Writer: Paul

3. What does the letter of Colossians itself reveal regarding the writer, as well as the time and place of writing?

³ The apostle Paul was the writer of this letter, as he states in its opening and closing words. (1:1; 4:18) His conclusion states also that he wrote it from prison. This would be the time of his first imprisonment in Rome, 59-61 C.E., when he wrote a number of letters of encouragement, the letter to the Colossians being dispatched along with the one to Philemon. (Col. 4:7-9; Philem. 10, 23) It appears it was written about the same time as the letter to the Ephesians, as many ideas and phrases are the same.

4. What testifies to the genuineness of Colossians?

⁴ There are no grounds for doubting the authenticity of the letter to the Colossians. Its presence with other Pauline epistles in the Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 2 (P⁴⁶) of about 200 C.E. shows that it was accepted by the early Christians as one of Paul’s letters. Its genuineness is testified to by the same early authorities who testify to the authenticity of Paul’s other letters.

5. (a) What prompted Paul’s writing to the Colossians? (b) What does the letter emphasize?

⁵ What prompted Paul to write a letter to the Colossians? For one thing, Onesimus was going back to Colossae. Epaphras had recently joined Paul, and no doubt his report on conditions at Colossae provided a further reason for the letter. (Col. 1:7, 8; 4:12)