TH

INTRODUCTION.

HE authenticity of the Epistle to the Colossians as being the writing of St. Paul, and received from the first as Canonical, has never been doubted in the Christian Church till the present century. It has latterly been pronounced by some German critics to contain references to Gnostical heresies which were not developed till a later period. We shall show, however, that the germs of Gnosticism were abroad in the world long before this.

There are apparent allusions to some of its statements in Clement of Rome and the longer recension of Ignatius, but the first undeniable reference is in

Justin Martyr, ch. lxxxv.: "For every demon, when exorcised in the name of this very Son of God-Who is the firstborn of every creature." (Dial. lxxxv.) "We have been taught that Christ is the firstborn of God." (Apol. xlvi.)

In the Muratorian Fragment of the Canon it is reckoned as fourth among the Pauline Epistles. "Ad Corinthios (prima), ad Ephesios (secunda) ad Philippenses (tertia) ad Colossienses (quarta)," &c.

Irenæus quotes the Epistle to the Colossians nearly twenty times. Thus Book iii. 14: "And again he says in the Epistle to the Colossians, Luke the beloved Physician greets you."

66

Clement of Alexandria quotes this Epistle about twenty-five times. In the Stromata, i. 1, he mentions it by name: Also in the Epistle to the Colossians he writes, admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom" (i. 28).

Tertullian quotes the Epistle frequently; sometimes by name, thus:-"He testifieth of philosophy by name that it ought to be shunned: writing to the Colossians, 'Beware lest any one beguile you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men,'

CITY OF COLOSSE.

Colossæ (or Colosse) was formerly a large city of Phrygia, within a short distance (twelve miles) of two others, Laodicea and Hierapolis, and situated in the valley of the Lycus, a tributary of the Meander, which it joins a few miles further down to the west. In the time of St. Paul it was a declining city, and the ruins which remain are of no architectural importance. Xenophon describes Colossæ in his time as a great city, populous and flourishing; and Pliny classes it amongst the oppida celeberrima of Phrygia; and so it continued for some centuries after the Christian era, decaying, however, gradually, and Chonas, three miles to the south, at the foot of the mountain, grew up in its place. It is now absolutely uninhabited.

A most interesting account of the cities of the Lycus is given by Bishop Lightfoot in the preface to his volume on the Epistle to the Colossians, but it seems to throw no light whatsoever on the contents of the Epistle. A remarkable circumstance, however, mentioned by Theodoret, seems to show that the cultus of angels reached far into Christian times. "Those who upheld the law also induced them to worship angels, saying that the law had been given through their intervention. This evil custom remained long in Phrygia and Pisidia. Hence a synod, which met in Laodicea of Phrygia, prohibited by law the worship of angels, and to this very day an oratory, dedicated to St. Michael, is to be seen in these parts."

The Byzantine writer, Nicetas Choniates, who was a native of Chonas, also makes mention of it. The neighbourhood (visited by Pococke) was explored by Mr. Arundell ("Seven Churches," p. 158; "Asia Minor," ii., p. 160), but Mr. Hamilton was the first to determine the actual site of the ancient city, which appears to be at some little distance from the modern village of Chonas. ("Researches in Asia Minor," i., p. 508, abridged from Smith's "Bible Dictionary.")

INTRODUCTION.

5

BY WHOM WAS COLOSSE FIRST EVANGELIZED?

We should gather from i. 7, "As ye have (" also " to be omitted) learned of Epaphras," &c., that Epaphras was the first preacher of the Gospel to them.

66

Alford and Bishop Lightfoot, and most expositors, consider that St. Paul includes the Colossians, to whom he was writing, when he speaks of as many as have not seen my face in the flesh." The remarks of the latter are, "this is a purely grammatical question; therefore it is uncertain whether St. Paul's language here implies his personal acquaintance with his correspondents, or the contrary. But in all such cases the sense of the context must be our guide. In the present instance, kai öσo is quite out of place, unless the Colossians and Laodiceans also were personally unknown to the Apostle. There would be no meaning in singling out individuals who were unknown to him, and then mentioning comprehensively all who were unknown to him. Hence we may infer from the expression here that St. Paul had never visited Colosse."

On the other hand, Theodoret amongst the ancients, and Dr. Lardner amongst the moderns, have contended that St. Paul first evangelized this and the two neighbouring cities. Alford, in his Prolegomena to this Epistle, gives sixteen reasons from Lardner why St. Paul should have been their Evangelist. The great point which seems to turn the scale in favour of Epaphras having been the founder of the Church, is that the Apostle never claims to be their spiritual father as he does in the cases of the Thessalonian, Corinthian, Galatian, and Philippian Churches (1 Thess. i. 5; ii. i-4; Gal. i. 6; 1 Cor. iii. 6.10; Phil. ii. 16). If he had been their father in Christ, much referred to in the Epistle would have led him to claim their obedience on that score.

FOR WHAT PURPOSE WAS THIS EPISTLE WRITTEN?

A large portion of this Epistle is directly controversial or polemic. The whole of the second chapter is written to warn his converts against (apparently) two forms of false teaching, the one Judaizing, the other Gnosticism. He sometimes has the one prin

cipally before him, as when he writes: "Let no man judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days" (ii. 16). And he looks apparently to the other as a distinct form of evil teaching when he writes: "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind" (ii. 18). This latter certainly, at first sight, does not seem to present any features of a perverted Judaism, and yet there is an almost general consensus of authorities that St. Paul contended against one heresy-the Colossian heresy-so called because it seems at that time to be peculiar to this and perhaps the two neighbouring cities; and not to have been so rife at Ephesus, inasmuch as in the Epistle to the Ephesians the Apostle seems to take no notice of it.

The following account of it is given by Dollinger: "The wonted Judaism in its Pharasaic form, to which nothing was so dear as the universal force of the law, and the perpetual prerogatives of the Jewish Nationality-the Judaism St. Paul attacked so sharply -never succeeded in forming separate congregations, at least for any time, and in the later Apostolic period this danger seems to have been no longer important. On the other hand, a doctrine of far more seductive tendency crept increasingly into the communities-a Gnostic Judaism-producing serious disorders, and entailing on the Apostles and their first successors a difficult contest. It is uncertain when, and under what influences, this Gnostic tendency and admixture of Jewish and Gentile teaching found entrance among the Jews of the dispersion. In Palestine it only appeared among the Essenes, and there is no trace of their spreading or having influence out of Palestine. We can only say that the old Orphic Pythagorean ideas, and the notion long before brought into the West by the Babylonian Magicians of various classes of Demons, both higher and ministering spirits, and the conditions of their action, had gained admission also amongst the Jews of Asia Minor."

"The false teachers against whom Paul warned the believers of Colossæ were Jewish converts, who held to the law and circumcision, and required an observance of the Old Testament rules about meats, and the Jewish feasts and moons, and Sabbaths. To this they added, against the body as the defiling prison of the soul, a violent and unmeasured Asceticism, and an angel worship