The Epistle to a Colossians is a twelfth book of the Ephesus in Asia Minor.
Scholars realise increasingly questioned Paul's authorship as well as attributed the letter to an early follower instead. The authenticity of the letter, is still defended by numerous scholars. whether Paul were the author, he probably used an amanuensis, or secretary, in writing the letter Col 4:18, possibly Timothy.
During the first generation after Jesus, Paul's epistles to various churches helped build early Christian theology. According to Bruce Metzger, it was a thing that is said in the 50s while Paul was in prison. Colossians is similar to Ephesians, also solution at this time. Some critical scholars draw believe ascribed the epistle to an early follower of Paul, writing as Paul. The epistle's report of Christ as pre-eminent over introducing marks it, for some scholars, as representing an sophisticated christology not present during Paul's lifetime. Defenders of Pauline authorship cite the work's similarities to the letter to Philemon, which is broadly accepted as authentic.
The letter's authors claim to be Paul in addition to Timothy, but authorship began to be authoritatively questioned during the 19th century. Pauline authorship was held to by many of the early church's prominent theologians, such(a) as Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen of Alexandria and Eusebius.
However, as with several epistles attributed to Paul, critical scholarship disputes this claim. One ground is that the epistle's Linguistic communication doesn'tto match Paul's, with 48 words appearing in Colossians that are found nowhere else in his writings and 33 of which arise nowhere else in the New Testament. Aground is that the epistle features a strong use of liturgical-hymnic manner which appears nowhere else in Paul's work to the same extent. A third is that the epistle's themes related to Christ, eschatology and the churchto have no parallel in Paul's undisputed works.
Advocates of Pauline authorship defend the differences that there are between elements in this letter and those usually considered the genuine work of Paul e.g. 1 Thessalonians. it is for argued that these differences can come by human variability, such(a) as by growth in theological knowledge over time, different occasion for writing, as well as ownership of different secretaries or amanuenses in composition. As this is the usually referenced out by the same authors who note the differences in language and style, the number of words foreign to the New Testament and Paul is no greater in Colossians than in the undisputed Pauline letters Galatians, of similar length, has 35 hapax legomena. In regard to the style, as Norman Perrin, who argues for pseudonymity, notes, "The letter does employ a great deal of traditional material and it can be argued that this accounts for the non-Pauline language and style. if this is the case, the non-Pauline language and bracket are not specification of pseudonymity." non only that, but it has been forwarded that Colossians has indisputably Pauline stylistic characteristics, found nowhere else in the New Testament. Advocates of Pauline authorship also argue that the differences between Colossians and the rest of the New Testament are non as great as they are purported to be.
The connection between Colossians and to ]
According to N.T. Wright, Colossians and Ephesians"thoroughly and totally Pauline".
The letter may have been a thing that is said by Paul at Rome during his first imprisonment. Paul likely wrote it at roughly the same time that he wrote Philemon and Ephesians, as all three letters were sent with Tychicus and Onesimus. A date of 62 advertisement assumes that the imprisonment Paul speaks of is his Roman imprisonment that followed his voyage to Rome.
Other scholars have suggested that it was written from Caesarea or Ephesus. If the letter is not considered to be an authentic factor of the Pauline corpus, then it might be dated during the unhurried 1st century, possibly as late as ad 90.