All I need is about 3/4 a page answering this question “Please explain in your own words how Paul answers the challenges posed by the trouble in Collosae by inserting the Collosian hymn into his letter.” With the use of this powerpoint.

St Paul
Colossians

general situation
• Colossians purports to be written as a letter by the
apostle Paul,
• along with Timothy (1:1), through the services of a
scribe (4:18)
• this letter is addressed to the Christians in Colossae,
• a city in Phrygia located inland from Ephesus on the
south side of the river Lycus in western Asia Minor
• Paul himself did not found the Colossian church (2:1)
• the letter suggests that his link to the Christians
there may have developed through Epaphras,
• who had worked among them (1:7–8) and from
whom he sends them greetings (4:12)
• according to the text, Paul composed the letter
while in prison (4:3, 18; see 4:10; 1:24)
• if the letter was composed or endorsed by Paul,
• then it was written during one of Paul’s
imprisonments, that is,
• either in Ephesus (during the mid 50s)
• or in Rome (which would imply a date around
60, just prior to the earthquake which struck
the Lycus region in 60–1)
• at least four reasons which led to the writing of the letter
may be identified
• firstly, the author wishes to respond to problems which
he has heard have become the source of conflict and
uncertainty among members of the Christian community
at Colossae
• these problems are initially introduced suggestively in
2:4 (‘that no one might deceive you through plausible
arguments’; cf. ‘philosophy’, verse 8), and then openly
confronted in 2:8–23 (specific issues raised: verses
11, 13 – circumcision; verses 16, 21 – dietary laws;
verse 16 – calendrical regulations; verse 18 – ‘worship
of angels’; verses 18, 20–3 – ascetic practices)
• secondly, Paul uses the letter as an opportunity to have
Tychicus, who is to deliver the letter,
• report to the Colossians about his and Epaphras’
condition (2:1; 4:18) and
• to communicate their concern for the Colossians (4:10;
cf. 2:1–5)
• thirdly, the letter is sent through Tychicus as he returns with
a certain slave Onesimus, who is from Colossae (4:7–9)
• this purpose links Colossians to Paul’s letter to Philemon,
in which Paul sends a covering letter to accompany
Onesimus as he is returned to his owner (see under
Philemon below)
• finally, to a certain extent the letter was not only
addressed to the Colossians,
• but was also meant to be read aloud before the
Christian community in Laodicea (cf. 2:1) to whom
a separate letter (not preserved) had also been sent
(4:16)
• the letter is broadly structured in much the same way as
other letters attributed to Paul
• it is framed on the one side by an opening address with
greeting (1:1–2), and on the other by a series of personal
greetings (4:7–18)
• in between, the letter proceeds with
• an extensive thanksgiving and prayer (1:3–23),
• statements affirming Paul’s commitment to the gospel
and to the Colossians, Laodiceans, and others who
have not seen him (1:24–2:5),
• and the main theme of the letter (2:6–4:6)
• the structure includes two main features which
seem to depart from what one may have expected
of a letter from Paul:
• (1) the surprising length devoted to the
introductory matters before the main theme of
the letter is articulated (1:1–2:5); and
• (2) the inclusion of a series of household codes in
the otherwise customary exhortations at the end
(3:18–4:1)
trouble at Colossae
• Colossians is clearly addressed to a Christian community
undergoing what the writer regarded as a theological crisis
• the problems in Colossae have been generated by teachings
that have threatened to undermine the readers’ Christian identity
• the document does not tell us whether those responsible for
these teachings originated from
• within the community of Colossae,
• from a rival local Jewish or pagan religious group, or from the
outside
• it is not clear, for instance, whether Archippus, who in
4:17 is urged to ‘complete the task’ he has received
in the Lord,
• is being challenged as one who in some way
exemplifies the troubles introduced by the
opponents
• or as one who is simply being encouraged to follow
through with his calling
• thus, in the absence of any data arising from persons
mentioned in the letter,
• we are left to infer a profile of the opponents on the
basis of ideas attributed to them in the text
• in addition to clues from the letter,
• any portrait of the opponents must
• be consistent with what can be known about the
local religious environment, on the one hand,
• and – because of the references to ‘circumcision’
(2:11, 13), ‘feasts, new moons, and
sabbaths’ (2:16) and ‘worship of angels’ (2:18) –
• with what can be known about possible
expressions of Jewish tradition in Asia Minor,
on the other
• perhaps the most important text for determining the
profile and nature of the opponents is the enigmatic
reference to ‘angels’ in 2:18
• the text of 2:18 may be translated as follows:
• ‘do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on
humility [or self-abasement] and worship of [or
together with] angels, which things he has seen
when entering, puffed up without cause by the
mind of his flesh’
• religious ‘syncretism’ behind 2:18, in which the notion
of local religious influences at Colossae is combined
with the possibility of a Jewish presence
• one reconstruction of the opponents that has won
considerable support in recent years has placed the
opponents’ teachings
• against the backdrop of a more thoroughgoing
Jewish apocalyptic form of asceticism
• according to this view,
• the ‘worship of angels’ is to be interpreted as a
reprehensible aspiration to participate in
angelic worship,
• while the ascetic practices of ‘humility’ and
dietary regulations are considered as ways of
preparing for visionary experiences in which
these angels are observed
• taken together, these considerations allow for the
following profile of the opponents:
• (1) they were Christians well acquainted with Jewish
practices and ascetic-mystical traditions, and thus
perhaps Christian Jews
• (2) they advocated a series of practices through which
one could identify and measure spiritual maturity:
• circumcision, observance of special days of the
calendar, dietary regulations, and participation in
visionary experiences in which angels played a
significant role
from the opponents to a theological response
• the author discourages the Colossian Christians from
becoming involved in a series of practices which he
regards as superfluous to one’s basic identity in Christ
• the desire to participate in angelic worship is
dangerous because it detracts from the all-sufficiency
of Christ, in whom the fullness of God resides (2:9)
• the ascetic preparations for mystical visions,
• the quasi-angelic existence achieved through
participation in heavenly worship, and
• the possibility of becoming infatuated with the
angels themselves
• all threaten to diminish the completeness of God’s
self-disclosure through the person of Christ
• in stark contrast, the author is convinced that the
opponents and those who are influenced by them
have sacrificed the all-encompassing significance of
Christ to a dualistic worldview that breeds a false
sense of superiority (2:18b)
• in reality, the practices required by those troubling
Christians in Colossae do not lead to spiritual
maturity and ‘wisdom’ at all (2:23), but are rather a
shadowy illusion (2:17; cf. 2:4b)
• for the opponents, living in the ‘flesh’ is to be
denounced as a yielding to base human appetites
• for the author, however, the problem of the ‘flesh’ is
reconceived from above;
• fleshly living is the result when, fuelled by spiritual
arrogance, the opponents ignore the salvific
importance of life in the body
• the author rejects a cosmology that subordinates life
below to a heavenly state of spiritual maturity;
• Christ is not to be placed in the service of
cosmology (2:20) or philosophy (2:8)
• thus for him Christ is cosmology (1:15–20),
• Christ is wisdom (2:3), and
• Christ is spirituality, the beginning and end of religious
maturity (1:28; 2:6–7; 3:1–4)
• this redefinition of values on the basis of christology is
an important reason why the author urges his
Colossian readers to continue to remain loyal to the
tradition they received when they became Christians
(2:6–7)
• it is not surprising that once the author has
vehemently condemned the opponents’ views, his
exhortations to the Colossians are decidedly
christocentric in character:
• the Colossians are to seek ‘the things that are
above, where Christ is’ (3:1)
• ‘let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts’ (3:15)
• ‘let the word of Christ dwell in you richly’ (3:16)
• do ‘everything in the name of the Lord Jesus’ (3:17)
• ‘serve the Lord Christ’ (3:24)
• and recognize that there is ‘a Master in
heaven’ (4:1)
the Colossian hymn
• although statements about Christ in Colossians were no
doubt formulated in such a way as to respond to the
issues posed by the opponents,
• the author also may have drawn on tradition to support
his position
• this is likely in the case of the Christ-hymn of 1:15–20
• the hymn, which shows no signs of a polemic against
opposing views, makes a grand claim in the way it
links Jesus’ death by crucifixion to cosmology
• inspired by reflection on the reconciling
significance of Jesus’ death for both earthly and
heavenly spheres of creation (verse 20),
• the tradition begins with the conclusion that the
crucified Christ, God’s Son (verse 13), must
therefore have been God’s agent through whom
all of creation, whether visible or invisible, came
into being (verse 16)
• the former claim is reminiscent of Pauline
statements about the death of Jesus as a
conciliatory event (cf. Rom. 5:10; 1 Cor. 7:11; 2
Cor. 5:18–20),
• while the latter recalls Paul’s statement in 1 Cor.
8:6 (cf. further Heb. 1:3 and John 1:1–3)
• here, however, the explicit link between the preexistent agency of Christ as God’s Son and the
death of Jesus is more clearly articulated in the
hymn than before (cf. Phil. 2:6–11; 2 Cor. 8:9)
• the content of the hymn in its entirety would have
been without religious-historical precedent, especially
outside the early Christian communities
• nevertheless, the sapiential background to the hymn
is important
• some early Jewish documents suggest how much
the hymn’s claims about Christ build on the notion
of ‘wisdom’ that could be described as if a
personified being alongside God
• like Christ, ‘wisdom’ could be regarded as
• ‘firstborn’ in creation (Prov. 8:22, 25; Philo, Ebr.
30–1; Quaest. Gen. 4.97),
• being ‘before all things’ (Sir. 1:4),
• holding ‘all things together’ (Wis. 1:6–7),
• being the ‘image of the invisible God’ (Wis. 7:26),
• and as having participated in the fashioning of ‘all
things’ (Prov. 3:19; 8:22–31; Ps. 104:24; and
esp. Wis. 7:22; 8:2, 4–5; 9:2)
• if the troublemakers in Colossae were laying claim to a
superior wisdom and to a level of experience that
goes beyond Christ,
• then the transfer of functions from ‘wisdom’ as a
divine attribute to Christ in the hymn would, on the
grounds of a Christ-cosmology, have rendered this
claim categorically impossible from the start
• elsewhere in the letter, the author creatively adapted
language from the hymn to emphasize how a proper
understanding of Christ makes the opponents’
teachings superfluous
• firstly, whereas the hymn refers to Christ as ‘the
head of the body, the church’ (1:18), the author
both retains this notion (3:15) and goes beyond it
by identifying the ‘body’ more directly with Christ
(1:22, 24; 2:16, 19)
• any life inside the church that does not
immediately derive from and reflect the preeminence of Christ is thus precluded (3:15–17)
• secondly, the emphasis of the hymn on Christ’s
agency in the creation of ‘all things’ and sustenance
of ‘all things’ in him (verses 16–17) provides the
author with a warrant to claim that in Christ ‘are
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge’ (2:3; cf. 1:9)
• moreover, if in Christ the fabric of the cosmos is
held together, then it is only in Christ as head
(2:19), life (3:4), and source of wisdom and
knowledge (2:6) that the Christian community as
a whole will grow into maturity (2:6, 19) and
social relationships among its members will be
properly ordered (3:18–4:1)
• thirdly, the hymn’s emphasis that thrones,
dominions, rulers, and powers were – along with
everything else – created through the agency of
Christ (1:16)
• helps the author diminish the importance being
attached to the angelic and elemental powers
which the readers are being tempted to adhere to
(2:8, 18, 20)
• fourthly, in addition to Christ’s pre-eminence over
creation, the hymn identifies Christ as ‘firstborn
from the dead’ (1:18), a clear reference to his
resurrection
• this death and resurrection motif is transferred by
the author into statements about the Christian
community
• the Christ event not only has brought forgiveness
of sins and reconciliation (1:13, 20, 21; 2:13), but
is the very framework within which the readers
are to structure their lives
the household code
• in addition to ideas contained in the Christ-hymn, the
author seems to have drawn on some form of tradition in
formulating rules for the household in 3:18–4:1
• the rules are paralleled by similar collections of codes
adapted by other early Christian writers (especially Eph.
5:22–6:9; 1 Pet. 2:18–3:7),
• which, in turn, reflect the importance attached by
Graeco-Roman philosophers, historiographers, and
Hellenistic Jewish writers to ‘household management’
as integral to the proper ordering of society
• within the context of Colossians, the regulations serve
a double function
• on the one hand, over against the opponents, they
assist the author in arguing that spiritual maturity
should not be looked for outside the network of
social structures of the present world
• on the other hand, the entire system of social
relationships is relativized or even held in check
• submission in each of the relationships is to be
adhered to in accordance with what is ‘fitting in
the Lord’ (3:18 – wives to husbands), ‘pleasing in
the Lord’ (3:20 – children to parents), and
showing respect and rendering service to ‘the
Lord’ (3:22, 23, 24 – servants to masters)
• slave-owners are reminded that they are no different
from slaves before God,
• who is impartial (3:25)
• and to whom they must answer as their ‘master in
heaven’ (4:1)
• the code in Colossians, therefore,
• shows how instructions in relation to social
institutions functioned as a means of articulating a
Christian social identity by an author who is
delicately negotiating between specific internal and
broader external issues encountered by the
community
• Thus the code governing social relationships laid out
in 3:18–4:1 is not simply reflections of a status quo; it
is qualified at every opportunity by the author’s
appeals to Christ through phrases such as ‘in the
Lord’ (3:18, 20), ‘fearing the Lord’ (3:22), ‘as to the
Lord’ (3:23), ‘you serve the Lord Christ’ (3:24), ‘you
also have a Master in heaven’ (4:1)