Colossae in Space and Time

Colossae in Space and Time
Author: Alan H. Cadwallader
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2011-12-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3647533971

The ancient site of Colossae in south-west Turkey has been sorely neglected by archaeologists and biblical commentators. It has never been excavated. Modern scholarship in general has been content to repeat nineteenth century assessments, especially those of J.B. Lightfoot and W.M. Ramsay. This is the first modern contribution to gather the archaeological, historical, classical and biblical materials related to the site and its region, some of which is published in English for the first time. It marks a major step forward in scholarship on Colossae, and is designed to restore Colossae to time and space, to its material and comparative significance. Colossae emerges as a site of uninterrupted human activity in dynamic interaction with its neighbours from before the Achaemenid period to beyond the end of Byzantine control. Evidence of a chalcolithic origin of Colossae is presented along with an assessment of the relationship of the site to the modern city of Honaz. An array of international scholars have brought their specialisations in various periods and disciplines to yield a radically new assessment of the history and importance of the site. All future scholarship will be able to use this volume as the necessary foundation for research. The volume includes the first chronology of the ancient site and the first English translation of the key Byzantine text centred on the ancient city, as well as major new insights into the text of the Epistle to the Colossians.

Colossians: An Earth Bible Commentary

Colossians: An Earth Bible Commentary
Author: Victoria S. Balabanski
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2020-01-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567674401

Vicky Balabanski analyses Colossians as a co-authored letter, written during Paul's Roman imprisonment by Timothy with the input of Epaphras, and sent with Paul's introductory and concluding greetings. Balabanski sees remarkable resonances between the cosmology of this letter and that of Stoic thought, the most widely held philosophy in first century Asia Minor. Drawing upon the way Stoic thinkers saw the divine Spirit permeating reality and sought to attune their lives to the Logos, divine reason, she argues that the Logos of Christ – the Gospel – was welcomed by small groups of people shaped by Stoic thought, and they experienced Christ as the visible expression of the One God who permeates reality. The Letter to the Colossians has the highest view of Christ of any of the New Testament writings, and its theology of divine permeation invites us to notice the ecological potential of this letter. This Eco-Stoic reading brings contemporary ecological questions into dialogue with the distinctive Christology and cosmology of the letter.

Colossians BNTC

Colossians BNTC
Author: Paul Foster
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2016-08-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567669661

Foster provides the commentary on Colossians in this renowned series of biblical commentaries, under the General Editorship of Professor Morna D. Hooker (Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity Emerita in the University of Cambridge, UK). As with other volumes in the series, the key questions for scholars are scrutinised thoroughly - questions of historicity, the use of historical traditions and sources, the relationship of Colossians to the rest of the New Testament in particular the Pauline letters, authorship, and setting. Foster examines these issues in such a way as to present the heart of the academic debate to a wider audience, as befitting to the series reputation for rigorous commentary, which not only advances the knowledge of students and pastors, but also makes a contribution to the academic discourse in its own right.

Fragments of Colossae

Fragments of Colossae
Author: Alan H. Cadwallader
Publisher: ATF Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781925232530

An engagingly visual guide book to a lost city from a scholar in the forefront of research on Colossae. Alan Cadwallader distils information, insights and interpretation into a rich collection of evidence from Colossae and its environs, giving us access to a fascinating and under-researched city. Together with a significant chapter by Rosemary Canavan, Cadwallader's often ground-breaking work gives us unprecedented access into the life and context of this city. A book for all who enjoy time travel with expert guides!

Colossians: An Introduction and Study Guide

Colossians: An Introduction and Study Guide
Author: Janice Capel Anderson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2018-12-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567674630

This guide 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. Second, Anderson examines rhetoric and context. She asks readers to consider how the letter constructs and seeks to persuade its addressees past and present. She surveys several pictures of the first audience and “opponents.” Finally, Anderson delves into the functions of the Colossian household code, its reception, and the ethics of interpretation.

Colossae, Colossians, Philemon

Colossae, Colossians, Philemon
Author: Alan H. Cadwallader
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages: 815
Release: 2023-05-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 364750002X

The material culture of Colossae is here for the first time given as full a collation as possible to the present day. 38 inscriptions, 88 coins and 49 testimonia are brought together in the context of a thorough overview of the site of Colossae. These include evidence that has been thought lost or has been overlooked or misinterpreted or has only recently been discovered. New readings, insights and analyses of the material evidence are brought into a highly creative exchange with the two letters of the Second Testament connected with the site. The texts thereby become additional evidence for an appreciation of the life of a city in the first two centuries of the Common Era. The fullest collation of evidence for the ancient Phrygian city in the Greco-Roman period was the coin catalogue assembled by Hans von Aulock (1987). The most recent catalogue of the inscriptions of Colossae was published by William Calder and William Buckler in 1939. There has never been a full inventory of ancient writings that bear witness to the site. Alan H. Cadwallader in his volume not only updates this material by subjecting it to thorough, critical analysis in the light of comparative evidence from across the Roman province of Asia and the Mediterranean world. New discoveries from the site and from museums and collections in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia and the United States are introduced. Into this assemblage and interpretation are brought the letters to the Colossians and Philemon in the Second Testament writings of the Christian Church. For the first time, the letters are released to be players in the highly competitive environment of a city negotiating its way in the new realities of imperial Rome. Here the letters and their recipients become participants in the society of the day, contributing, critiquing and struggling to forge an identity for the Christ followers within that world. Echoes of the gymnasium, gladiatorial spectacles, cosmological speculations, religious devotion and sanction, family structures, commerce and industry, struggles for justice, intercity competition and legal negotiations are found in the letters, echoes that witness to their participation in the life of Colossae. This is a radical new approach, incorporating the turn to material culture as the embedding of literature and its consumers rather than an embellishing backdrop.

An Asian Introduction to the New Testament

An Asian Introduction to the New Testament
Author: Johnson Thomaskutty
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 609
Release: 2022-02-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506462707

Understanding and assessing the New Testament writings from Asian viewpoints provides a unique and original outlook for interpretation of the Christian Scriptures. To that end, An Asian Introduction to the New Testament is the first book of its kind to take full account of the multireligious, multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural, and pluralistic contexts in which Asian Christians find themselves. Into this already complex world, issues of poverty, casteism, class structure, honor and shame aspects, colonial realities, discrimination against women, natural calamities and ecological crises, and others add more layers of complexity. Perceiving the New Testament in light of these realities enables the reader to see them in a fresh way while understanding that the Jesus Movement emerged from similar social situations. Readers will find able guides in an impressive array of more than twenty scholars from across Asia. Working with volume editor Johnson Thomaskutty, the authors make a clear case: the kernels of Christianity sprouted from Asian roots, and we must read the New Testament considering those roots in order to understand it afresh today.

The Letter to the Colossians

The Letter to the Colossians
Author: Scot McKnight
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2018-02-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467447064

The Letter to the Colossians offers a compelling vision of the Christian life; its claims transcend religion and bring politics, culture, spirituality, power, ethnicity, and more into play. Delving deeply into the message of Colossians, this exegetical and theological commentary by Scot McKnight will be welcomed by preachers, teachers, and students everywhere.

Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians—The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi’s Threefold Truth, Volume 1

Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians—The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi’s Threefold Truth, Volume 1
Author: John P. Keenan
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2021-07-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666708496

This is the introductory volume of a multivolume, verse-by-verse, interfaith rereading of the New Testament letter to the Ephesians. It looks to the Tiantai Buddhist master Zhiyi and his "threefold truth" to enhance our appreciation of nascent trinitarian themes in Ephesians. And it draws upon a broad array of scientific, theological, and philosophical thinkers in aid of rejecting the epistle's ancient, geocentric cosmology and its accommodations to the misogynistic, patriarchal, and slaveholding norms of its first-century surroundings. As a whole, the work constitutes a twenty-first century apologetic for doctrinal humility and for theologizing within a global theological commons.

Attitudes to Gentiles in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity

Attitudes to Gentiles in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity
Author: David C. Sim
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2014-01-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567035786

This volume describes the attitudes towards Gentiles in both ancient Judaism and the early Christian tradition. The Jewish relationship with and views about the Gentiles played an important part in Jewish self-definition, especially in the Diaspora where Jews formed the minority among larger Gentile populations. Jewish attitudes towards the Gentiles can be found in the writings of prominent Jewish authors (Josephus and Philo), sectarian movements and texts (the Qumran community, apocalyptic literature, Jesus) and in Jewish institutions such as the Jerusalem Temple and the synagogue. In the Christian tradition, which began as a Jewish movement but developed quickly into a predominantly Gentile tradition, the role and status of Gentile believers in Jesus was always of crucial significance. Did Gentile believers need to convert to Judaism as an essential component of their affiliation with Jesus, or had the appearance of the messiah rendered such distinctions invalid? This volume assesses the wide variety of viewpoints in terms of attitudes towards Gentiles and the status and expectations of Gentiles in the Christian church.