Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T21:53:10.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Poetry and Theology in Colossians 1. 15–20

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

N. T. Wright
N. T. Wright
Affiliation:
Oxford, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In this article I shall argue for two points: first, that Col 1. 15–20 exhibits, without the deletion of any of its parts, a clear structure which can, in some meaningful senses, be called ‘poetic’; second, that the passage, read as a poem in the way I shall suggest, exhibits a characteristically Pauline form of what we may call Christological monotheism. This will point on to some further suggestions regarding the place of the passage within Colossians as a whole.

Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , July 1990 , pp. 444 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aletti 1981: Aletti, J.-N., Colossiens 1, 15–20: Genre et ex´gèse du texte; Fonction de la th´matique sapientielle (Analecta Biblica 91). Rome: Bibl. Inst. Press.Google Scholar
Balchin 1985: Balchin, J. F., ‘Colossians 1:15–20: An Early Christian Hymn? The Argument from Style’, Vox Evangelica 15, 65–94.Google Scholar
Bammel 1961: Bammel, E., ‘Versuch Kol 1 15–20’, ZNW 52, 88–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baugh 1985: Baugh, S. M., ‘The Poetic Form of Col. 1:15–20’, Western Theological Journal 47, 227–44.Google Scholar
Beasley-Murray 1980: Beasley-Murray, P., ‘Colossians 1:15–20: An Early Christian Hymn Celebrating the Lordship of Christ’, in Pauline Studies: Essays Presented to Professor F. F. Bruce on his 70th Birthday, Hagner, D. A. and Harris, M. J., eds., 169–83. Exeter/Grand Rapids: Paternoster/Eerdmans.Google Scholar
Benoit 1975: Benoit, P., ‘L'hymne christologique de Col i, 15–20. Jugement critique sur l'état des recherches’, in Judaism, Christianity and Other Greco-Roman Cults: Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty, ed.Neusner, J., vol. 1, 226–63. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Berger 1984: Berger, K., Formgeschichte des Neuen Testaments. Quelle & Mayer, Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Bruce 1984: Bruce, F. F., The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (NICNT). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.Google Scholar
Burney 1925: Burney, C. F., ‘Christ as the APXH of Creation, JTS 27, 1925–1926, 160–77.Google Scholar
Caird 1968: Caird, G. B., ‘The Development of the Doctrine of Christ in the New Testament’, in Christ For Us Today, ed. Pittenger, N., 66–81. London: S.C.M.Google Scholar
Caird 1976: Caird, G. B., Paul's Letters From Prison (New Clarendon Bible). Oxford: O.U.P.Google Scholar
Charlesworth 1982: Charlesworth, J. H., ‘A Prolegomenon to a New Study of the Jewish Background of the Hymns and Prayers in the New Testament’, JJS 33, 265–85.Google Scholar
Davies 1980: Davies, W. D., Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, 3rd edn.Philadelphia: Fortress.Google Scholar
Deichgräber 1967: Deichgräber, R., Gotteshymnus und Christushymnus in der frühen Christenheit (SUNT 5). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck.Google Scholar
Dunn 1980: Dunn, J. D. G., Christology in the Making. London: S.C.M.Google Scholar
Dunn 1982: Dunn, J. D. G., ‘Was Christianity a Monotheistic Faith from the Beginning?’, SJT 35, 303–36.Google Scholar
Ellingworth 1962: Ellingworth, P., ‘Colossians i.15–20 and its Context’, ExpT 73, 1961–1962, 252–3.Google Scholar
Feuillet 1965: Feuillet, A., ‘La Cr´ation de l'Univers “dans le Christ” d'après l'Epître aux Colossiens (i.16a)’, NTS 12, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankowski 1983: Frankowski, J., ‘Early Christian Hymns Recorded in the New Testament: A Reconsideration of the Question in the light of Heb 1,3’, BibZeit 27, 183–94.Google Scholar
Gabathuler 1965: Gabathuler, H. J., Jesus Christus, Haupt der Kirche — Haupt der Welt (ATANT 45). Zürich-Stuttgart: Zwingli-Verlag.Google Scholar
Getty 1985: Getty, M. A., ‘The Primacy of Christ’, Bible Today 23, 1985, 18–24.Google Scholar
Gilbert 1984: Gilbert, M., ‘Wisdom Literature’, in Stone, M. E. (ed.), Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period, 283–324. Philadelphia/Assen: Fortress/Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Glasson 1967: Glasson, T. F., ‘Colossians 1.18, 15 and Sirach 24’, JBL 86, 214–6.Google Scholar
Gnilka 1980: Gnilka, J., Der Kolosserbrief (Herders Theol. Komm.). Freiburg/Basel/Wien: Herder.Google Scholar
Hooker 1973: Hooker, M. D., ‘Were there False Teachers in Colossae?’ in Christ and Spirit in the New Testament: Essays in Honour of Charles Francis Digby Moule, eds. Lindars, B. and Smalley, S. S., 315–31. Cambridge: C. U. P.Google Scholar
Houlden 1970: Houlden, J. L., Paul's Letters from Prison. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Hurtado 1988: Hurtado, L. W., One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism. Philadelphia: Fortress.Google Scholar
Käsemann 1964: Käsemann, E., ‘A Primitive Christian Baptismal Liturgy’, in Essays on New Testament Themes (ET), 149–68. London: S.C.M.Google Scholar
Kehl 1967: Kehl, N., Der Christushymnus Kol 1,12–20. Eine motivgeschichtliche Untersuchung zu Kol 1,12–20 (Stuttgart Bibl. Monog. 1). Stuttgart, Katholisches Bibelwerk.Google Scholar
Kreitzer 1987: Kreitzer, L. J., Jesus and God in Paul's Eschatology (JSNT Suppl. 19). Sheffield: JSOT Press.Google Scholar
Lahnemann 1971: Lähnemann, J., Der Kolosserbrief: Komposition, Situation und Argumentation. Gütersloh: Mohn.Google Scholar
Lightfoot 1876: Lightfoot, J. B., St Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 2nd edn.London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Lohse 1971: Lohse, E., Colossians and Philemon (Hermeneia); ET (German orig. 1968). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.Google Scholar
Manns 1979: Manns, F., ‘Col. 1,15–20: Midrash Chrétien de Gen. 1,1’, Rév.Sci.Rel. 53, 100–10.Google Scholar
Martin 1972: Martin, R. P., Colossians: The Church's Lord and the Christian's Liberty. Exeter: Paternoster.Google Scholar
Martin 1974: Martin, R. P., Colossians and Philemon (New Century Bible). London: Oliphants.Google Scholar
McCown 1979: McCown, W., ‘The Hymnic Structure of Colossians 1:15–20’, EQ 51, 156–62.Google Scholar
Meeks 1983: Meeks, W. A., The First Urban Christians. New Haven: Yale U.P.Google Scholar
Metzger 1971: Metzger, B. M., A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. London and New York: U.B.S.Google Scholar
Moule 1957: Moule, C. F. D., The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians and to Philemon. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Moule 1977: Moule, C. F. D., The Origin of Christology. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Moule 1982: Moule, C. F. D., review of Dunn 1980, in JTS n.s. 33, 258–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy-O'Connor 1977: Murphy-O'Connor, J., Becoming Human Together. Wilmington: Michael Glazier.Google Scholar
Murphy-O'Connor 1978: Murphy-O'Connor, J., ‘I Cor. 8.6: Cosmology or Soteriology?’, RB 85, 253–67.Google Scholar
O'Brien 1982: O'Brien, P. T., Colossians, Philemon (Word Bib. Comm.) Waco, Texas: Word Books.Google Scholar
O'Neill 1979: O'Neill, J. C., ‘The Source of the Christology in Colossians’, NTS 26, 87–100.Google Scholar
Pöhlmann 1973: Pöhlmann, W., ‘Die hymnischen AU-Prädikationen in Kol 1 15–20’, ZNW 64, 1973, 53–74.Google Scholar
Pollard 1981: Pollard, T. E., ‘Colossians 1.12–20: A Reconsideration’, NTS 14, 572–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riesenfeld 1979: Riesenfeld, H., Unité et Diversité dans le Nouveau Testament (Lectio Divina 98). Paris: Cerf.Google Scholar
Robinson 1957: Robinson, J. M., ‘A Formal Analysis of Col 1, 15–20’, JBL 76, 270–87.Google Scholar
Schechter 1961: Schechter, S., Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, new edn. New York: Schocken.Google Scholar
Schenk 1987: Schenk, W., ‘Der Kolosserbrief in der neueren Forschung (1945–1985)’, ANRW 2.25.4, 3327–64.Google Scholar
Schürer 1973–1987: Schürer, E., The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. ed. (Vermes, G., Millar, F., Black, M.). 3 vols. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.Google Scholar
Schweizer 1967: Schweizer, E., ‘Dying and Rising with Christ’, NTS 14, 1967–8.Google Scholar
Schweizer 1970: Schweizer, E., ‘Kol 1,15–20’, in idem, Beiträge zur Theologie des Neuen Testaments: Neutestamentliche Aufsätze (1955–1970), 113–45. Zürich: Zwingli Verlag.Google Scholar
Schweizer 1982: Schweizer, E., The Letter to the Colossians, E.T. (Germ. orig. 1976). London: S.P.C.K.Google Scholar
Urbach 1987: Urbach, E. E., The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs (ET). Cambridge (Mass.) and London: Harvard U.P.Google Scholar
Vawter 1971: Vawter, B., ‘The Colossians Hymn and the Principle of Redaction’, CBQ 33, 62–81.Google Scholar
Wengst 1972: Wengst, K., Christologische Formeln und Lieder des Urchristentums (SNT 7), 2nd edn.Gütersloh: Mohn.Google Scholar
Williams 1907: Williams, A. L., The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians and to Philemon. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Wright 1983: Wright, N. T., ‘Adam in Pauline Christology1’, SBL 1983 Seminar Papers, ed. Richards, K. H., 359–83. Chico, California: Scholars' Press.Google Scholar
Wright 1986a: Wright, N. T., The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon. Leicester/Grand Rapids: PTP/Eerdmans.Google Scholar
Wright 1986b: Wright, N. T., ‘άρπαγμός and the Meaning of Philippians 2.5–11’, JTS n.s. 37, 321–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright 1986c: Wright, N. T., ‘“Constraints” and the Jesus of History’, SJT 39, 189–210.Google Scholar
Wright 1990: Wright, N. T., ‘Towards a Synthesis of Pauline Theology’ in Pauline Theology: Toward a New Synthesis, ed. Bassler, J. M.. Philadelphia: Fortress (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Young and Ford 1987: Young, F. and Ford, D. F., Meaning and Truth in 2 Corinthians (Biblical Foundations in Theology). London: S.P.C.K.Google Scholar