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But there's no reason to exclude Gnostic elements as well, since Jewish and Gnostic developments had long since been interconnected. In fact, it's often assumed -- probably correctly -- that one of the sources of Gnosticism was a "marginalized" Judaism, where creation and salvation were no longer held together. Thoroughly non-Jewish, in any event, is reverence toward angels, which would appear to be more at home in some form of Hellenistic religiosity. Also non-Jewish is the special attention given to "the rudiments of the world" (2:8) and "powers and principalities" (2:10, 15). Could this be due to some influence from the mystery religions, whose terminology is in any case evident in 2:18?

Wiki MarkupThis mixture of Jewish traditions, Gnostic thinking, elements from the mystery religions \ -\- all in the context of faith in Christ \ -\- seems to be a religious movement +sui generis+, more or less without any clear parallel, especially in the theological "heresies" with which Paul himself seems to have had to do, notwithstanding certain obvious agreements (such as the demand to observe religious festivals \ [cf. Col 2:16 with Gal 4:8 ff.\]).

As a group within the Christian community, the chief interest of the Colossian "philosophers" appears to have been to supplement, or support, the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as Lord, which they in no way questioned. Through certain cultic practices, through religiously motivated observance of certain moral, especially ascetic, norms, and through a religious reverence for angels and the worldly elements they sought to achieve the "perfection," or "completion" that faith in Christ would otherwise lack. The result was that these "supports," or "supplements" obscured faith in Christ, and that Christ himself was made a kind of cult god, who had a place in a given context of cosmic "powers and principalities," to which human beings were subject.

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