Wright on Colossians 2:8: He points out that Paul uses the rare verb sylagogein (“to take captive”) because “it makes a contemptuous pun with the word synagogue.” Paul’s warning is not just about those who would take captive, but about the temptation to lapse back into old covenant modes and ways. Given the exodus allusions earlier in the book (inheritance, redemption, transferred from darkness to light), this is a warning against returning to “Egypt,” the Egypt that Judaism had become.
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