Indulgence and Self-Made Religion

[Paula]

These discussion questions are prompted by one of my recent Bible readings, from Colossians 2:20-23:



What exactly does Paul have in view in this passage regarding "fleshly indulgence". Is it simply synonymous for sinful or does it have a different meaning? It sounds like there were practices being proscribed to fight against "fleshly indulgence" that didn't work. So what could these practices have been that Paul stated were useless? Kinda reminds me of the Jewish hedge, where you put a hedge around the law to avoid getting even close to breaking the law.

And does this have any parallels today?

[Christianbookworm]

asceticism? Protognostics?

[Paula]

asceticism? Protognostics?

[Faber]

Lightfoot takes note of these ascetic and mystical tendencies, assuming that these false teachers are in some sense Christians, not any form of Greek philosophers.

On the other hand a closer examination of its language shows that these Judaic features do not exhaust the portraiture of the heresy or heresies against which the epistle is directed. We discern an element of theosophic speculation, which is alien to the spirit of Judaism proper. We are confronted with a shadowy mysticism, which loses itself in the contemplation of the unseen world. We discover a tendency to interpose certain spiritual agencies, intermediate beings, between God and man, as the instruments of communication and the objects of worship (Colossians 2:4,8,18,23). Anticipating the result which will appear more clearly hereafter, we may say that along with its Judaism there was a GNOSTIC element in the false teaching which prevailed at Colossae. [op. cit., 73-74]

Lightfoot then leans toward the opinion that there is a single heresy, which he equates with Essenism. Having at his disposal at the time of writing only the writings of Josephus and Philo [op. cit., 83] he portrays the mystic speculation of the Colossian heresy as a Gnostic tendency, but not Gnosticism itself.

[Obsidian]

The KJV and NET seem to interpret it as just saying that the rituals themselves derive from the flesh. That is, they look spiritual, but they are not (similar to blowing trumpets to announce the giving of alms, praying long prayers in public, wearing long robes, etc.).

Colossians 2:23 (KJV) which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

The NIV seems to go further, saying that the rituals themselves have no value in preventing fleshly sins.

Colossians 2:23 (NIV) Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Either way, the meaning is only slightly different.