Colossians and Philemon

John M. G. Barclay

T&T Clark Study Guides

Series Editors
Michael A. Knibb, A.T. Lincoln
and R.N. Whybray

T&T Clark International, a Continuum imprint

The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

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Copyright © 1997, 2001 Sheffield Academic Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0-567-08275-X

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

1. Invitation to Colossians and Philemon

2. Who Wrote Colossians?

3. The Target of Colossians

4. The Colossian Hymn and Household Code

5. The Theology of Colossians

6. The Letter to Philemon: Story and Strategy

7. The Letter to Philemon: Outcome and Evaluation

Index of References

Index of Authors

Acknowledgments

This Guide is a thoroughly Glaswegian product, even if it is published in Sheffield. In preparation for writing it, I taught Colossians and Philemon to a class of Divinity students at Glasgow University, and I owe much to their suggestions, puzzled looks and penetrating questions. I am pleased to dedicate this book to that class of ’94–’95, though it has appeared too late to help them in their exams! One of that class, Alistair May, has kindly read through the ms, while my Glasgow colleague, Alastair Hunter, let me see his unpublished paper, ‘Mozart, Rembrandt, Moses and Saussure: The Lure of Pseudonymity’, which helped to shape Chapter 2. Some readers may wonder whether the final chapter indicates that ‘the Clydeside Reds have got me’, but in fact it owes more to my ancestry, which includes numerous Quakers and one Thomas Fowell Buxton, a close associate of William Wilberforce, who is known to Barclays and Buxtons as ‘The Liberator’. But perhaps the Glaswegian readiness to question authority, imbibed over twelve years of residence, has reinforced the subtle power of that hereditary spirit.

Abbreviations

ABD D.N. Freedman (ed.), Anchor Bible Dictionary

ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt

BibSem The Biblical Seminar

CGTC Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

CNT Commentaire du Nouveau Testament

EBib Etudes bibliques

EKKNT Evangelisch-Katholischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament

HNT Handbuch zum Neuen Testament

HTKNT Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament

HTR Harvard Theological Review

ICC International Critical Commentary

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

KEK Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar über das Neue Testament

NCB New Century Bible

NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament

NIGTC The New International Greek Testament Commentary

nrsv New Revised ...