In recent years our knowledge of ancient Judaism within the framework of Hellenism in Palestine and the Diaspora has been steadily increasing, new sources have been exploited and others for a first time evaluated and analysed.
The research of the dissertation of Ralf A. Rohrbach is sounding out the possibility of categorizing all the hints of Colossian opponents as somehow within the Judaism of the end of the Second Temple. The polemic of the Letter would than react to the threat of the vital local hellenistic-jewish Diaspora to the young Christian congregations in the valley of the Lycos. Examination is going on for the hypothesis and reconstruction of a probable inculturation of Diaspora Judaism within the melting pot of Colossae on the road half-way between Greece and Syria. The author is facing the puzzle of the multicultural setting in Colossae, but he is aware of the too general or drivel category of a syncretistic religious cocktail. He therefore recognizes the stress on jewish identity markers in the polemic of Colossians and ancient reports on the traditionalism of the jews of Minor Asia, that in his hypothesis he thinks of a Judaism in the vital dialectic of inculturation and traditionalsm. The author has already reconstructed some of the possible contents of such an attractiv jewish counterpart in Colossae.
This page should invite any exegete interested and investigating in the setting of Colossians or the jewish Diaspora in Minor Asia to get in contact with the author for a possible discussion or the challenge of exchanging unpublished perspectives. For this you can reach the author under the following address:
Ralf A. Rohrbach, Ruemelinstr.12, 72070 Tuebingen, FRG, Tel. [Fax] 07071/21242
E-Mail: ralf.rohrbach@student.uni-tuebingen.de(ralf.rohrbach@student.uni-tuebingen.de)