APOSTLE PAUL: Letter to the Colossians - Biblical Study w/ Professor N.T. Wright

Explore the glorious truth found in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, and how to apply its wisdom to your everyday life.

Continue to learn with N. T. Wright, learn more about the Letter to the Colossians course.

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In this course Professor N.T. Wright guides you through this small but powerful letter, providing insights into its translation as well as the 1st Century Greco-Roman world in which the Apostle lived and wrote.

You’ll walk away from this course on the Book of Colossians with the ability to apply Paul’s timeless wisdom to your own life, allowing you to experience what it means to live in the glorious light of Christ.

Who should take this course?
• Students who are eager to understand one of the most powerful, yet relatively small, letters of the Apostle Paul.
• Students who desire to understand the nature of who Jesus Christ is as described by the Apostle Paul

What’s included?
• Online lecture by N.T. Wright
• Interactive quizzes
• Discussions with others on the same path
• Communication with Prof. Seemuth
• Textbook readings

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#biblicalstudies #ntwright #apostlepaul #bible #colossians #newtestament

[allnations]

Beautiful—the peace that comes as a result of being grasped by that grace

[smsog]

Historical context of the new testament, i think every follower of our lord should at least briefly look into. This is just fascinating and faith enlargening too.

[ittakesavillage]

Your voice is amazing. I was watching The Bible Project & boom YouTube sent me to you. Thanks

[tradingpoker]

Love these videos, even the ones from years ago are very helpful. Thanks!

[darlameeks]

Always encouraging to listen to you, Bishop Tom! Can't get enough!

[jareddelgado]

These lectures are a blessing, thank you!

[sherrywebber]

Eye opening 17 minutes!!😃😃 Thank you sir!! I will be listening to this several more times!!! ❤️💕💖🌞

[erichwieger]

When we were on the Colosae tel last September, it was marked, under some kind of preparation for an archeological dig. The caretaker said there was an administrative or legal process in swing.

[LukeBurri]

Thank you Mr. Wright for a beautiful lecture

[noarak-st-floor]

how fascinating 🤔!thank you! I am glad that you are only an URL away Professor Wright!

[graceriggs]

you made it so clear and understandable Thank you

[ramblingracheltrailtales]

Thank you for this video. Very useful. Referenced in my current assignment.

[seon-gyoungadams]

I was not sure what you would teaching, the end I was confirmed by God’s Grace !

I am going to dig more your teaching!

Lots of theologian attracts your thoughts, I do not care, I need to find it myself !!

But hold on !!

[hebrewgreek]

If there was a synagogue community there, the Colossians were likely a part of that community, since Paul defends their participation in “food and drink, ” which is an inherent part of the Lord’s festivals, New Moons, and Sabbaths mentioned in 2:16. These, Paul says, are relevant and worthy to be participated in since they all have to do with the Messiah and with “things to come” (in the future), not with “things that were to come (in the past). The term in Greek refers to the future, and in Hebrew, a language in which Paul is fluent, “coming” is another way of talking about future things—for example, “the World to Come” (העולם הבא ha-ʿolam ha-bba).

Side note: For Paul’s fluency in Hebrew rather than “Aramaic” (contra BDAG), see Buth R. and C. Pierce, “Hebraisti in Ancient Texts: Does Ἑβραϊστί Ever Mean ‘Aramaic’?, ” in R. S. Notley and R. Buth (eds.), _The Language Environment of First Century Judaea: Jerusalem Studies in the Synoptic Gospels_ 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2014): 66–109.

In Colossians 2 Paul is defending their participation in these biblical celebrations against the ascetics who are judging them for participating. They are teaching “human commands and doctrines” (2:22, not biblical ones) and attempting to impose their “ascetic practices” (2:18) for “severe treatment of the body” (2:23) to “curb self-indulgence” (2:23). Their “regulations” (2:21) involve abstention, not indulgence: “Don’t handle, don’t TASTE, don’t touch” (2:21). This is in contrast to the “food and drink” in verse 16.

Earlier in the chapter, Paul says the Colossians have been circumcised in Messiah with a circumcision not done with hands (2:11)—that is, done by the Lord. Elsewhere, Paul speaks in terms of the circumcision of the heart (Rom 2:29). In that context he connects this to Gentiles “doing the things of the Torah” (Rom 2:13–15). He says this is evidence that they have “‘the work of the Torah’ written on their hearts” (Rom 2:15). This is a direct reference to Jeremiah 31:33, which says the new covenant involves the Lord writing his Torah on Israel’s heart. Here in Romans Paul sees this PRO-TORAH promise of the new covenant as applying to Gentiles who “do the things of the Torah” (Rom 2:14).

This is right in line with what the Scriptures say about the Lord circumcising the hearts of his people (more on this below). And notice the Spirit is also involved in this heart circumcision (Rom 2:29).

The explicitly stated purpose of this is seen in Ezekiel.

“I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.”
(Ezekiel 36:27)

The Spirit is given to “cause” Israel to keep the Torah. This is also seen in Romans 8:4.

“. . . in order that the Torah’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Notice the connection with the Spirit and the fulfillment of the Torah. Note that in Jewish parlance, “to fulfill the Torah” (לקיים את התורה) means “to do” it. (It also means to properly interpret and apply it, which is how Jesus is using the terminology in Matthew 5, by the way.) It doesn’t mean to render it obsolete or to only be declared “in the right” without actually doing the commandments it contains.

Paul also says in that section:

“The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s Torah. Indeed, it is unable to do so.”
(Romans 8:7)

This is another indication his “fulfillment” language in verse 4 is in line with how Jews speak of “fulfilling the Torah” in terms of “doing the Torah.” Romans 2:14 is also elucidative here, where Paul speaks of Gentiles who “do the things of the Torah” and verse 13 just before it, where he says plainly, “For the hearers of the Torah are not righteous before God, but the doers of the Torah will be justified” (2:13).

The same connection is made in Deuteronomy 30 between the Lord circumcising the hearts of his people and their renewed Torah observance.

“The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live. [. . .] Then you will again obey him and follow all his commands I am commanding you today.
(Deuteronomy 30:6, 8)

Paul is working off of this background in both Romans and Colossians. This is further proof that he is defending the Colossians’ participation in “things of the Torah” (cf. Rom 2:14) in Colossians chapter 2 and not the other way around.

The phenomenon of Gentile God-fearers was widespread at that time, and scores of Gentiles were adopting various levels of Judaism and Jewish practice. Many were participating in synagogues and Jewish worship of God already, even before Paul’s influence. When Paul came to Antioch of Pisidia in Galatia, for instance, and entered the synagogue, he addressed those present who were among his Jewish brethren and referred to them as “you who fear God” (Acts 13:16) and “those among [my Jewish brothers here] who fear God” (13:26). These are Gentiles who were drawn to God who had adopted some of the practices of the Jews—without actually undergoing a legal conversion to Judaism to become Jews themselves (through immersion, circumcision for males, and an offering in the Jerusalem Temple).

Paul brings the gospel to them as well as the Jews in many of the synagogues he visits in his travels, and he teaches these Gentile God-fearers who come to accept Israel’s Messiah that they do not need to become Jews in order to experience the blessings and covenants given to the Jewish nation. His “rule for all the communities” is that in Messiah, Jews are to remain Jews and Gentiles are to remain Gentiles, and that each should keep the commandments that apply to them in their particular legal status and situation (1 Cor 7:17–19). And he, like his Jewish brethren in Jerusalem, the apostles and elders and “tens of thousands” (μυριάδες, Acts 21:20) of Jewish believers who remain zealous for the Torah, knows that Jews are still required to be fully Torah observant (e.g., Acts 21; cf. Gal 5:3).

The Acts 15 decree also frames the situation in these terms. It applies four laws from Leviticus 17–18 (in the same order), which are said to be for “the sojourner who dwells among you, ” to Gentile believers. Jacob (James) in issuing that ruling quotes from Amos 9 and notes that Gentiles have a special calling from God, too, along with Jews. They are called by the name of the LORD (Acts 15:17). If Gentiles have to become Jews in order to be a part of the Messianic Jewish community, he notes, then they are no longer Gentiles called by the name of the LORD, as the verse in Amos refers to them. Thus, both Jews and Gentiles play an important role in things and both have a place in the sukkah (shelter) of David which is being rebuilt, which Jacob refers to there.

[hebrewgreek]

The phenomenon of Gentile God-fearers was widespread at that time, and scores of Gentiles were adopting various levels of Judaism and Jewish practice. Many were participating in synagogues and Jewish worship of God already, even before Paul’s influence. When Paul came to Antioch of Pisidia in Galatia, for instance, and entered the synagogue, he addressed those present who were among his Jewish brethren and referred to them as “you who fear God” (Acts 13:16) and “those among [my Jewish brothers here] who fear God” (13:26). These are Gentiles who were drawn to God who had adopted some of the practices of the Jews—without actually undergoing a legal conversion to Judaism to become Jews themselves (through immersion, circumcision for males, and an offering in the Jerusalem Temple).

Paul brings the gospel to them as well as the Jews in many of the synagogues he visits in his travels, and he teaches these Gentile God-fearers who come to accept Israel’s Messiah that they do not need to become Jews in order to experience the blessings and covenants given to the Jewish nation. His “rule for all the communities” is that in Messiah, Jews are to remain Jews and Gentiles are to remain Gentiles, and that each should keep the commandments that apply to them in their particular legal status and situation (1 Cor 7:17–19). And he, like his Jewish brethren in Jerusalem, the apostles and elders and “tens of thousands” (μυριάδες, Acts 21:20) of Jewish believers who remain zealous for the Torah, knows that Jews are still required to be fully Torah observant (e.g., Acts 21; cf. Gal 5:3).

The Acts 15 decree also frames the situation in these terms. It applies four laws from Leviticus 17–18 (in the same order), which are said to be for “the sojourner who dwells among you, ” to Gentile believers. Jacob (James) in issuing that ruling quotes from Amos 9 and notes that Gentiles have a special calling from God, too, along with Jews. They are called by the name of the LORD (Acts 15:17). If Gentiles have to become Jews in order to be a part of the Messianic Jewish community, he notes, then they are no longer Gentiles called by the name of the LORD, as the verse in Amos refers to them. Thus, both Jews and Gentiles play an important role in things and both have a place in the sukkah (shelter) of David which is being rebuilt, which Jacob refers to there.

[seon-gyoungadams]

Prayerful Speech and Actions
Col 1:1
1Masters, supply your slaves with what is right and fair, since you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, 3as you pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may declare it clearly, as I should.

[MrAustin]

We’re you saying that Paul was in Ephesus when this was written? I was told he was imprisoned in Rome. No matter, just wanted to iron out the details

[MathewPercyBA]

Ephesus in prison? Most I’ve read don’t believe this is the case... would be good to hear why you think this, please!

[Mike-hrjz]

You need to read Dr. Michael Hizneres Book unseen realm he is a scholar of middle eastern languages helps you to get inside the mindset of those people and explain the spiritual realm just check it out

[pastorhaydendupree]

I'm sorry but I'm so distracted about why the left corner of your mustache is missing