Initiation, Vision, and Spiritual Power

Initiation, Vision, and Spiritual Power:

The Hellenistic Dimensions of the Problem at Colossae Clinton E. Arnold The precise nature of the problem at Colossae has been an insoluble riddle in biblical scholarship. We are no closer to a consensus solution now than we were thirty years ago when I began puzzling over this conundrum.1

So why not join the mounting chorus of voices that claim that there is no more to be said on this issue? Precisely because there is more to be said— actually a lot more. There are new texts and new vantage points on familiar texts. Our understanding of the depth and complexities of Judaism at this time has been greatly expanded by both the publication of new texts and insights into what these texts reveal about life in these diaspora communities. It is simply no longer adequate to conclude that the source of the competing teaching in the church at Colossae was some sort of Jewish influence and leave it at that. We need to ask: What kind of Judaism?

We have also learned more about the local religions, particularly the Apollo cult, arguably the most important local god in the Lycus Valley.

Our knowledge of the nature and function of the Apollo oracle sanctuaries in western Asia Minor has increased through ongoing excavations, especially at Claros.

Perhaps most importantly, over the past thirty years we have learned a great deal more about Roman-era interest in ritual power. How does one gain access to spiritual power for personal well-being and the good of the community? This was a practical concern for matters of daily life.

How do I keep my livestock from dying? How do I protect my kids from the ravages of fever? How do I avert the evil eye or a curse placed on 1. See my The Colossian Syncretism: The Interface between Christianity and Folk

Belief at Colossae, WUNT 2/77 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995).

Clinton E. Arnold me by my disgruntled neighbor? Interest in ritual power is a phenomenon that crossed all religious lines and was exceedingly important to common people.

Interpreting the Colossian problem as some form of syncretism has actually been the consensus view until recently. For many scholars,

Martin Dibelius's important 1917 essay, "The Isis Initiation in Apuleius and Related Initiatory Rites," confirmed that the teaching was syncretistic.2 Dibelius appeared to provide proof positive that the Colossian teaching was informed by mystery initiation ritual through the discovery of the Colossian catchword ἐμβατεύω in a series of oracular inscriptions in the Apollo temple at Claros. This view held sway until Fred Francis wrote two highly influential essays attempting to refute Dibelius's claims and locating the problem squarely in Judaism.3 His two major lines of contribution were in seeking to establish (1) that ἐμβατεύω from Col 2:18 was not a technical term of the mysteries and that it could be used simply in the sense of entering, especially entering into possession of property, and (2) that "the worship of angels" could and should be taken as a subjective genitive meaning that the angels were not the objects of worship but were the ones doing the worshipping. Thus, Francis argued, the author of Colossians was concerned about Jewish ascent to heaven visionary experiences and the Colossian believers were seeking to worship with the angels around the heavenly throne. This view made it possible for Francis, and many subsequent interpreters, to deny any kind of Hellenistic or local religious influence on the problematic teaching at Colossae. Consequently, James Dunn and others could contend that the issue is simply the persistent influence of the synagogue down the road and that the problem is much like the one looming in the background of Galatians4 (never mind that the word "law" never appears in Colossians, much less "works of the law").

2. Martin Dibelius, "The Isis Initiation in Apuleius and Related Initiatory Rites" in Conflict at Colossae, ed. Fred O. Francis and Wayne A. Meeks, SBLSBS 4 (Missoula,

MT: Scholars Press, 1973), 61–121.

3. Fred O. Francis, "Humility and Angelic Worship in Col 2:18," in Francis and Meeks, Conflict at Colossae, 163–95, and Francis, "The Background of EMBATEUEIN

(Col 2:18) in Legal Papyri and Oracle Inscriptions," in Conflict at Colossae, 197–207.

4. James D. G. Dunn, The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 23–35, esp. 33–35. See also his "The Colossian Philosophy: A Confident Jewish Apologia," Bib 76 (1995): 153–81.

Initiation, Vision, and Spiritual Power

Advocates of this perspective, in my view, have certainly been correct in affirming that there are Jewish elements to the Colossian philosophy.

Dibelius and Lohse went much too far in denying this.5 "Festivals, new moons, and sabbaths" is clearly a Jewish contribution. But, again, what kind of Judaism are we talking about? And has the trend to resist seeing any form of Hellenistic or local religious influence neglected important data?

Initiation The achilles heel to a purely Jewish view of the Colossian problem has been the presence of the term ἐμβατεύω in Col 2:18 as part of the author's polemical description of the variant teaching. If this is a technical term from mystery initiation ritual and is reflective of the experience of the rival teacher at Colossae, then the problem at Colossae truly is a mixing of religious traditions. Joachim Gnilka has rightly characterized the expression, ἃ ἑόρακεν ἐμβατεύων, as the most puzzling clause of the entire letter.6 Was ἐμβατεύω a technical term of the higher stage of initiation ritual (parallel to the ἐποπτεία at Elesusis), or was it a simple equivalent of εἰσέρχομαι?

More important, had the ringleader of the competing teaching at Colossae undergone ritual initiation as the basis for his knowledge and claims?

There are many reasons for maintaining that it was indeed a technical term of ritual initiation and that its presence in Colossians implies that initiation had something to do with the Colossian problem.

In spite of Francis's claim that ἐμβατεύω was a well-known term and "was the common property of any man on the street," the evidence proves otherwise. Whereas εἰσέρχομαι appears 710 times in the LXX and 194 times in the New Testament, ἐμβατεύω never appears in the New Testament (outside of Colossians) and only seven times in the LXX. It never appears in the Greek pseudepigrapha, nor does it ever appear in the Apostolic Fathers. Even

Philo never makes use of the term. It is also quite rare in all other ancient literature. Thus, the fact that it appears four times in oracle inscriptions at an 5. Martin Dibelius and Heinrich Greeven, An die Kolosser, Epheser, an Philemon,

HNT 12, 3rd ed. (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1953), 38–40; Eduard Lohse, Colossians and Philemon, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971), 116: "The 'philosophy; made use of terms which stemmed from Jewish tradition, but which had been transformed in the crucible of syncretism to be subject to the service of 'the elements of the universe.'"

6. Joachim Gnilka, Der Kolosserbrief, HThKNT 10.1 (Freiburg: Herder, 1980), 150.

Clinton E. Arnold oracle center for Apollo just north of Ephesus where delegations came from the Lycus Valley could be rather relevant to our inquiry.7 Francis does recognize the unusual concentration of the term's usage at Claros, but he contends that its use there probably spurred the popular nontechnical use.8 He has no answer to the question of why it was used so frequently there.

Francis and others who have embraced his conclusions regarding ἐμβατεύω have sought to argue that the term had no technical significance at Claros. Yet three of the four occurrences are preceded by a widely recognized technical expression of the mysteries as a dependent adverbial participle—μυηθέντες (μυέω), to be initiated into the mysteries.9 The fourth is a different but equally technical expression of the mysteries,

"having received the mysteries" (παραλαβὼν τὰ μυστήρια).10 Although it could be argued that the μύησις, or "receiving the mysteries," was the initiation proper and that experience was the prelude to entering the oracle chamber, that argument would accomplish nothing since the climax of the whole ritual was yet to come with the entering. It is in the entering when the prophet would receive his mantic inspiration and convey the oracle as well as the occasion when the god himself would make an appearance.

It is precisely in this second stage where the visionary experience would occur. The unique and rare term ἐμβατεύω is, in fact, the technical term for conveying the climax of the ritual initiation.

We now know much more about the sanctuary of Apollo at Claros thanks to the excavations over the past couple of decades by a French delegation led by Juliette de Genière and now under the direction of Professor

Nuran Sahin. There was, in fact, a labyrinth-like subterranean level underneath the temple structure.11 This was built around the sacred spring—the 7. See the collected inscriptions with English translation and discussion in my

Colossian Syncretism, 109–13.

8. Francis, "Background of EMBATEUEIN," 203.

9. The first three inscriptions were originally published by Theodore Macridy in "Altertümer von Notion," JÖAI 8 (1905): 165 (= §2.2), 170 (= §5.4); see also OGIS

530 (192–97); IGRR 4.1586 (521), and in Macridy, "Antiquités de Notion II," JÖAI 15

(1912): 46, no. 1.1.

10. This inscription was originally published by Charles Picard, "Un Oracle d'Apollon Clarios a Pergame," BCH 46 (1922): 190–97. See also CIG 2.3538; Reinhold Merkelbach, Philologica: Ausgewählte Kleine Schriften, ed. Wolfgang Blümel et al.

(Stuttgart: Teubner, 1997), 162–67 (= no. 2).

11. Fritz Graf, Apollo, Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World (New York: Routledge, 2009), 72.

Initiation, Vision, and Spiritual Power

source of the water from which the priest would drink for prophetic inspiration. The term ἐμβατεύω gave expression to the action of going down the steps of the sanctuary leading to this underground area and entering the room where vision and revelation would take place. Only three ancient writers provide written testimony to how the oracle operated (Tacitus,

Ann. 2.54; Pliny, Nat. 2.232; Iamblichus, Myst. 3.11). Iamblichus gives us the most detail:

It is agreed by everyone that the oracle at Colophon [the Clarian Apollo] prophesies by means of water. There is a spring in a subterranean chamber, and from it the prophet drinks on certain appointed nights, after performing many preliminary ceremonies, and after drinking, he delivers his oracles, no longer seen by the spectators present.… Still, not every inspiration that the water gives is from the god, but this only bestows the receptivity and purification of the luminous spirit in us through which we are able to receive the god. But the presence of the god is different from and prior to this, and flashes like lightning from above. This holds aloof from no one who, through a kindred nature, is in union with it; but it is immediately present and uses the prophet as an instrument while he is neither himself nor has any consciousness of what he says or where on the earth he is, so that even after prophesying, he sometimes scarcely gets control of himself. Even before drinking, he fasts the whole day and night, and after becoming divinely inspired, he withdraws by himself to sacred, inaccessible places, and by this withdrawal and separation from human affairs, he purifies himself for receiving the god; and through these means, he has the inspiration of god illuminating the pure sanctuary of his own soul, and providing for it an unhindered divine possession, and a perfect and unimpeded presence. (Iamblichus, Myst. 3.11)

Although Iamblichus writes later than the first century, he likely conveys an accurate framework for how the oracle at Claros operated in the first century and before.

Archaeological evidence and comparison with what happened at the Apollo sanctuaries at Didyma and Delphi can bring further clarification.

Celeste Guichard describes it in this way:

The cult officials accompanied the mantis in his descent. The entire group first walked through a small doorway at the back of the porch and the left of the large, central door. After crossing the threshold, the officials turned right, descended the staircase and followed a corridor to the first of two subterranean rooms—all of the cult officials, except the mantis, remained in the first room. The mantis continued alone into

Clinton E. Arnold the next, hypaethral chamber and drank from the sacred spring, which enabled him to communicate with Apollo.12

As Guichard contends, because the mantis received inspiration in the hypaethral chamber, the oracular inspiration took place in a portion of the temple open to the sky, thus lending an astrological flavor to the entire experience. "The hypaethral spaces at Didyma and at Klaros enabled the mantis to be in contact with the cosmos as it exists above, below, and all around."13 This would also fit with the experience of Apuleius who witnessed the cosmic powers in his initiation in the Isis sanctuary at Cenchrae

(Apuleius, Metam. 11.23).

So why did members of delegations consulting the Clarian Apollo seek initiation? Fritz Graf describes the initiation experience at Claros in this way:

Not everybody, however, was allowed to come so close: in order to "go down" [embateuein], one had to undergo an initiation, a presumably costly privilege offered only to the select few. Throughout Greece, initiations were a ritual means of entering into close and often personal contact with a divinity.14

The experience of initiation provided one with direct contact with the divine. It was a source of spiritual power and imparted wisdom into spiritual matters. It was often a foundational and prerequisite experience for becoming a community healer and wise man, a role anthropologists refer to as a shaman.15 As Guichard notes, "initiates received the arcane knowledge that elevated them above the unenlightened masses."16 This arcane knowledge would likely be closely related to the major areas of Apollo's contributions to a community. He is not only an oracular god who can advise on the future or reveal what is behind a situation (like the reason for a plague), but he is a healing god.17 He is also the "Averter of Evil"

12. Celeste L. Guichard, "Travels and Traversals in the Hellenistic Oracular Temples at Klaros and Didyma" (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2005), 89.

13. Guichard, "Hellenistic Oracular Temples," 102.

14. Graf, Apollo, 59.

15. On the topic of shamanism, see Thomas A. DuBois, An Introduction to Shamanism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). See especially chapter 5,

"The Shamanic Calling," 56–81.

16. Guichard, "Hellenistic Oracular Temples," 97.

17. See Graf, Apollo, 79–102 (= chapter 4: "Apollo, God of Healing").

Initiation, Vision, and Spiritual Power

(Alexikakos) and the "Guardian of the Gates" (Propylaioi).18 Healing and protection from evil were the concerns of every rural community and would certainly have been a concern for individuals within the Christian community at Colossae.

How, then, is the Apollo temple at Claros relevant to people living in the Lycus Valley? Of the twenty-seven epigraphic oracles extant from Claros dating between the first and third centuries, nineteen were delivered to cities, and two of these cities included Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Cities of the Lycus Valley were not only familiar with the oracle, but sometimes they sent embassies to seek a response from the god. Hierapolis was, in fact, one of five cities where Clarian epigraphic oracles survive outside of Claros.19 Hierapolis was also home to two local forms of the god Apollo:

Apollo Kareios (the epithet could mean "Carian") and Apollo Archegetes.

The most well-known embassy from Hierapolis took place in 160 CE to seek the god's input about the problem of a plague after the Parthian campaign of Lucius Verus (see Cassius Dio, Hist. rom. 71.2.4; Aelius Aristides,

Or. 33.6, 48.38–39, 51.25).20 Laodicea also consulted the Clarian Apollo with great frequency.21 Thus, there was a direct connection between the Lycus Valley and Claros, which can explain how the vocabulary of the cult would be familiar to people living in Colossae.

This evidence does not prove that the use of ἐμβατεύω in Colossians must be derived from its technical use in the language of mystery initiation practices associated with the Apollo temple at Claros.22 But it definitely

18. Graf, Apollo, 93.

19. Zsuzsanna Várhelyi, "Magic, Religion, and Syncretism at the Oracle at Claros," in Between Magic and Religion: Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and Society, ed. Sulochana R. Asirvatham, Stephen Harrison, and Jaś Elsner (New

York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 15.

20. Várhelyi, "Oracle at Claros," 15; the text is translated by Ian Rutherford, "Trouble in Snake-Town: Interpreting an Oracle from Hierapolis-Pamukkale," in Severan Culture, ed. Simon Swain et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007),

450–51.

21. Louis Robert and Jeanne Robert, Claros I: Décrets Hellénistiques (Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1989), 5.

22. During the discussion period of the "Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity" section of the Society of Biblical Literature on November 21, 2015 where I presented this paper, Angela Standhartinger objected to the relevance of these inscriptions for Colossians by observing that the Clarian inscriptions relate to embassies and not individuals (like a shaman). Yet we know that individuals did consult the

Clinton E. Arnold enhances the plausibility. And, of course, if the Colossian philosophy has something to do with mystery initiation ritual, then it is clearly syncretistic. But does the idea of ritual initiation fit with the other indicators that we have from the text of Colossians on what this rival teaching and practice was advocating?

Vision The immediate context for the occurrence of ἐμβατεύω in Colossians is the relative clause ἃ ἑόρακεν, "what he has seen" (2:18). The neuter accusative plural relative pronoun could refer to the immediately preceding "humility" and "the worship of angels" as the objects of entering. But this creates an awkward picture, for how does one see humility? Francis tried to escape this difficulty by arguing that ταπεινοφροσύνη should be understood here as "instruction in humility for the purpose of obtaining visions," that is, angelic instruction is the object of the vision."23 But such an explanation grossly overinterprets ταπεινοφροσύνη. Many of the followers of Francis do not sense this difficulty.

The more likely interpretation is that the relative clause, "what he has seen," is the object of ἐμβατεύω, thus giving the result, "entering what he has seen." This would fit with the idea of entering into the oracle grotto or entering into the visionary experience that is associated with this culminating experience of initiation. The priest would have led the initiate through ecstatic visionary experiences—perhaps including descent to the underworld and ascent to heaven—ultimately culminating in a vision of the god. "What he has seen" thus sums up the totality of the visionary experience as part of the second stage of the mystery initiation following the μύησις.

All interpreters of Colossians agree that the clause "what he has seen" signals visionary experience of some sort. The key question remains:

Was this a Jewish visionary ascent to heaven experience, such as we see, for instance, in the Qumran Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice? There the oracle as we can see in the example of Germanicus who travelled to Claros to consult the oracle shortly after he was made consul for the second time (Tacitus, Ann. 2.54).

The inscriptions set up to honor the oracle god appear only to be necessary for the groups who came and received the oracle. The fact that individuals were not put under this obligation may relate to the expense.

23. Francis, "Humility and Angel Worship," 195–98.

Initiation, Vision, and Spiritual Power

mystic observes angels "enter through the gates of glory … the gates of the entrance" and sees even the gates "blessing and praising all the spirits of God in the exits and in the entrances through the gates of holiness"

(4Q405 23 I, 8–10). Or was this visionary experience something that the Colossian teacher experienced in a pagan ritual initiation?

Markus Barth asks the right question when he says, "From the context, which points to visionary experiences, we could deduce that 'naturally' heaven was meant where the worship of angels was observed. But still we need to ask why embateuein was even put here when it cannot explain the context, but rather must be explained from within it."24 This, of course, could be easily explained if ἐμβατεύω were a catchword of the opponents related to ritual initiation. There is still no evidence of ἐμβατεύω ever used to speak of entry to heaven in a visionary way in Jewish texts.25 But we do have it used multiple times to speak of entry into the oracle grotto as the higher stage of an initiation ritual in the Klaros inscriptions.

Spiritual Power There has been strong resistance to seeing the problem at Colossae as having some kind of meaningful connection with local religions or Hellenistic religious thought. Thus, Witherington says that my case "underplays the Jewishness of what Paul is dealing with here."26 So also, Bevere, who notes, "Arnold's position ultimately does not take seriously the Jewishness of the philosophy.… He and others who want to propose some sort of syncretistic thesis fail to take seriously the Jewishness of the practices of the philosophy."27

But the question needs to be posed to them: What kind of Judaism?

One of the lessons of the last thirty years is that there is a dimension of Judaism that can be described as a Judaism of ritual practices to gain power

24. Markus Barth and Helmut Blanke, Colossians, trans. Astrid B. Beck, AB 34B (New York: Doubleday, 1994), 348.

25. Contra Michael Bird, Colossians and Philemon, New Covenant Commentary Series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2009), 86 n. 38, who erroneously claims that "the word was frequent in Jewish apocalyptic literature in reference to visionary ascents."

26. Ben Witherington III, The Letters to Philemon, the Colossians, and the Ephesians: A Socio-rhetorical Commentary on the Captivity Epistles (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 162.

27. Allan R. Bevere, Sharing in the Inheritance: Identity and Moral Life in Colossians, JSNTSup 226 (New York: Sheffield Academic, 2003), 113.

Clinton E. Arnold for the well-being of the community.28 This is precisely the kind of Judaism that is reflected in a figure such as Sceva in Acts 19—an itinerant Jewish exorcist who styled himself as a high priest. This is the Judaism of folk piety that was interested in exorcism, healing, counteracting curses, and insuring prosperity. This is actually a substructure to Judaism that could cross a variety of other group boundary markers within Judaism.

It is also a form of Judaism where we can expect to see some of the highest levels of assimilation to the beliefs and practices of local religions.

As John Barclay notes in his important volume on Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora, this is a facet of Judaism where there was a strong tendency toward syncretism.29 We have learned much about this dimension of Judaism through the study of texts like the Hekhalot literature, Sepher

Harazim, the eighteenth chapter of the Testament of Solomon, newly published sectarian texts from Qumran, amulets, curse tablets, magical bowls, and even Jewish texts embedded in the Greek Magical Papyri (such as the Eighth Book of Moses). All of these texts show a level of syncretism that goes beyond what we find in any other Jewish texts. Those involved in these arts were far more concerned about power than orthodoxy or piety.

This is why Helios is invoked in Sepher Harazim, why Apollo is invoked alongside Jewish angels in PGM 1.296–300, and why the god Aion/Helios is called upon in the Eighth Book of Moses.

Although there is little evidence for Jewish involvement in pagan ritual initiation, there is some—precisely in the realm of magic and folk belief.

The initiation experience is central in the so-called Eighth Book of Moses, a handbook for magic/religious ritual that serves as an important "witness to the rich interpenetration of Judaism and paganism in late antiquity."30

This syncretistic text contains a variety of ritual preparations that are essential to being filled prior to the initiation proper.31 This includes seven days

28. See Rebecca M. Lesses, Ritual Practices to Gain Power: Angels, Incantations, and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism, HTS (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998). See also James R. Davila, Descenders to the Chariot: The People behind the Hekhalot Literature, JSJSup 70 (Leiden: Brill, 2001).

29. John M. G. Barclay, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE–117 CE) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 121.

30. Todd E. Klutz ,"The Eighth Book of Moses," MOTP 1:189.

31. This text was ultimately pagan, but it is infused with a number of Jewish elements reflecting the kind of Jewish magic and shamanistic practices of the Roman era. Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, "The Eighth Book of Moses (PLeid. J 395): Hellenistic Jewish Influence in a Pagan Magical Papyrus," in A Kind of Magic: Understanding

Initiation, Vision, and Spiritual Power

of purification (involving various taboos) and a set of rituals that begin with the new moon. This particular initiation is closely associated with the god Apollo. The book is replete with invocations of spirits and gods. The end result is that the initiate is endowed with wisdom and spiritual power that enables him to serve the community such as in providing healing for assorted ailments and casting demons away from people.

There is no doubt that there were Jewish elements in the Colossian philosophy. The real issue is how these Jewish elements fit with all of the other features of the teaching that we can identify. I have argued elsewhere that θρησκεία τῶν ἀγγέλων, "the worship of angels," in Col 2:18 is the letter writer's reference to the tendency to invoke and call upon angels in the practice of the Colossian philosophy.32 The genitive τῶν ἀγγέλων is thus an objective genitive. θρησκεία is not the normal word for "worship" in the biblical texts; those would normally be προσκυνέω or λατρεύω. In fact, θρησκεία never appears in the Greek Old Testament and only four times in the New Testament. Bauer characterizes it as an "expression of devotion to transcendent beings, esp. as it expresses itself in cultic rites, worship, the being who is worshiped is given in the obj. gen."33 Thus, Wis 4:27 says, "For the worship of idols [εἰδώλων θρησκεία] not to be named is the beginning and cause and end of every evil." The sense in Colossians is that the rival teachers were advocating rituals directed at angels. This would encompass invoking angels, the use of charms and amulets to solicit their help, and rituals designed to obtain their assistance.

There are numerous Jewish texts that illustrate this kind of an approach to angels, and I have documented these elsewhere. Archaeologists have recently uncovered an important text of this type in very close proximity to Colossae that has now been published in Epigraphica Anatolica.34 In the necropolis just north of Hierapolis, excavators found a bronze scroll in a silver tube in a tomb. The text reads: "I adjure you by God who founded

Magic in the New Testament and Its Religious Environment, ed. Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte and Michael Labahn, LNTS 306 (London: T&T Clark, 2007), 192, notes, "Next to the mention of the temple in Jerusalem, there are more Jewish elements in Moses VIII that are difficult to account for if not by postulating some kind of interaction between Jewish and pagan sorcerers."

32. Arnold, Colossian Syncretism, 90–102.

33. BDAG, s.v. "θρησκεία."

34. Murat Aydaş, "New Inscriptions from Asia Minor," Epigraphica Anatolica 37 (2004): 124.

Clinton E. Arnold the earth and the heavens; I adjure you by the angels, Cherubim, the harmony above, Michael, Raphael, Abrasax [at this point the text breaks away and no other names are legible] to be averted from injury."

Conclusion My contention is that the ringleader behind the spiritual practices advocated at Colossae is a Jewish (now Christian) shaman-like figure that bears a resemblance to Sceva in Acts 19. He is someone of stature within the community and known for his wisdom, knowledge, and expertise regarding spiritual power. He is the go-to person in the community for matters related to healing, exorcism, and protection from evil. In continuity with the tradition of spiritual healers and shamans in the past, he performs an important function in the community.

The various identifiable features of the Colossian philosophy cohere well in this kind of figure. Ritual initiation and visionary experience serve as a basis for his wisdom and arcane knowledge. This knowledge extends to the operations of spirits and powers. Because he has knowledge of their ways, he can function as a healer and can prescribe measures to counteract curses and provide protection from spirits. Asceticism, including fasting and taboos, are important aspects of preparation in rituals of power.

The author of Colossians takes strong exception to this person and his ritual methods for the community. In the author's view, this rival leader is full of pride and his arrogance is leading him to exploit the church.

Although he claims to be spiritual, the leader is not in a close connection with Christ, according to the letter writer. The letter therefore admonishes the Colossian Christians to reject this person's leadership and teaching.

Rather, they should hold on tight to Christ, immerse themselves in the Word about Christ, and grow in the knowledge of who Jesus is and who they are in him.

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