You will recall that in considering the chronological development of the New Testament (NT), we have looked at the documents in this order: 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Philippians, Romans and the Gospel of Mark. We now consider Paul’s Letter to the Colossians.

It is almost certainly the earliest of the letters attributed to Paul but not actually written by him. Its strongest literary connections are to Ephesians, whose author most likely knew Colossians. Ephesians was most likely written no later than around the year 90 CE, and thus Colossians must have been written earlier, probably in the 80s.

A minority of mainline scholars argue that Colossians is even earlier, because it was written by Paul himself. The letter not only says so, but it has the classic form of a Pauline letter. It begins with the author identifying himself, the naming of the addressees, and an introductory blessing: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” It continues with a prayer of thanksgiving and, after the body of the letter, concludes with a closing greeting and blessing: “Grace be with you.

But in style and content, it differs significantly from the seven genuine letter of Paul. Its sentences are much longer and more complex (obscured in some editions of the NT [NRSV] because they break up the sentences into shorter units for sake of clarity). Its content not only does beyond what is in the seven genuine letters, but sometimes conflicts with them.

For example, recall that Paul’s letter to the Galatians affirms that Jew and Gentile, male and female, and slave and free are all one in Christ and that his letter to Philemon asserts that a Christian master may not have a Christian slave. When Colossians (3:11) echoes Galatians, it does not mention the equality of male and female. A few verses later, the earliest NT example of what are called household codes begins. It includes the subordination of wives to husbands and slaves to masters. “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting to the Lord” (3:18). Slaves are to be obedient to their “earthly masters in everything, not only while being watched and in order to please them, but wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord” (3:22). The radicalism of Paul’s early communities is being accommodated to the hierarchical normalcy of the Roman world.

The letter is addressed to Christians in Colossae and Laodicea, two cities near each other in western Asia Minor. According to the letter itself, Paul did not know these communities in person; he was not their founder and had not visited them. The letter is called one of the “prison letters” because of its closing: “Remember my chains.” The author, assuming it was not Paul, knew that Paul had been imprisoned.

The highly developed Christology of Colossians would seem to indicate a later imprisonment, most likely the traditional Roman house arrest.