The Letter to the Colossians

The town. Colossae lay in the Lycus Valley in Asia Minor, east of Ephesus, about 15 kilometres from Laodicea and not far from Hierapolis (see 4:13). It has never become a modern city; its mound stands near Honaz, in the Denizli area of Turkey. The Roman historian Tacitus records a severe earthquake at Laodicea about the year 60 (Annals 14.27), and later writers and archaeologists think that Colossae suffered too. The letter does not mention it.

How the church began. Paul did not found this church. He says that they have not seen his face (2:1). They heard the gospel from Epaphras, a man of their own town and Paul's "beloved fellow servant" (1:7; 4:12). This Epaphras later came to Paul, apparently with the news, and is with him as he writes (Phlm 23).

The people named. The last chapter is a small crowd. Tychicus carries the letter, with Onesimus, "the faithful and beloved brother" (4:7 to 9), who appears to be the slave of the letter to Philemon. Aristarchus, Mark the cousin of Barnabas, and Jesus called Justus send greetings (4:10 to 11). So do "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas" (4:14). Nympha has a church in her house (4:15). Archippus must fulfil his ministry (4:17). Paul also tells them to exchange letters with Laodicea (4:16). Paul's letter from Laodicea has not come down to us, unless, as some think, it is the letter we call Ephesians; a later Latin writing under that name is not received as Scripture.

The trouble. We know it only from Paul's replies. Teachers were stressing angels and "the elemental spirits of the universe" (2:8, 18, 20), rules about food and drink, festivals, new moons and sabbaths (2:16), severe treatment of the body (2:23), and special visions (2:18). They probably did not deny Christ. They added to him. The exact background is debated: Jewish and pagan elements may have mixed. Paul, without arguing about the angels, states simply that Christ has all saving power, and the church seems not to have given way (1:3 to 8; 2:5).

The Church's tradition. The letter names Paul and closes in his own hand: "I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand" (4:18). It is received among his letters, and Dei Verbum 20 speaks of the letters of St Paul as composed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Benedict XVI treats Colossians and Ephesians together among Paul's letters, as companion letters forming a great teaching on Christ, the Church and the cosmos (General Audience, 14 January 2009).

A scholarly note. Traditionally by Paul; some scholars think a disciple wrote it in his name. They note a different style and vocabulary from the earlier letters, and a fuller teaching on Christ as head of the Church and of the universe. Others answer that a new problem would naturally call out new words, and that the personal details in chapter 4 and the close link with Philemon point to Paul himself, or to a companion writing for him, perhaps with some liberty. The question is open, and the New American Bible's introduction mentions both views. It takes nothing from the letter's inspiration: God is its author, and it teaches what he willed for our salvation (Dei Verbum 11).

Place and date. As with Philippians, the place of imprisonment is not stated. Tradition says Rome, in the house arrest of Acts 28:16 to 31. Caesarea and Ephesus have also been proposed. If by a disciple, it would be later.

Colossians and Ephesians. The two letters share much language and share a household code. Tychicus is the bearer named in both (Col 4:7; Eph 6:21).

• Christ is enough. "In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (2:9), so "you have come to fullness in him" (2:10). The food rules and festivals are "only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ" (2:17). The Catechism takes 2:9 as the key to all Jesus's life (515).
• Christ and creation. All things were created in him, through him and for him, and in him they hold together (1:16 to 17; Catechism 291). This is why creation is good and why nothing in the universe is his rival. The angels too were made through him and for him (Catechism 331), and we need not fear any spiritual power (2:15).
• Christ the head of the Church. He is "the head of the body, the church" (1:18; 2:19; Catechism 669, 792). Benedict XVI says that this title means he both leads the community as its Lord and gives it life and growth.
• Baptism: buried and raised. In baptism you were buried with him and raised with him (2:12). So Christian life is already a sharing in his resurrection (Catechism 1002), though it remains hidden with Christ in God until he appears (3:3 to 4; Catechism 1003, 2796).
• The mystery. God's hidden plan, now revealed even to the Gentiles, is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (1:26 to 27; Catechism 568, 772).
• Sharing in Christ's sufferings. "In my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions" (1:24). This does not mean that Christ's saving death was defective: the cross is the unique sacrifice, and he is the one mediator (Catechism 618). It means that he associates us with what he has done, that his body the Church has its own share of suffering in time. The Catechism uses it for the sick (1508). Interpreters explain the phrase in more than one way.
• True and false self-denial. Severe rules "are of no value in checking self-indulgence" (2:23). Paul is not against fasting or discipline, which the Church has always practised. He is against treating them as rival ways to God apart from Christ. The real thing is to put to death greed, anger and lies (3:5 to 10), and to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience (3:12).
• Love above all. Love binds everything together in perfect harmony (3:14; Catechism 1827). We forgive because the Lord has forgiven us (3:13).
• The word, song and gratitude. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and sing to God (3:16; compare Catechism 2641). Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks (3:17). Pray with watchfulness and thanksgiving (4:2; Catechism 2638).
• The home. Paul takes the household rules of his world and places them "in the Lord" (3:18 to 4:1). They must be read with the Church's whole teaching. Wives are told to be subject as is fitting in the Lord (3:18), and St John Paul II teaches that in marriage this subjection is not one-sided but mutual (Mulieris Dignitatem 24). Husbands are told to love and not to be harsh (3:19); children to obey (3:20; Catechism 2217); fathers not to discourage their children (3:21). Masters are reminded that they too have a Master in heaven (4:1). Paul addresses slavery as a fact of his time; the letter does not approve it as God's will, and the Church today teaches plainly that enslaving human beings is wrong (Catechism 2414).

• The image of the invisible God. To see him is to see what God is like (1:15; Catechism 241). And we are made to be conformed to that image (Catechism 381).
• The firstborn. Twice: of all creation (1:15) and from the dead (1:18; Catechism 658). "Firstborn of all creation" does not mean that he is the first creature. In the verse that follows, everything is made through him and he is before all things (1:16 to 17). When some in the fourth century argued otherwise, the Council of Nicaea confessed that the Son is "begotten, not made" and one in being with the Father (325; see Catechism 242). In a Jewish home the firstborn held first rank, and this is Paul's sense: first in rank, before all, and the source of all.
• The fullness of God in a body. "Dwells bodily" (2:9). Against any idea that the body is too low for God, or that the divine is spread among many powers, Paul places all of God's fullness in the man Jesus.
• The peacemaker on the cross. God reconciles all things "by making peace through the blood of his cross" (1:20). The record against us was nailed there, and the powers were put to public shame (2:14 to 15). The cross, a shameful thing in the eyes of the world, is here a victory.
• Risen, seated, and coming. He is at God's right hand (3:1), and "when Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory" (3:4).

The Catechism. The image of God, 241, 381; creation, 291, 331; the fullness in him, 515; the first-born from the dead, 658; the head and his body, 669, 792; "Christ in you, the hope of glory", 568, 772; sharing the cross, 618, 1508; risen in baptism, 1002, 1003, 2796; charity, 1827; prayer, 2638, 2641; children in the family, 2217.

The Fathers, in substance. St John Chrysostom, in his third homily on Colossians, says that an image, so far as it is an image, must be exactly like what it shows, and so the Son is the image of God in the full sense. He reads "firstborn" as saying that the Son comes before all things and not as a sign that he is a creature, since all things were made through him and depend on him for their existence.

Benedict XVI. His General Audience of 14 January 2009 is on Colossians and Ephesians together: Christ as head both of the Church and of the cosmos, and the "mystery", God's hidden plan fulfilled in Christ. On 22 October 2008 he cites Col 1:15 to 20 on the pre-existence of Christ.

In the liturgy.

• Syro-Malankara. In the calendars we examined, Col 3:5 to 17 on Kothine Sunday, the First Sunday of the Great Fast; Col 3:1 to 11 on the Fifth Sunday after Qyomtho; Col 1:24 to 29 on the Forty Martyrs (9 March) and in the sixth week of the Fast.
• Latin. Col 3:1 to 4 is a second reading of Easter Sunday. Col 3:12 to 21 belongs to the feast of the Holy Family. Col 1:12 to 20 is read on Christ the King in Year C, and the Fifteenth to Eighteenth Sundays in Ordinary Time of Year C read the letter in order. It is read on weekdays in Year I, in the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Weeks. The hymn is also a canticle at Evening Prayer.
• Syro-Malabar. In the calendars we examined, Col 3:18 to 21 on the Feast of the Holy Family, First Sunday of Nativity; Col 4:2 to 6 on the Second Sunday of Annunciation; Col 1:12 to 20 and 1:3 to 11 on weekdays of the Dedication of the Church.

It takes about a quarter of an hour. Read it first at one sitting, then over six days:

• Day 1: 1:1 to 14. Pray Paul's prayer for someone by name.
• Day 2: 1:15 to 23. Read the hymn slowly, twice.
• Day 3: 1:24 to 2:7. What suffering can you offer for the Church?
• Day 4: 2:8 to 23. What do you add to Christ, as if he were not enough?
• Day 5: 3:1 to 17. Put off one thing, put on one thing.
• Day 6: 3:18 to 4:18. Read it thinking of your own home, and of the names you would greet.