04_Biblica_Collins_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:47 Pagina 73 73 COLOSSIANS 1,17 “HOLD TOGETHER”: A CO-OPTED TERM together” (evn lo,gw| th/j megalwsu,nhj auvtou/ sunesth,santo ta. panta) 21. , The Greek-speaking Christian apologists and theologians con- tinue to use the terminology discussed here. For example, Aristides, Apology (ca. 125 C.E.) 22, described God as (1.2) “the one who put all things together and maintains/governs [them]” (to.n susthsa,menon ta. pa,nta kai. diakratou/nta); “through him all things hold together” (diV auvtou/ de. ta. pa,nta sune,sthken) 23. He later (4.1) insists that God is “incorruptible and unchangeable and invisible” (a;fqarto,j te kai. avnaloi,wtoj kai. avo,ratoj); the sky cannot be a god, since it is “put together from many [parts]” (4.2, evk pollw/n sunestw/ta). Athenagoras’ Plea for the Christians (ca. 176–177 C.E.) dis- plays “an idea of God” that has been deemed “fundamentally Chris- tian and biblical” 24. At the same time he takes pains to show that the Christian idea is fully in line with the best of Greek philosophy. He declares (4.1): 21 For helpful analysis of the idea that 1 Clement is more under the influence of Stoicism than of apostolic teaching see W.C. VAN UNNIK, “Is 1 Clement 20 purely Stoic”, Vigiliae Christianae 4 (1950) 181-189; T. GADEN, ““Chosen as a peculiar people’: Christian traditions and Hellenistic philosophy in 1 Clement”, Colloquium 34 (2002) 35-48. As Gaden, notes (42), “Clement has taken up some Stoic language and themes, but he has adapted them to his purpose of reminding the Corinthians that the orderliness of the world is an indication of the value God places on orderliness in community, and that this knowledge is something that is available to them in Christ”. 22 The text comes from the story of Barlaam and Ioasaph, attributed to John of Damascus, §27. The Greek text is cited from the Loeb edition of this story; see further B. POUDERON et al., eds., Aristide. Apologie: Introduction, textes critiques, traductions et commentaire (Paris 2003). 23 The Syriac for this line has (POUDERON et al., Apologie, 186-187), wbh q’m kl dq’m, “and in him stands all that stands”, which is reminiscent of the Peshitta of Col 1,17, wekolmiddem beh qa’em. This is probably not the force of the Greek, however: the previous usage, which recalls the Greek philoso- phers’ notion of divine creation, and the later usage of the verb (4.2) favor the sense “hold together” here. 24 L.W. BARNARD, Athenagoras. A Study in Second Century Christian Apologetic (Théologie Historique; Paris 1972) 91. See also W.R. SCHOEDEL (ed.), Athenagoras: Legatio and De Resurrectione (Oxford 1972) xi-xxv.