{"id":56961,"date":"2015-03-22T12:09:41","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T19:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=56961"},"modified":"2015-05-26T16:22:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T23:22:48","slug":"colossian-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2015\/03\/22\/colossian-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Colossian Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Colossae\"As I mentioned before<\/a>, I’m currently updating the New Testament questions and answers<\/a> which I run through at the beginning of every Bible study. Today I\u2019d like to cover the questions surrounding Colossians:<\/p>\n

58.\u00a0What was Paul’s situation when writing Colossians?<\/strong>
\nThe evidence seems to point to the same situation as the other captivity epistles (Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians). He is in Rome under house arrest in approximately AD 62.<\/p>\n

59.\u00a0Had Paul ever been to Colossae?<\/strong>
\nNo, but he had stayed in nearby Ephesus for three years.<\/p>\n

60.\u00a0Who founded the Church at Colossae?<\/strong>
\nA Colossian native called “Epaphras”<\/span>\u00a0appears to have been converted through Paul’s ministry and first taken\u00a0the gospel to Colossae.<\/p>\n

61. So why did Paul write to the Colossians?<\/strong>
\nIt seems Epaphras visited Paul in Rome and asked him to write to this nascent congregation to speak to\u00a0the various heresies attacking the Church in Colossae.<\/p>\n

62.\u00a0What were the heresies with which the Colossians struggled?<\/strong>
\nThey appear to be several, but they included issues surrounding circumcision, asceticism, the person of Christ, secret knowledge and human wisdom.<\/p>\n

63. Who are the opponents in Colossae?<\/strong>
\nThis very much depends on how one interprets the heresies described, but scholars suggest either Jews, Pagans or early Gnostics.<\/p>\n

64.\u00a0What is\u00a0noticeable\u00a0about the way in which Paul speaks about Jesus in this letter?<\/strong>
\nWe call it “High Christology”, since Jesus is described as “the image of the invisible God”<\/span>, “the firstborn of all Creation”, <\/span>“in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily”<\/span> etc.<\/p>\n

65. What does Paul say about suffering in this letter?<\/strong>
\nHe describes himself as “complete what is lacking in Christ\u2019s afflictions”.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

66.\u00a0During the letter Paul speaks about a hidden <\/strong>“mystery”<\/span>. What is it?<\/strong>
\nThat Jesus came for us…all of us, both Jew and Gentile<\/p>\n

67.\u00a0What Sacrament does Paul speak about in this letter and in what terms does he describe it?<\/strong>
\nHe speaks about baptism, describing it both in terms of circumcision and death.<\/p>\n

1-16<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a017-27<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a027-42<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a043-52<\/a> | 53-57<\/a> | 58-67 | 68-71<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a072-81<\/a>
\nAll Questions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned before, I’m currently updating the New Testament questions and answers which I run through at the beginning of every Bible study. Today I\u2019d like to cover the questions surrounding Colossians: 58.\u00a0What was Paul’s situation when writing Colossians? The evidence seems to point to the same situation as the other captivity epistles (Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians). He<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3141,35,2452,2969,122],"class_list":["post-56961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","tag-answers","tag-bible-study","tag-colossians","tag-featured","tag-questions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Colossians.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56961"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57746,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56961\/revisions\/57746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}