Theological Theses · §1640 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

The law of Moses is never called 'religion of angels', and Colossians 2:16-18 forbids the reading

Certainly Scripture nowhere calls the law of Moses "the religion (threskeia) of angels." No author of any kind, secular or churchly, can be found who uses that name for it.

And even if the name were common, it could not fit this passage of Paul. In the verses just before, Paul had already armed the Colossians in plain, explicit words against the deceit of the Judaizing impostors: "Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a feast day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ" (Colossians 2:16-17). What point would there be in repeating the same thing in those dark and ambiguous words?

Paul also says that those who brought in the religion of angels walk in things they have not seen (Colossians 2:18): that is, they set foot in what they do not know and chatter about the unknown. That fits the worshipers of angels very well, for they pour out a great many unverified claims about the nature, orders and duties of angels. It does not fit men devoted to the law of Moses, since the discipline of Moses had been set out precisely in the sacred books and laid open to anyone who wished to learn it.

Latin

LXXXIII. Et certe non solum in Scriptura sacra nusquam lex Mosaica Angelorum θρησκεία Religio appellatur, sed nec hujus nomenclaturae exemplum ullum reperiri potest apud authores quoscunque sive profanos, seu Ecclesiasticos. Neque si usitata esset ejusmodi appellatio, isti Pauli loco accommodari posset. Cum enim Paulus in praecedentibus, Colossenses claris & disertis verbis, adversus impostorum Judaizantium fraudem abunde munierit, dicens Nemo vos judicet in cibo, aut in potu, aut in parte diei festi, aut Neomenia, aut Sabbatorum; quae sunt umbra futurorum, corpus autem Christi; quid attinebat rem eandem verbis illis obscuris & ambiguis repetere? Adde quod istos Angelorum religionis introductores Paulus affirmat ambulare in iis quae non viderunt, id est, pedem inferre in ea quae non norunt, & de incognitis garrire: quod optime quidem quadrat in cultores Angelorum, qui de Angelorum natura, ordinibus atque muneribus incomperta multa effutiunt: in addictos vero legi Mosaicae non convenit; cum disciplina Mosaica in sacris voluminibus accurate explicata, & omnibus qui eam noscere vellent exposita esset.

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