Colossians: For Further Reading

[00:00:01] Colossians for further reading by Bart Ehrman Here is an annotated list of books on Colossians, most of them relevant to all of the deutero Pauline epistles, I.e. the letters of Paul that are assigned a secondary standing in the New Testament collection of Paul's letters because scholars doubt that they were actually composed by Paul himself with a couple of commentaries specifically on Colossians. [00:00:26] One benefit of serious commentaries is that they always begin by discussing major critical issues in understanding a book, such as their authorship, the date, the historical context, the major themes, the disputed issues, and so on. [00:00:42] First of all, Christian J. Becker wrote the Heirs of Paul's Legacy in the New Testament and in the Church Today. This was published in 1991 by Fortress Press. [00:00:52] It's a clear assessment of the theology of the deutero Pauline letters, especially in light of the views embodied in the undisputed Paulines. [00:01:00] Bart D. Ehrman wrote Forged Writing in the Name of God why the Biblical Authors Are not who We Think They Are this was published by Harper warn in 2010. [00:01:11] It's an account of the phenomenon of literary forgery, also known as pseudepigraphy, throughout the early Christian tradition that asks how and why a Christian authority would try to deceive his readers about his own identity. [00:01:24] It's written for a popular audience. [00:01:27] Andrew Lincoln and A.J.M. wedderburn wrote the Theology of the Later Pauline Letters. This was published in 1993 by Cambridge University Press. [00:01:37] It's a clear overview of the major themes of colossians and ephesians. [00:01:43] My MacDonald wrote the Pauline Churches A Socio Historical Study of Institutionalization in the Pauline and Deutero Pauline Writings. [00:01:53] This was published by Cambridge University Press in 1988. [00:01:57] It's a study that uses a social science approach to help explain various aspects of the institutionalization of churches associated with Paul, especially as evidenced in Ephesians, Colossians and the Pastoral Epistles. It's for more advanced students. [00:02:14] Richard Purvo wrote the Making of Constructions of the Apostle in Early Christianity. This was published by Fortress in 2010. [00:02:23] It's an insightful and interesting discussion of the ways Paul and recollections of Paul affected later Christian traditions, including the authors of the Deutero Pauline epistles, again for more advanced students. [00:02:36] And Calvin Otsel wrote the Letters of Paul Conversations in context. The fifth edition was published in 2009 by Westminster John Knox. [00:02:47] It's perhaps the best introductory discussion to each of the Pauline epistles, including the Deutero Paulines. [00:02:53] For commentaries, we have two commentaries that deal with the two Deutero Pauline letters of Colossians and Ephesians, since they are closely related in many ways, even though written by different non Pauline authors. [00:03:06] Margaret Y. Macdonald wrote Colossians and Ephesians. [00:03:09] This was published by liturgical press in 2016, and it's a single volume commentary of two closely related works. [00:03:18] And Charles Talbot wrote Ephesians and Colossians. This is from Baker Academics Paideia series. It's a detailed commentary dealing with most of the major interpretive issues of Colossians. [00:03:30] And of course, for online resources we have Hugo Mendez and Exploring the New Testament, a 27 lecture course on the New Testament, including multiple lectures on Paul, His Letters and the Deutero Pauline Letters. And it's available, of course, through Pathways in Biblical Studies.