From a team of more than 50 international scholars comes the Word Biblical Commentary Series.

Its more than 60 volumes offer the best in critical scholarship firmly committed to the authority of Scripture as divine revelation.

Here is an expositional, exegitcal, and theological commentary based on the Greek text of Colossians and Philemon. It is the author's intention 'to open up the main theological issues of these two letters and indicate the way Paul interacts with contemporary pastoral problems.'

One theme that has proved compelling to both the critical scholar and the serious lay reader is the mystical and ascetic tendency at work in Colossae. Paul's struggle to keep such impulses under the control of Christ's own work on behalf of our salvation forms a significant thread in Colossians.

Similarly with Philemon: in the absence of major textual problems, the theological issues of slavery and of personal attention.

Introductory essays provide background on Colossae, the city, the peoople, and the church; the threat to faith of the Colossian heresy'; Paul's pastoral handling of the Colossian philosophy; as well as textual, authorship, and stylistic considerations.

The student of Colossians or Philemon will find carefully detailed exegesis, but always within basic thematic frameworks: in Colossians, for example, one can follow Paul's development of themes like 'Christ the Lord in Creation and Redemption' (1:15-20); or 'Freedom from Legalism' (2:16-23): while in Philemon one can trace Paul's pastoral attention as it shifts back and forth between his Christian benefactor Philemon and Philemon's escaped - but newly converted - slave Onesimus.