PT-3 "Intro to Col. 2:8-10"

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/7/2017 10:10 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-3 “Intro to Colossians 2:8-10”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 2:8-10

            Message of the verses:  “8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;”

            Before we begin to look at this next introduction to these verses I wanted to take the time to look up in my Greek/English dictionary that is on my Online Bible Program the definition for the word “captive” as it caught my eye as I was pasting these verses on this SD. 

1) to carry off booty

1a) to carry one off as a captive (and slave)

1b) to lead away from the truth and subject to one’s sway

            Now as we look at this last part of this definition we can see that this is exactly what the devil tries to do with every person in this world, but it is not always successful and when a person becomes a believer in Jesus Christ realizing that they were born a sinner and that Christ took their place on the cross giving them His righteousness, and then receiving His Holy Spirit they will not be led captive through this philosophy or vain deceit.  Satan can make the false things seem like the truth, but the truth is only found in the Word of God for the God of truth has written it.

            Now I mentioned that we would be looking at some of the specific heresies that the Colossian church was being threatened with, but we realize that Paul has not actually named it.  John MacArthur gives us some help when he writes “We can, however, reconstruct some of its tenets from 2:8-23.  It contained elements of philosophy (2:8-15), legalism (2:16-17), mysticism (2:18-19), and asceticism (2:20-23).  Because those beliefs were shared by the first-century Jewish sect known as the Essenes, we noted in the introduction it is possible they (or a group holding similar beliefs) were the ones threatening the Colossian believers.  This heresy also had components that were early forms of Gnosticism, the belief that there was a transcendent kind of knowledge beyond Christian doctrine know only to elite initiates who had ascended to that level.   Most damning, though, was its teaching that Jesus was neither God nor the source of all truth.  That was the frontal attack on His deity and sufficiency.” 

            Now I want to get a quote from an internet source that talks helps explain the different Jewish groups that were around during the time that Jesus was on the earth ministering as one is mentioned in this quote from John MacArthur that is not widely known, the “Essenes.”

The Pharisees

The most important of the three were the Pharisees because they are the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. Their main distinguishing characteristic was a belief in an Oral Law that God gave to Moses at Sinai along with the Torah. The Torah, or Written Law, was akin to the U.S. Constitution in the sense that it set down a series of laws that were open to interpretation. The Pharisees believed that God also gave Moses the knowledge of what these laws meant and how they should be applied. This oral tradition was codified and written down roughly three centuries later in what is known as the Talmud.

The Pharisees also maintained that an after-life existed and that God punished the wicked and rewarded the righteous in the world to come. They also believed in a messiah who would herald an era of world peace.

Pharisees were in a sense blue-collar Jews who adhered to the tenets developed after the destruction of the Temple; that is, such things as individual prayer and assembly in synagogues.

The Sadducees

The Sadducees were elitists who wanted to maintain the priestly caste, but they were also liberal in their willingness to incorporate Hellenism into their lives, something the Pharisees opposed. The Sadducees rejected the idea of the Oral Law and insisted on a literal interpretation of the Written Law; consequently, they did not believe in an after life, since it is not mentioned in the Torah. The main focus of Sadducee life was rituals associated with the Temple.

The Sadducees disappeared around 70 A.D., after the destruction of the Second Temple. None of the writings of the Sadducees has survived, so the little we know about them comes from their Pharisaic opponents.

These two "parties" served in the Great Sanhedrin, a kind of Jewish Supreme Court made up of 71 members whose responsibility was to interpret civil and religious laws.

The Essenes

A third faction, the Essenes, emerged out of disgust with the other two. This sect believed the others had corrupted the city and the Temple. They moved out of Jerusalem and lived a monastic life in the desert, adopting strict dietary laws and a commitment to celibacy.

The Essenes are particularly interesting to scholars because they are believed to be an offshoot of the group that lived in Qumran, near the Dead Sea. In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd stumbled into a cave containing various ancient artifacts and jars containing manuscripts describing the beliefs of the sect and events of the time.

The most important documents, often only parchment fragments that had to be meticulously restored, were the earliest known copies of the Old Testament. The similarity of the substance of the material found in the scrolls to that in the modern scriptures has confirmed the authenticity of the Bible used today.

Disputes Among the Three Parties

	Sadducees	Pharisees	Essenes
Social Class	Priests, aristocrats	Common people	[Unknown]
Authority	Priests	"Disciples of the Wise"	"Teacher of Righteousness"
Practices	Emphasis on priestly obligations	Application of priestly laws to non-priests	"Inspired Exegesis"
Calendar	Luni-solar	Luni-solar	Solar
Attitude Toward:
Hellenism	For	Selective	Against
Hasmoneans	Opposed usurpation of priesthood by non-Zadokites	Opposed usurpation of monarchy	Personally opposed to Jonathan
Free will	Yes	Mostly	No
Afterlife	None	Resurrection	Spiritual Survival
Bible	Literalist	Sophisticated scholarly interpretations	"Inspired Exegesis"
Oral Torah	No such thing	Equal to Written Torah	"Inspired Exegesis"

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Sources: Mitchell G. Bard, TheComplete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflicts, NY: MacMillan,1999. Chart courtesy of Prof. Eliezer Segal

3/7/2017