The Jewish Annotated New Testament (103 page)

THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS

NAME, AUTHORSHIP, AND CANONICAL STATUS

While Colossians presents itself as a letter of Paul (1.1,23; 4.8), much critical scholarship concludes that the letter is written at least one generation after Paul by one of his followers and is thus “Deutero-Pauline,” the sort of fictive authorship that Paul himself refers to in 2 Thess 2.2, “letter, as though from us.” The author of Colossians sets the letter against the backdrop of Philippians and Philemon, and constructs yet another “captivity letter,” written by Paul from prison (but cf. 4.3n.,10n.).

Scholars suggest that Colossians is inauthentic to Paul on several counts. While its author knows Paul’s distinctive theological vocabulary (e.g. “principalities and powers,” “love” [agapē], “justification,” “body of Christ”), he puts this vocabulary in service to a Christology and eschatology distinct from that of Paul’s authentic letters. The authentic epistles speak of “justification” and “sanctification” in the present (see Rom 6.4–5) but reserve “salvation” for the future; for Colossians, salvation is a present reality (3.1–4), and justification has no place at all. A stronger argument against the authenticity of Colossians lies in its inclusion (3.22–4.1)— the earliest in the New Testament—of the hierarchical description of household relations called, since Martin Luther, “Haustafeln,” or “household codes.” In his authentic letters, Paul’s description of marital relationships is remarkably nonhierarchical (cf. 1 Cor 7.1–4, where husbands and wives each serve the other); he was an antagonist to the kind of marital hierarchy promulgated in the household codes of both Deutero-Pauline letters, the pastoral letter Titus, and 1 Peter, all products of the second or third generation of New Testament writers. Such codes (also found in Eph 6.5–9; 1 Tim 6.1–2; and 1 Pet 2.18–21), are likely the products of the second or third generation of New Testament writers, aware that the second coming of Jesus is not likely to occur in the near future, and needing to provide guidelines on how his followers should live. Colossians also shares multiple phrases with Ephesians, another Deutero-Pauline letter (see “Colossians and Ephesians: Parallels,” p.
365
). If Paul did write the letter, he wrote under circumstances that forced him to adopt theological and social ideas strongly at variance with those we find in letters we know to be authentic.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT, LITERARY HISTORY

The author writes to the church in Colossae, east of Ephesus and near Laodicea and Hierapolis, a church he claims to have been founded by Epaphras (Col 1.7; 4.12) a claim perhaps based on Paul’s mention of this fellow apostle in Philem 23. The author has never visited Colossae (1.4; 2.1) but rather responds to new teachings there regarding both belief and practice. The theologians of this young church have placed the Christ (“the Anointed One”) on the same level as angels (2.18), the “elemental spirits of the universe” (2.8), and “rulers and authorities” (2.15), and have insisted on particular practices regarding food and drink, asceticism, and Sabbath and new moon observances (2.16,20–23). The search for a single set of thinkers who promoted both ascetic practices and the rituals surrounding the Jewish calendar has prompted a great deal of speculation regarding Jewish sectarian groups such as the Essenes, but it is also possible that these diverse ideas represent two competing groups (cf. 2.18n.).

To the challenges of these Colossian thinkers, the author offers a new and important Christology: the Christ’s preeminent, cosmic role. Borrowing the most famous ecclesiological metaphor from Paul, the church as the body of Christ (1 Cor 12.27), the author insists that the Christ is the head of the church (1.18), with the members comprising his body. As in the Platonic thought-world of another post-Pauline letter, Hebrews, the author belittles his opponents’ favorite ritual observances as “shadows” whereas the Christ is what is real (2.17; cf. Heb. 8.5; 10.1). The Christological hymn in 1.15–20, which sounds some of the same themes as the hymns in Jn 1.1–18 and Phil 2.6–11, praises the Christ’s preeminence, role in creation, and the role of his death in reconciling God and humankind. This preeminence relieves believers of the need to placate spirits (2.15) or to engage in asceticism or any ritual practices other than baptism. The letter imitates 1 Corinthians in urging its readers to put aside the sinfulness of their pre-baptismal lives and devote themselves to virtue (3.1–17).

GUIDE TO READING

Comparing this letter with an authentic Pauline epistle on the subject of Jewish ritual is instructive. When Paul wrote Galatians, whether Gentile believers needed to observe distinctive Jewish rituals (especially circumcision, but also dietary regulations, purity codes, and Sabbath observance) was subject to debate in the churches; Paul himself considers Jews to be obliged to observe the Torah (cf. Gal 5.3) but insists that Gentile believers are not to become Jews and are not to follow practices that mark Jews as distinct. In Colossians, the author takes church members’ interest in observing such rituals as antagonistic to the rule of the Christ; he has moved beyond the point where Jewish observance is an option for anyone within the churches. In Galatians, as in most of his authentic letters, Paul can argue from scripture to illustrate his points, and so connects even his Gentile readers with what he considers to be their biblical past. Not so in Colossians: Its few references to the Tanakh are echoes, not quotations. The letter is a window on a period in the history of Christianity when church leaders turned away from Judaism, even while some church members continued to find Jewish practice meaningful.

Peter Zaas

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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
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To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters
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in Christ in Colossae:

   Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

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In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,
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because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel
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that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.
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This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant.
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He is a faithful minister of Christ on your
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behalf,
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and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

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For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s
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will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
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so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.
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May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully
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giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled
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you
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to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.
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He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,
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in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
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COLOSSIANS AND EPHESIANS: PARALLELS

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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
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for in
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him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.
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He himself is before all things, and in
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him all things hold together.
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He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
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For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
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and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

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And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
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he has now reconciled
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in his fleshly body
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through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—
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provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

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I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.
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I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
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the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.
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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.
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It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
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For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.

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For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face.
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I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself,
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in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
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I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments.
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For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.