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The Origin and Intention of the Household Code in the Letter to the Colossians

Fachbereich Evangelische Theologie der Philipps-Universität Marburg, Lahntor 3, 35032 Marburg, Germany

Thanks to its unambiguously oppressive ethics, Col. 3.18-4.1 is one of the most provocative New Testament texts. The origin and intention of this text have not yet been explained, despite important form- and tradition-critical studies of the household codes in the past hundred years. This essay suggests that the closest parallels in genre to Col. 4.18-4.1 are popular-philosophical collections of laws transmitted under the names of Charondas and Zaleukos, as well as the inscription SIG 985 from Philadelphia, texts that include a list of individual exhortations to specific societal groups related to one another around the classical oikos. The Sitz im Leben of these law-codes remains mysterious, but the inscription gives information to outsiders about the maintenance of social order in the cult, an intention which can also be presumed to lie behind the household code in Colossians. One may assume—given that the household code is not integrated into the context of the letter, as well as the contradiction to Col. 3.11 and three concepts in the code which are completely unsuited in the context of oikonomia—that the authors intend to challenge the community to read the household code against the grain.

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