Colossians

Colossians , New Testament letter. It was written to the Christians of Colossae and Laodicea, ostensibly by Paul while he was in prison, presumably in Rome (c.AD 60). Its writing was provoked by the appearance of false teachers who taught some sort of gnostic doctrine involving either the worship of angels or the worship of God in mystical communion with the angels, and ascetic and ritual observance evocative of Jewish practice. Some scholars argue that Colossians is a pseudonymous work. In support of this contention, they cite passages asserting that believers have already been raised with Jesus. In the undisputed Pauline letters (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon), Paul views the resurrection as a future hope for believers, not a fact of present experience. The conventional and patriarchal morality espoused in the so-called Household Codes of chapters 3 and 4 has no parallel in the undisputed Paulines. Colossians is similar to Ephesians in theological outlook. It features a hymn to Jesus as the head of the cosmos and the Church, and it emphasizes the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ.

Bibliography: See P. T. O'Brien, Colossians and Philemon (1982).

Colossians, Letter to the. An epistle of Paul and book of the New Testament.

Colossians, Epistle to the Book of the New Testament taking the form of a letter written by either Saint Paul or a disciple to the Church at Colossae in sw Phrygia (central Turkey). The letter, written from prison in Rome (c.ad 61), is a warning to the Colossians not to adopt ideas from other faiths and philosophies that may undermine the supremacy of Jesus Christ.