The Colossian Hymn in Context: An Exegesis in Light of Jewish and Greco-Roman Hymnic and Epistolary Conventions : An Exegesis in Light of Jewish and Greco-Roman Hymnic & Epistolary Conventions

Matthew E. Gordley examines the Colossian hymn in light of its cultural and epistolary contexts and claims that Col 1:15-20 is a citation of a prose-hymn which represents a fusion of Jewish and Greco-Roman conventions for praising an exalted figure. A review of hymns in the literature of Second Temple Judaism as well as in the broader Greco-Roman world demonstrates that the Colossian hymn is indebted to both traditions in its appropriation of the conventions they utilized in praise of the divine. In light of these hymnic traditions of antiquity, the analysis of the form and content of the Colossian hymn shows that it is best understood as a quasi-philosophical prose-hymn cited in the context of a paraenetic letter. Finally, an epistolary and rhetorical analysis suggests that the hymn serves a number of significant rhetorical functions throughout the remainder of the letter.