Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Colossians 1:1-14, Epaphras's report and a change of kingdoms
Paul and Timothy greet the believers at Colossae, a church Paul has never visited, thank God for what Epaphras has told them, and pray that they grow in knowledge, having been rescued out of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son.
Colossians 1:1-14, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul and Timothy write to a church Paul has never visited, founded by Epaphras, who has told Paul about their faith and love. Paul says he keeps praying that they will understand God's will and live lives that please him and bear fruit. He reminds them that God has rescued them from the realm of darkness and moved them into the kingdom of his Son, where their sins are forgiven.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/diaspora-jews\/","n":"Jews of the dispersion","s":"Most Jews of the first century lived outside the land, in cities from Parthia to Rome. They kept the law and their own synagogues, spoke Greek or Aramaic, and came up to Jerusalem for the feasts when they could.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/kingdom-of-god\/","n":"God's kingdom","s":"Kingdom meant God's reign, God becoming king in fact. It was the good news Isaiah promised, and in Jesus' day it was also a slogan.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/slavery\/","n":"Slavery and slave managers","s":"Slaves were everywhere in the Roman world, from field hands to stewards who ran whole estates and handled their master's money. A master away and slaves left in charge was a familiar story.","r":""}
Authorship is disputed: from Bultmann on, many have called the letter a follower's work, while Carson, Moo and Morris, the cultural backgrounds notes, the ESV and CSB Study Bibles and Wright and Bird hold it Paul's; Carson, Moo and Morris add that an imitator "would have selected a city of some importance". Where Paul wrote is disputed too: Rome, about AD 60 to 62 (the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles), or Ephesus in the mid fifties (Wright; Wright and Bird); Carson, Moo and Morris find that the Ephesus arguments "cancel each other out" and give a little more weight to Rome. Colossae lay in Phrygia's Lycus valley, about ten miles from Laodicea, and by Paul's day was the least of the three (Keener and his notes). It has never been excavated; its coins show Isis, the Ephesian Artemis, the Zeus of Laodicea and other gods (Arnold; Wright and Bird). An earthquake struck the valley about AD 60 or 61, and many date the letter before it (Keener; the ESV Study Bible). Moving from one kingdom to another suggested citizenship to Keener, deportation and colonization to Arnold, and the Exodus to the ESV Study Bible and Wright.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Colossians, Authorship and Colossae, and on Colossians 1:12-13
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Introduction to Colossians, Author and Date
- ESV Study Bible, Introduction to Colossians, Author and Title, and Date, and study note on Colossians 1:13
- CSB Study Bible, Introduction to Colossians, Author and Background
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 20, Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians, Contextual and Critical Matters
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 10, Ephesus I, and ch. 11, Ephesus II
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 13, Colossians, Author, Provenance and Date
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 8, Rescued from the Kingdom of Darkness, and ch. 10, The Problem at Colossae
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Colossians 1:1-8 and 1:9-14
