal imagery because of Paul’s rejection of ritualism; cf. Ben Witherington III and G. François Wessels, “Do Everything in the Name of the Lord: Ethics and Ethos in Colossians,” in Identity, Ethics, and Ethos in the New Testament (ed. Jan G. van der Watt; BZNW 141; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2006), 311.

77. See Jung Hoon Kim, The Significance of Clothing Imagery in the Pauline Corpus (JSNTSup 268; London: T&T Clark, 2004), 158.

78. Beale, “Colossians,” 866.

79. Or at least “the old/new nature” (REB, NLT).

80. Moule, Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 119. See also Darrell L. Bock, “ ‘The New Man’ as Community in Colossians and Ephesians,” in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands (ed. Charles H. Dyer and Roy B. Zuck; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 157–67.

81. Elsewhere, Paul calls the believers to put on Christ himself (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27).

82. Cf. Harris, Colossians and Philemon, 152.

83. This is the only other appearance of “to renew” (ἀνακαινόω) in the NT. But see the related verb (ἀνακαινίζω) in Heb 6:6 in reference to the possibility of those who have fallen away being renewed. The nominal form (ἀνακαίνωσις) occurs in Rom 12:2 and Titus 3:5.

84. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, 647.

85. See, in particular, Beale, “Colossians,” 865.

86. This phrase with the singular third person masculine pronoun literally reads “the image of the one who creates him.” Nevertheless, in light of our reading of τὸν νέον as the “new humanity,” and in light of Paul’s understanding of this phrase in community terms, it is best to translate the pronoun as a third person plural pronoun.

87. Thus Fee, Pauline Christology, 304; cf. Rom 8:29, where one finds the conformation to “the image of his Son.”

88. Moule, Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 120.

89. George H. van Kooten, Paul’s Anthropology in Context: The Image of God, Assimilation to God, and Tripartite Man in Ancient Judaism, Ancient Philosophy and Early Christianity (WUNT 232; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 217.

90. It is also a pair that appears often in Acts (14:1; 18:4; 19:10, 17; 20:21) in the context of early Christian missionary activities.

91. Thus also BDAG, 318.

92. See esp. Rom 1:14, where the term βάρβαρος is contrasted with “Greeks.”

93. For this use, see 1 Cor 14:11; see also Acts 28:2, 4.

94. Louw and Nida, §41.31.

95. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 218–19, who provides ancient examples for this usage. Cf. “savages” (GNB).

96. Those who deny the contrastive nature of the other pairs (“Greek, Jew, barbarian, Scythian”) point to people groups in the West, East, South, and North (cf. Otto Michel, “Σκύθης,” TDNT, 7:449). This, however, lacks support in both extracanonical literature and is inconsistent with the use of at least some of these terms in Paul’s own writings.

97. Troy Martin, “The Scythian Perspective in Col 3:11,” JBL 114 (1995): 253.

98. Cf. Douglas A. Campbell, “The Scythian Perspective in Col. 3:11: A Response to Troy Martin,” NovT 39 (1997): 81–84.

99. Douglas A. Campbell, “Unraveling Colossians 3.11b,” NTS 42 (1996): 120–32. This is based on Pliny (Nat. 4.80–81), who uses “Scythian” to refer to slaves near the Black Sea.

100. See the response by Troy Martin, “Scythian Perspective or Elusive Chiasm: A Reply to Douglas A. Campbell,” NovT 41 (1999): 256–64.

101. Dennis R. MacDonald, There Is No Male and Female: The Fate of a Dominical Saying in Paul and Gnosticism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 128.

102. See, e.g., the appearance of only one pair in Rom 10:12, a letter that focuses on the issue of Jews and Gentiles: “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.” The comprehensive list in Gal 3:28 may in turn be emphatic as Paul points to the three possible widespread distinctions among people groups. Others (Bevere, Sharing in the Inheritance, 120) prefer to see behind these lists a pre-Pauline formula from which he formulates statements appropriate to each context.

103. This has been aptly labeled as “christological pluralism” (Tomson, Paul and the Jewish Law, 93).

104. Some have also detected “utopian associations” here, thus highlighting the realized eschatology of Paul as he responds to the false teachers; cf. Maier, “A Sly Civility,” 341–44.

105. Robert Paul Roth, “Christ and the Powers of Darkness: Lessons from Colossians,” WW 6 (1986): 344.

106. Jean Stairs, Listening for the Soul: Pastoral Care and Spiritual Direction (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), 99.

107. Craig S. Keener, “Heavenly Mindedness and Earthly Good: Contemplating Matters Above in Colossians 3.1–2,” JGRChJ 6 (2009): 185. See also Keener’s discussion in this article of the challenge of Paul’s call in 3:1–4 for an ancient audience whose vision of the transcendent was often abstract and transcendent, as testified by the writings of philosophers, mystics, and apocalyptic visionaries.

108. Simon Chan, Spiritual Theology: A Systematic Study of the Christian Life (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 186.

109. See Theology in Application for previous chapter.

110. Susan G. Cole, Pornography and the Sex Crisis (Toronto: Amanita, 1989), 22.

111. John Piper, Future Grace (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1995), 224.

112. Richard Bauckham, “James and Jesus,” in The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission (ed. Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 127.

113. Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and of Holy Dying (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1850), 197.

114. Cf. Shaye J. D. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press, 1999), 30–34, who also notes that although the OT describes two distinct items for the Israelites (ṣîṣit and pātîl; Num 15:37–41; cf. Deut 22:12), the absence of any reference to these items in Gentile sources suggest they were not followed at least by Jews in Diaspora communities.

115. Daniel Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 200–205.

116. Roy R. Jeal, “Clothes Makes the (Wo)man,” Scriptura 90 (2005): 686. For an insightful analysis of the change in clothing practices as reflecting social and historical changes of a community as it interacts with foreign elements, see Eileen Chang, “A Chronicle of Changing Clothes,” Positions 11 (2003): 427–41.

117. Alison Lure, The Language of Clothes (New York: Random House, 1981), 18.

118. This precise quotation appears in a 1963 interview with Martin Luther King Jr. at Western Michigan University (www.wmich.edu/library/archives/mlk/q-a.html).

119. For a discussion of the problems and promises of such an approach, see the helpful case study in Kersten Bayt Priest and Robert J. Priest, “Divergent Worship Practices in the Sunday Morning Hour: Analysis of an ‘Interracial’ Church Merger Attempt,” in This Side of Heaven: Race, Ethnicity, and Christian Faith (ed. Robert J. Priest and Alvaro L. Nieves; Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2007), 275–91.

120. In some contexts, ethnic churches are effective instruments to address the need of immigrant communities; see, e.g., Carolyn Chen, Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 2008), 38–76.