04_Biblica_Collins_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:47 Pagina 71 71 COLOSSIANS 1,17 “HOLD TOGETHER”: A CO-OPTED TERM Now of the four elements the putting together of the Cosmos (h` tou/ ko,smou xu,stasij) had taken up the whole of every one. For the one who put it together had put it together (xune,sthsen auvto.n o` xunista,j) out of all the fire and water and air and earth that existed … Similarly, in the Republic, 530a, the astronomer who gazes at the movement of the stars “will be willing to concede that the Demiurge of heaven “put it, and the things that are in it, together (xunesta,nai … auton te kai. ta. evn auvtw/|) in the best possible manner”. v, Aristotle uses suni,sthmi in Nicomachean Ethics, 6.7.4, in a way that is not obviously theological: he notes that “there exist other things far more divine in their nature than man, for instance, to mention the most visible, the things from which the celestial sys- tem is put together (evx w-n o` ko,smoj sune,sthken); cf. Metaphysics, 990a, 22, for something similar. He does use sune,cw in a theolog- ical context (Politics, 7.4.5): Law is a form of order, and good law must necessarily mean good order; but an excessively large number cannot participate in order: to give it order would surely be a task for divine power [qei,aj duna,mewj] which holds even this universe together [kai. to,de sune,cei to. pa/n]. Xenophon was contemporary with Plato, and like him admired Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.). In Memorabilia, 4.3.13, he has Socrates speak of the gods, who “bestow on us their good gifts”; then he sin- gles out “especially he who co-ordinates and holds together the uni- verse (o` to.n o[lon ko,smon sunta,ttwn te kai. sune,cwn), wherein all things are fair and good”. Xenophon also gives an unusual in- stance of sune,cw in this sense, where the subject is more than one god. In Cyropaedia, 8.7.22, the Persian king Cyrus urges his audi- ence to “fear the gods, eternal, all-seeing, omnipotent, who hold this ordered universe together (oi] kai. th,nde th.n tw/n o[lwn ta,xin sune,cousin), unimpaired, ageless, unerring, indescribable in its beauty and its grandeur”. Unlike the other examples considered here, the focus of sune,cw in this context is not so much on keeping the unity of the conjoined parts, as it is on the gods’ maintaining the universe steady in its existence. This is not surprising, since the other examples have one deity doing the work, while this has a number of them.