04_Biblica_Collins_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:47 Pagina 79 79 COLOSSIANS 1,17 “HOLD TOGETHER”: A CO-OPTED TERM 3. Intransitive suni,sthmi In the intransitive use, something stands together, that is, it holds together. This use runs throughout Athanasius’ Contra Gentes. For example, in §28.20 God “is not put together from different elements” (ouk evk diafo,rwn sune,sthken). By contrast, in §27.36-37 the parts v of the creation “only hold together through mutual support” (kai. taij parV avllh,lwn evpikouri,aij sunista,mena). (Of the many ex- / amples of suni,sthmi and the derived noun su,stasij, I mention a few here.) The passive of the transitive use appears in the New Testament at 2 Pet 3,5, where the earth “was put together out of water and through water [evx u[datoj kai. diV u[datoj sunestw/sa] by the word of God”. The “something” that is put together or that holds together is typically viewed as consisting of various parts that now function as a unity, as Athanasius makes explicit. He proposes an analogy (§43:2-4): “As when a chorus is put together out of [sunestw/toj evk] different men, children, women, and then old people, and those who are still young”. Consider also (§28:31-32): “a single body is put together out of [suni,statai evk] these different parts”. Further, God (§28:20-21) “is not put together out of [sune,sthken evk] dif- ferent parts, but is himself the Maker of the holding together of all things [th/j pa,ntwn susta,sewj]”. This is clear from the use of evk governing the components 37. At times in Athanasius’ treatise, the idea of the unity of a composite entity seems to fade from view, with “continue to exist” as the nuance. For example (§42:13-14), “by obedience to this Word of God things on earth receive life and things in heaven subsist (sunistatai)”. This , could conceivably be “hold together”, but just a few lines later Athana- sius says (§42:18-19), “there is nothing existing or created which did not come into being and subsist (ge,gone kai. esthken) in him and [ through him”. Here Athanasius has used the simple form of the verb, isthmi, which indicates continued existence. [ 37 See also §27.54 (and cf. Athenagoras, Plea, 6.3). For more examples, see Plato, Timaeus, 69c, and Diogenes Laertius, 3.68, 73 (about Plato); Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 6.7.4; Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.6.14. Cf. Philo, Who is the heir, 281, 311.