40 Fun Facts About Book of Colossians

Colossians 4:6 says speech should always be gracious and seasoned with which kitchen staple?

Salt is Paul's picture for talk with some flavour to it, and he gives the reason at once: so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Colossians 4:14 names Luke, by tradition the third Gospel's author, as a member of which profession?

Physician is Paul's word for Luke, the reason he is thought to have been a healer as well as a writer, and he is now honoured as a patron saint of physicians and artists.

In Colossians 2:14, what did God do with the record of debt against believers?

Nailed it to the cross is how Paul pictures a debt being cancelled, coming straight after his claim that people dead in their trespasses had been brought to life.

Colossae, the Colossians' city about 100 miles from Ephesus, lies in ruins in which modern country?

Turkey is home to the site, a mound of buried ruins near the town of Honaz at the foot of Mount Cadmus, the highest peak in the country's western Aegean region.

Paul ends Colossians by writing the greeting himself and asking readers to remember what?

His chains get three plain words, 'Remember my chains', squeezed between Paul's signature and the letter's closing blessing of grace.

Colossians 2:21 quotes rule-makers saying 'Do not handle, do not taste' and which third command?

Do not touch completes a trio Paul is mocking, since he says such rules deal with things that perish with use and rest on merely human commands.

Colossians 3:14 names which virtue to put on over all the others, as the bond of perfect unity?

Love is the last item in a wardrobe: readers are first told to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Colossians 2:18 warns against people who delight in false humility and the worship of which beings?

Angels are the target of Paul's warning, and in later centuries Colossae became known for its veneration of the Archangel Michael.

Colossians 2:12 says believers were buried with Christ in which rite and raised through faith?

Baptism follows Paul's talk of a circumcision carried out by Christ rather than by any person, which he describes as a putting off of the sinful nature.

What does Colossians 2:1 reveal about Paul and the church at Colossae he worked so hard for?

He had never met them face to face, by his own account, and he says the same of the believers in a neighbouring city.

Colossians 4:2 tells believers to devote themselves to what, staying watchful and thankful?

Prayer comes with a request attached: Paul asks the Colossians to remember him as well, so that he can declare his message as clearly as he should.

Like the rest of the New Testament, Paul's letter to the Colossians was written in which language?

Greek, in the form known as Koine, was the letter's original language, and one of its oldest surviving copies is Papyrus 46, made around AD 200.

Colossians 3:1 says to strive for the things above, where Christ is seated in which position?

At God's right hand is the seat of honour, and the next verses add that a believer's own life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:13 tells believers to bear with one another and do what, just as the Lord did for them?

Forgive each other, Paul says, whatever the complaint, and the standard he sets is the way the Lord had already treated them.

Colossians 3:15 says what should rule in the hearts of believers called as members of one body?

The peace of Christ is given the ruling seat, and the verse ends with a two-word order that is easy to miss: be thankful.

Colossians 1:13 says God rescued believers from the dominion of what, into his Son's kingdom?

Darkness is set against the verse before, which thanks the Father for giving believers a share with the saints in the light.

Which co-worker, called 'our brother', is named beside Paul as a sender in Colossians 1:1?

Timothy shares the opening line, yet by the end of chapter 1 the letter has slipped into the first person with the words 'I, Paul'.

Colossians 1:15 calls the Son the image of the invisible God and what over all creation?

The firstborn is a title used twice in the passage, since three verses later Christ is also called firstborn from among the dead.

Colossians 1:26 calls God's word what, hidden for ages and generations but now revealed?

A mystery in Paul's sense is a secret now out in the open, and he says God chose to make it known among the Gentiles.

Colossians 3:5 lists sins to put to death and says greed amounts to which offence against God?

Idolatry is the charge laid against greed alone, at the end of a list that also names sexual immorality, impurity, lust and evil desires.

Colossians 2:16 says no one should judge believers over food, drink, a feast, a New Moon or what?

A Sabbath ends the list, and Paul's reason follows at once: such observances point ahead to something whose substance belongs to Christ.

Colossians 1:27 sums up God's riches among the Gentiles as 'Christ in you, the hope of' what?

Glory is the hope, and Paul's stated aim in the next verse is to present everyone fully mature in Christ by warning and teaching them.

Which 'beloved fellow servant' does Colossians 1:7 credit with teaching the Colossians the gospel?

Epaphras was a Colossian himself, 'one of you', and by the end of the letter he is at Paul's side and sending greetings home.

Colossians 2:3 says all the treasures of which two things are hidden in Christ?

Wisdom and knowledge are placed in Christ for a practical reason, given in the next verse: so that nobody misleads the readers with smooth talk.

Colossians 2:8 warns against capture by empty deception and which pursuit built on human tradition?

Philosophy is named nowhere else in the New Testament, which has led one scholar to see Epicurean ideas behind the trouble at Colossae.

Colossians 2:17 calls food rules and festival days a mere what of the things to come?

A shadow needs something solid to cast it, and Paul says that solid thing, the body, belongs to Christ.

Colossians 4:16 tells the church to swap letters with the congregation in which nearby city?

Laodicea had a letter of its own that the Colossians were told to read; it is generally regarded as lost, though some identify it with Ephesians.

Which 'faithful and beloved brother', a Colossian, travels with the letter in Colossians 4:9?

Onesimus, whose name means 'useful', may well be the runaway slave Paul sends home in his short letter to Philemon.

Colossians 4:10 sends greetings from Mark and identifies him as the cousin of which missionary?

Barnabas had once parted from Paul after a sharp disagreement over taking Mark on a journey, yet here the Colossians are told to welcome Mark.

Colossians 2:9 says all the fullness of what dwells in Christ in bodily form?

The Deity in all its fullness is the claim, and the next verse draws the consequence: readers have been made complete in Christ.

Colossians 3:16 tells believers to sing psalms, hymns and what else with gratitude in their hearts?

Spiritual songs complete a trio that turns up word for word in Ephesians 5:19, one of many echoes between the two letters.

Which 'beloved brother and faithful minister' will tell the church Paul's news, says Colossians 4:7?

Tychicus has the same errand in Ephesians 6:21, a sign that the two letters were sent out as a pair.

Colossae, the Colossians' city, was wrecked in the AD 60s by which kind of disaster?

An earthquake hit in the very decade the letter is traditionally dated to, by which time Colossae had already dwindled in size and significance.

Colossians 3:11 lists 'barbarian' beside which people, long a stock image of savagery?

Scythian had been the quintessential stereotype of a barbarian since fifth-century BC Athens, and the verse sets the name beside slave and free.

Which companion, named beside Luke in Colossians 4:14, is later reported to have deserted Paul?

Demas is a 'fellow worker' in Philemon and only a bare name here, and the final word on him is that he left out of attachment to this world.

Colossians 4:15 greets which woman, along with the church that meets at her house?

Nympha hosted a congregation in her home, though the King James Version reads the name as a man's, Nymphas, and speaks of 'his house'.

Colossians 4:17 tells which man to complete the ministry he received in the Lord?

Archippus also appears in the greeting of Paul's letter to Philemon, where he is called 'our fellow soldier'.

Colossae, the Colossians' city, grew rich on which product, which gave the colour colossinus its name?

Wool from the city's flocks brought in great revenue, the geographer Strabo reported, and Herodotus had earlier called Colossae a great city.

Colossians 2:15 says God disarmed the powers and authorities and made what of them in triumph?

A public spectacle borrows its picture from a Roman triumph, the victory parade in which beaten enemies were led through the streets of Rome as captives.

Colossians 4:13 names which nearby city of believers, famed since antiquity for its hot springs?

Hierapolis had used its hot springs as a spa since at least the second century BC, and it was also the birthplace of the Stoic teacher Epictetus.