From: Carlton Winbery (winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net)
Date: Sat Jan 03 1998 - 02:26:06 EST
Carl Conrad wrote;
>I think it's pagan: the notion that the planets and the four STOICEIA each
>had their own ARCONTES belongs to a number of systems of Hellenistic
>thought, including some forms of astrology and some emerging forms of
>Gnosticism, perhaps also in Mithraism. Paul's assertion at the end of Rom 8
>that "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ" includes a
>number of hypothetical intervening factors to which his assertion denies
>any efficacy: among these are ARCAI and DUNAMEIS; although EXOUSIAI aren't
>in this list, that term also is used to designate subordinate astral
>influences in cosmic hierarchies in these widely-variant late Hellenistic
>systems of astrological and kindred religious cosmology.
>
This is very important information for interpreting several parts of the
NT. Dr. Joe Billy McMinn dealt with these (especially STOICEA TOU KOSMOU)
in his dissertation on the background to Colossians. Still in the library
in New Orleans Baptist Seminary, well done.
Carlton L. Winbery
Fogleman Professor of Religion
Louisiana College
Pineville, LA 71359
winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net
winbery@andria.lacollege.edu
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