Who, when, where
Colossians names Paul as its author and was written from prison, most likely Rome around AD 60-62, alongside Ephesians and Philemon. The audience is the church at Colossae, a town in the Lycus Valley of western Asia Minor (modern Turkey), about a hundred miles east of Ephesus. Paul did not found this church; Epaphras did, probably during Paul's three-year Ephesus stay (Acts 19). Epaphras has now come to Paul in prison with a worry: a strange teaching is circulating in Colossae that mixes Jewish observances (food laws, festivals, sabbaths, circumcision) with mystical experiences and angel-worship. Paul writes back with Tychicus and the runaway slave Onesimus, who carries the letter to Philemon at the same time. Colossae itself was a declining town; the earthquake of AD 60-61 may have devastated it not long after the letter arrived.
Where in history
Early Roman Empire → Paul's Imprisonment
Prison letter against Colossian syncretism
- AD 53
Epaphras founds Colossae during Paul's Ephesus years (Acts 19)
Paul spends three years in Ephesus; the gospel spreads down the Lycus Valley through coworkers, planting Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis. Paul never visits them in person.
- AD 60
Paul in Rome under house arrest. Colossians written.
Epaphras has come to Paul with news of the Colossian situation. Paul writes back with Tychicus and Onesimus, who carries Philemon at the same time.
- AD 61
Major earthquake in the Lycus Valley
Tacitus and other Roman sources record a severe earthquake in the region around AD 60-61. Colossae was hit hard and never fully recovered; Laodicea rebuilt itself wealthily.
The amber span: Colossians: written under Nero, c. AD 60-62.
The big idea
Christ over everything. The letter answers a homemade religious blend by holding up the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus. Chapter 1 contains the cosmic Christ hymn (1:15-20): the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, the one in whom and through whom and for whom all things were created, the one who holds all things together and reconciles all things to himself through the blood of his cross. Chapter 2 takes the hymn into the argument: do not let anyone judge you by food or festival or new moon or sabbath; these are shadows, Christ is the substance. Beware philosophy and angel-worship; you are complete in him. Chapters 3-4 then say: since you have been raised with Christ, set your minds on things above, put on the new self, and live it out in marriage, family, work, and conversation.
Why this book still matters
Colossians 1:15-20 is the highest single-paragraph teaching about who Christ is (Christology) in the New Testament. Every line about Christ as creator and reconciler of all things, image of the invisible God, in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily (2:9), shapes the church's confession at Nicaea (AD 325) and beyond. The Word who is the agent of creation in John 1 and the firstborn over all things in Colossians 1 become the 'true God of true God, begotten not made, by whom all things were made' of the creed. Colossians 2:13-15 (the certificate of debt nailed to the cross, principalities and powers disarmed) is a load-bearing text in any atonement theology. Colossians 3:1-17 (raised with Christ, hidden with Christ, peace ruling, the word dwelling richly) is the New Testament's most concentrated description of the new self.
Colossians 1:15-17
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
The Nicene Creed (AD 325)
The creed confesses Christ as 'begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made.' The phrase 'by whom all things were made' lifts directly from the Colossians hymn and John 1. At Nicaea, against Arius, Colossians 1:15-17 was a primary text: the 'firstborn of every creature' must be understood as priority of rank, not as 'first created,' because all things were created in him.
Honest about what's debated
Three honest questions readers still ask. First, did Paul write it? The traditional view is yes. Many modern scholars argue for a Pauline disciple writing in his name, on the grounds that the vocabulary differs from undisputed letters and that the high view of Christ (Christology) and developed view of the church feel later. Defenders of Pauline authorship note that the specific local crisis (the Colossian situation, the runaway Onesimus traveling with the letter) ties the document tightly to Paul's circle in a way letters written in someone else's name (pseudonymous letters) rarely manage. Second, what was the 'Colossian heresy'? The letter does not name it. The features Paul mentions point to a blend: Jewish food and calendar observances, ascetic practices, the worship of angels, claims to mystical visions, secret knowledge. Proposals range from a Jewish mystical group, to early gnostic-style teaching (a movement that mixed Jewish observance with mystical and angelic speculation), to a folk-religion mix. The middle ground is most defensible: a local syncretism. Third, how does Colossians relate to Ephesians? Long sections overlap. Most readers think the two letters were composed close together, with Ephesians as the broader circular adapting and expanding Colossians' material.
Colossians is four short chapters; you can read the whole letter aloud in twenty minutes. The hymn in chapter 1 and the warning in chapter 2 reward slow rereading.