Hey fam, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge.

But it's never too late to start, and we're in this together.

Thanks for journeying with us, and here's your host, Emma Daughter.

Thanks for joining. We're about to start the Book of Colossians, so in this bonus episode,

we're going to look at some important contextual information and major themes.

Let's start by talking about the setting. The people who lived in this area when Paul wrote

the letter to the Colossians were primarily Greek colonists and then there were natives,

although there were many Jews living there as well. This guy named Antiochus the Great,

who was known for leading the Greeks

in a war against the Roman Republic. And fun fact, this guy actually became king when he was 18.

Anyway, Antiochus the Great had relocated hundreds of Jewish families from Mesopotamia to this region,

probably as a result of the war. So as a result, there seems to have been more

liberal Jews here than in the neighboring province of Galatia to the east. One commentator said,

In the bordering province of Galatia, the infant faith was very clearly primarily threatened

by legalism, meaning that Jewish believers there thought they

had to keep the law to be right with God and that Gentile believers should do the same, even

though Christ had already come.

A heresy here that affected the Colossians, or was prominent in their area, was also

present in Ephesus.

And the danger in this heresy was this idea of a Jewish,

Hellenistic religious syncretism. Those are some big words, so I'm going to give you the spark

notes. The heresy the Colossians were likely facing was similar to, but not exactly the same

...