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.
times, over relatively small disagreements between groups which hold most of their beliefs in common. Power struggles gravitate toward these differences, however small they might be. When we consider the social and ideological ramifications of the christological and eschatological positions discussed here, we see the potential for a split between the more established hierarchy of the Pauline churches in Asia and the charismatic apocalyptic prophets from Palestine.
While bold indeed, my proposal raises an important methodological question about the scholarly construal of opponents in the NT texts that goes beyond the question of the Colossian opposition. Scholars have claimed that the Colossian opponents were Jewish, Gnostic, mystical, visionary, apocalyptic, philosophers, and of course syncretistic. The early Christians were all these. The advantage of my proposal is that one need not choose Jewish over pagan any more than one need say Paul was more "Greek" or "Jewish". For the Colossian opponents, like all the early Christian groups of which we have evidence, were a diverse mix of these elements. The tendency to cast the opposition as a totally "other" group that can then be slanderously labeled "heretical" involves theological and canonical presuppositions that are at odds with the historical data and social-historical processes. While historical-critical scholars of the NT and early Christianity have learned to bracket the term "heresy" in the analysis of the earliest Christian groups, patterns of heresiological thinking remain in the scholarly discussion.