III.
THE FIRST ROMAN CAPTIVITY.
2.
EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.
3.
EPISTLE TO PHILEMON.
[Illustration]
=Cambridge:= PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
ST PAUL’S EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSIANS AND TO PHILEMON.
_A REVISED TEXT_
WITH
INTRODUCTIONS, NOTES, AND DISSERTATIONS.
BY
J. B. LIGHTFOOT, D.D.
CANON OF ST PAUL’S; HULSEAN PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
=London:= _MACMILLAN AND CO._ 1875.
[_All Rights reserved._]
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==μιμηταί μου γίνεϲθε καθὼϲ κἀγὼ χριϲτοῦ.==
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Παῦλος γενόμενος μέγιστος ὑπογραμμός.
CLEMENT.
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Οὐχ ὡς Παῦλος διατάσσομαι ὑμῖν· ἐκεῖνος ἀπόστολος, ἐγὼ κατάκριτος· ἐκεῖνος ἐλεύθερος, ἐγὼ δὲ μέχρι νῦν δοῦλος.
IGNATIUS.
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Οὔτε ἐγὼ οὔτε ἄλλος ὅμοιος ἐμοί δύναται κατακολουθῆσαι τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ μακαρίου καὶ ἐνδόξου Παύλου.
POLYCARP.
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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