CHARACTERISTICS AND PECULIARITIES OF COLOSSIANS

CHARACTERISTICS AND PECULIARITIES OF COLOSSIANS

Virgil Warren, PhD

1.      Has the greatest number who send salutations of any New Testament writing. Philemon has a goodly number as well. Romans has by far the greatest number of saluted people.                                    

2.     Only book to refer to a Christian writing that is probably no longer (evidently) extant

3.     Only book where a New Testament writer adopts the Gnostics’ pleroma, etc., as an image for understanding the role of Christ

4.     Along with Ephesians (1:9; 3:3-9; 6:19) and Romans (16:25), Colossians uses the term mystery (μυστήριον, mystērion) to indicate the idea that the Gentiles as Gentiles had access to fellowship with God through Christ: 1:26-27; 2:2; 4:3.

5.     “Firstborn of all creation” is a unique usage of firstborn (πρωτότοκος, prōtotokos) as a reference to Christ (1:15). He is elsewhere the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5), firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29), and the firstborn coming into the world (Hebrews 1:6)

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