The Letters to Philemon, the Colossians, and the Ephesians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Captivity Epistles (Socio-Rhetorical Commentary | SRC)

This volume completes Ben Witherington’s contributions to the set of Eerdmans socio-rhetorical commentaries on the New Testament. In addition to the usual features of these commentaries, Witherington offers an innovative way of looking at Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon as interrelated documents written at different levels of moral discourse. In Philemon we see Paul using moral discourse in an intimate, personal setting. Colossians presents a vice/virtue list, along with a household code, while Ephesians focuses on community values. Witherington successfully analyzes these documents as examples of Asiatic rhetoric, explaining the differences in style from earlier Pauline documents. He further shows that Paul is deliberately engaging in the transformation of existing social institutions.