The christological faith of protochristianism in Cl 1,15-20

Abstract

The study of Christological faith in the protochristianism context is an important theme to understand the process of development of Christian faith itself. The present study aims to identify some elements of this Christological faith in the text of Cl 1,15-20. The methodology used was bibliographical and qualitative investigation, being performed a deductive analysis to obtain the results. The letter to the Colossians is a text belonging to the group of the deuteropaulines epistles. Its author put in Cl 1,15-20 a pericope of pre-pauline origin. It was inserted in the letter, by the author, with tweaks and additions. The text analysis identifies it as a hymn coming from the liturgical environment of the Christian protocommunities of Hellenic culture. Being, therefore, a way of expressing its faith in Jesus and, consequently a way of communicating its hermeneutics about it. The periscope presents elements of an Adamic Christology and of a wise crhistology. There is, in the text, a tendency of interpreting Jesus in an abstract form or to identify him as an heroic divinized figure. The additions, made by the Pauline author, seem to want to correct these tendencies presenting the theme of death on the cross as a concrete instrument of universal reconciliation accomplished by him. For the protochristianism in Cl 1,15-20, Jesus is the principle and the foundation of creation and redemption.