Colossians

Colossians is a tough call for me. Although a growing number of scholars believe that the letter is not authentic to Paul, I am not sure.

The central issue that the letter addresses is the development of mystical views within the church. There seems to be a group of people who worship angels and are deluded with visionary experiences (2: 18-19). The author of the letter points out that this love of higher experience is really a form of self-centeredness. It is based on human achievement, and has nothing to do with the unity of Christ which comes as a gift from God. This argument could certainly have come from Paul.

Within the letter, there is so much that sounds like Paul. Christians are reconciled to God by the death of Christ on the cross (1: 22). Christ overrides the Law (2: 14). Rules no longer play a role in religious life (2: 20-23). With regard to circumcision, one is circumcised not by a human hand, but the whole body is stripped of flesh through a relationship with Christ. (2: 11-12) Good behavior flows from a recreated self (3:10). Finally, church meetings take place in a house (4: 16). There is no hint of an established church organization which came after Paul, and is an important factor in declaring other letters to be not authentic.

Scholars who suggest that the letter was not written by Paul point out that the vocabulary and sentence structure are different from the original letters. They also suggest that there are hints of a realized eschatology, the idea that the kingdom has already arrived in some form. The author claims that Christian believers have both died and been raised with Christ (2: 12-13). In the authentic letters, Paul insists that Christians are not raised to heaven until the second coming of Christ.

Another hint that the author may not be Paul comes in 3:11. The author states the famous Pauline formula that all are one in Christ—Jew/Gentile, slave/free—but omits male/female. This omission may point to a different author or may be nothing more than an omission. When all the evidence is taken together, I think it is safe to conclude that the letter was written by Paul or by a close disciple shortly after Paul’s death.