Colossians Bntc

Foster provides the commentary on Colossians in this renowned series of biblical commentaries, under the General Editorship of Professor Morna D. Hooker (Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity Emerita in the University of Cambridge, UK). As with other volumes in the series, the key questions for scholars are scrutinised thoroughly - questions of historicity, the use of historical traditions and sources, the relationship of Colossians to the rest of the New Testament in particular the Pauline letters, authorship, and setting. Foster examines these issues in such a way as to present the heart of the academic debate to a wider audience, as befitting to the series reputation for rigorous commentary, which not only advances the knowledge of students and pastors, but also makes a contribution to the academic discourse in its own right.

Foster provides the commentary on Colossians in this renowned series of biblical commentaries, under the General Editorship of Professor Morna D. Hooker (Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity Emerita in the University of Cambridge, UK). As with other volumes in the series, the key questions for scholars are scrutinised thoroughly - questions of historicity, the use of historical traditions and sources, the relationship of Colossians to the rest of the New Testament in particular the Pauline letters, authorship, and setting. Foster examines these issues in such a way as to present the heart of the academic debate to a wider audience, as befitting to the series reputation for rigorous commentary, which not only advances the knowledge of students and pastors, but also makes a contribution to the academic discourse in its own right.

In the letter to the Colossians, Paul points us to the sufficiency of Christ, urging readers to continue to trust in him. Because Christ is supreme over all, our hope is secure in him. Colossians also shows how the new life that believers have in Jesus is to reflect his character in everyday relationships. Then in the letter to Philemon, we see the difference the gospel makes in the delicate context of Onesimus's departure from Philemon. In this Tyndale Commentary, Alan Thompson shows how both Colossians and Philemon unpack and apply the beauty of the gospel of God's grace and Christ’s supremacy. The Tyndale Commentaries are designed to help the reader of the Bible understand what the text says and what it means. The Introduction to each book gives a concise but thorough treatment of its authorship, date, original setting, and purpose. Following a structural Analysis, the Commentary takes the book section by section, drawing out its main themes, and also comments on individual verses and problems of interpretation. Additional Notes provide fuller discussion of particular difficulties. In the new New Testament volumes, the commentary on each section of the text is structured under three headings: Context, Comment, and Theology. The goal is to explain the true meaning of the Bible and make its message plain.

Vicky Balabanski analyses Colossians as a co-authored letter, written during Paul's Roman imprisonment by Timothy with the input of Epaphras, and sent with Paul's introductory and concluding greetings. Balabanski sees remarkable resonances between the cosmology of this letter and that of Stoic thought, the most widely held philosophy in first century Asia Minor. Drawing upon the way Stoic thinkers saw the divine Spirit permeating reality and sought to attune their lives to the Logos, divine reason, she argues that the Logos of Christ – the Gospel – was welcomed by small groups of people shaped by Stoic thought, and they experienced Christ as the visible expression of the One God who permeates reality. The Letter to the Colossians has the highest view of Christ of any of the New Testament writings, and its theology of divine permeation invites us to notice the ecological potential of this letter. This Eco-Stoic reading brings contemporary ecological questions into dialogue with the distinctive Christology and cosmology of the letter.

The material culture of Colossae is here for the first time given as full a collation as possible to the present day. 38 inscriptions, 88 coins and 49 testimonia are brought together in the context of a thorough overview of the site of Colossae. These include evidence that has been thought lost or has been overlooked or misinterpreted or has only recently been discovered. New readings, insights and analyses of the material evidence are brought into a highly creative exchange with the two letters of the Second Testament connected with the site. The texts thereby become additional evidence for an appreciation of the life of a city in the first two centuries of the Common Era. The fullest collation of evidence for the ancient Phrygian city in the Greco-Roman period was the coin catalogue assembled by Hans von Aulock (1987). The most recent catalogue of the inscriptions of Colossae was published by William Calder and William Buckler in 1939. There has never been a full inventory of ancient writings that bear witness to the site. Alan H. Cadwallader in his volume not only updates this material by subjecting it to thorough, critical analysis in the light of comparative evidence from across the Roman province of Asia and the Mediterranean world. New discoveries from the site and from museums and collections in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia and the United States are introduced. Into this assemblage and interpretation are brought the letters to the Colossians and Philemon in the Second Testament writings of the Christian Church. For the first time, the letters are released to be players in the highly competitive environment of a city negotiating its way in the new realities of imperial Rome. Here the letters and their recipients become participants in the society of the day, contributing, critiquing and struggling to forge an identity for the Christ followers within that world. Echoes of the gymnasium, gladiatorial spectacles, cosmological speculations, religious devotion and sanction, family structures, commerce and industry, struggles for justice, intercity competition and legal negotiations are found in the letters, echoes that witness to their participation in the life of Colossae. This is a radical new approach, incorporating the turn to material culture as the embedding of literature and its consumers rather than an embellishing backdrop.

This guide introduces readers to key issues in the interpretation and reception of Colossians. Anderson first explores the issue of Pauline authorship. She challenges readers to reflect on why the question of authorship has dominated scholarship as well as why and how interpreters create “stories” about the letter. Second, Anderson examines rhetoric and context. She asks readers to consider how the letter constructs and seeks to persuade its addressees past and present. She surveys several pictures of the first audience and “opponents.” Finally, Anderson delves into the functions of the Colossian household code, its reception, and the ethics of interpretation.

Leading biblical scholar Thomas Schreiner provides an easy-to-navigate resource for studying and understanding the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline Letters. This accessibly written volume summarizes the content of each major section of the biblical text to help readers quickly grasp the sense of particular passages. This is the first volume in the Handbooks on the New Testament series, which is modeled after Baker Academic's successful Old Testament handbook series. Series volumes are neither introductions nor commentaries, as they focus primarily on the content of the biblical books without getting bogged down in historical-critical questions or detailed verse-by-verse exegesis. The series will contain three volumes that span the entirety of the New Testament, with future volumes covering the Gospels and Hebrews through Revelation. Written with classroom utility and pastoral application in mind, these books will appeal to students, pastors, and laypeople alike.

In approaching the debate surrounding the opponents in Colossians from a methodological standpoint, Copenhaver contends that Paul was not actually confronting active opponents when he wrote the letter. Rather, Copenhaver takes the view that Paul's letter was written to the churches in the Lycus Valley, in a desire to develop their identity as a new people in Christ and to appeal to them to live a new kind of life. His warnings in Colossians 2 function as oppositional rhetoric, contrasting the religious practices of the Lycus Valley with this new belief. Paul's warnings are therefore broadly representative of the ancient world, while at the same time focused especially on two threads of historical referents, Judaism and pagan religions. Development of the above argument demonstrates that the challenge of reconstructing a singular opponent arises not only from the limitations of textual and historical evidence, but also from the assumptions and methodologies inherent in historical approaches to the text. By modifying these assumptions and adjusting the methodology, Copenhaver can show how Paul's letter takes on a new relationship to its historical context.