Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: a revised text with introductions, notes, and dissertations

Very few nineteenth-century commentaries remain genuinely important rather than merely historically interesting; Lightfoot is one of them. His Greek scholarship, historical learning and theological sensitivity established much of the agenda for subsequent study of Colossians and Philemon, and he gives particular attention to the letter’s teaching concerning the person of Christ. His elaborate reconstruction of the Colossian error in terms of Essene and Judaeo-Gnostic tendencies now appears too confident in places, but the questions he asked and evidence he assembled shaped more than a century of discussion. His Philemon remains particularly fine: Lightfoot recognizes that emancipation seems perpetually close to Paul’s thought while arguing that Paul’s deeper demand is that Onesimus be received as a brother—a gospel principle whose implications ultimately undermine slavery itself. Historically foundational, still exegetically rewarding, and remarkable for how much of it remains useful after nearly a century and a half.