What was proclaimed is now reclaimed.- Wednesday, 22nd week in ordinary time- St Paul’s letter to the Colossians 1:1-8

Most scholars agree that out of the fourteen letters attributed to St Paul, some of them were actually written by his disciples, one such being the letter to the Colossians. The letter was written between 65 and 75 AD. However we know from historical evidence that the town of Colossae, located in modern day western Turkey about 120 miles inland from the Aegean Sea, was destroyed in an earthquake around the year 61 CE and was not rebuilt. The ruins were discovered in 1835.

Quite obviously, the letter could not be written to the community after the city was flattened by a natural disaster. This leaves us with just one explanation; it was written after Paul’s death by one of his followers in an attempt to have Christ’s apostle speak from beyond the grave. We will never know the identities of both the author and the audience of this letter as they are pseudonymous.

So does this mean that the letter to the Colossians is a fake? Absolutely not! The Bible is God’s divinely revealed word and He may choose any instrument to reveal it; even if that is a mere disciple of Paul. The Catholic Catechsim teaches us that the Bible is not meant to convey precise historical information or scientific findings. Moreover, the authors were children of their time. They shared the cultural ideas of the world around them and often were also dominated by its errors (CCC 106,107, 109).