04_Biblica_Collins_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:47 Pagina 82 82 C. JOHN COLLINS There is no reason to doubt that this Hebrew is close to what the Greek translator was trying to represent: diV auvto.n euvodoi/ a;ggeloj auvtou/ Because of him his messenger finds the way, kai. en lo,gw| auvtou/ su,gkeitai ta. panta and by his word all things hold v , together In the first line, Greek euodow renders Hebrew xlc, which is at- v, tested in the LXX (e.g., Gen 24,21 etc.) 41. The Greek of the second line, kai. en lo,gw| auvtou/, certainly renders the Hebrew wyrbdbw: “and v in/by his word[s]”. It follows, then, that “all things hold together” is intended as a Greek paraphrase for “he works his will”. The context of this chapter is the way in which God governs the variety of natural forces “by his word” (vv. 5, 10, 13); the Greek expresses this by fo- cusing on how, by God’s word, all things hold together as a harmo- nious system. It is also fascinating to note that both Wisdom and Ben Sira por- tray the personified figure of Wisdom as virtually a divine person (cf. Wis 6,12-8,21; Sir 14,20-15,10; 24,1-22). This makes them part of the same movement, apparently, that produced the “liturgical composition”, Col 1,15-20 42. With these conclusions about the relationship of sugkei/mai and sunecw with suni,sthmi, it becomes legitimate to say that Col 1,17, , Wis 1,7, and Sir 43,26 (Greek) are all talking about the same realm of ideas. It further becomes legitimate to consider Greek texts using all three of these verbs as a possible backcloth for the instance in Colossians. 41 More commonly in the Hiphil, but sometimes in the Qal as well (e.g., Isa 54,17; Jer 12,1; cf. also Num 14,41, using eu;odoj); hence Segal’s sugges- tion to point as a defectively-written Hiphil (yaṣlîaḥ) is unnecessary: M.H. SEGAL, Sefer Ben Sira Hashshalem (Jerusalem 1958) 300 (X). 42 See, among many, R. M. GRANT, “The Christ at the Creation”, Jesus in History and Myth (eds. R.J. HOFFMANN – G.A. LANE) (New York 1986) 157- 167.