04_Biblica_Collins_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:47 Pagina 87 87 COLOSSIANS 1,17 “HOLD TOGETHER”: A CO-OPTED TERM I am not suggesting direct literary influence from any one text on our passage in Colossians. I have instead given reasons to think that Col 1,15-20 reflects a number of themes, with the associated vocab- ulary, found in Hellenistic philosophy and in Jewish wisdom. The credibility of such an argument will derive from several fac- tors. Certainly the vocabulary supports it, as does the light it sheds on the rhetorical intentions of Colossians. Even so, one may ask whether it is credible to suggest that a New Testament author (or contributor) would have been familiar with this philosophical dis- cussion. In reply, we can notice that Paul, in Rom 1,20, shows an awareness of the kind of discussion found in Pseudo-Aristotle and a co-opting of it, which, as it turns out, also occurs in Col 1,17. Someone else can explore whether this implies anything about the authorship of Colossians or of the liturgical composition. Covenant Theological Seminary C. John COLLINS 12330 Conway Road St Louis, MO 63141 (USA) SUMMARY The Greek terms rendered “hold together” in Col 1,17 (suni,sthmi), Wis 1,7 (sune,cw), and Sir 43,26 (sugkei/mai) do not derive from Septuagint renderings of the Hebrew Bible; instead they are terms that Second Tem- ple Jewish and Greek Christian apologists co-opted from Hellenistic phi- losophy to commend “biblical” concepts to the Graeco-Roman world. From these texts we can infer the semantic relationships of these verbs. The “liturgical composition” in Col 1,15-20 displays a combination of biblical wisdom and co-opted philosophy. Colossians addresses a syncretistic situation that mixed elements of the local popular religion with elements taken from Judaism. See the positive remarks about this work in J.M.G. BARCLAY, Colossians and Philemon (New Testa- ment Guides; Sheffield 1997) 47-48.