Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Chris Kugler on Baptismal Regeneration in Colossians 3:9-11

  

. . . in Galatians 3.27-28 Paul argues that the baptismal ritual creates a new situation in which there is now “no male and female” (ουκ ενι αρσεν και θηλυ). Whatever the proper exegesis of this text, the allusion to Genesis 1.27 is clear. Furthermore, in Colossians 3.9-11, Paul writes,

 

(3.9) Do not lie to one another, because you have put off the old humanity with its practices (3.10) and put on the new humanity which is being renewed n knowledge according to the image of the creator (καιεικονα του κτισαντος αυτον), (3.11) where there is no Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but the Messiah is everything and in everything.

 

Paul is obviously referring to baptism and speaks of a ritual “re-humanization” in which converts “are renewed in knowledge καεικονα του κτισαντος αυτον” (on this as a baptismal passage, cp. esp. Rom. 6.6 within 6.1-11). (Chris Kugler, Paul and the Image of God [London: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2020], 112)