Colossians: A New Translation With Introduction and Commentary

The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries

by Markus Barth, Helmut Blanke

The Apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians offers a valuable and intimate glimpse into the life of a fledgling Christian community as it struggled to define Christian doctrine and theology. Paul was prompted to write to the Colossian assembly when he heard that "false teachers" had joined the congregation and were advocating dangerous, non-Christian practices. In an effort to appear superior, these heretical teachers were luring Christians to exercise asceticism, moral rigorism, and esoteric rituals, hallmarks of other "mystery" and pagan cults. In his passionate letter, Paul denounces these extreme and elitist practices and firmly defends a life in Christ. He proclaims that pure, simple worship of Christ alone is the most powerful statement of faith.

In their astute and lucid commentary, eminent New Testament scholars Markus Barth and Helmut Blanke re-create the turbulent age of the birth of Christianity and examine the myriad of "outside" influences -- from cold, rational Hellenistic philosophy to exclusive, ethereal Gnostic thought -- that often threatened the evolution of Christian theology. Colossians not only provides a new and carefully balanced analysis of this pivotal New Testament text, but also chronicles the development of Christian thought as it gradually spread throughout the Roman Empire

Genres: Christianity

557 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1995

Reviews

[Fred Kohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The impression I have is that this is the most thorough commentary I have read yet in this series. He seems to dig into the Greek a bit more and often refers to technical details of Greek syntax and grammar. I suppose that if you didn't know much about Greek this could be rather off-putting. I myself was a bit put off by referring to certain aspects of Greek by their Latin names rather than English names. Most of the time it was pretty easy to figure out what the Latin meant, but not always.

[Andrew Klynsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Markus Barth honours the text of Scripture, searches it for authorial intent, gives good historical context, and helps the reader think through many issues especially with reference to the wider canon of Scripture. He shows his schooling in higher critical method in his approach to the authorship of this letter, but for all that, this is really a very wonderful, stimulating, faithful and edifying commentary.

[Steve Pylkas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I will always struggle with the text critical practitioners that strive to attribute biblical writings to anyone other than the one traditionally defined as the author. Nonetheless, the scholarship Barth brings to any work makes the reading invaluable for deeper questions and insights. Still tough to top his outstanding work on Ephesians!