Paul, Imperial Situation, and Visualization in the Epistle to the Colossians

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Paul, Imperial Situation, and Visualization in
the Epistle to the Colossians
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Aphrodisias
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Empire is materializing before our very eyes.
Over the past several decades, as colonial
regimes were overthrown and then precipitously
after the Soviet barriers to the capitalist world
market finally collapsed, we have witnessed an
irresistible and irreversible globalization of
economic and cultural exchanges. (p. xi)
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire.
Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 2000.
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.... critical biblical study is always
conducted in the reality of empire -- an
omnipresent, inescapable, and overwhelming
sociopolitical reality. Fernando Segovia,
Biblical Criticism and Postcolonial Studies, p.
86.
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Christianity was the product of
empire. Richard Horsley, p. 1.
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Pauls Gospel was -political in
orientation -exposed the violence of Roman
rule -opposed the imperial cult -suffered
persecution for its anti-Roman stance -assaulted
Rome with a counter-imperial worship of God in
Christ
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Pax Romana Pax Americana
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Rhetorical Situation A complex of persons,
events, objects, and relations presenting an
actual or potential exigence which can be
completely or partially removed if discourse,
introduced into the situation, can so constrain
human decision or action as to bring about the
significant modification of the
exigence. Lloyd Bitzer, The Rhetorical
Situation, Philosophy and Rhetoric 1 (1968)
118, p. 3
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Imperial Situation An imperial situation
describes the use of evocative and vivid imagery
drawn from imperial and/or civic discourse to
represent listeners as participants in,
beneficiaries of, or living the consequences
arising from the reign of God and or/Christ
represented as a universal rule. With the help
of imperial language and imagery listeners are
made to visualize themselves as actors on an
imperial looking stage and in an imperial looking
drama whose circumstances and outcomes could be
witnessed and were experienced ubiquitously in
imperial iconography, whether that took the form
of coins, monuments, household furniture,
frescos, games, civic liturgies, processions,
placards, mimes, or any other of the multiple
forms of visual media whose aim was to convince
audiences of or offered them avenues to champion
the benefits of Roman rule and the divinely
sanctioned position of Rome and its allies as
rulers of the world. Imperial language and
imagery represented a shared vocabulary and
mindset both writer and audience relied upon to
communicate and understand religious claims of
emergent Pauline Christianity. Its usage
fulfilled a precondition of ekphrastic or vivid
speech, that the ideal speaker was to place a
picture of the declaimed upon topic before
listeners eyes, and that that picture draw upon
shared experience in order to achieve its full
effect.
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Texts that Represent the Audiences of Colossians
in an Imperial Situation
Col. 11 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the
will of God, and Timothy our brother, Col. 12
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at
Colossae Grace to you and peace from God our
Father. Col. 13 We always thank God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for
you, Col. 14 because we have heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you
have for all the saints, Col. 15 because of the
hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have
heard before in the word of the truth, the
gospel Col. 16 which has come to you, as indeed
in the whole world it is bearing fruit and
growing so among yourselves, from the day you
heard and understood the grace of God in truth,
Col. 17 as you learned it from Epaphras our
beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister
of Christ on our behalf Col. 18 and has made
known to us your love in the Spirit.
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Col. 113 He has delivered us from the dominion
of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of
his beloved Son, Col. 114 in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Col. 115
He is the image of the invisible God, the
first-born of all creation Col. 116 for in him
all things were created, in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or principalities or authorities all
things were created through him and for him.
Col. 117 He is before all things, and in him
all things hold together. Col. 118 He is the
head of the body, the church he is the
beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in
everything he might be pre-eminent. Col. 119
For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to
dwell, Col. 120 and through him to reconcile to
himself all things, whether on earth or in
heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Col. 121 And you, who once were estranged and
hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, Col. 122 he
has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his
death, in order to present you holy and blameless
and irreproachable before him, Col. 123
provided that you continue in the faith, stable
and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the
gospel which you heard, which has been preached
to every creature under heaven, and of which I,
Paul, became a minister.
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Col. 215 He disarmed the principalities and
powers and made a public example of them,
triumphing over them in him (RSV). OR Having
stripped himself, he made a bold public exposure
of the principalities and rulers, triumphing over
them in it (the cross). --Roy Yates, Colossians
215 Christ Triumphant, NTS 37 (1991)
57391. Col. 215 a)pekdusamenoj ta_j a)rxa_j
kai\ ta_j e0cousi/aj e0deigmatisen e0n
parrhsi/a, qriambeusaj au)tou_j e0n au)tw.
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Col. 35 Put to death therefore what is earthly
in you fornication, impurity, passion, evil
desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Col. 36 On account of these the wrath of God is
coming. Col. 37 In these you once walked, when
you lived in them. Col. 38 But now put them all
away anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul
talk from your mouth. Col. 39 Do not lie to one
another, seeing that you have put off the old
nature with its practices Col. 310 and have put
on the new nature, which is being renewed in
knowledge after the image of its creator. Col.
311 Here there cannot be Greek and Jew,
circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and
in all. Col. 312 Put on then, as Gods chosen
ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness,
lowliness, meekness, and patience, Col. 313
forbearing one another and, if one has a
complaint against another, forgiving each other
as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must
forgive. Col. 314 And above all these put on
love, which binds everything together in perfect
harmony. Col. 315 And let the peace of Christ
rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were
called in the one body. And be thankful.
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