Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

INTRODUCTION TO COLOSSIANS

I. To Whom Was Colossians Written? Colossae and the Colossians
II. Who Wrote the Letter? Authorship
III. When Was the Letter Written? Date and Place of Writing
IV. Why Was Colossians Written? The False Teaching
V. What Is Colossians Teaching? The Theology of the Letter
A. Christ
B. Cosmology and the Powers
C. The Church
D. The Gospel
E. Eschatology
F. The Christian Life

COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS

I. The Letter Opening: "Just as You Have Received Christ Jesus as Lord ..." (1:1-2:5)
A. Prescript (1:1-2)
B. The Powerful Gospel of God's Son (1:3-23)
1. The Evidence of the Gospel's Power among the Colossians (Thanksgiving and Prayer) (1:3-14)
2. The Heart of the Gospel: The Supremacy of Christ in Creation and Redemption (1:15-20)
3. The Hope Held Out in the Gospel (1:21-23)
C. The Mystery of Christ in Paul's Ministry and Christian Experience (1:24-2:5)

11. The Letter Body: "... Continue to Live Your Lives in Him" (2:6-4:6)
A. The Heart of the Matter: Remaining Centered on Christ (2:6-7)
B. The Threat to Christocentric Living: Warning about False Teachers (2:8-23)
1. Spiritual Fullness in Christ (2:8-15)
2. The Empty Promise of the False Teaching (2:16-23)
C. Living a Christocentric Life (3:1-4:1)
1. Heavenly Thinking (3:1-4)
2. Putting Off the Practices of the "Old Self' (3:5-11)
3. Putting On the Practices of the "New Self' (3:12-17)
4. The Lordship of Christ in Earthly Relationships (3:18-4:1)
D. Exhortation to Prayer and Christian Witness (4:2-6)

INTRODUCTION TO PHILEMON
I. A Basic Profile: Author, Recipient, Nature, and Place of Writing
II. The Situation behind the Letter
III. The Purpose and Significance of the Letter

COMMENTARY ON PHILEMON
I. The Letter Opening (vv. 1-3)
II. Thanksgiving: The "Fellowship of Faith" (vv. 4-7)
III. The Letter Body: Paul's Appeal concerning Onesimus (vv. 8-20)
IV. The Letter Closing (vv. 21-25)

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(From the) Editor's Preface

Commentaries have specific aims, and this series is no exception. Designed for serious pastors and teachers of the Bible, the Pillar commentaries seek above all to make clear the text of Scripture as we have it. The scholars writing these volumes interact with the most important informed contemporary debate, but avoid getting mired in undue technical detail. Their ideal is a blend of rigorous exegesis and exposition, with an eye alert both to biblical theology and the contemporary relevance of the Bible, without confusing the commentary and the sermon.

The rationale for this approach is that the vision of "objective scholarship" (a vain chimera) may actually be profane. God stands over against us; we do not stand in judgment of him. When God speaks to us through his Word, those who profess to know him must respond in an appropriate way, and that is certainly different from a stance in which the scholar projects an image of autonomous distance. Yet this is no surreptitious appeal for uncontrolled subjectivity. The writers of this series aim for an even-handed openness to the text that is the best kind of "objectivity" of all.

If the text is God's Word, it is appropriate that we respond with reverence, a certain fear, a holy joy, a questing obedience. These values should be reflected in the way Christians write. With these values in place, the Pillar commentaries will be warmly welcomed not only by pastors, teachers, and students, but by general readers as well.….

Colossians and Philemon speak powerfully to many issues in the twenty-first century. What has consumed a great deal of energy in contemporary scholarship on these epistles, however, has often been the construction of plausible "backgrounds" that then determine (I almost said "domesticate") the interpretation of the documents. These backgrounds are now so plentiful and so diverse that the corresponding interpretations are equally plentiful. One of the many strengths that Dr. Moo brings to this commentary is an ability to evaluate the relative merits of diverse appeals, and even to point out what one cannot know when the evidence is not all that secure - and then to work carefully through the text in an exegetical and theological manner to make clear what the text itself does say. All of this is couched in lucid prose with transparent hints as to the bearing of the biblical texts on today's church. Anyone who reads through this commentary will emerge with a stronger grasp of what is disclosed in these two letters. I shall not be surprised if it becomes a "standard" among pastors for many years to come. And once again I am deeply indebted to a friend.

D. A. CARSON

(From the) Introduction to Colossians

Paul's letter to the Colossians has had an impact on Christian theology and practice out of proportion to its size. Christian thinkers since the patristic period have turned to its teaching about Jesus' role in creation and his pre-eminence over the church to formulate their Christology. Paul's warnings about people who insist on following certain kinds of rules as basic to spiritual growth have been cited by theologians and laypeople alike to hold up the principle of Christian liberty. And the paraenetic section of the letter, though brief, is typified by a collection of broad ethical principles that have provided significant guidance for believers seeking to translate their commitment to the Lord Jesus into practice. In the pages that follow, we will try to describe as accurately as we can just what this small but powerful letter has to say on these issues, as well as the many others touched on in the letter. Our concern will be to discern what this portion of God's Word has to say to Christians today.

But this goal can be attained only as we carefully and patiently describe what this letter would have meant in its first-century context. As a letter, Colossians is an "occasional" document whose meaning and significance are closely related to (even if they are not finally limited to) its circumstances. Our first task, then, will be to describe these circumstances as the necessary context within which the meaning of the text can be uncovered. Determining these circumstances is, however, particularly complicated in the case of Colossians. For the place of the letter in early Christianity is a matter of considerable dispute. Many scholars are convinced that the letter was written not by Paul but by a follower of his after his death. If this were the case, it would skew our conclusions about the meaning of both a number of specific texts as well as about the overall theological significance of the letter. A second particularly complicating matter in "locating" Colossians accurately is the nature of the false teaching to which Paul is responding. We will deal with both these key issues, as well as several others less debated and less significant in the following sections. Six questions will structure our discussion: To whom was the letter written? Who wrote it? When and where was it written? Why was it written? What is the letter about? And how is it organized? …

(Extract from) Introduction to Philemon

Most Christians have never studied Philemon; many have never heard it might or preached. It is short - in the New Testament only 2 and 3 John me shorter; it is private - addressed to a fellow worker, but in his private capacity; and it is obscure - scholars are not quite sure just what it is about. No wonder it suffers from neglect. Yet God has providentially seen to it that this short, private, and obscure letter is included in the canon of authoritative Christian Scripture. Why? What is its purpose? What was Paul asking from Philemon? And what is the significance of the letter for Christian belief and practice? These are the questions that will guide our discussion in the commentary that follows. Before turning the details of the letter, however, we need an overview.

1. A BASIC PROFILE: AUTHOR, RECIPIENT, NATURE, AND PLACE OF WRITING

The letter claims to be written by Paul (vv. 1, 19), and, in contrast to Colossians, there has been no serious challenge to this claim. Christian tradition (reflected in the title) has singled out Philemon, mentioned in v.1 as the recipient. Most scholars agree, although it should be noted that, in fact, vv. 1-2 appear to list four recipients: "[to] Philemon ... and to Apphia and to Archippus ... and to the church that meets in your house” (my own trans.; TNIV reflects an interpretive decision). A few scholars have argued that it is more natural to single out the last-named individual, Archippus, as the primary addressee and that it was in his house, not Philemon's, that the church Paul mentions was probably meeting. However, the pattern of ancient letters was to list the primary addressee first, and this points to Philemon. The TNIV punctuation captures the resulting sense well: "To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker - also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier - and to the church that meets in your home."

But why must we identify a "primary addressee"? Why don't we simply identify all three individuals and the church as the recip1ents of the letter? The first reason for focusing on an individual is the ancient epistolary convention mentioned above. The fact that Paul mentions Philemon's name first is very significant. But more significant is the fact that all the second-person pronouns and verbal forms in vv. 4-22a and vv. 23-24 are singular. This is not always clear in English translations, since modern English suffers from the handicap of not being able to distinguish second-person singular and plural forms. The body of the letter then, focuses consistently on a single individual. Moreover, although Philemon is a "fellow worker" of Paul's (v. i), the letter deals not with ministry issues but with personal matters. For these reasons, it is probably justified to think of Philemon as basically a "private" letter.

At the same time, we should not overlook the fact that Paul chooses to include two other individuals and the whole church that meets in Philemon's house in his address. And this is not just a literary convention, as the switch to second-person plural forms in vv. 22b ("your prayers") and v. 25 ("your spirit") reveals. This does not turn the letter into a "public" letter, or an official "apostolic" document. Yet it does suggest that our notion of Philemon as a "private individual" or of his handling of the Onesimus situation as a "private matter" needs rethinking We may be injecting into the first-century Christian community a contrast of "private" versus "public" that was simply not present there. Indeed, we will suggest that one of the enduring and extremely relevant teachings of Philemon is the degree to which Christians are bound to one another in all their activities through their common faith. Paul's inclusion of the whole church in the address of the letter is not simply, then, a way of putting greater pressure on Philemon ("you had better do as I say or all the church will know you have scorned me"). It is the reflection of a social and theological reality of the early Christian community. ….