While I am sensitive to the argument put forward by Wright and Dunn as regards the ongoing nonuniform evolution of theological development within an individual, the difficulties in placing Colossians in Paul’s career, coupled with the literary and content based distinctives in the letter, push me towards the acceptance of a variation of Wilson’s hypothesis. I would argue that we should attribute the authorship to a contemporary of Paul’s, dating the letter within the lifetime of Paul before the 60 CE earthquake. Though not genuinely pauline in a technical sense, the timing of the letter, distributed contemporary with Paul’s ministry in close geographic proximity and as we will see, composed of theological content distinct yet compatible with pauline thought, suggest to me the authorship rests with perhaps a close disciple and convert of the apostle intimately familiar with Paul’s theology, writing under the broad direction and endorsement of Paul to represent him in communities to which he never travelled personally . Linguistic study of the Colossian letter demonstrates a considerable familiarity with the undisputed pauline tome. In fact, Outi Leppa suggest that Colossians, “contains parallels that indicate probable literary dependence on every undisputed Pauline^[25]”, indicating that the writer was intimately familiar with the apostle’s work and thought^[26]. As such, even as we attribute the letter to another author it is appropriate for us to use the undisputed pauline letters to help us understand the arguments of Colossians. While it has been suggested that the distinctive nature of Colossians can be attributed to Paul’s use of an amanuensis^[27] it is my contention that we should acknowledge the distinctive nature as more than stylistic and therefore attribute the writing to another under the endorsement of Paul.

This perspective allows us to use Colossians as a framework to understand the complimentary streams of theological development operating within the early Christian community. As we move towards a more particular discussion of the Colossian hymn as a pre-existing theological reflection used by this author, this passage in fact represents the meeting of three christological perspective from which we can observe this formational period.