gospel joyfully," as it is said, Col. iv. 3, ira çarepúow avτò ¿ç deĩ pe λαλῆσαι. In these last words, namely, the kind of the παῤῥησία is pointed to, such as is becoming for an apostle of Christ. It is no worldly, earthly joyfulness, but a holy heavenly one, which he is to manifest in the proclamation of the mystery of salvation, and by which he wins hearts to that mystery. Vers. 21, 22.-This reference to Tychicus, the bearer of this epistle, for more detailed accounts of the person and fate of the apostle, is found almost word for word the same in the parallel passage, Col. iv. 7, 8. It has been already observed in the Introduction to the Epistle to the Ephesians how this passage certainly in some measure explains the absence of personal news in it, but still there remains the certainly strange fact that all special salutations, which Paul usually introduces at the close of his other epistles, are wanting in this. It is comprehensible only on the assumption that this epistle is an encyclical one (to which, as we saw in the Introduction, everything leads), how Paul, in an epistle addressed among others to the church at Ephesus, in which he must have known so many members personally, could have refrained from all special salutations. (On the person of Tychicus see Acts xx. 4, seq.; 2 Tim. iv. 12; Tit. iii. 12. In ver. 21 τí прáσow is not to be referred to the labours of Paul, but to his prosperity, like the Latin quid agam, and the German was ich mache, "how I am doing, how I get on.") Vers. 23, 24.-The last verses shew clearly that Paul had only a general knowledge of the circle of his readers. The turn ɛlpývŋ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς and χάρις μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων, κ. τ. λ., argues against any special acquaintance with his readers; for, as every polemical reference is wanting in the epistle, the object cannot be to form a contrast with those who do not love the Lord. But in ver. 23 the combination ɛipvn kai dɣáпη μетà пíσтewç is strange; as faith is the basis of the Christian state of mind, we expect the inverted order, faith, love, and peace. Meier translates the uɛrá, “ in proportion to their own faith." This translation is certainly not entirely exact, but the construction with perá demands, in all probability, that faith be supposed to be already in existence, as indeed the idea of "brother" requires. In addition therefore to faith, love and peace only are wished. In ver. 24 év áp0apoía causes another difficulty. The construction with dyaróvтov, in the sense perpetuo, sine fine, is but slightly probable. So Flatt, Meier, and others. To connect it with Xploróv, "the glorified Christ," which Wetstein recommends, is entirely unsuitable. 'Ao0apoía here can only be referred to the believers themselves, thus denoting the perfected state to which grace leads. Αφθαρσία = ζωὴ αἰώνιος, and the coupling it with ἐν is to be considered as an abbreviation for the complete formula, iva Swηv Exworv Ev ȧplapoía. (Comp. Rom. ii. 7; 2 Tim. i. 10.) INTRODUCTION. § 1. OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE EPISTLE. THE city of Colossæ was situated in Phrygia, and indeed in that part of this province of Asia Minor which, according to the Roman division, was called Phrygia Pacatiana; it lay on the Lycus, in the vicinity of Laodicea and Hierapolis, which cities embraced Christianity early (see Col. iv..13), and are often named in the most ancient history of the church in Asia Minor. (See Steiger's Comm. p. 365, seq.) Steiger gives copious information as to the geography of the city of Colossæ, which in later times received the name of Chonos, which its ruins bear even now. (Ubi suprà, p. 13, seq., and in the Supplement, p. 368, seq.) The orthography of the name is doubtful. The MSS. A.B.C. write (Col. i. 2) Koλaooaí, and, as this form of the name is also found on coins, it seems to deserve the preference. On the other hand, F.G. have Koλoooaí, and that form is to be supposed in D.E., for they have in Col. i. 2 formed the gentile Koλo0oasis. In Herod. vii. 30, and Xenoph. Anab. i. 2, 6, too, Ko2oooaí is written by the best critics. Perhaps the pronunciation varied among the inhabitants themselves; hence, because of the uncertainty of the reading, we adhere to the usual form of the name. Paul travelled twice through Phrygia (Acts xvi. 6, xviii. 23); but he probably never touched at the city of Colossæ. At all events, he had no share in the foundation of the Christian church there (Col. ii. 1); that seems rather to have proceeded from Epaphras (Col. i. 7), who was with Paul at Rome when the latter wrote the epistle (Col. iv. 12; Philem. ver. 23), and from whom Paul no doubt received the information which caused him to compose this epistle to a body personally unknown to him. Epaphras, however, is most probably not identical with Epaphroditus, the apostle of the Philippians (Phil. ii. 25, iv. 18), from whom he had brought Paul an aid in money from Rome. (See as to the person of Epaphras, Winer's Real-Lex. vol. i., p. 389. Winer seems to be in favour of the identity of Epaphras and Epaphroditus; Steiger and Rheinwald declare themselves against it in their Commentaries at the passages relating to the point, and Böhmer in the Isagoge in Ep. ad Col. p. 41.) No more accurate accounts can be procured from other quarters as to the importance of the Colossian church. We only see by the Epistle to Philemon, which Paul, as we shewed in the Introduction to the Epistle to the Ephesians, wrote at the same time as the Epistle to the Colossians, and sent by the same messenger, Tychicus (Col. iv. 7-9), that this Philemon had the meetings of the church in Colossæ held in his house, and was probably himself, like his son Archippus, invested with some ecclesiastical office in it. (Comp. Philem. vers. 1-3 with Col. iv. 17.) The small population of the inconsiderable city of Colossæ does not admit of our supposing that there were meetings of the faithful at more than one place; at all events, the meeting in the house of Nymphas, mentioned in Col. iv. 15, relates to the neighbouring city of Laodicea, not to Colossæ. Now, since we have already, in the Introduction to the Epistle to the Ephesians, observed what was needful as to the time and place of the composition of this epistle, and shewn that the Epistle to the Colossians was written from Rome during the first Roman imprisonment, at the same time as those to the Ephesians and to Philemon, and was sent by Tychicus, there remain but two points which require a closer investigation in this Introduction, viz., the question as to the authenticity of this epistle, and the question as to the occasion for its composition, i. e., as to the false doctrine disseminated in Colossæ. As to its genuineness, the church of Christ had been 1800 years in undisputed possession of this work as genuinely apostolical, when it occurred to Dr. Mayerhoff in Berlin to cast doubts on this well-established inheritance. After him, Dr. Baur also, in Tübingen, threw out objections against the genuineness of this epistle, without, however, up to this time, making them good. But, as he places the pastoral epistles at so late a date principally on account of the false teachers pointed out in them, it may be supposed that, in the controversy on the Epistle to the Colossians, the heretics mentioned in it again constitute the chief argument in his mind. against the authenticity of the epistle, as they are very closely connected with the heretics of the pastoral epistles. We shall therefore apply ourselves merely to Mayerhoff's arguments against the Pauline origin of the Epistle to the Colossians, which are laid down in a posthumous work of his: "The Epistle to the Colossians, with especial reference to the three Pastoral Epistles." (Berlin, 1838.) It has already been remarked, in the investigation of the arguments adduced against the authenticity of the Epistle to the Ephesians, that it is not adapted to dispose us favourably towards the critical works here coming under review, when we see that the impugners of the Epistle to the Ephesians base their arguments against that production on the supposition of the authenticity of the Epistle to the Colossians, and vice versâ the impugners of the Epistle to the |