Who was the author? The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of Colossians by the apostle Paul.
What is the book? The book is an apostolic letter written to the churches of Colossae, a Roman city in Asia Minor some 125 miles east of Ephesus.
Where was it written? Colossians is another one of the so-called "captivity letters" of Paul, thought to have been written while he was under at least house arrest in Rome.
When was it written? Dates for Paul's first Roman imprisonment during which Colossians was likely written are A.D. 59-61.
Why? A convert of St. Paul's from Ephesus named Epaphras, who likely helped found the church in Colossae at least with Paul's approval, apparently visited Paul in Rome and brought word of false teaching that was troubling the church in Colossae. The letter seems to be written primarily to address that false teaching, although it certainly accomplishes other purposes, too.
How? Paul exalts Christ and emphasizes Christ's complete adequacy in contrast to the inadequacy of the false teaching plaguing Colossae.
For further reading on the book of Colossians:
- Deterding, Paul E. Colossians, Concordia Commentary: A Theological Exposition of Sacred Scripture, eds. Dean O. Wenthe et. al. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2003. (A recent and scholarly, though accessible, commentary.)
- Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus and to Philemon. Columbus, Ohio: The Wartburg Press, 1946. (Although my copy was printed in 1960, this commentary was originally published in 1937 and is thus, from a scholarly perspective, somewhat out of date, although his comments are still usually on the mark. The volume has 207 pages on Colossians.)