PREFACE.✦

On the completion of another volume of my commentary, I wish again to renew my thanks for the assistance received from previous labourers in the same field. Such obligations must always be great; but it is not easy in a few words to apportion them fairly, and I shall not make the attempt. I have not consciously neglected any aid which might render this volume more complete; but at the same time I venture to hope that my previous commentaries have established my claim to be regarded as an independent worker, and in the present instance more especially I have found myself obliged to diverge widely from the treatment of my predecessors, and to draw largely from other materials than those which they have collected.

In the preface to a previous volume I expressed an intention of appending to my commentary on the Colossian Epistle an essay on ‘Christianity and Gnosis.’ This intention has not been fulfilled in the letter; but the subject enters largely into the investigation of the Colossian heresy, where it receives as much attention as, at all events for the present, it seems to require. It will necessarily come under discussion again, when the Pastoral Epistles are taken in hand.

The question of the genuineness of the two epistles contained in this volume has been deliberately deferred. It could not be discussed with any advantage apart from the Epistle to the Ephesians, for the three letters are inseparably bound together. Meanwhile however the doctrinal and historical discussions will, if I mistake not, have furnished answers to the main objections which have been urged; while the commentary will have shown how thoroughly natural the language and thoughts are, if conceived as arising out of an immediate emergency. More especially it will have been made apparent that the Epistle to the Colossians hangs together as a whole, and that the phenomena are altogether adverse to any theory of interpolation such as that recently put forward by Professor Holtzmann.

In the commentary, as well as in the introduction, it has been a chief aim to illustrate and develope the theological conception of the Person of Christ, which underlies the Epistle to the Colossians. The Colossian heresy for instance owes its importance mainly to the fact that it throws out this conception into bolder relief. To this portion of the subject therefore I venture to direct special attention.

I cannot conclude without offering my thanks to Mr A. A. VanSittart who, as on former occasions, has given his aid in correcting the proof sheets of this volume; and to the Rev. J. J. Scott, of Trinity College, who has prepared the index. I wish also to express my obligations to Dr Schiller-Szinessy, of whose Talmudical learning I have freely availed myself in verifying Frankel’s quotations and in other ways. I should add however that he is not in any degree responsible for my conclusions and has not even seen what I have written.

TRINITY COLLEGE, April 30, 1875.

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CONTENTS.

EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.

INTRODUCTION.

PAGE

I. The Churches of the Lycus 1–72

II. The Colossian Heresy 73–113

On some points connected with the Essenes.

1. The name Essene 114–119

2. Origin and Affinities of the 119–157 Essenes

3. Essenism and Christianity 158–179

III. Character and Contents of the Epistle 180–194

TEXT AND NOTES 197–311

On some Various Readings in the Epistle 312–322

On the meaning of πλήρωμα 323–339

The Epistle from Laodicea 340–366

EPISTLE TO PHILEMON.

INTRODUCTION 369–395

TEXT AND NOTES 399–412

INDEX 415–424

I. THE CHURCHES OF THE LYCUS.

[Sidenote: Situation of the three cities.]

Lying in, or overhanging, the valley of the Lycus, a tributary of the Mæander, were three neighbouring towns, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossæ[1]. The river flows, roughly speaking, from east to west; but at this point, which is some few miles above its junction with the Mæander, its direction is more nearly from south-east to north-west[2]. Laodicea and Hierapolis stand face to face, being situated respectively on the southern and northern sides of the valley, at a distance of six miles[3], and within sight of each other, the river lying in the open plain between the two. The site of Colossæ is somewhat higher up the stream, at a distance of perhaps ten or twelve miles[4] from the point where the road between Laodicea and Hierapolis crosses the Lycus. Unlike Laodicea and Hierapolis, which overhang the valley on opposite sides, Colossæ stands immediately on the river-bank, the two parts of the town being divided by the stream. The three cities lie so near to each other, that it would be quite possible to visit them all in the course of a single day.

Footnote 1:

The following are among the most important books of travel relating to this district; Pococke Description of the East and Some Other Countries, Vol. II, Part II, London 1745; Chandler Travels in Asia Minor etc., Oxford 1775; Leake Tour in Asia Minor, London 1824; Arundell Discoveries in Asia Minor, London 1834; Hamilton Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia, London 1842; Fellows Asia Minor, London 1839, Discoveries in Lycia, London 1840; de Tchihatcheff Asie Mineure, Description Physique, Statistique et Archéologique, Paris 1853 etc., with the accompanying Atlas (1860); de Laborde Voyage de l’Asie Mineure (the expedition itself took place in 1826, but the date on the title-page is 1838, and the introduction was written in 1861); Le Bas Voyage Archéologique en Grèce et en Asie Mineure, continued by Waddington and not yet completed; Texier Description de l’Asie Mineure, Vol. I (1839). It is hardly necessary to add the smaller works of Texier and Le Bas on Asie Mineure (Paris 1862, 1863) in Didot’s series L’Univers, as these have only a secondary value. Of the books enumerated, Hamilton’s work is the most important for the topography, etc.; Tchihatcheff’s for the physical features; and Le Bas and Waddington’s for the inscriptions, etc. The best maps are those of Hamilton and Tchihatcheff; to which should be added the Karte von Klein-Asien by v. Vincke and others, published by Schropp, Berlin 1844.

Besides books on Asia Minor generally, some works relating especially to the Seven Churches may be mentioned. Smith’s Survey of the Seven Churches of Asia (1678) is a work of great merit for the time, and contains the earliest description of the sites of these Phrygian cities. It was published in Latin first, and translated by its author afterwards. Arundell’s Seven Churches (1828) is a well-known book. Allom and Walsh’s Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor illustrated (1850) gives some views of this district. Svoboda’s Seven Churches of Asia (1869) contains 20 photographs and an introduction by the Rev. H. B. Tristram. This is a selection from a larger series of Svoboda’s photographs, published separately.

Footnote 2:

The maps differ very considerably in this respect, nor do the statements of travellers always agree. The direction of the river, as given in the text, accords with the maps of Hamilton and Tchihatcheff, and with the accounts of the most accurate writers.

Footnote 3:

Anton. Itin. p. 337 (Wesseling) gives the distance as 6 miles. See also Fellows Asia Minor p. 283, Hamilton I. p. 514. The relative position of the two cities appears in Laborde’s view, pl. xxxix.

Footnote 4:

I do not find any distinct notice of the distance; but, to judge from the maps and itineraries of modern travellers, this estimate will probably be found not very far wrong.

[Sidenote: Their neighbourhood and intercourse.]

Thus situated, they would necessarily hold constant intercourse with each other. We are not surprised therefore to find them so closely connected in the earliest ages of Christianity. It was the consequence of their position that they owed their knowledge of the Gospel to the same evangelist, that the same phases of thought prevailed in them, and that they were exposed to the same temptations, moral as well as intellectual.

[Sidenote: Physical forces at work.]

The physical features of the neighbourhood are very striking. Two potent forces of nature are actively at work to change the face of the country, the one destroying old land-marks, the other creating fresh ground.

[Sidenote: Frequent earthquakes.]

On the one hand, the valley of the Lycus was and is especially liable to violent earthquakes. The same danger indeed extends over large portions of Asia Minor, but this district is singled out by ancient writers[5] (and the testimony of modern travellers confirms the statement[6]), as the chief theatre of these catastrophes. Not once or twice only in the history of Laodicea do we read of such visitations laying waste the city itself or some flourishing town in the neighbourhood[7]. Though the exterior surface of the earth shows no traces of recent volcanoes, still the cavernous nature of the soil and the hot springs and mephitic vapours abounding here indicate the presence of those subterranean fires, which from time to time have manifested themselves in this work of destruction.