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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