Epistle to the Colossians
It was written, according to the text, by Paul the Apostle and Timothy, and addressed to the church in Colossae, a small Phrygian city near Laodicea and approximately 100 miles (160 km) from Ephesus in Asia Minor.
[3] Scholars have increasingly questioned Paul's authorship and attributed the letter to an early follower instead, but others still defend it as authentic.
During the first generation after Jesus, Paul's epistles to various churches helped establish early Christian theology.
The epistle's description of Christ as pre-eminent over creation marks it, for some scholars, as representing an advanced christology not present during Paul's lifetime.
[7] Defenders of Pauline authorship cite the work's similarities to the letter to Philemon, which is broadly accepted as authentic.
[10] One ground is that the epistle's language doesn't seem to match Paul's, with 48 words appearing in Colossians that are found nowhere else in his writings and 33 of which occur nowhere else in the New Testament.
[12] A third is that the epistle's themes related to Christ, eschatology and the church seem to have no parallel in Paul's undisputed works.
[13] Advocates of Pauline authorship defend the differences that there are between elements in this letter and those commonly considered the genuine work of Paul (e.g. 1 Thessalonians).
[14][4] As it is usually pointed out by the same authors who note the differences in language and style, the number of words foreign to the New Testament and Paul is no greater in Colossians than in the undisputed Pauline letters (Galatians, of similar length, has 35 hapax legomena).
[17] As theologian Stephen D. Morrison points out in context, "Biblical scholars are divided over the authorship of Ephesians and Colossians.
[26] The Epistle to the Colossians proclaimed Christ to be the supreme power over the entire universe, and urged Christians to lead godly lives.
The main theme is developed in chapter 2, with a warning against being drawn away from him in whom dwelt all the fullness of the deity,[29] and who was the head of all spiritual powers.
[7] Colossians 3:22-24 instructs slaves to obey their masters and serve them sincerely, in return for an "inheritance"[35] from God in the afterlife.
Colossians has some close parallels with the letter to Philemon: names of some of the same people (e.g., Timothy, Aristarchus, Archippus, Mark, Epaphras, Luke, Onesimus, and Demas) appear in both epistles, and both are claimed to be written by Paul.
