We reviewed some of the arguments for considering Colossians to be non-Pauline, and looked in detail at the apparent conflict between Colossians 3:1 (and 2:12) -- which describes Christians as having already been resurrected -- and Romans 6:4 -- which says that their resurrection is yet to come. This discrepancy has been cited as evidence for non-Pauline authorship of Colossians, but the group saw it more as rhetorical overkill, partcularly if the passage is seen as starting at 2:20 and continuing through 3:4.

We also looked at the Haustafeln passage in 3:18-4:1, which hints at a longer term approach to Christian living, compared with the tendancy in other Pauline letters to think in terms of an imminent Second Coming.

Paul sends greetings to the Roman church from a remarkably long list of contacts. One is Erastos, whom he describes as a high-ranking official -- the oikonomos of Corinth. Translators struggle with the term, usually coming up with something like "city treasurer", but the Greek word literally mans "Law of the Household". This may well of been a semi-obsolescent term in Paul's time -- we use an equally odd and rather similar term "Speaker of the House" -- but it has survived to this day as the word "economist". An inscription excavated in Corinth confirms the existence of Erastos, and describes him as the "aedile".

Once again, Paul quotes scripture out of context, using a despairing Psalm by David to make a point about Jesus. The verse does not make his point in context, strengthening our suspicion that Paul traveled with something like a booklet of useful quotations, rather than complete set of Jewish writings such as the Septuagint.

Paul is eager to journey to Jerusalem to hand over the collection for the poor, and then use Rome as a staging post on his way to Spain. Things turned out very differently, attacked by the Jerusalem church itself, by orthodox Jews in the courts of the temple, and arrested by a Roman snatch team, he found himself entering Rome at last, but under military escort, with little prospect of reaching Spain, though early church fathers such as Clement maintained a tradition that Paul survived his trial and eventually took the Word to the Western limits of the Empire.