Robert M. Royalty, «Dwelling on Visions.On the Nature of the so-called ‘Colossians Heresy’», Vol. 83 (2002) 329-357
This paper argues that Revelation provides a social-historical, theological, and ideological context for the reconstruction of the Colossian opposition. The proposal is that the author of the Apocalypse arrived in Asia after the Jewish-Roman war; his "dwelling on visions" and prophetic activity challenged the emerging hierarchy within the churches, provoking a response in Paul’s name from the church leadership. Correspondences and parallels between the description of the opposition in Colossians and Revelation are developed exegetically, showing that eschatology and Christology were key issues in the dispute. This paper reexamines the heresiological rhetoric of Colossians, raising methodological questions about other scholarly reconstructions of the opposition as non-Christian.
Revelation, including some of the most central, have explicit astronomical imagery. Revelation contains 30 occurrences of h#lioj, selh/nh, and a)sth/r alone, while these words are virtually absent from the Pauline and deutero-Pauline corpus 71. For instance, Jesus appears to John on Patmos holding seven stars in his right hand (a)ste/raj e(pta, Rev 1,16)72. Or again, John sees "in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev 12,1)73. The twelve jewels on the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Rev 21,19-20) may have some connection to the signs of the zodiac74. All of this imagery is applied in a positive manner to Christian figures and symbols (Jesus, the Woman in Heaven, the New Jerusalem).
Col 2,16, mentioning both food regulations and the Sabbath, indicates some type of a Jewish context for the author’s opponents 75. As noted above, there have been a number of Jewish proposals for the opponents. The definition of Judaism in the late first century could include any one of the many varieties of Judaism, as well as