The raising of Lazarus and baptism/initiation?

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MrMacSon
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Re: The raising of Lazarus and baptism/initiation?

Post by MrMacSon »

nightshadetwine wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:15 am
MrMacSon wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 4:19 am * there's lots of commentary about mouths from Recitation 23, including a mouth opening ritual, the mouth opening meal, - including lots of bread and wine, - cleaning the mouth, spells for the power of nourishment, including

  • Recitation 117 - "Osirus Unis, accept the pupil of Horus's eye: part your mouth with it."
  • Recitation 118 - "Osiris Unis, accept Horus's eye, which he captured; part your mouth with it."

Yes, the eating of bread and drinking of wine/beer plays an important role in the deification/resurrection of the deceased. Horus's Eye is eaten in the form of bread.
Yes, including, as those recitations show, a degree of assuming another - shape-shifting - with, as you show with your citation from Mu-Chou Poo's, Wine and Wine Offering in the Religions of Ancient Egypt, emphasis on the eye -

What came out from the eye is the divine blood of Horus. … The rejuvenating and creative power that wine symbolizes, moreover, is reflected in the designation of wine as “Green Horus Eye.” The term Green Horus Eye, which combines “the Eye of Horus” (or “the deed of Horus”) with the green papyrus plant, implies a rejuvenating power that creates prosperity. All these symbolic associations, therefore, point to a basic fact concerning the significance of wine in the offering ritual, namely that wine was a creative and rejuvenating power. This is further confirmed in the mythological roles—wine’s association with the inundation and the blood, both different manifestations of the creative and life-giving power

Jan Assmann compares it to Christian communion in his book "Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt" (Cornell University Press, 2011):

This initiatory, transformative aspect of taking nourishment is familiar to Christians through the ritual of Communion ...

And the role of the ram, as you note, which is also a feature of the Recitations in 'the Pyramid Texts of Unis'.

eg. the start of Recitation 156 (which includes reference to 'this one' in 'the east' -

This Unis's stance as a ram with two wild-bull horns on his head has been seen. For you are a black ram (Unis), son of a black ewe, whom a white ewe bore and four sheep suckled.

Recitation 156 goes on -

Blue-eyed Horus has come against you (gods): beware of red-eyed Horus! The one with painful wrath--his ba cannot be barred.

His envoys have gone, his hurriers have run, and they will announce to this one with sweeping shoulder in the east: "This one of yours has gone, of whom the gods say that he will govern the god's fathers..."

...

Someone has stood up behind you (Sun): your brother has stood up behind you, the one you summoned has stood up behind you.

You will not perish (Unis); you will not cease: your identity will endure with people even as your identity comes to be with the gods.
.


It's interesting Recitation 152 finishes with reference to flesh -

.Your body is the body of this Unis, your flesh the flesh of this Unis, your bones this Unis's bones: you will go (from life) should this Unis go; should this Unis go, you will go
.

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MrMacSon
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Re: The raising of Lazarus and baptism/initiation?

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Calling the new Osiris-Unis by three names in Recitation 153 before calling him 'Great of Magic', and the three verses that follow, reminds me of the 3 Magi who visit baby Jesus

.
The Akhet's door has been opened, its door bolts have drawn back.

He has come to you, Red Crown; he has come to you, Fiery One;
he has come to you, Great One; he has come to you, Great of Magic -
clean for you and fearful because of you.

May you be content with him, may you be content with his cleanliness,
may you be content with his speech when he says to you:

"How fine you look, content, renewed, and rejuvenated, for the god who is the gods' father has given you birth!"
.

nightshadetwine
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Re: The raising of Lazarus and baptism/initiation?

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I wanted to add to this thread some other things I find interesting about the possible association between the deaths and resurrections of Lazarus and Jesus and initiation.

I've already pointed out that the two mourning sisters of Lazarus remind me of the two mourning sisters of Osiris - Isis and Nepthys. I'm also reminded of the mourning women at Jesus's crucifixion and the women who go to his tomb to anoint his corpse.

During the Egyptian resurrection ritual women would play the role of the mourning sisters and sometimes mother(Nut) of Osiris while the lector priest performs the resurrection ritual.

The Mortuary Papyrus of Padikakem Walters Art Museum 551(ISD LLC, Dec 31, 2011), Yekaterina Barbash:
Section 1 is a ritual addressed to Osiris and said to be recited by Isis, Nut, Nepthys, and a crowd of "men and women". Section 2 is a compilation of glorification spells to be spoken by the lector priest for the deceased Padikakem, the assumed owner of the manuscript...

Both compositions of papyrus W551 are mortuary in character and address Osiris or the deceased associated with him... Thus while section 1 contains earthly expressions of love and mourning for the deceased, section 2 deals with his transition to a new state of being in the hereafter. The sequence of the texts corresponds with the Egyptian perception of death, i.e., the deceased is gradually transformed after death, from this world to the sphere of the divine...

The corpus of "s3hw" spells was concerned with elevating Osiris and/or the deceased to a new state of existence and should be understood as a
category of Egyptian mortuary literature... The lamentations bring about the revitalization of Osiris by means of mourning itself. The two goddesses, Isis and Nepthys, refer to death from the viewpoint of the living, uncovering their human emotions, as they recall their love for Osiris and grieve for him. On the contrary, glorifications tend to deal with death from a more mythological perspective of the hereafter. Thus, unlike the earthly pleas of Isis and Nepthys, the myth of Osiris, Horus, and Seth is evoked in spell 10 of PW 551:"The Great One(=Osiris) awakens, The Great One wakes up. Osiris raised himself on his side, the One who hates sleep (i.e., death), one who does not love weariness. The god stands, being powerful of his body. Horus has lifted him up, he's raised in Nedit."... In the s3hw as well as in other mortuary texts such as the BR, the transformation into an akh accurs by means of association of the deceased with the god Osiris and his incorporation into the sphere of the divine...

Similarly, Osiris' mother, Nut, functions mainly as the protector in his time of vulnerability and rejuvenation, as for example in spell 5 of PW 551: "Your mother, Nut, has spread herself over you... She protected you of all evil things". Her motherly role is repeatedly stressed throughout the composition... Isis and Nepthys perform the widest range of tasks for the deceased Osiris, including purification, protection, and reassembling. At the same time, the two sisters act as they do in the lamentations, mourning and "glorifying" Osiris...

Notice in the bolded part of the quote above the deceased/Osiris is said to be asleep but will wake up.

John 11:
After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

So you have Jesus in the role of Horus/the lector priest, Lazarus in the role of Osiris/the deceased, and the mourning sisters in the role of Isis and Nepthys.

Continuing with The Mortuary Papyrus of Padikakem Walters Art Museum 551:
Although s3hw primarily associate the deceased with Osiris, the latter's nightly union with Re results in a solid connection of the deceased with the sun god. The transformation of the deceased into the new state of existence as an akh can be equated with the cyclical process of the sun, as it is newly born and rises each morning... Cruz-Uribe points out that all the rooms in Theban mortuary temples containing mortuary spells also involve themes of the rebirth of the sun god, Re-Horakhty. The gods Re and OSiris unite into a giant, omnipresent deity who spans the sky and the netherworld...

In other words, transformation into a god was a necessary part of assimilation into the Netherworld... s3hw were specifically designed to transform and restore the social functions as well as the physical body of the deceased through the connection with the sphere of the divine.

All the rituals performed in Egyptian mortuary literature and by the pharaoh during his inauguration are associated with the death and resurrection/rebirth of either Osiris or the sun god. The deceased and the living pharaoh are ritually identified with a deity that dies and is reborn/resurrected.

The mortuary texts are constantly referred to as "initiations into the mysteries of the Netherworld" and the "mystery" is always associated with Osiris and the sun god. Part of this initiation was a purification in the waters of the netherworld called "Nun". Just as the sun god enters the waters and is reborn, so is the initiate.

‘The Social and Ritual Context of a Mortuary Liturgy of the Middle Kingdom (CT Spells 30-41)', in: H. Willems (ed.),
Social Aspects of Funerary Culture in the Egyptian Old and Middle Kingdoms. Proceedings of the International Symposium Held at Leiden
University, 6-7 June, 1996, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 103 (Leuven, 2001), p. 253-372:
Osiris is said to give orders to let the deceased enter his shrine... Prior to this, the deceased is said to be purified in the Jackal-lake and in the Lakes of the Dwellers in the Netherworld... The "Lake(s) of the Jackal(s)" and the "Lake(s) of the Dwellers of the Netherworld" occur frequently in the funerary literature, and they were clearly thought to be located near the Eastern horizon. In PT 372b the deceased is said to be washed there in a context also referring to the appearance of Re. It is likely that the lakes are here associated with the netherworldy pools where the sun god bathes prior to sunrise. Funerary texts often link this idea with navigations through the netherworld. Such navigations are frequently the topic of texts which also refer to purification in the two lakes under discussion... Immediately before, the same text points out that the deceased has been purified in the same lake as Osiris...

The implication of this hypothesis is that the journey of the deceased through the netherworld according to spell 36 is a netherwordly reflection of the Osiris mysteries performed on earth... The deceased will receive divine status in the House of the White Bull... The deceased will enter into the abode of Osiris.

A Journey Through the Beyond The Development of the Concept of Duat and Related Cosmological Notions in Egyptian Funerary Literature(ISD LLC, Feb 1, 2022), Silvia Zago
Moreover, at least some of these passages mentioning the lake(s) of the Duat associate these with the sun and the eastern horizon, near which such lakes may have been imagined to be located. In virtue of this connection, the Duat may be surmised to assume the connotation of a liminal, transitional place, where the sun and the king get cleansed before being ready to reappear on the horizon every morning and to rise in the sky. Ultimately, (ritual) purity was a necessary condition for being reborn, and for this reason it is often connected with the notion of the (initiatory) journey of the deceased through the Duat. The association between Osiris and water in a context of purification, renewal, and rebirth also had a long tradition in ancient Egyptian (funerary) literature...

The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day edited by Eva Von Dassow:
Every evening the aged sun entered the underworld and travelled through it, immersed in Nun, only to emerge at dawn as Khepri, the newborn sun. Thus, the waters of Nun had a rejuvenating, baptismal quality essential to rebirth.

Finally the initiation ends with a sacred meal between the newly transfigured initiate and the gods of the netherworld.

Death and Initiation in the Funerary Religion of Ancient Egypt, Jan Assmann in Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt, Yale Egyptological
Studies 3, 1989, S. 135-159:
Membership in this community is the only way for the deceased to partake of the sustenance of the gods; it is, on the other hand, the sharing in the divine nourishment which makes him a member of the community of gods. This specific motif appears repeatedly as a sacramental explanation in those spells concerned with the concrete action of eating and drinking...

Thy bread is the bread of Re,
thy beer is the beer of Hathor.
Thou getest up and siteth down for thy meal
and joinest the gods who follow the god (Re).

The means and the end are fully interchangeable: eating and drinking (a social act of paradigmatic significance) are the ideal concretizations of the desired social integration, while social integration inversely represents the prerequisite for sustenance in the hereafter...

A truly righteous one.
Let him be given the bread and beer,
which issues forth from Osiris.
He shall be forever amongst the followers of Horus...

In the second century text "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius, the initiate into the mysteries of Isis goes through a water purification, a death and rebirth ritual, and ends it all with a sacred meal. The description of the initiates experience is pretty much exactly what the deceased and sun god go through in the Egyptian Netherworld texts.

You also find this in other mystery cults and Christianity. I think Paul's idea of baptism as a death and rebirth ritual is probably influenced by the ritual of initiation. He combines the water purification with the death and rebirth ritual and then you eat a meal in remembrance of Jesus.
allegoria
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Re: The raising of Lazarus and baptism/initiation?

Post by allegoria »

I think we can relate the Eleusinian theme to 1 Cor 15:
(1 Cor 15:20) But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep […]

(1 Cor 15:37) And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain
Why the inclusion of “whether wheat or something else”? There is no need for clarifying a particular seed or kernel. This can be read as a cheeky aside to those who are familiar with the Mysteries — a “like wheat wink wink” to the ones with ears to hear (pun intended).

The conclusion of this chapter even features the intimation of a mystery:
(1 Cor 15:50) I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery
We also have this intriguing passage, which I think has been misinterpreted:
(1 Cor 15:29-34) [Regarding the importance of the resurrection of the dead] Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
He is justifying the resurrection of the dead on the grounds of how it affects a believer’s behavior. Figuratively, Paul dies daily for a greater gain. Then, “speaking as men speak [expressionally]”, he juxtaposes the consequences of belief in resurrection or not: if believed, a man may accomplish the Herculean task of wrestling with wild beasts at the stadium in Ephesus, knowing there is a reward; if doubted, a man might as well eat and drink because YOLO. The “evil companionship corrupts good character” applies to both: one believes his companions are resurrected, the other wants to spend his last night seeing his companions with gluttony. The latter is a drunken stupor, and the former allows you to abstain from sinning. What we know about the Eleusinian mysteries from references is that it changed the participant’s character and confirmed to them a belief in the afterlife.
nightshadetwine
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Re: The raising of Lazarus and baptism/initiation?

Post by nightshadetwine »

allegoria wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:35 am I think we can relate the Eleusinian theme to 1 Cor 15:
(1 Cor 15:20) But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep […]

(1 Cor 15:37) And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain
Why the inclusion of “whether wheat or something else”? There is no need for clarifying a particular seed or kernel. This can be read as a cheeky aside to those who are familiar with the Mysteries — a “like wheat wink wink” to the ones with ears to hear (pun intended).
Yeah, I definitely think that verse is a reference to the mysteries. I made a (very long) post on the mystery cult themes and concepts in Paul here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11173
allegoria wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:35 amThe conclusion of this chapter even features the intimation of a mystery:
(1 Cor 15:50) I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery
The Egyptian mortuary ritual was referred to as an "initiation into the mysteries of the netherworld". An important part of the ritual was to replace the perishable with the imperishable as Paul states. The ritual was a transfiguration into a new divine body.

Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Cornell University Press, 2011), Jan Assmann:
Only good could continue unchangeably; evil, bad, uncleanliness, and imperfection were given over to perishability. The moral qualities of a result, that is, its conformance to maat, decided its imperishability.
"Death and Initiation in the Funerary Religion of Ancient Egypt" by Jan Assmann in Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt, Yale Egyptological Studies 3, 1989, S. 135-159:
The embalming process, to which it refers, is related to the topic of initiation in manifold ways. It is conceived not so much as a preservation of the corpse, but rather as its transfiguration to a new body: one "filled with magic," the perishable substances of which have been replaced by everlasting ones, resting in the mummy-cover as if it were a kind of magic garment.
allegoria wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:35 amWe also have this intriguing passage, which I think has been misinterpreted:
(1 Cor 15:29-34) [Regarding the importance of the resurrection of the dead] Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
He is justifying the resurrection of the dead on the grounds of how it affects a believer’s behavior. Figuratively, Paul dies daily for a greater gain. Then, “speaking as men speak [expressionally]”, he juxtaposes the consequences of belief in resurrection or not: if believed, a man may accomplish the Herculean task of wrestling with wild beasts at the stadium in Ephesus, knowing there is a reward; if doubted, a man might as well eat and drink because YOLO. The “evil companionship corrupts good character” applies to both: one believes his companions are resurrected, the other wants to spend his last night seeing his companions with gluttony. The latter is a drunken stupor, and the former allows you to abstain from sinning. What we know about the Eleusinian mysteries from references is that it changed the participant’s character and confirmed to them a belief in the afterlife.
This seems to be related to the concept of being "perfected" or "completed" through initiation. "Perfection" and "completion" were associated with being reborn into a new "pure" or moral life. This concept is also found in the Egyptian mortuary ritual.

Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Cornell University Press, 2011), Jan Assmann:
The concept of completion/perfection, Egyptian nfrw, not only had connotations of beauty, perfection, and imperishability but also, and above all, connotations of virtue and righteousness, of moral perfection and conformance with the norms of maat. From djet-time, there arose a moral perspective. Only good could continue unchangeably; evil, bad, uncleanliness, and imperfection were given over to perishability. The moral qualities of a result, that is, its conformance to maat, decided its imperishability.
Part of the mortuary initiation ritual was a meal (usually described as being bread and beer) that integrated the newly transfigured and resurrected dead into the community of gods and other resurrected dead. As you probably already know, the mystery cults had a meal after the initiation to integrate the new initiate into the cult.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead The Book of Going Forth by Day - The Complete Papyrus of Ani (Chronicle Books, 2008), Eva Von Dassow:
Chapter 1... O you who gave bread and beer to the perfected souls of the House of Osiris, may you give bread and beer of all seasons to the soul of Ani, who is vindicated with all the gods of the Thinite nome and who is vindicated with you. O you who open a path and open up roads for the perfected souls in the house of Osiris, open a path for him, open up roads for the soul of Ani in company with you. May he come in freely, may he go out in peace from the House of Osiris, without being repelled or turned back. May he go in favored, may he come out loved, may he be vindicated... may no fault be found in him.
Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Cornell University Press, 2011), Jan Assmann:
Perhaps we are to understand this talk about bread that does not grow moldy and beer that does not grow sour quite literally, as an allusion to symbolic and thus imperishable representations of these offering items... The relationship between the offering meal and ascent to the sky, the latter being the sacramental explanation of the former, is one of the fundamentals of the Egyptian mortuary cult. The offering was the ritual framework for the image of death as transition. Spells that mention the deceased's passage from the realm of death, where the conditions of life are reversed, into the Elysian realm, where the order of eternal life prevails, have especially to do with eating and drinking... The nourishment to which he had a claim demonstrated that the deceased no longer belonged to that realm [of death] but rather had been called to life eternal. He strove for a share of this nourishment in the Elysian realm, and he ate of this nourishment in order to belong to it. Means and end intertwined, with the result that the deceased's food became the medium of his salvation from the realm of death (the aspect of salvation is clearly expressed by the verb sdj "to take out, rescue"). The offerings therefore had to be pure, for only thus did they belong to the realm of the gods, into which the deceased was integrated by receiving them. This initiatory, transformative aspect of taking nourishment is familiar to Christians through the ritual of Communion, though the latter rests on different traditions of offerings and sacred meals. The Egyptian rite of provisioning the dead was intended to integrate the deceased into the communal feasting of the gods and the transfigured ancestral spirits.
"Death and Initiation in the Funerary Religion of Ancient Egypt", Jan Assmann in Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt (Yale Egyptological Studies 3, 1989):
The gods live in a redistributive community, itself a projection of earthly society. Membership in this community is the only way for the deceased to partake of the sustenance of the gods; it is, on the other hand, the sharing in the divine nourishment which makes him a member of the community of gods. This specific motif appears repeatedly as a sacramental explanation in those spells concerned with the concrete action of eating and drinking, i.e. dealing with the reception of funerary offerings... Just to illustrate the point, let me quote the following passage from a funerary liturgy: "Thy bread is the bread of Re, thy beer is the beer of Hathor. Thou getst up and siteth down for thy meal and joinest the gods who follow the god (Re)." The means and the end are fully interchangeable: eating and drinking (a social act of paradigmatic significance) are the ideal concretizations of the desired social integration, while social integration inversely represents the prerequisite for sustenance in the hereafter... Sustenance and social integration exist, in the Egyptian mind, as one indivisible whole: they merely represent two aspects of one and the same thing. The desired verdict of the funerary judge appropriately formulates it: "A truly righteous one. Let him be given the bread and beer, which issues forth from Osiris. He shall be forever amongst the followers of Horus.".
Mystery Cults, Theatre and Athenian Politics: A Reading of Euripides' Bacchae and Aristophanes' Frogs (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), Luigi Barzini:
Initiation (τελετή) from τελεῖν (accomplish, finish), originally meant ‘accomplishment’, ‘performance’. The term is characteristically used to denote initiation in the mysteries, and in plural to mystic rites practised at initiation, such as the festival accompanied by mystic rites. This term covers a wide semantic field. Meanings include ‘initiation in the mysteries’ but also ‘accomplishment’, ‘fulfilment’, ‘perfection’ and ‘completion’, terms that express the spiritual weight that mystery initiation had for the Greeks in terms of the spiritual state of the individual.
Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity (Yale University Press, 2009), Luke Timothy Johnson:
Two cultic activities of early assemblies would easily be recognized by members of Greco-Roman religious associations. The first was baptism, the ritual of initiation that marked entry into the community... The second cultic activity was the meal. Some version of "breaking bread in houses" (Acts 2:42, 46) that Paul calls the "Lord's Banquet" (1 Cor 11:20) was celebrated in the gathered assembly, probably on the day of resurrection, the first day of the week (1 Cor 16:2; see Rev 1:10). The rituals of initiation and meals were occasions for enacting the presence of the risen Lord in the assembly and for remembering the words and deeds of Jesus in the context of his continuing powerful presence...

As he reports the risen Lord saying to him when Paul asked to be freed from the stake in his flesh, "My grace [charis-that is, "benefit"] is sufficient for you, for [my] power [dynamis] is brought to perfection [teleitai] in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9)7... Of the Phrygian Christians in Galatia and Colossae who follow the ritual instinct of their Greco-Roman past by seeking further initiations, Paul asks to think through the implications of their baptism into Christ. Greater maturity (perfection) in Christianity results not from successive initiations but from thinking through and then enacting the moral entailments of initiation into the crucified and raised Messiah... Paul's response to those Colossians who, after their baptism into Christ, pursued further "perfection" or "maturity" through circumcision, asceticism, and visions-all instinctive to Religiousness A as found in Greco-Roman religion makes the role of thinking even more explicit. Their maturity does not result from adding on but from digging deeper. Paul wants them to be filled with "recognition of [God's] will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Col 1:9). To what end? That they might "walk worthily of the Lord in everything pleasing, bearing fruit in every good deed and growing in the recognition of God" (1:10). Paul connects this growth in knowledge and in moral behavior precisely with the divine dynamis in which they had become participants... Paul again argues morally from their religious experience of baptism, in which they were "buried together with him" and were "raised with him" through faith (Col 2:12). If then they died with Christ (2:20) and if they were raised with him (3:1), that ritual pattern should determine their moral behavior: they should put to death all modes of vice and "put on" the new humanity, resisting all impulses that drive them to rivalry and competition and instead showing toward each other the same compassion that was shown them (3:12-13). And over all these, Paul says, they should put on agape, which is the bond of perfection (teleiotetos, or maturity)... Paul's language of "perfection" echoes that used for the Mysteries; see Phil 1:6; p2; Gal 3=3; 2 Cor 8:6, 11; Rom 15:28
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