Greetings to People

The letter to the Colossians ends with news about folks and what they are doing and greetings and such. Normally this boilerplate passage does not hold a lot of obvious value for Bible study, but this list of names maps to the 13 tribes, unlocking some meaning that's otherwise not accessible. In particular, many of these names occur elsewhere in the Bible, in stories that may turn out to have tribal significance once the names are properly mapped here in Colossians.

Tribe	Person	Scripture
Judah	Tychicus	60 Colossians 4:7-9 ⁷All things concerning me will be made known to you by Tychicus, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in Master, ⁸whom I send to you for this very purpose, that he may know the state of your affairs and comfort your hearts, ⁹together with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will make known to you all the things which have happened to us.
Reuben	Onesimus
Gad	Aristarchus	60 Colossians 4:10-11 ¹⁰Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, salutes you, together with Mark, cousin to Barnabas, concerning whom you have been instructed; and if he comes, receive him, ¹¹and Jesus, who is called Justus. These are of the circumcision, and the only ones who have helped me toward the kingdom of God; and they have been a comfort to me.
Asher	Mark
Naphtali	Barnabas
Manasseh	Jesus, who is called Justus
Simeon	Epaphras	60 Colossians 4:12-13 ¹²Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Messiah, salutes you, always laboring for you in prayer, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. ¹³For I can testify concerning him that he has a great zeal for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.
Levi	Luke, the beloved physician	60 Colossians 4:14 ¹⁴Luke, the beloved physician and Demas greet you.
Issachar	Demas
Zebulun	Laodicean Brothers	60 Colossians 4:15-16 ¹⁵Salute the brothers in Laodicea, and salute Nymphas and his family and the congregation that meets at his house. ¹⁶And when this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and likewise, you read the letter written from Laodicea.
Joseph	Nymphas and company
Benjamin	Archippus	60 Colossians 4:17 ¹⁷And say to Archippus, Be careful for the ministry which you have received in our Master, that you fulfill it.
Dan	Paul	60 Colossians 4:18 ¹⁸This salutation is by the hand of me, Paul. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you. Amen.

Notes on mappping

As typically happens Manasseh helps establish the correct mapping. In this case Manasseh's piece, a guy named Jesus who goes by Justus, is a map between two names. That is, in fact, what the whole list is doing, mapping names, like Judah and Tychicus. So Manasseh does it within his own entry since he usually mirrors what's happening with the whole. This alone is really cool to see. Otherwise the map is pretty simple as there are just 13 individuals or greetings in the list.

Observations

Judah as Tychicus. Needs more study.

Reuben as Onesimus. Onesimus is the slave (or perhaps son?) of Philemon who is sent away (to prison I believe) after something happens at home. Reuben has a fall-out with his dad too, in that he slept with one of his wives. So these two may go together in a meaningful way, though more study could help substantiate this connection.

Gad as Aristarchus. Needs more study.

Asher as Mark. This, probably, is the guy Paul and Barnabas divided over in Acts. Interestingly, we're told here that Mark is the cousin of Barnabas. Also interesting is the proximity between Asher (Austria) and Naphtali (Germany) both in terms of geography and language. So these are a pair of sorts.

Manasseh as Jesus, called Justus, helps set the overall structure and purpose of the passage, which is to map names to names. Needs more study to tease out why Justus goes with Manasseh.

Simeon as Epaphras. This works in general as Epaphras is the "minister" to Colosse and Simeon is often referred to as a "minister." Needs more study though.

Levi as Luke. Needs more study.

Issachar as Demas. Needs more study.

Zebulun as the Laodicean Brothers. Needs more study.

Joseph as Nymphas and his family and the congreation that meets in his house makes sense in that Joseph always has the whole within him, the community, in keeping with the promise that he would be a community of nations. Here it's not just Nymphas, but his family and those who fellowship with him as well. A good general match to Joseph.

Benjamin as Archippus works in that Archippus is told to complete his assignment and elsewhere, even in Colossians, Benjamin has a theme of completing.

Dan as Paul comes as a bit of a surprise since normally Dan has problems taking his land and he is smaller than most tribes while Paul on the other hand is the most prolific apostle aside from Jesus. But, the detail in the verse that Paul is imprisoned, and the common theme of imprisonment for Paul make his alignment with Dan plausible. More study might uncover more reasons Paul and Dan match.

By Ryan Eaton
Posted Tuesday, Dan 3, 13000