The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (225 page)

Date
 Advocates of Pauline authorship generally date the letter between
A.D.
60 and 62, when Paul spent two years under house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:16, 30). This judgment puts Colossians alongside his other "Captivity Epistles" (Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon), which are traditionally dated within this same time frame. Some, however, think that Colossians was written during the mid-50s, while Paul was in Ephesus. Scholars who read Colossians as a non-Pauline letter tend to date it much later, usually in the 80s.

Destination
  The city of Colossae was built along the Lycus River in the Roman province of Asia (western Turkey). It was once a thriving industrial center positioned on a major trade route that stretched across Asia Minor from the western city of Ephesus to the eastern city of Tarsus. By NT times, Colossae had considerably declined in importance. More prominent in this region were the cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis, both located within 15 miles of Colossae (4:13). Interestingly, Paul had neither founded nor visited the Church he addresses in this letter (2:1). A native Colossian named Epaphras was the first to bring the gospel to the city years earlier (1:7). He was likely converted while Paul was preaching in Ephesus and gaining a wide hearing from Jews and Greeks all over Asia Minor (Acts 19:10). Despite an established Jewish population in the region, the Colossian Church was comprised mainly of uncircumcised Gentiles (Col 2:13).

Purpose
 The same Epaphras who founded the Colossian Church (1:7) also traveled to Rome to update Paul on their recent successes and struggles (4:12). Among other things, he informed Paul that certain agitators were planting doubts in the minds of the Colossians about their new faith. Paul wrote to address this danger and to reassure these believing Gentiles of their Christian inheritance (1:12, 21-22). Unfortunately, commentators have reached no clear consensus on the precise identity of these Colossian troublemakers. Some view them as proponents of pagan religion, while others contend they were teachers of an early form of Gnosticism that combined religious and philosophical elements from Jewish and Hellenistic thought. More probably, Paul is addressing the growing friction between Jewish and Christian communities in Colossae. This would explain why Paul gives focused attention to controversies over Jewish legal rites like circumcision, dietary restrictions, and adherence to the liturgical feast days of the Old Covenant (2:11-13, 16-18). Apparently the local Colossian Jews were outspoken critics of the new Christian movement and dismissed the claim that Gentiles could enjoy full membership in God's covenant family apart from the legal observances handed down through Moses.

Themes and Characteristics
 In many ways Colossians is unique among Paul's letters. Its closest parallel is the Letter to the Ephesians, with which it shares several common themes and expressions and sometimes even identical teachings. Both letters were written to young believers unknown to Paul personally, and both were probably composed during Paul's imprisonment in Rome in the early 60s. Nevertheless, while Ephesians has a calm and contemplative tone, Paul's stance in Colossians is more aggressive, as he confronts false notions that are making inroads into the local Church and muddling the thinking of many young Christians.

Since Paul does not address his opponents directly, we are left to infer from his comments the basic thrust of their teaching. It may be said, along these lines, that Paul in Colossians is engaged in constructive apologetics, as he spends most of his energy clarifying the truth of Christian doctrine rather than attacking in detail the errors he deems so dangerous. Two motifs stand out in Paul's preaching.
(1)
The
Supremacy of Christ.
Towering above every theme in Colossians is the doctrine of Jesus Christ's preeminence over all things (1:18). Paul stresses this point by sketching for his readers a map of the cosmos, positioning Christ at its very summit. Every person, every nation, every angel—indeed, every created thing—is subject to the Lord Jesus and is compelled to acknowledge him as King. No corner of the universe lies outside his dominion because Jesus is the Creator who brought it into being and the Redeemer who renews it with the grace he pours out through the Church. Paul soars to these heights especially in the hymn of 1:15-20, but elsewhere too he proclaims the divinity of Christ (2:9) and reminds us that the crucified Christ has triumphed over the entire army of demonic spirits (2:15). We can assume from Paul's emphasis on these matters that his Jewish opponents tried to depreciate the person and position of Jesus Christ in the minds of the Colossian Christians.
(2)
The Completeness of Christians in Christ.
The practical side of Christ's supremacy is, for Paul, Christ's sufficiency. This is something he needs to stress to the Colossian Gentiles, who are bending under the pressure of local Jews to adopt the Jewish way of life. Paul warns them against this in 2:8-23, where he drives home the point that Christians have no future in their Jewish past and that Judaism has nothing to offer them that they do not already possess in greater abundance in Jesus Christ. In a word, the baptized Colossians are already complete in Christ (2:12); they have no need for the shadows of the Old Covenant when they already possess the "substance" of the New (2:17). Fully furnished, then, with God's rich blessings, the Colossians are challenged to conform their lives to the gospel (3:5-17) and to allow Christ to transform their homes into places of love, forgiveness, and harmony (3:18-4:1). «

OUTLINE OF THE LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS

1. Opening Address (
1:1-14
)

   A. Greetings (
1:1-2
)

   B. Prayer and Thanksgiving (
1:3-14
)

2. Christian Belief (
1:15-2:23
)

   A. The Preeminence of Christ (
1:15-23
)

   B. The Ministry of Paul (
1:24-2:7
)

   C. The Cross and the Circumcision of Christ (
2:8-15
)

   D. The Shadows of the Old Covenant (
2:16-23
)

3. Christian Behavior (
3:1-4:6
)

   A. A New Mind in Christ (
3:1-4
)

   B. A New Life in Christ (
3:5-17
)

   C. Family Life in Christ (
3:18-4:1
)

   D. Prayer and Conversation in Christ (
4:2-6
)

4. Closing Farewell (
4:7-18
)

   A. The Commendation of Tychicus and Onesimus (
4:7-9
)

   B. Final Greetings and Instructions (
4:10-18
)

THE LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE

Chapters

1
2
3
4

Salutation

1
 
Paul
, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2
 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colos'sae:

Grace to you and peace
from God our Father.

Gratitude for the Colossians' Faith

3
 
We always thank God
, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
⁴
because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints,
⁵
because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the
word of the truth
, the gospel
⁶
which has come to you, as indeed in
the whole world
it is bearing fruit and growing—so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth,
⁷
as you learned it from
Ep'aphras
our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on our
^a
behalf
⁸
and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9
 And so, from the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
¹⁰
to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him,
bearing fruit
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
¹¹
May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,
¹²
giving thanks to the Father, who has
qualified us
^b
to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
¹³
He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and
transferred us
to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
¹⁴
in whom
we have redemption
, the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of Christ

15
 
He is the image
of the invisible God, the first-born
 
*
of
all creation
;
¹⁶
for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities
—all things were created through him and for him.
¹⁷
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
¹⁸
He is the head
of the body, the Church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he
 
*
might be pre-eminent.
¹⁹
For in him all
the fulness of God
was pleased to dwell,
²⁰
and through him
to reconcile
to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21
 And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
²²
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you
holy and blameless
and irreproachable before him,
²³
provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been
preached to every creature
under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Paul's Sufferings and Ministry

24
 Now I rejoice in
my sufferings
for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking
 
*
in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church,
²⁵
of which I became a minister according to the divine office which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
²⁶
the mystery
hidden for ages and generations
^c
but now made manifest to his saints.
²⁷
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
²⁸
Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man
mature
in Christ.
²⁹
For this I toil, striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me.

2
  
For I want you to know how greatly I strive for you, and for those at
La-odice'a
, and for all who have not seen my face,
²
that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, of Christ,
³
in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom
and knowledge.
⁴
I say this in order that no one may delude you with beguiling speech.
⁵
For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Fulness of Life in Christ

6
 As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him,
⁷
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Warnings against False Teachers

8
 
See to it
that no one makes a prey of you by
philosophy
and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the
elemental spirits
of the universe, and not according to Christ.
⁹
For in him the whole fulness of
deity dwells bodily
,
¹⁰
and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
¹¹
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the
circumcision of Christ
;
¹²
and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
¹³
And you, who were dead in trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh
, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
¹⁴
having canceled
the bond
which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
¹⁵
He disarmed the
principalities and powers
and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.
^d