Introduction
The city of Colossae and the founding of the church in Colossae
The place and time of writing the epistle
The occasion and purpose of writing the epistle
Regarding the authenticity of the epistle
The division and contents of the epistle
Literature on the subject
The city of Colossae and the founding of the church in Colossae
In the Asiatic region of Phrygia, in the valley of the river Lycus, in the time of the Apostle Paul, there was a fairly large city called Colossae. In subsequent times the name of this city disappeared from history and a new small city called Chonae appeared in its place, where in the 8th century a well-known miracle of the Archangel Michael took place. It was a wealthy city and stood on the road leading from the depths of Asia to Ephesus, which represented a religious center of Asia Minor.
It is unknown when the first seeds of Christianity were brought to Colossae. Perhaps those from Phrygia who came to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and were witnesses of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other believers, Jewish proselytes, made the Colossians acquainted with the Gospel of Christ. But the church from the Gentiles of Colossae (Col 2:13) was founded by one of the disciples of the Apostle Paul — Paul himself was not in Colossae (Col 1:6) — Epaphras, who was a Colossian citizen (Col 1:7). When the Apostle wrote his epistle to the Colossian church, it was already firmly established and consequently had existed for more than a year.
The place and time of writing the epistle
The epistle to the Colossians was written by the Apostle from his Roman imprisonment (Col 4:3), specifically from his first imprisonment (from the spring of the year 62 to the spring of the year 64). This is shown by the fact that the Apostle, according to the account in the epistle to the Colossians (Col 4:7-14), enjoyed considerable privileges in his imprisonment and was able to receive various visitors, and this precisely corresponds with the account of the Apostle’s first imprisonment in the book of Acts (Acts 28:16-31). Furthermore, in the epistle to Philemon, written at the same time as the epistle to the Colossians, the Apostle expresses the hope to visit Colossae in the event of being released from imprisonment. Meanwhile, while being in Caesarean imprisonment, the Apostle himself demanded trial before Caesar (Acts 25:10-12). It is clear that he could not there, in Caesarea, dream of the possibility of visiting Colossae: his case had to be decided only in Rome and only in Rome could he express hope for release.
The occasion and purpose of writing the epistle
The founder of the Colossian church, Epaphras, came to the Apostle Paul in Rome in order to request advice from the Apostle concerning a false teaching that threatened the Colossian church. This false teaching could have led the Colossian Christians astray. — What this false teaching was is described at the conclusion of the commentary on the second chapter of our epistle. The Apostle could not calmly accept the danger threatening that church which had been founded by his disciple. Besides, Epaphras undoubtedly informed him of certain shortcomings in the moral life of the Colossian Christians, and these two circumstances served as the occasion for the Apostle to address the Colossians with an epistle. The purpose of the epistle was, naturally, to put an end to the abnormal phenomena in the life of the Colossian church and to warn the believers against being led astray by the new false teaching.
Regarding the authenticity of the epistle
Church tradition uniformly recognizes this epistle as a genuine work of the Apostle Paul. The Apostolic Fathers cite certain passages from this epistle, and Clement of Alexandria directly states that the epistle to the Colossians is the work of the Apostle (Paul). Only in the 19th century did doubts about the authenticity of this epistle begin to be expressed, but, strictly speaking, all these doubts have no serious foundation. The main thing pointed out by biblical critical studies is the extremely exalted ideas expressed in this epistle concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the details about the spiritual realm and the relation of Christ to this realm. In other epistles, — the critics say, — which undoubtedly belong to the Apostle Paul, we do not find such Christological details, and there the Apostle supposedly does not go beyond the conception of Christ as a heavenly man, the second Adam. Furthermore, they point out certain peculiar words and expressions in the epistle to the Colossians which do not appear in the undoubtedly genuine works of the Apostle Paul.
As for the difference in language in the first place, it cannot speak against the authenticity of our epistle. After all, even in the undoubtedly genuine epistles of Paul the language is often different — one in one epistle, another in another (compare for example 1 and 2 Corinthians). In the content of the epistle also nothing is found that would contradict the undoubtedly genuine epistles of the Apostle Paul. First of all, it is completely untrue that in the undoubtedly genuine works of the Apostle Paul there is no teaching about Christ as God. It suffices only to recall what the Apostle says about Christ in the epistle to the Romans (Rom 9:4) or in 1 Corinthians (1 Cor 8:4-6) and other places. And then, secondly, in the undoubtedly genuine epistles of Paul there are places where it speaks of the relation of Christ to the spiritual realm (see Rom 8:38-39, 1 Cor 15:24-28). The other considerations of the critics are too subjective to merit discussion. Only one thing perhaps deserves refutation — the reference of the critics to the fact that the epistle to the Colossians, in places, repeats the epistle to the Ephesians. Namely, they say that the epistle to the Colossians represents an abridgment of the epistle to the Ephesians, made by some disciple of Paul. But this circumstance need not disturb us either. First of all, the expressions that appear similar in both epistles when examined more closely prove to have their own special nuances in thought (compare for example Col 1 and Eph 1 or Col 1 and Eph 2 etc.), and secondly, the undoubtedly similar passages in the 3rd and 4th chapters are explained by the fact that both epistles arose under the same conditions. Both epistles were written by the Apostle almost at the same time (the epistle to the Ephesians — earlier), transmitted through the same person, and were intended for neighboring churches (the epistle to the Ephesians, being a sobornic epistle, was also read in churches neighboring the Colossian church).
The division and contents of the epistle
The epistle to the Colossians can be conveniently divided into two parts — the doctrinal-polemical or theological (Col 1:3-2:23) and the moral-instructive (Col 3:1-4:6), with a preface (Col 1:1-3) and a conclusion (Col 4:7-18). A detailed review of the contents by chapters is given in the commentary itself on the epistle.
Literature on the subject
Among the patristic commentaries on the epistle to the Colossians, first and foremost must be mentioned the homilies of St. John Chrysostom, the commentaries of the Blessed Theodoret and Theophylact. Then there is the explanation of Ecumenius, Ambrosiaster and others. Among Russian commentaries the most substantial and extensive are the works of Bishop Theophanes (commentary on the epistles of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon) and J. Mukhin. Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Colossians. An attempt at isagogical-exegetical research. Kiev 1897 p. 276. Among recent foreign works on this epistle the most outstanding are — Meyer. Epistles from captivity (as reworked by Haupt 1897), Paul Ewald Epistles of Paul to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (in the commentary of Zahn ed. 2 1910) and Dibelius. Epistles of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians, Ephesians and Philemon (1912)