Subject: tc-list High Christology and Colossians

From: Frank Glenn <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 10:54:57 +0800

At 12:36 PM 3/26/99 -0500, Yuri wrote (anent Philippians):

(snip)

> TDNT 1:473-474 gives a full exposition of the 3 possible meanings of
>> the word and treats all of them grammatically, concluding that the
>> meaning is "He did not regard equality with God as a gain, either in
>> the sense of something not to be let slip, or in the sense of
>> something not to be left unutilised."
>
>So you're offering yet another translation that assumes that in his
>pre-existence Christ was equal to God. I doubt that this is a valid
>interpretation for the reasons already outlined.
>
>Generally speaking, I don't think this hymn dates to the lifetime of Paul,
>primarily because of the rather high Christology implied in it, and
>because of its more developed gnosis. In my view, the Historical Paul
>followed low (quasi-Ebionite) Christology. Pre-existence does generally
>seem like a rather late theological concept.
>
>But the Christology of the hymn, while rather high, is still not quite as
>high as almost all modern translations would like it to make, in my view.

        Why would one assume that a Christology has to move from "low" to
"high" as the "normal" expectation?  Suppose that Colossians, rather than
being either non-pauline or very late, is Paul's earliest extant letter
reflecting a sort of Johannine Christology learned in Syria before his
association with Barnabas and Antioch.  From thence Paul gradually moved
(beginning with Thessalonians and progressing to Romans) to the
"quasi-Ebionite" stance which I agree reflects the bulk of his authentic
writings.
Frank