Paul and the intellectuals

the long version

Paul did not follow the Judaizers into ceremonialism or the Gnostics into philosophic stupidities. When Gnosticism lifted its head in the Lycus Valley Paul smote it, though a prisoner in Rome. He could not endure to see the glory of Jesus Christ obscured by the mist and fog of Gnosticism. The Epistle to the Colossians is the body blow against the early stages of this heresy that has never wholly disappeared. The Epistle to the Colossians is a short one, but tremendous in its depth and height, its scope and grasp. - Preface.