Colossians: An Introduction and Study Guide Authorship, Rhetoric, and Code

✍ Scribed by Janice Capel Anderson

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 137
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In this study guide Janice Capel Anderson introduces readers to key issues in the interpretation and reception of Colossians. Anderson first explores the issue of Pauline authorship. She challenges readers to reflect on why the question of authorship has dominated scholarship as well as why and how interpreters create “stories” about the letter’s author(s). Second, Anderson examines the letter’s rhetoric and context. She asks readers to consider how the letter constructs and seeks to persuade its addressees past and present.
Anderson also surveys several pictures of the first audience and “opponents” and the impact these pictures have on interpretation. Finally, she delves into the functions of the household code of Col. 3.18-4.1, its reception, and the ethics of interpretation. Anderson attends to recent feminist and empire-critical perspectives as well as the ancient setting of the Lycus River Valley, home to the cities of Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis.
Thought experiments and exercises set the stage for each chapter and engage readers in active thought.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Text and Translation
Abbreviations
A Word to the Reader
1 Stories of Colossians and Authorship
Thought Experiment One—Harry Potter, the Third Generation
Thought Experiment Two—Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys
Stories of Colossians
Why so many stories?
The authorship debate: Historical background
Modern views on the authorship of Colossians
Nature of authorship
Arguments against and for Paul’s authorship of Colossians
Structure, vocabulary, and style
Theology
Christology
Eschatology
Ecclesiology
Parenesis/ethics
Historical context
Authorship criteria overall
Why and for what purposes does it make a difference whether Paul wrote Colossians: Reconstructing the historical Paul, his reception, and early church history
Religious and ideological influences
Paul as a singular authority
Beyond a singular Paul and homes for Colossian stories
2 Rhetoric and Opposition
Exercise One—James Baldwin’s“ A Letter to My Nephew”
Exercise Two—The letter to the Colossians
Introduction
Reconstructing the rhetorical situation as a historical situation—Guidelines
Establishing a rhetorical situation—Colossians 2:6–23 as a key
Rhetoric and structure
Greeting 1:1–2
Thanksgiving/exordium/introduction 1:3–23
Body: Ethos, pathos, and Paul—1:24–2:5
Body—Ethical exhortation/parenesis 3:1–4:6
Closing—4:7–18
External clues to audience and ascetics
Reconstruction of the historicalcon text: Internal and external clues
Historical reconstructions o fthe philosophy: The ascetics/visionaries of 2:6–23
Mystery cult: Entering in
Judaism: The synagogue across the street and worship with angels
Philosophy plus
Syncretism
Responding to the multiplicity of reconstructions
3 The Household Code, Ethics, and Interpretation
Exercise One—Household Codes
Exercise Two—Lord/Master
Thought experiment—Imagining responses
Exercise Three—Complementarians and Egalitarians
Introduction
Immediate context in the letter
The topos—Concerning household management
Nature and functions of the Colossian code
Apologetic and reining in: The authorities, the “opponents,” the neighbors
External conventional morality/internal commitment to the Master
Love patriarchalism
Hidden challenge
The household code speaks: Hard hermeneutical questions
Immutable principles
The Golden Age
The seed growing secretly
Canonical and dialogic responses
Moral intuition and interpretation from below
Conclusion
Epilogue
References
Author Index
Scripture Index
Subject Index