COLOSSIANS 1 — THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST AND PAUL'S MINISTRY

Colossae was a small, declining city in the Lycus Valley of Phrygia, in what is now western Turkey, near the larger and wealthier cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis. Paul had never visited the church (2:1). It had been founded by Epaphras, who had apparently learned the gospel in Ephesus during Paul's long ministry there (Acts 19:10) and who later visited Paul in prison to report on the church (1:7–8; 4:12–13). Paul writes from prison, most likely in Rome around AD 60–62, at about the same time as Philemon and Ephesians, and the letter was carried by Tychicus and Onesimus (4:7–9). The occasion was a growing false teaching, often called the Colossian heresy, which seems to have blended elements of Jewish ritual (food laws, festivals, Sabbaths), ascetic discipline, visions, the veneration of angels, and a kind of philosophy that treated Christ as insufficient for complete spiritual fullness (2:8–23). Paul does not argue against this teaching point by point in the opening chapter. He answers it by presenting Christ as supreme over all creation, all spiritual powers, and the church, so that nothing else is needed. Chapter 1 is therefore the foundation of the whole letter: a high Christology that is both doctrinal and pastoral.

The hymn to Christ in verses 15–20 is among the strongest statements of Christ's deity in the New Testament, and it was written within about thirty years of the crucifixion. It attributes to Jesus the functions that Jewish thinkers reserved for God alone: creating all things, sustaining the universe, and receiving the fullness of divinity. New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham has argued that early Christians included Jesus within the unique identity of the one God of Israel, using the very categories, such as creator and sovereign ruler of all, that Jewish monotheism used to distinguish God from every other being. Larry Hurtado has shown that devotion to Jesus appeared with astonishing speed among Jewish believers who were deeply committed to monotheism. Neither of these developments is easy to explain unless the earliest followers had experienced something that convinced them of Jesus' unique identity, and the resurrection is their consistent explanation. The letter also has solid external connections. The cities of the Lycus Valley were severely affected by an earthquake around AD 60–61, which is recorded by the Roman historian Tacitus in relation to Laodicea, and this is consistent with a church in the region in need of encouragement. The mention of Epaphras, Tychicus, Onesimus, and others ties the letter into the network of names found in Philemon and Acts.