180 sigurd grindheim
could not have penned it. instead, he finds the letter to be the product of
a later author, who has conflated passages from Paul’s genuine letters.12
sanders’ chief evidence is Col 1:20–22a (compared to 2 Cor 5:18; 1 Cor
8:6; and rom 5:10); Col 1:26–27 (compared to 1 Cor 2:7; rom 12:25–26;
and rom 9:23–24); and Col 2:12–13 (compared to rom 6:4; 4:24; gal 1:1;
rom 6:11; and rom 8:32). regarding Col 1:20–22, sanders claims that the
author of Colossians has made four telling changes. instead of reconciling
“us” (2 Cor 5:18), god now reconciles “all things” (Col 1:20). what is more,
the author of Colossians has coined a new word, ἀποκαταλλάσσω, instead
of Paul’s καταλλάσσω (rom 5:10; 2 Cor 5:18). he has also changed Paul’s
favorite word ἑαυτοῦ to εἰς αὐτόν. Finally, Paul never uses the phrases
τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς and τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (cf. 1 Cor 8:5).13
it is of course impossible to predict how Paul would have expressed
himself if he addressed a new topic, which diminishes the significance of
the first, third, and fourth observation. Moreover, if the author of Colos-
sians has incorporated traditional material in Col 1:15–20 (as most com-
mentators assume), the style of these verses cannot serve as evidence
regarding the author of the letter as a whole. as for the invention of
the new word ἀποκαταλλάσσω, sanders sees no reason why Paul would
have changed the word καταλλάσσω by adding the preposition ἀπό. But
this is also poor evidence for seeing an editor at work. Proliferation of
words with prepositional prefixes is rather characteristic of Pauline style.
Before Paul, there is no evidence of words such as ἀνακαινόω (2 Cor 4:16;
cf. Col 3:10), ἀντιμισθία (rom 1:27; 2 Cor 6:11, 13), ὑπερεντυγχάνω (rom 8:26),
and ὑπερπερισσεύω (rom 5:20; 2 Cor 7:4). a number of words with prepo-
sitional prefixes are only found in the new testament when they occur
in Paul’s writings.14
12 sanders, “literary dependence,” 29.
13 sanders, “literary dependence,” 37–38.
14 such words include ἀνακεφαλαιόω (rom 13:9; gal 5:14; cf. eph 1:10), εἰσδέχομαι (2 Cor
6:17), ἐνάρχομαι (gal 3:3; Phil 1:6), ἐνορκίζω (1 thess 5:27), ἐξαγοράζω (gal 3:13; 4:5; cf.
Col 4:5; eph 5:16), ἐξανάστασις (Phil 3:11), ἐξαπατάω (rom 7:11; 16:18; 1 Cor 3:18; 2 Cor 11:3;
cf. 2 thess 2:3; 1 tim 2:14), ἐξαπορέω (2 Cor 1:8; 4:8), ἐξηχέω (1 thess 1:8), ἐπεκτείνομαι
(Phil 3:13), ἐπενδύομαι (2 Cor 5:2), ἐπιδιατάσσομαι (gal 3:15), ἐπιπόθησις (2 Cor 7:7, 11),
ἐπιπόθητος (Phil 4:1), ἐπιποθία (rom 15:23; 2 Cor 7:11), ἐπισκηνόω (2 Cor 12:9), καταβαρέω
(2 Cor 12:16), καταδουλόω (2 Cor 11:20; gal 2:4), κατακαλύπτω (1 Cor 11:6, 7), παραζηλόω
(rom 10:19; 11:11, 14; 1 Cor 10:22), παραπλήσιον (Phil 2:27), προσαναπληρόω (2 Cor 9:12; 11:19),
προσανατίθημι (gal 1:16; 2:6), προσοφείλω (Phlm 19), συναγωνίζομαι (rom 15:30), συναθλέω
(Phil 1:27; 4:3), συναιχμάλωτος (rom 16:7; Col 4:10; Phlm 23), συναναμίγνυμι (1 Cor 5:9, 11;
cf. 2 thess 3:13), συστρατιώτης (Phil 2:25; Phlm 2), ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ (1 thess 3:10; 5:13; cf.
eph 3:20), ὑπερνικάω (rom 8:37), ὑπερυψόω (Phil 2:9), ὑπόδικος (rom 3:19).