All the Fullness of God

The Christ of Colossians

Thurston

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781532615405
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Studi biblici

All the Fullness of God: The Christ of Colossians focuses on the Christology of Colossians and its implications by examining the canonical text and answering the questions: What was the author's purpose in writing the letter? What is the letter's primary concern? How do its contents reflect or deviate from Paul's thought in his uncontested letters? The author of Colossians is favorably disposed toward the letter's recipients who have received the gospel from Epaphras, but now encounter alternative teachings. The author finds that church's Christology inadequate and writes to expand their understanding of the meaning of baptism into Jesus Christ and its implications. This study introduces Greco-Roman letter and literary forms; the geography, history, and demographics of Colossae; and provides excurses on several scholarly matters. It is comprised of five chapters (Part I) which set forth the argument and explain the text in its historical context, followed by nine reflections (Part II) which place each text in its context, then elucidate the meaning and application of the passage for contemporary readers.

Part One

1

“The Word of Truth, the Gospel”

Paul and the Church at Colossae

(1:1–12; 1:24—2:5; 2:8, 16, 18; 4:3)

Introduction

Unless you are a nerdy New Testament scholar, the letter to the Colossians is not highly likely to be in the center of your spiritual consciousness. And that’s too bad because the letter focuses on issues that are of perennial importance to Christians. All the central ideas in Colossians revolve around Jesus Christ: the meaning of Christ in an individual believer’s life, in the whole creation or the cosmos itself, and on the relationship of Christian believers to other religious practices, to what in theological circles is called “dual belonging,” what is disparagingly described as syncretism.

In the interest of full disclosure, and as a nerdy New Testament scholar, I have to confess I love the Colossian letter and, happily, have had the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with it over the last twelve years or so, including doing a full translation of the epistle. Here’s why I like it so much: without ever denigrating a personal relationship with Jesus, the Colossian letter throws open the doors and windows to show us just how far reaching are the implications of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The passion and resurrection of Jesus include, but mean so much more than, “personal salvation.” Colossians shows us the cosmic Christ, the Christ who is too big to be contained by human documents and dogmas, the Christ who indwells everything, who made it all and keeps it all in being. That’s the Jesus Christ I hope you glimpse in these essays on Colossians and experience in your daily life.

The whole theological shooting match (which, unfortunately it often is) aside, in the context of Pauline studies Colossians is a fascinating letter in its own right. Here is how James Dunn opens his 1996 commentary on Colossians: “Colossians could fairly be described as the most intriguing of the Pauline letters. This is primarily because it serves as a bridge between the undisputed Paulines and those members of the Pauline corpus generally considered post-Pauline.” He continues, “Colossians shows us how Pauline thought developed, whether in the late phase of his own career or . . . among his close disciples after his death.”1

Dunn reminds us that Colossians is a bridge, or I would say a “hinge” in Pauline studies; it holds together the seven letters that are generally assumed to be written by Paul (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon) and those whose authorship scholars debate (Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus). Colossians “bridges” them in that, along with Ephesians (which seems literarily to depend upon it; Eduard Lohse wrote that “Ephesians reads like the first commentary on Colossians”),2 reputable scholars are almost equally divided about whether Colossians was written by Paul near the end of his life or by a close associate or associates very soon after his death. For example, Mary Rose D’Angelo argues that it was the first step in the creation of a Pauline “school” and provided the format for the various warnings in 1 Timothy.3

The question of Colossians’ authorship introduces the major scholarly centers of attention in the letter. The interrelated matters of authorship, the literary relationship between Colossians and Ephesians, the introduction of new literary forms, the identity of the so-called “opponents,” and the presence in the letter of new theological trajectories have been of particular interest to scholars. Work on several of these subjects has involved historical speculation and the introduction of ideas not explicitly evident in the text of the letter itself. Those of us who have worked seriously on the letter have, of necessity, spent a lot of time with extra-textual matters.

Bear with me for just a minute. During my work on Colossians I was asked to review Christopher Seitz’s commentary on Colossians in the Brazos Theological Commentary series for The Catholic Biblical Quarterly. It’s a series that focuses on the theological relevance of biblical books and believes that Christian doctrine does not distort but clarify their interpretation. The series’ general editor notes: “The central premise in this commentary series is that doctrine provides structure and cogency to scriptural interpretation.”4 In his introduction to Colossians, Seitz (who, interestingly, is an Old Testament/Hebrew Bible scholar) presents his general operating presuppositions. Two are relevant to this book. First, “the Bible exists in relationship to a community” and that community in history determines the questions that might appear a book.5 Second, “the canonical presentation has its own kind of significance.”6 That is, the canonical text as we have it significantly affects what we can know of the author’s intended meaning and places limits on our interpretation. These two ideas have affected how I’ll present Colossians.

In thinking about how to acquaint you with the wonderful, but complex and much argued over book of Colossians, I wondered what would happen if I ignored, or at least downplayed the traditional questions of authorship and the identity of opponents and so forth. What if we ignored the speculative questions and dealt instead primarily with the canonical text as we have it? What would the text itself reveal about those first-century Christians? And how would that inform our own understanding of what it means to be a Christian? What I’m proposing to do in this study of Colossians is to deal with the text as text, to unpack some (but not nearly all!) of what it tells us. To do that responsibly it seems to me we need to know about the setting of the letter (about the town of Colossae, and here, of course, we have to use sources outside the text), the reason why the letter was written (which is explicit in the text), and something of its structure, which we can discern by examining it carefully. That comprises chapter one. Then we will look at other features in the letter: its christology or focus on Jesus (chapter two) and its parenesis or practical advice (chapter three). Then using a People magazine or National Inquirer “inquiring minds want to know” approach, we’ll see what we can learn about associates of the writer mentioned in the letter (chapter four), and, finally, we’ll be in a position to consider the spiritual meaning of Colossians for today.

The Setting of Colossians

The Ancient City: Geography

As I was thinking about Colossae at the time of the writing of the letter it struck me that it is rather like Wheeling, West Virginia, near where I live, or any other of a number of small cities in the American “rust belt.” Colossae had been a more bustling and thriving place before than it was when the letter was composed, sometime in the late second half of the first century (if one holds Pauline authorship) or perhaps even very early in the second century (if one thinks Colossians is pseudonymous).

Colossae was in the southern part of ancient Phrygia in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) on the south bank of the Lycus River. It was ca. 110 miles east of Ephesus and 10 miles east of Laodicea on the main trade route from Ephesus to the Euphrates river. It is mentioned by ancient historians (Herodotus, Xenophon, Pliny, Strabo, Cicero) in connection with its location and trade, and in connection with the armies of Xerxes and Cyrus of Persia. Herodotus tells how Xerxes’ army was stopped in its march on Greece (fifth century BC) and calls Colossae a “great city.” A century later Xenophon described it as “a populous city, both wealthy and large.” Figs and olives were grown in the fertile valley that supported sheep whose wool was woven and dyed to a red wool known as “colossinum.” Strabo groups it with Aphrodisias as a major city.

The Ancient City: Demographics and Religions

It is significant that the cities of the Lycus valley had substantial Jewish minorities. Philo says Jews were very numerous in every city in Asia Minor.”7 Cicero notes there were 11,000 Jewish males there.8 Josephus’9 records that Antiochus III brought in several thousand Jews from Mesopotamia and Babylon in the second century BC.10 Luke records that residents of Asia and Phrygia were in the crowd in Jerusalem on Pentecost (Acts. 2:9–10), and Laodicea is one of the cities mentioned in the Revelation to John. (Rev 3:14–22).

Colossians was nothing if not cosmopolitan. Evidence suggests that in Colossae the cult of Cybele, worship of Isis, and Mithraism (which appears wherever there is a Roman army presence) were practiced. Numismatic evidence points to worship of Ephesian Artemis (whose great temple was in nearby Ephesus), Laodicean Zeus, and other Greek deities as well as Egyptian Isis and Serapis.11And there were certainly Jews there who, like Paul, had become followers of Jesus. All of this led to a general atmosphere of syncretism, the blending of religious traditions, that the central part of the letter addresses.

By Roman times, however, Colossae was much diminished in size and importance. This was in part due to the fact that nearby Laodicea became the seat of Roman administration, and Hieropolis became known for its healing waters. There was a devastating earthquake in the Lycus Valley in AD 60 or 61 (near the time of Paul’s death), which probably further led to the decline of Colossae. Oddly to my mind, the site has never been excavated by archaeologists, so it is hard to guess what the exact population was or what buildings of the city might have been like except from careful examination of written sources several of which, of course, occur in our New Testament.

The Founding of the Church

The background of the Christian community in Colossae is found in Acts 19 and records of communities that Paul founded in Asia Minor during the time of his Ephesian ministry (about AD 52 to 55). Though we have no direct witness to this effect, Christians who belonged to those communities probably brought the Good News to Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis (Col 2:1; 4:13, 15). Paul was not personally involved in missionary work in the area. The British New Testament scholar, Lightfoot, suggested that Colossae was the least important church to which an epistle of Paul was addressed.12

It is clear from the text of the letter that Epaphras brought the Gospel to Colossae (1:7–8; 4:12–13). Both Col 4:12 and Phlm 23 (“Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus . . .”) seem to suggest that he was with the writer of the letter. The text of the letter indicates that the early Christian community in Colossae was very diverse. There are frequent allusions to the “formerly estranged” (1:21), which I take to be a reference to the estrangement between Jews and Gentiles. Some Colossian Christians were “dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh” (2:13), a clear reference to Gentiles who, we will see, had a fair number of things to learn to “put away” or avoid (3:5, 8). So the churches there included former Gentiles (probably of a variety of religious affiliations, what we now call “multiple belonging”), Jews, and perhaps syncretistic Jews. The Colossian letter challenges all these groups with regard to understanding the full implications of their (relatively new) faith in Jesus the Christ.

The Occasion of the Letter

This brings us to the matter of the occasion of the letter. Why was it written? James Dunn provides an exact summary: “to counteract teaching that might become or already was either attractive or threatening to the baptized in Colossae, particularly with regard to their appreciation of the full significance of Christ.”13 I remind you that the presence of i...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Part One
• Part Two
• Endnotes
• Bibliography