Introduction to Colossians: Authorship, Date, Audience - Crain Home

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(8) Hence, because of the long and exhausting journey, Paul
could not send Epaphroditus back to Philippi until he had
rested up. Further, the situation in Philippi, though important
to address, was not as urgent as the situation in Colossae. 21
(9) After Paul dispatched Tychicus, and after his other
assistants had been dispatched or had abandoned him for
whatever reasons (cf. Phil 2:19ff.), Paul intended to send
Epaphroditus back to the Philippians. Unfortunately, he
became ill—even to the point of death. 22 Paul could not send
him until he was well, and this presumably took several
months (for the Philippians knew of his sickness).
http://www.bible.org/docs/soapbox/colotl.htm
6. Lewis R. Donelson, review of The Hope of Glory:
Education and Exhortation in the Epistle to the Colossians by
Walter T. Wilson (Society of Biblical Literature):
The recent trend in scholarship on Colossians has been to
emphasize the Jewish character of both the text and its
context. Walter T. Wilson, while acknowledging the Jewish
context of much of Colossians, moves against this trend by
reading Colossians through the lens of Hellenistic
philosophical paraenesis. In fact, Wilson's main thesis is that
Colossians participates in specific Hellenistic conventions of
moral education and philosophical paraenesis in both its form
and content. And he makes a good case.
Wilson argues, furthermore, that understanding these
paraenetic conventions explains many of the curious
rhetorical strategies of the letter. For example, this kind of
paraenesis is directed primarily to the novice whose
conversion needs further maintenance. Thus, the focus on
conversion, baptism, and remembrance in Colossians is not a
unique Christian form of argument but is, on the contrary,
typical of philosophical paraenesis. Doctrinal material in
paraenesis is not typically presented by way of full systematic
articulation but by way of reminders of what has been learned
earlier. It evokes a larger system that remains unstated. Thus,
the often-noted gaps in the theological logic of Colossians
denote not true gaps in the system but adherence to the