Colossians
About Colossae
No one knows when Colossae came to be. This city was a thriving community dating back to the time of Xerxes, the leader of the Persians (485-465 BC).
Colossae thrived thanks to its advantageous location near the Little Maeander River, a tributary of the Maeander River. The valley was prone to frequent earthquakes, which caused extensive damage to the nearby cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis. The valley had an abundance of pastures for sheep grazing which made it possible to have a booming garment industry (since there was plentiful supply of wool). The Lycus River’s chalk deposits were highly sought after for their ability to dye cloth, which greatly boosted the prosperity of the valley through ranching and industry.
This letter is written to a fairly young church. Colossae was a town located in southeast Asia Minor which today is Turkey.
During Paul’s time, the power and significance of Colossae had diminished from its former glory.
”Since Colosse [sic] itself has not been excavated, there is no archaeological evidence available for saying what local cults may have flourished, or how many Jews had made their home there.”
About the Author of Colossians
In the first verse of the letter to the church in Colossae, it says, ”Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother (NIV).”
”Colossians, of course, claims to have been written by the apostle Paul (1:1), and this claim is fleshed out with considerable personal and circumstantial detail. The author speaks at length of his special ministry as a ”servant” of the gospel (1:23), a representative of Christ in his suffering (1:24), and a steward of the ”mystery” revealed in the last days (1:25–26). He requests prayer that he might be able to continue, even in prison, to proclaim Christ boldly (4:3–4). Timothy is his ”brother” (1:1), he names six other men, with some degree of circumstantial detail, as his ministry associates (4:7–15), and he urges one man to ”complete” his work (4:17). He mentions that he ”contends” for Christians in both Colossae and the neighboring Laodicea, even though he has never met them personally (2:1). He is sending a letter to Laodicea that he wants the Colossians to read after they have, in turn, shared their letter with the Laodiceans (4:16). And he concludes the letter by saying ”I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand” (4:18).”
About the Audience and Background
The city was mixed in population. The natives in Colossae were known as Phrygians.
”Because of the military and commercial heritage of the valley, however, Greeks may have settled in the area during the Greek period of dominance. To this were added Jews of the Diaspora, Romans involved in politics, and various ethnic groups drawn by commercial interests. The exact population mixture of Colossae during this time is unknown. From the epistle, both Jews and Gentiles lived there and became part of the church.”
In addition to the city itself, the Church also has obscure origins. We do know that some from this area were in Jerusalem and part of what happened at Pentecost (acts 2:10). Scholars generally agree that Epaphras, however, was the one who founded the church. Epaphras may have acquired knowledge from Paul during his time at the school in Ephesus, where Paul taught for two years at Tyrannus (see Acts 19:9-10). The letter suggests that Paul did not personally visit the town, as he seemed to focus on larger cities. On the other hand, Epaphras played a crucial role in establishing the Christian community in Colossea. Epaphras relayed the message of Christ from Paul to the people of Colossea, and later updated Paul on the establishment of the new church in Colosse. (1:7–8).
”Each town would have one or more synagogues, and it has been calculated that around this period the adult male Jewish population in the neighbouring area of Laodicea was about eleven thousand. (Rome at this time had between forty and fifty thousand Jews, out of a total population of around a million, excluding slaves.) We know from a variety of sources that Judaism, in one form or another, was attractive to many pagans weary of the confused, often amoral religion of their own background, and it is likely that Christianity would make a similar impression on pagan hearers. It would therefore be easy (as we know from Galatians) for young converts to Christianity to become muddled, and to imagine that, having become Christians, they must complete the process by becoming Jews. It is this tendency that Paul is resolutely opposing in, for instance, Galatians, and in Philippians 3. It is my contention that a similar danger was the reason for the writing of Colossians, at least chapter 2. But this is a controversial claim, and must be advanced in various stages.”
Why did Paul write this letter?
Experts assert that Colossians was composed with the intention of cautioning the fledgling church about an approaching danger. It appears that deceitful teachers propagated false doctrines and practices undermining the exclusive authority of Christ as the Lord, while promoting a variety of dubious mystical and ascetic religious customs. Some people think that the teachers could be a group of pagans, an exclusive form of Judaism, an early form of Gnosticism, but the truth is we really just don’t know.
“Recently, people have tried to find links between the Colossian heresy and the teachings of the Pythagorean philosophy. There are clear Jewish parts in what Paul is against, but there are also many things that look more pagan than Jewish, like worshiping angels and strict practices that don’t believe in the importance of the natural world. So far, no other mixed-faith group has been found that has exactly these many Jewish and pagan beliefs. The challenge is to come up with a theory that can explain both the big picture and the specifics of Colossians’ polemic, as well as the song in 1:15–20 and the moral advice in chapter 3.”
When and where did Paul write it?
”These letters may have been written from the same prison at about the same time, as the strong ties between Colossians and Ephesians support this. However, Philippians does not bear the same Opus number. To tie down Colossians and Philemon, at least three possible periods of imprisonment are found: those in Ephesus (inferred from 2 Cor. 1:8; 1 Cor. 15:32), Caesarea (Acts 24:27) and Rome (Acts 28:16ff.). It is possible that there were periods of imprisonment other than those recorded in Acts, as mentioned in 2 Cor. 6:5 and 11:23. The text also discusses the special relationship between the letter and Ephesians.”
The letter was probably written during the early 60s A.D. from prison.
