Colossians mimics Paul’s salutation formula. 1:Apostle, lit., “one sent” (cf. Heb “shaliaḥ”). Timothy, all of Paul’s own letters except Romans have multiple senders; Timothy, listed as co-sender of all except Galatians, is mentioned by Paul more frequently than any other person except Jesus. See Acts 16. Timothy was so prominent in the post-Pauline churches that the Pastoral Epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy are addressed to him. Brother, an address for unrelated members of several religious communities: Josephus, J.W. 2.122, refers to the Essenes as “brothers” (Gk “adelphoi”); followers of the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis (Paris Papyrus [second century bce] 20). 2:Saints, lit., “holy ones,” Paul’s most common designation for Jesus’ followers; the term is more frequent in Ephesians and Colossians than in Paul’s own letters. Brothers and sisters, the plural of the Gk for “brother” (“adelphos/adelphoi”) may refer to “brothers and sisters” (see translators’ note a). Colossae, city in modern Turkey in the Lycus valley, east of Ephesus, substantially destroyed by an earthquake in 60 ce. Grace … peace, Paul adapted the standard Greek letter greeting (“chairein,” “greetings”) to the similar-sounding theological term “charis,” “grace,” and included the Jewish epistolary greeting “shalom,” “peace” (Gk “eirēnē”) (e.g., Ezra 5.7). Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles follow the same practice. From God our Father, the Tanakh rarely addresses God as father, preferring “God of our ancestors” [“Fathers”], although see Isa 63.16; Ps 89.26. The usage is known, but not common, at Qumran (see 4Q460, Heb “ʾavi vaʾadoni,” “my father and my lord”) and becomes increasingly common in rabbinic literature: most frequent is the address of God as both “father and king” (Heb “avinu malkeinu,” e.g., b. Taʾan. 25b). God is only addressed twice as “father” in the LXX, both times in the Book of Odes ch 14; much more common is the phrase “God of [our] ancestors/fathers” (Gk “theos paterōn,” i.e., Ex 3.13). The phrase occurs in all of Paul’s own letters, the Deutero-Pauline letters, and the Pastoral Epistles.

Ancient Greek letters conventionally included a thanksgiving that offered recipients good wishes. In Colossians and Ephesians the author thanks the recipients for their faith, love, and hope, standard virtues that indicate no particular epistolary situation. 3:Lord (Gk “kyrios”), Paul himself only once uses the term in a secular sense, as the master of a slave (Gal 4.1), and once ironically (1 Cor 8.5). All other 208 occasions refer to Jesus. In the household codes the word applies both to Jesus and to slave-owners (Col 3.22). 4–5: Faith … love … hope, imitating Paul’s triumvirate of virtues. The three terms appear together only in 1 Cor 13.13; 1 Thess 1.3; 5.8. Faith (Gk “pistis”), both trust and trustworthiness, like the Heb “ʾemunah” (e.g., Deut. 32.4; 1 Sam 26.23; Hab 2.4; 4Q418); the term occurs nearly a hundred times in Paul’s own letters. Love (Gk “agape”), see 2.2n. 5:Laid up, a phrase from commerce, held in trust or for safekeeping, non-metaphorically in Lk 19.20, metaphorically here and in 2 Tim 4.8 and Heb 9.27, but never in Paul’s own letters. Gospel (Gk “euangelion,” “good news”), teachings concerning as well as the narrative about Jesus. 6:Bearing fruit, perhaps in imitation of Rom 7.4–5. The expression is classical, but the metaphorical use is not much older than the NT, and most of the examples are biblical or Patristic (see Mt 13.23; Mk 4.20,28; Lk 8.15; Rom 7.4–5). 7:Epaphras, first apostle to Colossae according to this letter (4.12–13; see Philem 23). Fellow servant (Gk “syndoulos,” “fellow-slave”), a term appearing in NT letters here and 4.7. Minister, Gk “diakonos,” “server” or “waiter”; these were the first officers in the church (Rom 16.1; Phil 1.1; 1 Tim 3.8,12 cf. Eph 3.7; 6.21; Col 1.23). 8:Has made known to us, as Paul was not in Colossae, the author merges the thanksgiving with the typical section in Paul’s letters where he remembers, usually fondly, his experiences while visiting the church.

9:God’s will, this phrase, used nineteen times by Paul and four times in the Deutero-Pauline letters, appears in the LXX only in 1 Esd 8.16. In the DSS, the phrase “retzon ʾel,” “will of God,” conventionally contrasts divine with human will (e.g., 1QM 2.5; 1QS 9.13,24). Spiritual wisdom (Gk “sophia,” LXX for Heb “hokhmah,” “wisdom,” e.g., Prov 1.2) and understanding (Gk “synesis,” LXX for Heb “binah,” “understanding, discernment,” e.g., Prov 1.2, where it is also used with “hokhmah”), a major theme of the letter (Col 1.25–28; 2.2–4,9–15). Paul himself uses the noun “sophia” or the adjective thirty-four times, but only twice as a positive attribute (Rom 11.33 and 16.27, describing God). The author of Colossians, however, follows the Jewish wisdom tradition, using the term five times, always positively. In 1 Cor 1–4, Paul contrasts the negative attributes of wisdom and understanding—which he associates with cleverness in argumentation—with “pneumatika,” “spiritual things.” The author of Colossians reverses Paul’s moral vocabulary: wisdom, here positive, involves knowledge (v 9), right living (v 10), and patience (v 11). 10:Pleasing (Gk “ariskeia,” “desire to please”), only here in the NT. 11:Endure (Gk “hypomonē,” “endurance”), a common theme of Paul’s letters (e.g., 1 Cor 4.12; 9.12; 2 Cor 1.6) and NT letters generally (e.g., Heb 12.7; 1 Pet 2.19–20). The paired virtues “endurance” and “patience” occur in 2 Tim 3.10. 12–13:Light … darkness, a common image for moral dualism; some scholars see an origin in Persian thought. The second-century Didache calls it “the Two Ways”; see also Deut 30.19; Jer 21.8; John (many occurrences, e.g., 3.19); 1 Thess 5.5; 1 Pet 2.9; Eph 5.8. The trope is found in Greek texts (Prodicus Judgment of Heracles [Mem. 2.1.21]) and fully developed in the Dead Sea Scrolls (see 1QM 13 and 1QS 3.13–4.26) and the Ep. Barn. 18–20. 12:Giving thanks, the thanksgiving section continues, probably to the end of the hymn (vv 15–20). Inheritance, cf. 3.24; Eph 1.14,18; 5.5. Paul never uses the term, but it appears in his speech in Acts 26.18. The basic meaning of the Gk “klēros” is “lot”; in the LXX it translates Heb “pur” (e.g., Jon 1.7; Esth 3.7). 13:Power of darkness, continuing the theme of v 12. The phrase echoes Eph 6.12 and occurs in Lk 22.53. The contrast between light (v 12) and darkness (v 13) connects Colossians with several dualist thinkers, from Persian and Hellenistic Greek moralists to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Fourth Gospel. 14:Redemption … forgiveness, the extent to which these theological terms reflect Jewish ideas is questionable. Although Second Temple Jewish texts mention redemption from sin (cf. 1Q13 2.13; 1QS 2.8; T. Jos. 18.2), in the Tanakh redemption is from oppressors (e.g., Ps 119.134), from death (e.g., Job 5.20), and from Egyptian slavery (e.g., Ex 15.13); the Hebrew prophets extended it to refer to a future redemption from exile (e.g., Jer 31.11; Mic 4.10). Judaism rarely spoke of inborn or original sin, from which rescue is needed (though see Ps 51.1–5 [Heb (vv 3–7]) and Is 44.22. Gk “apolutrosis,” “ransoming,” translated in the NRSV as “redemption,” appears in the LXX only in Dan 4.34; but see, e.g., “lutrōtēs,” “redeemer,” in Ps 19.14 [HB v 15, “goʾel”; LXX Ps 18.15]); the Gk verb “lutroō” (“to ransom, redeem”) is frequent in the LXX. The term is rare in Paul (Rom 3.24; 8.23; 1 Cor 1.30) but common in the Deutero-Pauline letters (Eph 1.7,14; 4.30, and here). Forgiveness (Gk “aphesis,”) never appears in Paul but is found in both Colossians and Ephesians.

The developed Christology borrows themes from both the LXX and Paul. The Christ more than rules the world: he is both the first created and the principle of creation (vv 15–17), the head of the world and the church (vv 18–20). This Christology is perhaps the most exalted in the NT (cf. Jn 1.1–8; Phil 2.6–11). It resembles but surpasses the description of personified Wisdom in Prov 8.22–31 (see also Wis 7.22b–8.1). 15:Image of the invisible God, echoes Rom 1.20, but there Paul alludes to LXX Gen 1.2, “invisible and disorganized,” translating Heb “tohu va-vohu,” “formless void” (NRSV). For Col 1.15–16 an invisible God creates invisible things. Cf. 1 Tim 1.17; Heb 11.27, a description of God also found in Philo (Cher. 101; Leg. Gai. 318; QE 1 2.237). Colossians’ meditation on the preexistence of the Christ connects its Christology to the preamble to the Gospel of John, where Christ is God’s creative word (Jn 1.1; cf. Prov 8.22). The sages speculated about the preexistence of the Torah, the identity of the Messiah, and a number of other cornerstones of Jewish belief (Gen. Rab. 1.1.4, “Six things preexisted the creation of the world”). Firstborn, used only once in Paul (Rom 8.29). In Hebrews, it refers to the Christ (Heb 1.6), to the firstborn sons of Egypt killed by the angel of death (Heb 11.28), to the Israelites in Egypt who were not slain (also 11.28), and to the believers in the author’s own generation (12.23). See also Acts 26.2; Rev 1.5. Biblical law (e.g., Deut 21.15–17) affirms primogeniture, though some rabbinic legislators argued for a more equal distribution of estates (cf. b. Shabb. 10b.) 16:Thrones … powers, spiritual forces that rule the world. The author adds the non-Pauline “thronoi” (thrones), indicating concentrations of power, secular, demonic, and divine (cf. Eph 1.21; 3.10). 17–20: The Christ is the organizing principle of creation as in Jn 1.1-4. 17: In him all things hold together, Christ maintains the universal order. The verb “sunistēmi,” “hold together” is common; the idea of a divine force organizing the principles of the universe is found in Philo (cf. Heir 58; Planting 6 [“For it was appropriate that the most perfect and greatest works should be made by the greatest designer”]) but is not much older. 18:Head, the Christ is the head of the body, the church, echoing 1 Cor 12.18–31. Paul almost always restricts church (“ekklēsia,” see Col 1.24) to refer to the believers in a particular location (the exception is Gal 1.13), but in Col 1 the term encompasses the whole of the Jesus movement. Firstborn from the dead, first to be resurrected. Colossians imitates 1 Cor 15.20, where Christ is the first fruits of the dead. 19:Fullness of God was pleased to dwell, the NRSV supplies “of God”; the nature of the fullness (Gk plērōma) dwelling in the Messiah remains debated. The verse may echo Ps 24 (LXX Ps 23), “The earth is the Lord’s and its fullness,” where the LXX “plērōma” translates the Heb “meloʿah” (“fullness”) 20:Reconcile (Gk “apokatallasso”), appears in the NT only in the Deutero-Pauline letters (Eph 2.16; Col 1.20,22) and in literature only in Christian texts. Paul uses “katallagē/katallasso,” “reconciliation/reconcile” (cf. Rom 5.10) with some frequency; the basic notion is recreating a harmonious relationship (see 1 Cor 7.11 on the reconciliation of an estranged married couple; Rom 5.10 on restoring the peaceful relationship between God and humanity, the meaning it bears in 2 Macc 1.5; 7.33; 8.29). In Colossians, the Christ brings the disparate elements of the universe into harmony. Blood, Jesus’ death serves as an atoning and reconciling sacrifice.

21:Estranged, Gentiles separated from Israel’s God before they heard the good news about the Christ. The Gk word occurs in the NT elsewhere only in Eph 2.12; 4.18. 22:Fleshly body, see Jn 1.14; 1 Cor. 15.35ff. To present you … before him, reconciliation here has a juridical context that entails judgment (v 28). 23a:Provided that you continue, while some Christians, following Calvin, hold that salvation, once granted, is permanent (see e.g., Calvin, Institutes 3.21.7), Colossians holds that reconciliation requires the enduring obedience of the faithful. The faith, for the Deutero-Pauline letters, the connotation of “pistis” shifts from “trust” or “trustworthiness” to “belief” in the sense of doctrine. Proclaimed to every creature, hyperbole indicating that the author knows about the spread of the gospel; “creature” indicates all the elements of creation, not only human beings. In the great chorus of Ps 148, all of God’s creatures are enjoined to praise him; here the image is reversed; all of the creatures of God have been evangelized. Servant, v 25; cf. 1.7n.

23b:Paul, Outside of salutations and conclusions, Paul himself only once uses his name in first-person discourse (Gal 5.2), and there he is being emphatic. The authors of Colossians and Ephesians insert an extra mention of his name to establish Pauline authorship (cf. Eph 3.1). 24:Sufferings, for Paul, to be an apostle is to imitate the Messiah in his suffering (e.g., 2 Cor 4.7–12). The authors of Ephesians and Colossians emphasize this theme (cf. Col 4.3,10,18; Eph 3.1,13; 4.1). Completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, the author borrows from Paul the image of the suffering apostle (e.g., 1 Cor 4.9–13) but adds that this suffering is necessary to complete the Messiah’s mission. A clearer translation might be “completing the sufferings that remain on behalf of the Messiah.” His body, that is, the church, continuing the metaphor from 1.18. In 1 Cor 6.15–20; 12.12–31, Paul develops the metaphor that the members of the church are parts of the Messiah’s body; the Gk words for “body” and “Messiah” appear together frequently (cf. Eph 4.12; 5.23; Col 1.24; 2.11,17; 3.15) but in the NT only in Colossians and Ephesians do the words for “body” and “church” appear together (Eph 5.23; Col 1.18,24). 25:Commission (Gk “oikonomia”), occurs here and in Eph 1.10; 3.2 and 3.9, but only once in Paul’s own letters (1 Cor 9.17). A term from household management, it more accurately means “stewardship” (see Lk 12.42; 16.1,3,8). 26–27:Mystery, lit., “secret revealed to initiates.” The term is more than twice as frequent in the Deutero-Pauline letters as in other NT books. In apocalyptic Judaism, God’s plan for Israel is one of the secrets revealed to the seer (e.g., LXX Dan 2.28; 1 En. 63.3). Here the secret is God’s election of the Gentiles (2.2; 4.3; cf. 3.1–3n). Saints, see 1.2n. Gentiles, Colossians, like Paul’s own letters, addresses Gentile audiences. 28:Mature in Christ, a better translation would be “perfect.” The initiate in the mystery cult is typically called a “teleios,” perfected (e.g., Corpus Hermeticum 4.4).

1:Laodicea, a neighboring city; see 4.13n.; Rev 3.14–22. Josephus records several letters regarding a petition from the Jewish high-priest Hyrcanus (ca. 76–40 bce) to the proconsul that the Jews of Laodicea be allowed to observe their ancestral laws (Ant. 14.241–43). 2:Love (Gk “agapē”), Paul’s term for the virtue that holds diverse parts in harmony (1 Cor 13), appears ten times in Ephesians, and five in Colossians (1.4,8,13; 2.2; 3.14). Mystery, see 1.26–27n. and 3.3n. 4:Plausible arguments, Paul’s word for the kind of intellectual argumentation he opposes is “wisdom” (Gk “Sophia”; 28 times in 1 Cor 1!). In Colossians, wisdom is a virtue, so the author uses “persuasive words” (Gk “pithanologia”) found only here in the NT. 5:Firmness, normally refers to the “firmament” of creation, but in conjunction with Gk “taxis” (“order,” NRSV “morale”) the image is military. This author views the church like an army, organized and disciplined.

6–7:Live your lives … rooted and built up in him … established in the faith … abounding in thanksgiving, four grammatically parallel ways that community members should live. 7:The faith, see 1.23an. 8:Philosophy, except for 4 Macc (1.1; 5.11,22; 7.9,21), the only biblical use of the term. Here philosophy is a negative concept, what Paul called “human wisdom” (1 Cor 2.5), and Colossians associates with “human tradition” (cf. Mk 7.8; Gal 4.3). The author simultaneously condemns Greek philosophical traditions, Jewish ritual, and pagan worship. Jewish tradition had a mixed response to Greek philosophy; Philo calls Plato “most holy” (Good Person 13), but Epicurus is the eponym in rabbinic literature for anti-rabbinic thought (e.g., m. Sanh 10.1: “... these are the ones who have no portion in the world to come: He who says, the resurrection of the dead is a teaching which does not derive from the Torah, and the Torah does not come from Heaven; and an Epicurean”); m. Avot 2.14: “R. Eleazar says, ‘Be constant in learning of Torah, and know what to reply to an Epicurean ...’”). 9–10:Fullness, see 1.19n. Head, see 1.18n. 11:Circumcision, see “Circumcision,” p. 673. These church members want to behave like Jews, not only as regards circumcision, but as regards the liturgical calendar as well (2.16–17). Spiritual circumcision, lit., “circumcision not done by hands.” Putting off … flesh, the author contrasts baptism and circumcision, urging the former and forbidding the latter. Putting off appears in Col 2.11,15; 3.9, but nowhere else in the NT; the NRSV translates each appearance differently. 12:Buried ... in baptism ... also raised, the unusual Gk word “baptismos,” “immersion,” appears otherwise in the NT only in Mk 7.4 and Heb 6.2, rather than the specifically Christian “baptisma,” “baptism,” which occurs 19 times; scribes tried to make the text conform to the more common usage. The passage loosely quotes Rom 6.4 concerning believers who through baptism identify with the Messiah in his dying and rising. Unlike Paul’s own letters, Colossians speaks of resurrection in the present. 13:Uncircumcision (Gk “akrobustia,” lit., “foreskin”), Paul (1 Cor 7.18) is the only biblical author to use the technical medical term. Gentiles were dead with respect to baptism, and their men were dead with respect to circumcision, i.e., their foreskins were intact. Forgave ... our trespasses, reminiscent of Mt 6.12; Lk 11.4. 14: Record, Gk “cheirographon,” used only here in the NT, typically refers to a written contract (cf. Tob 5.3; 9.5). Demands, Gk “dogma,” refers to the terms of the contract. The word appears here and in Eph 2.15, but never in Paul’s own letters. Humanity has a debt to God, repaid by the Messiah’s atoning death. 15:Rulers and authorities, see 1.16n. Disarmed ... triumphing, a parade of vanquished enemies, familiar to Romans. Disarmed, better “stripped naked” (cf. 2.11n.). Public example, the Gk word means “to humiliate” (cf. Mt 1.19); the text emphasizes the public nature by adding triumphing.

16: The author complains about the Colossians observing Jewish dietary laws and calendar rituals (see Rom 14.15,17,20). Food and drink, probably imitates Rom 14.17. Festivals (Gk “heortē”; used in LXX chiefly for Heb “ḥag,” pilgrimage festival, e.g., Ex 10.9); the terms appears in no other NT letter. New moons, or sabbaths, a rare direct LXX echo (e.g., Ezek 4.17; Hos 2.11). Jewish new moon (Heb “rosh chodesh”) rituals (cf. Num 28.11) are never mentioned in the NT but are mentioned by Josephus (cf. Ant 3.238) and the DSS (cf. 11Q5 27.7; 11Q19 43.20). In contrast to the Tanakh, the Mishnah focuses on observing the new moon for establishing festival dates rather than on special observance, although m. Zeb. 5.3; 10.1 describes “rosh chodesh” sacrifices in conjunction with Shabbat sacrifices. Paul himself never mentions Sabbath or “rosh chodesh” observance. 17:Shadow ... substance, despite its negative view of philosophy, Colossians shares with Hebrews and Philo the Platonic view that perceptible reality is a shadow of ultimate reality, only what exists in the mind of God is real and unbiased (Heb 8.5n.; 10.1; Philo, Leg. all. 3.96: “But the shadow of God is his word, which he used like an instrument when he was making the world. And this shadow, and, as it were, model, is the archetype of other things”). 18:Self-abasement, the NRSV perhaps connects Gk “tapeinosphrosune,” “humility,” with asceticism or athletic training. Everywhere else in the NT (Col 2.23; 3.12; Acts 20.9; Eph 4.2; Phil 2.3; 1 Pet 5.5) the NRSV translates “tapeinosphrosune” as “humility”; in Col 2.23 it means a degree of humility with which the author is uncomfortable, an outcome of following Jewish traditions (cf. 3.12; Eph 4.2; Phil 2.3). Worship of angels, both Paul and the authors of the DSS believed that angels were present during the congregation’s worship (1 Cor 11.10; 1QSa 2.9; see “Supernatural Beings,” p. 682). Visions, glimpses of the heavenly realm (see 2 Cor 12.1–10). Puffed up, see 1 Cor 4.6,18,19. 19: Head … body, see 1.18n. 20:Died to the elemental spirits, see (vv 8–15; 2.8n. As if you still belonged to the world, continues the idea that Jesus’ followers are under the Messiah’s rule while outsiders are under supernatural powers governing this world (cf. 1 Cor 15.12–28). 21:Handle … taste … touch, the author mocks Jewish purity laws as trivial. Paul took exception to Gentiles participating in distinctly Jewish practices, but he never viewed Torah as trivial. 22:Human commands and teachings, possibly an echo of Jesus’ complaint against the Pharisees in Mk 7.7 || Mt 15.9, or, less likely another rare LXX reference (Isa 29.13.) 23:Humility, the same word translated “self-abasement” in 2.18 (see 2.18n.). Self-indulgence (Gk “plēsmonē”), a crux for translators, who have difficulty explaining how piety and humility fail to check self-indulgence. It is best to take the sentence as continuing the mocking tone and satirizing an attitude that understands these virtues as vices, where the author quotes his opponents’ ironic use of “wisdom” back to them.

NT letters, like other Greek letters, typically include moral exhortation tied to the letter’s situation. The virtues Colossians promotes, and the vices it condemns, are not connected to the situation in Colossae but reflect general moral concerns.

The paraenesis picks up the theme of 2.12–14, that baptism allows believers to start a new life free of the debt of sin. 1–3:Seated at the right hand, possibly an echo of Ps 110.1, also a common NT motif, appearing twenty-five times (Mk 12.36; 14.62; Acts 2.33–34; Rom 8.34; Eph 1.20; Heb 10.12, etc.). Died, see 2.20n. Hidden … revealed, Colossians suggests the events set in motion by the Messiah’s death and resurrection are presently hidden from view but will be revealed with the Messiah’s return. See 1.26, where the mystery of God’s plan for humankind has been hidden (Gk “apokekrummenon”) but will now be revealed (Gk “ephanerōthē) to the saints; 2.3, where all the mysteries have been hidden (Gk “apokryphoi”). Paul uses more conventional apocalyptic language, where things presently hidden will be “unveiled” (Gk “apokalyptō,” as in Rom 8.18).

5: Pre-baptismal life is described in a vice-list, a common form of moral instruction (Rom 1.29–32; 1 Cor 5.10,11; 6.9–11; Gal 5.19–21; Eph 4.32; 1 Tim 1.9–11; 2 Tim 3.2–5; Titus 3.3; 1 Pet 2.1; Mk 7.21–23 || Mt 15.19; Rev 21.8). See also 1QS 4.9–14; Philo, Spec. Laws 1.281; Chrysippus, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta 3.397). Fornication, prohibited sexual intercourse. Idolatry, connected to sexual vices in Paul’s own letters (e.g., 1 Cor 5.9–10; 6.9–10; 10.7–8) and in Tanakh (e.g., Hos 1.2), but Colossians and Eph 5.5 emphatically connect it with greed. 6:Wrath, describing God’s final judgment (see Rom 1.18; 5.9; etc., and 1 Thess 1.10; 2.16; 5.9). The idea of a day of wrath or “day of YHWH” is at least as old as Amos (cf. Am 5.18–20). 8:Anger … abusive language, there is no hint that the vices mentioned relate to the situation in Colossae. 9–10:Stripped off … clothed, this metaphor may suggest baptism and/or indicate the new life brought by the gospel. Paul uses “enduo,” “dress,” in a baptismal context (Gal 3.27), but also of putting on armor (Rom 13.12,14) and to describe believers dressed in their new resurrection bodies (1 Cor 15.53–57). Old self … new self … image of its creator, the power of the gospel or of baptism, causes believers to become new creations; the last phrase is an allusion to Gen 1.26–27. 11:Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, apparently (cf. 2.11n.) some (Gentile) members of the Colossian church want to become circumcised or have already become so. Barbarian, a person who speaks no Greek. Scythian, in classical literature, the epitome of an uncivilized person (Cicero, Nat. d. 2.34.88). What the author means by contrasting Scythians and slaves is opaque. Some commentators take the two terms as synonymous, but that only compounds the difficulty. The pairs echo 1 Cor 7.19 and Gal 3.28 but serve here to introduce the household codes (Col 3.18–24) and so reinforce rather than mitigate social divisions.

12:Chosen ones (Gk “eklektoi”), the identification of Israel as God’s chosen people (Heb “bachir”), a common expression in Deutero-Isaiah and related texts (e.g., Isa 45.4), becomes a label for Jesus’ followers (see Mk 13.20,22; Lk 18.7; Rom 8.33; 2 Tim 2.10; Titus 1.1; Rev 17.14). The Qumran sectarians saw themselves as the chosen of the chosen (cf. CD 4.3–4: “they are the chosen of Israel, the ones called by name, the ones who stand in the Last Days”). Colossians insists that chosenness confers obligations, an idea that the rabbinic Judaism also promotes, as in Mekhilta, Bachodesh, Yitro, which recounts how all the other nations rejected the Torah because it forbade adultery, stealing, etc., “But when God came to Israel, they all said with one accord, ‘All that the Lord has said, we will do and we will obey’” [citing Ex 24.7]. Compassion … patience, generic virtues balancing the vice list of 3.8 (cf. 1QS 3.25; Did. 1.1–6 || Barn. 18–19). 13:Forgive, perhaps echoing Mt 6.12,14–15; 1 Cor 6.1–8. Cf. Eph 4.32. 14–15:Clothe, the metaphors “strip off” and “clothe” are Christian, influenced by the baptismal liturgy (cf. Gos. Thom. 37). The language suggests a baptismal situation for this section of Col. Love (Gk “agapē”), the highest virtue in which congregants should dress. See 2.2n.; 1 Cor 13. Body, see 1.18n. 16:Word of Christ, unique to Colossians, where it seems equivalent to “good news of the Christ.” Teach and admonish, cf. 1.28. Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, cf. Eph 5.19. There is nothing to differentiate the three types of songs here; the author is not referring specifically to the biblical Psalms. 17:God the Father, see 1n.

“Haustafeln” (see Introduction to Colossians) governing the patriarchal family appear also in Eph 5.22–6.9 and 1 Pet 2.18–3.7 and in Hellenistic Jewish sources (e.g., Josephus, Ag. Ap. 2.199–203; Philo, Decalogue 165–167). Husbands … fathers … masters are exhorted to behavior that undercuts the social leveling implied by Christ’s new rule (cf. 3.11n.). 18–19:Be subject (Gk “hypotasso”), accept the husband’s authority; see 1 Cor 14.34, which strong manuscript indications—scribes in the “non-Western” manuscript tradition located these verses at various places within the epistle—suggest is an interpolation. Colossians names at least one woman with authority, Nympha (see 4.15n.). 19:Love your wives, of the 141 examples of Gk “agape” in the NT, only in Colossians and Ephesians, is the word used in regard to marital love (cf. Eph 5.25,28,33). Elsewhere it describes the love of God or Jesus, or love among community members. In the LXX, “agapaō” (the verbal form of “agape”) describes marital love some thirty times (e.g., Gen 24.67). 20–21: See Eph 6.1–4 and annotations. The first readers of Colossians might have connected admonitions addressed to children with the fifth commandment (Ex 20.12 || Deut 5.16). 3.22–4.1: See Eph 6.5–9. For Paul as for the author of Colossians, slave owners and slaves are both subject to the Christ, but neither author condemns slavery itself (cf. 3.11; see also Philemon). 23:Lord … masters, slaves are to obey their masters as children are to obey their parents. 25:Paid back … partiality, Gk “prosōpolēmpsia” is a Hebraism, “to grasp the face,” as in Deut 10.17; cf. Rom 2.11; Eph 6.9; Jas 2.1. 4.1:Treat your slaves justly and fairly, requirements on the proper treatment of slaves in the Tanakh are based on two principles, that Israelite slaves are human beings who deserve humane treatment (generally speaking, the laws of Lev 25.39–43 and Deut 15.12–18), and that slaves are property which must be handled with probity (Ex 21.20–27)

2:Keeping alert, Gk “grēgoreō,” appears throughout the NT as the proper attitude for prayer (Mk 13.35,37; Acts 20.31; 1 Cor 16.31; Rev 16.15; etc.). 3:Door for the word, used by Paul (1 Cor 16.9; 2 Cor 2.12) for an opportunity to travel to proclaim the gospel. Mystery, see 1.26–27n.; here a synonym for “word of the Christ” (see 3.16). Prison, see 4.10. 5:Making the most (Gk “exagorazomenoi”), a word from the realm of commerce (“agora,” “forum, marketplace”) meaning “buy back.” The phrase occurs only in the Deutero-Paulines (here and Eph 5.16), whose audiences have been given an opportunity (see translators’ note a); they can better acquit themselves in the final judgment by behaving appropriately now. 6:Seasoned with salt, making speech interesting or witty (Plutarch, On Talkativeness 514ef, who is not entirely enamored of the quality).

The author mentions names from Paul’s letters, especially Philemon and Acts. 7:Tychicus, see Acts 20.4; Eph 6.21; 2 Tim 4.12; Titus 3.12. Fellow servant, lit., “fellow-slave”; see 1.7n. 9:Onesimus, the subject of Philem. 10:Aristarchus, Acts 19.29; 20.4; 27.2, and Philem 24. Fellow prisoner, the term is borrowed from Paul, who uses it to describe Epaphras in Philem 23, and in Rom 16.7 of Andronicus and Junia. The author of Colossians maintains the fiction that he is Paul, imprisoned in Philippi. Mark, Philem 24; see also Acts 12.12,25; perhaps 13.13; 15.37–39; possibly 1 Pet 5.13. Cousin, Acts closely associates Mark with Barnabas (Acts 12.25; 15.37,39); the author of Colossians concludes that they were cousins. Christian tradition, via Papias of Hierapolis (second century), makes Mark Peter’s disciple and author of the Second Gospel (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 39.15). Barnabas, Paul’s mentor (see Acts 9.27; 11.22,30; 14.12); both Acts 15.36–39 and Gal 2.13 suggest he and Paul parted on poor terms; Colossians, with its theme of reconciliation, presents them in fellowship. 11:Jesus … Justus, double names (one Heb, one Gk or Lat) elsewhere in the NT: Saul (Heb “Shaʾul”) and Paul (Acts 13.9); John (“Ioannēn/Yoanan”) and Mark (“Marcus”) (Acts 12.12). The circumcision, Jewish members of the Jesus movement. Colossians distinguishes Jew from Greek, and circumcision from foreskin (cf. 2.11n.). 12:Epaphras, see 1.7n. In Philem 23, Epaphras is Paul’s “fellow prisoner”; here that distinction goes to Aristarchus. Servant (Gk “doulos”), slave. Wrestling, mature, see 1.28n. Laodicea … Hierapolis, cities near Colossae. 14:Luke, 2 Tim 4.11; Philem 24. Only here in the NT is Luke identified as a physician. Demas, 2 Tim 4.10; Philem 24. 15:Nympha, owner of the house church, site of local gathering and worship (see Rom 16.5; 1 Cor 16.9). Her name, meaning “bride,” sounds generic, but two Jewish women with this name lived in the fourth and the fifth centuries ce Sicily (CIJ 651–2). 16:Letter from Laodicea, this letter is not known, but might be Eph. 17:Archippus, in Philem 2, Paul called Archippus “fellow soldier.” Colossians makes him the recipient of a private message, “See that you complete the task… .” 18: The author, adding verisimilitude, includes Paul’s fictive signature (cf. 1 Cor 16.21; Gal 6.11; 2 Thess 3.17–18). Chains, or “imprisonment,” cf. Phil 1.7–14 and Col 4.3n.,10n. Grace be with you, the ending of the letter is truncated as compared to Paul’s own letters, but all of Paul’s letters, the Deutero-Paulines, and the Pastorals end with this phrase.