1 - The background of Colossians

Summary

Much of the language and many of the ideas of Colossians perhaps strike the twentieth-century reader as puzzling; many of the terms and phrases are obscure, even in the original Greek. If it is in general true of the New Testament letters that the better we understand the situation which led to their being written, the better we understand them, then this is all the more true of Colossians. So we shall need to look with even greater care at what we know of the background to this letter than may be necessary with at least some other New Testament writings, and to consider both its readers' situation and that of the author. And it should not be forgotten that we are often as much influenced by views which we reject as we are by views which we espouse. The author of Colossians is no exception: it is perhaps as important to understand something about those against whom the letter is written, and in response to whom its theology is developed, as it is to know something of the traditions which are endorsed, adopted and adapted by its author.

THE COLOSSIAN ‘HERESY’ AND ITS BACKGROUND

For the most part it is assumed that the letter to the Colossians was written to combat some specific set of beliefs and practices that was being propagated in the church in the city of Colossae.