04_Biblica_Collins_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:47 Pagina 86 86 C. JOHN COLLINS tion, and made him in the image of his own character (eivko,na th/j ivdi,aj ivdio,thtoj)” 53. At the same time, elements of the composition do not come from the OT, at least not in their wording. I have already noted that the term “hold together” (suni,sthmi, v. 17) does not occur in the OT in this sense. Similarly, the OT never calls God “invisible” (avo,ratoj, v. 15), although NT authors do (cf. Rom 1,20; 1 Tim 1,17; Heb 11,27; for the concept, see also John 1,18; 1 John 4,12; 1 Tim 6,16); but the process by which that became acceptable will require another study 54. The rest of Colossians shows that themes in this “liturgical com- position” are relevant to the letter’s concerns. For example, when the author prays (1,9) that the readers may be filled with “the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understand- ing”, he is using a familiar wisdom motif: the intellectual attributes of God are imparted to the faithful. Several other places in the letter use “wisdom” (1,28; 2,3.23; 3,16; 4,5). The “rulers and authorities” of the poem (1,16) appear again as entities over which Christ is su- perior (2,10.15). The poem’s notion that in Christ all of God’s full- ness was pleased to dwell (1,19) reappears later in the letter (2,9). Further, the Christians have put on their new self, “which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator (katV eivko,na tou/ kti,santoj auvto,n)” (3,10, echoing 1,15 and Gen 1,26). There- fore if this composition is separate from the letter, the letter-writer has certainly integrated it into his argument. We may conclude that Col 1,15-20 appropriates Hellenistic philosophical discussions for the service of “biblical” faith 55. Just how this addresses the needs of the first readers, and whether those needs were properly “philosophical” 56, will remain a question for further study. * * * 53 Following the reading accepted in RV/RSV margin/ESV; the ESV mar- gin/RSV, “eternity”, reads avi?dio,thtoj. 54 Aristobulus, frag. 4 §5, cites an “Orphic” poem to the effect that God cannot be seen except by the mind, which illustrates the pathway of thought. 55 Cf. N. HUGEDÉ, Commentaire de l’Épître aux Colossiens (Genève 1968) 61. 56 E.g., C.E. ARNOLD, The Colossian Syncretism. The Interface between Christianity and Folk Belief at Colossae (Grand Rapids, MI 1996), argues