Colossians

A Commentary

Jerry L. Sumney

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781611644913
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

The letter to the Colossians offers great insight into the faith, life, and problems of an early Christian church. Understanding this letter to be one of Paul's prison epistles but aware of the differences between this and his other writings, Jerry Sumney shows how the church struggled with expressing its new faith in the diverse settings of the Greco-Roman world. Paying special attention to the ways of forgiveness and salvation through the power of Christ, this fine commentary shows Colossians' expansive Christology and expectant eschatology.

The New Testament Library offers authoritative commentary on every book and major aspect of the New Testament, as well as classic volumes of scholarship. The commentaries in this series provide fresh translations based on the best available ancient manuscripts, offer critical portrayals of the historical world in which the books were created, pay careful attention to their literary design, and present a theologically perceptive exposition of the text.

COMMENTARY

COLOSSIANS 1:1–2

Epistolary Greeting

The greetings of the Pauline Letters follow the standard form found in other Hellenistic letters. The Pauline greetings also often reflect the situation the letter addresses. Such flexibility is not unusual for the greeting of a Hellenistic letter. Writers enlarged or shortened the greeting to meet the need of the moment. Paul sometimes expands his greetings to emphasize some aspect of his identity or relationship with the recipients (e.g., his apostolic authority [Gal 1:1–5] or his close personal relationship with the recipients [Phlm 1–2]). The greeting of Colossians indicates that “Paul” is exercising his apostolic commission in the writing of this letter. In a pseudonymous letter, using the designation “apostle” establishes the letter’s authority for the readers who now receive it. Since the church receives the letter in the context of worship, perhaps the greeting also invokes, or assures the recipients of, the presence of God among them (see Schweizer 27).

1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, the brother, 2 to the holy^a and faithful brothers and sisters^b in Christ^c who are in Colossae; grace and peace from God our Father be with you.^d

a. This phrase might be rendered “to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters.” However, the single article tois seems to govern both hagiois and pistois.

b. The Greek text has only “brothers” (adelphois), but the writer clearly means all members of the congregation.

c. Codex A, the original hand of D, and some later manuscripts add Iēsou here, but the preponderance of manuscript evidence is with the shorter reading. The reading in the text is also to be preferred because it is the shorter reading, and it is more likely that a copyist added “Jesus” than that it was dropped from the text.

d. A number of manuscripts, including

, A, and C, add after hēmōn (“our”) the phrase kai kyriou Iēsou christou (“and the Lord Jesus Christ”). This assimilates Colossians to the more-common greeting in the Pauline Letters. Some form of the expression “and the Lord Jesus Christ” is found in every other letter in the Pauline corpus. So the temptation for a copyist to insert it, either accidentally or intentionally, would have been great. That it dropped out seems much less likely, especially since the reading without the addition is also widely known (it is in B, D [among others], and many early translations).

[1:1] This greeting begins with Paul establishing his apostolic credentials by noting both whose apostle he is (Christ Jesus’) and how he came to be one (by God’s will). With this brief phrase, Colossians both establishes Paul’s authority and places him under the will of God. This combination signals that Paul holds this position only because of the gracious act of God on his behalf. Indeed, for Paul, a person can only become an apostle if God commissions him or her directly (see 1 Cor 15:8–10). So apostleship is a gift from God, one of the gifts that contributes to the building up of the church (cf. 1 Cor 12:28–30; also Eph 4:11–12). The presence of this title does not indicate that Paul’s authority or claim to be an apostle is under attack. Rather, its use points to the official character of the letter and establishes its authority. This assertion of authority would be necessary whether Paul himself is writing to the Colossians, whom he has never visited,¹ or whether another has appropriated Paul’s name to claim his authority for the matters to be discussed.²

Readers who do not know Paul might take offense at this only slightly veiled assertion of authority. If so, attributing his apostleship to the will of God not only secures its validity but also makes his claim more acceptable. When Plutarch gives advice on how to avoid resentment when praising oneself, he recommends attributing one’s success to the will of the gods (On Inoffensive Self-Prase, in Mor. 542). Naming God as the source and reason for Paul’s apostleship, then, lessens the offense of asserting apostolic authority even as it indicates that he has God’s approval.

In contrast to the claim of office made for Paul, Timothy is simply “the brother.” Since the Colossians themselves are called “brothers” in the next verse, “brother” does not designate any official position or role (contra Barth and Blanke 138–39), as “fellow worker” (Col 4:11; Rom 16:21) and “fellow servant” (Col 1:7) do later in the letter. In the undisputed letters, Paul refers to Timothy in the greetings of 2 Corinthians and Philemon as simply “the brother” (in 1 Corinthians Paul refers to Sosthenes in the same way). This characterization of Timothy in relation to Paul perhaps places him on a more equal footing with Paul than do the Pastorals, where Timothy is called Paul’s child (1 Tim 1:2, 18; 2 Tim 1:2; 2:1). Calling Timothy “brother” clearly identifies him with the letter’s recipients, to whom the writer immediately ascribes the same designation. This commonality with Timothy helps to strengthen the relationship between Paul and the recipients, whom the writer grants the same status as the known associate and companion of the apostle.

[2] As discussed in the introduction, this letter addresses (at least, purportedly) the Christian community in a rather small and insignificant city. Colossians, however, envisions a broader audience than just the churches of Colossae because the writer instructs these readers to forward the letter to the nearby town of Laodicea (4:16). Still, Colossians is a letter, not a theological treatise. This letter clearly addresses the situation the author understands the readers to be facing.³

The writer first describes the letter’s recipients as hagiois. This term could be construed as a noun, in which case the author begins by calling them “saints.” Use of hagios in Pauline greetings favors this view: every other time this word appears in a Pauline greeting, it is the substantive. However, the writer of Colossians appends a second title, “faithful brothers.” The grammatical construction in Colossians is distinctive because a single definite article (“the”) governs both hagiois and pistois (faithful), as well as the noun “brothers.” In this construction, hagiois and pistois serve better as adjectives modifying the noun “brothers.” Thus the translation would be: “holy and faithful brothers [and sisters].” Whether the author intends to call them “saints and faithful brothers [and sisters]” or “holy and faithful brothers [and sisters],” this beginning assigns to the readers laudable attributes that he hopes to reinforce by writing this letter.

Calling the recipients “holy” draws upon several nuances of the word as it is used in the Bible and in the early church.⁴ Throughout the Old Testament, Israel is holy because God has chosen or elected them (e.g., Exod 19:6; Lev 11:44; 1 Sam 2:2; 2 Chr 8:11; 31:18; Jer 2:3). Those texts voice two primary meanings for holiness: separateness or distinctiveness and possessing a moral character. As God’s chosen people, the Israelites must separate themselves from the profane to maintain their relationship with God. As they reflect God’s distinctiveness in that relationship, they must also reflect God’s moral character and so live holy lives. Thus Israel could not divorce its election from the requirement to be holy, in both senses. Similarly, the church as elected by God cannot separate its election from moral behavior, as Colossians’ later use of “holy” in its instructions for living indicates (3:12).

When the writer calls the readers “faithful,” as well as “holy,” it is surely hortatory as well as descriptive (just as it was when he called them “holy”); that is, he calls them to be faithful even as he asserts that they are. By designating them as “faithful,” he does more than acknowledge that they have put their trust in Christ; he also encourages them to remain faithful to the gospel they have received. In the face of new and defective teaching, such encouragement is especially appropriate for a letter that aims to secure the readers’ steadfastness to the gospel that they have already received.⁵

The writer does not call the Colossians a “church” but instead addresses them as “brothers [and sisters].” Paul does not call the recipients of a letter “brothers” in any greeting among the undisputed letters (Hübner 43). Neither, however, does Paul always refer to those addressed as the “church.” The greetings of neither Romans nor Philippians include the term ekklēsia (church), though Paul does call the members of those communities “saints.” Thus, the absence of the term ekklēsia may have no significance, especially if the letter is pseudonymous, in which case we should expect changes from the Pauline pattern (even if unintentional). While the absence of “church” could be more than just an accident (contra Meyer 209), the writer probably does not intend to begin the letter with a polemical accent by dividing the church into the faithful believers and those listening to the false teachers (contra Lindemann 17). Still, no other letter in the Pauline corpus uses the term “brothers” as an address of the recipients. Perhaps the writer has Paul use the more personal address “brothers” because Paul does not know them personally, and thus the writer seeks to establish a connection with them (so Abbott 193). More important, this address calls the readers to recognize that as members of the Christ-confessing community, they are bound together in a fundamental relationship expressed with this familial language (so Aletti 46). This is no small thing; they are “brothers,” just as is Timothy. So they have a close and personal relationship with an apostle and those who are near him. Furthermore, use of this familial language entails significant expectations about the ways they relate to one another.

The intimate, familial relationship shared among the recipients and with “Paul” is grounded “in Christ.” This phrase bases these relationships on the saving work of God in Christ. It also designates the sphere in which believers live; they reside in the realm governed by Christ. Throughout the entire letter, the writer will develop the significance of this assertion. Much of the reason he writes involves defining what it means to be “in Christ.”

The concluding benediction of Pauline greetings is an adaptation of the common greeting in Hellenistic letters and some Jewish letters. In Hellenistic letters, the greeting often closes with chairein, “Greetings.” The Pauline formula uses charis (grace), a change of only a few letters but an important change in thought worlds. This change specifically invokes the grace of God as a blessing and so puts the readers in a new context, a context determined by the grace that comes through Christ. In place of the common wish for health following chairein, the Pauline greetings employ “peace.” Such language also appears in some Jewish letters of the era;⁶ the idea of peace found in the Old Testament therefore probably lies behind its use in the Pauline Letters. This peace was not just psychological well-being; it also signals a relationship with God that includes personal wholeness, a social dimension, and a commitment to living a moral life (O’Brien 5–6). Such meanings are mostly implicit here because this is a stereotypical formula (similar to our “God bless you”; see Bratcher and Nida, 1977, 5).

All of the Pauline Letters except 1 Thessalonians and Colossians name “God our [or the] Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” as the source of the grace and peace mentioned in the benediction. First Thessalonians mentions neither the “Father” nor “Christ” but has simply “Grace and peace.” The Pastorals change the standard form found in other Pauline Letters but still indicate that the blessings come from the “Father” and “Christ.” Colossians alone has these blessings come from only “God our Father.” Perhaps the author does not mention Christ for a third time in this greeting because the phrase that immediately precedes the benediction ends with a reference to Christ.⁷ This omission implies no diminution of Christ; the poetic material in 1:15–20 will shortly supply an exalted Christology. The omission of Christ in this formula does, however, cast serious doubt on the thesis that the main issue of Colossians centers on Christology: in that case the author would hardly have lessened Christ’s role in the community’s experience of God by failing to mention him in this part of the letter’s greeting.

The greeting, then, serves several purposes. First, it establishes Paul’s position as an apostle, an apostle whose commission comes from God. This commission puts Paul in a good position from which to address the recipients’ questions and problems. The greeting also attributes a rather high status to the implied readers: they are holy and faithful. These complimentary designations describe the readers and also call them to live up to those characteristics. In addition to these descriptions, the greeting identifies them as siblings and thus reminds them that they share an intimate connection with one another that is grounded in Christ. Perhaps this begins to hint that they should be of a single mind on the matters causing the problems that the letter addresses. The attribution of all these identities prepares the (implied and actual) readers to receive the letter’s content more favorably.

COLOSSIANS 1:3–23

Introductory Thanksgiving and Prayer

After the greeting, Colossians moves into a period of thanksgiving such as we usually find in Pauline Letters.⁸ These periods of thanksgiving and prayer are ordinarily fairly short (among the undisputed letters they average just less than 125 words in length with none being more than 195 words) and distinct. In nearly all the letters in the Pauline corpus the writer signals the beginning of the section that follows the thanksgiving with either a disclosure formula (e.g., 2 Cor 1:8 RSV [“We do not want you to be unaware”]; also Rom 1:16; Phil 1:12; 1 Thess 2:1; 2 Tim 1:15) or an exhortation (e.g., 1 Cor 1:10 NRSV [“Now I appeal to you”]; also 2 Thess 2:1; Phlm 8). These formulas help the reader identify the transition to the body of the letter. No such transition marker appears in Colossians. The introductory thanksgiving/prayer of Colossians is much longer than in other Pauline Letters, extending through 1:23. The last phrase of 1:23 changes from the preceding second-person plural (you) to first-person singular (I). This first-person perspective continues as a new sentence and paragraph begin in 1:24. The passage beginning in 1:24 interprets the suffering of Paul as something that brings benefits to the readers. This thought is clearly distinct from the thanksgiving and thus marks the beginning of a new thought unit. Though there is some justification for ending the thanksgiving at either 1:11 or 1:14, it is preferable to extend this opening section through 1:23. The flow of thought and web of connections throughout this section indicate that the whole of 1:3–23 is a unified prayer of thanksgiving and intercession that introduces the major themes of the letter.⁹

As has long been recognized, the thanksgivings in Paul’s Letters “telegraph” the themes that he will develop in the rest of the letter. The thanksgiving prayer of Colossians serves much the same function. In the language of rhetorical criticism, Col 1:3–23 is the exordium, a passage that introduces the audience to the subject and begins leading them to a favorable disposition toward the speaker (or in this case the writer). The most prominent theme in 1:3–23 is that Christians can be certain that they have a secure relationship with God and that they already possess God’s blessings because they are in Christ.

This long introductory prayer may be subdivided into five interrelated parts: 1:3–8, 9–11b, 11c–14, 15–20, and 21–23. Verses 3–8 contain the initial thanksgiving. The prayer continues with intercession in vv. 9–11(b). Verses 11c-14 serve both as an initial conclusion for vv. 3–11b and as the introduction to the poetic material in vv. 15–20. Standing in this central place in the opening of the letter, vv. 11c-14 introduce themes that will be furth...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Bibliography
• Introduction
• Commentary
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Index of Authors
• Index of Subjects