Story of My Books # 7 - Colossians and Philemon

Book # 7 was a commentary on Colossians and Philemon for the New Covenant Commentary Series (NCCS) which I edit with Craig Keener. It is an intermediate-level commentary, so a mixture of exegetical analysis and some contemporary reflections.

I am very proud of the NCCS. It’s been great to work with Craig Keener. We have some amazing volumes in this series. There is Keener on Romans, Gordon Fee on Revelation, Lynn Cohick on Ephesians, Jarvis Williams on Galatians, Nijay Gupta on 1-2 Thessalonians, Diane Chen on Luke, and more! I think it is by far the most international commentary series in the world, lots of ethnic and gender diversity too. More great volumes still to come! Check out this video by Craig and me talking about it:

I loved writing on Colossians and Philemon.

Colossians is like what would happen if Galatians and Ephesians made a baby.

There’s the Christ poem of Col 1.15-20, the stuff about Christ’s victory in 2.14-15, even some great pastoral remarks to Archippus in 4.17.

Also, Philemon was a treat too, this epistle is Paul as pastor, doing the work of reconciliation, and it forced me to think through the question of Christianity and slavery.

Whenever I’m asked to teach an MA exegesis unit, time and time again, this is the course I choose to teach, Colossians and Philemon.

There’s a nice review of my Colossians/Philemon book over at TGC.