Section 35
107“The Order of . . . Holy Communion,” Book of Common Prayer. The Trisagion is voiced by heavenly beings in Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8 (it is presupposed in Revelation that the praise of the church on earth echoes that of the holy ones on high). In the Apocalypse of Abraham 17 Abraham recites a hymn of praise taught him by an angel. The Jewish liturgy has taken over some hymns which first figure as angelic hymns in mystical tradition, like the alphabetical acrostic composition beginning Hā’addereṯ wℓhā’ěmûnāh lℓḥay ’ôlāmîm (called “the song of the angels” par excellence), sung on the high holy days. See also p. 119, n. 123.
108For the view that θϱησϰεία τѽν ἀγγἑλων (Col. 2:18) means “participation in the angelic liturgy” (the genitive being subjective, not objective), see F. O. Francis, “Humility and Angel Worship in Col. 2:18,” Conflict at Colossae, pp. 176-81; A. J. Bandstra, “Did the Colossian Errorists need a Mediator?” in New Dimensions in New Testament Study, ed. R. N. Longenecker and M. C. Tenney (Grand Rapids, 1974); also C. Rowland, “Apocalyptic Visions and the Exaltation of Christ in the Letter to the Colossians,” JSNT 19 (October 1983), 73-83.
109Cf. C. A. Evans, “The Colossian Mystics,” Biblica 63 (1982), 195-205.