Notes and quotes from Douglas Moo’s commentary
To whom was it written?
Colossae wasn’t a large city. It’s high point was 200-300yrs prior to Paul’s letter when it was famous for textiles. At the time of Paul’s writing it was not as large or prominent as the neighbouring city of Laoedicia (12 miles to the west). The ruins of the city still haven’t been excavated to this day.
Paul had never visited the church and neither had he been involved in its planting. It’s likely that Epaphras was the planter, a man who was converted by Paul during Paul’s 3yr ministry in Ephesus.
Epaphras seems to have gone to visit Paul to enlist his help in resolving some challenges he was facing in the church.
Epaphras wants to enlist the apostle’s help in dealing with a dangerous yet slippery variation on the Christian gospel that had arisen in the community.
Perhaps whilst visiting Paul in prison, he too was imprisoned alongside him which explains why Paul sends the letter to Colossae via Tychichus.
It was a diverse city and whilst there was a Jewish contingent in the church it was unlikely to be the main influence on the church. This is noted by the fact that there are no direct OT references in the letter, no mention of the law of Moses and only a passing comment about circumcision.
The diversity helps explain the apparently syncretistic religious movement that was affecting the Colossian Christians and that gave rise to the letter.
Evidence for the church being majority gentile Moo quotes phrases in Colossians that appear also in Ephesians that are used directly about the Gentiles: Col1:12 and 1:21 for example.
It was written in around AD 60-61, at a time similar to when a major earthquake destroyed Colossae. That quake isn’t referenced in the letter indicating that it hadn’t happened at the time of writing which also solidifies a date of writing as earlier than it.
Note: Paul died in 64-65AD.
It was possible/likely that Timothy scribed the letter with the exception of the ‘signature’ of Paul referenced at the end (4:18)
Where was it written?
There are two main options. Paul could be writing from his imprisonment in Ephesus or his house-arrest in Rome. Douglas Moo surveys the options and concludes: there is a slight preference for Rome as the place of writing… a Roman [writing location] fits well with the circumstances of Paul’s imprisonment, and it provides the best fit with what we know about the movements of Paul’s associates in the rest of the NT.
The false teaching:
Colossians was written (probably at Epaphras’ request) to address false teaching influencing the church but what was this teaching?
Moo says that the idea that Paul is refuting Gnosticism is now rejected. Gnosticism as a philosophy doesn’t become fully-fledged until the second century AD and there is nothing in the letter to suggest early appearances of it here.
Paul is not attacking a particular teaching. He is simply issuing warnings about various tendencies within the environment of the church that are potentially damaging to the Colossians’ faith.
There are 11 instances within the letter that make explicit reference to the false teachings (or false philosophies). Douglas Moo concludes his summary of what the false teaching could be exactly with the following statement:
The false teachers were appealing to spiritual beings, visions and rules to find security in this very uncertain universe. In doing so, they were questioning the sufficiency of Christ… the false teachers were so preoccupied with their own program for spiritual fullness that the they were separating themselves from the only source of spiritual power: the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in whom God in all his fullness is to be found and the one through whom God has accomplished the reconciliation of the world.
We ought to read the letter of Colossians and apply it to our lives against this backdrop, a setting not too dissimilar from our day and our setting. Here in Seaford we are also a provincial town with a growing array of spiritual influences and trends. These things ‘have the appearance of wisdom’ but, as in Colossae so today, ‘they are of no value’ in stopping the flesh:
Any teaching that questions the sufficiency of Christ-not only for initial salvation but also for spiritual growth and ultimate salvation from judgment-falls under the massive christological critique of Colossians.
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