I. The Colossians.
It is evident that it would greatly assist us in understanding the different Epistles of the New Testament, if we could learn with exactness the history and condition of the assemblies or individuals to whom they were addressed.
This is not in every case possible, but in some instances both the Epistles themselves and also contemporary history furnish evidence in this respect of the highest interest. In this series of articles we hope to direct the attention of our readers to evidence of the former class, and to lay before them interesting details of the latter class, gathered from various sources.
We shall confine ourselves to the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the writings of the other apostles not being as a rule addressed either to special assemblies or to individuals, and we propose to commence with the Epistle to the Colossians.
There is no evidence that the Apostle had ever visited Colosse, and indeed all that we can gather both from the account of his travels given in the Acts, and also from the Epistle itself, would seem to indicate that he was a stranger to the Colossians. We cannot however doubt that it was indirectly through his instrumentality that they were brought to the knowledge of the truth. He was long resident at Ephesus, a neighboring town to Colosse, and his opponents there bore witness to the fact that the effect of his teaching had reached almost throughout all Asia (Acts 19:2626Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands: (Acts 19:26)); Ephesus too being a place of resort on account of the temple of Diana, many from the country round had no doubt opportunities of hearing the Apostle’s teaching in his disputations in the school of Tyrannus. It would appear however that the direct instrument of their conversion to Christianity was Epaphras, who in the Epistle is several times referred to in terms of warm commendation of his faithfulness in service and of his love for the Colossians. How natural then that, earnest as he was in prayer for their welfare, he should be alarmed at the appearance of any evil doctrine or practice in their midst, and should have laid his trouble before the Apostle in the hope that warnings such as in the case of the Corinthian Church had already proved so effectual, might now be used for the awakening of the Colossians to a sense of the danger to which they were exposed.
Of the subsequent history of the Colossian Church we have no record in Scripture, but of the neighboring church, that of Laodicea, the book of Revelation affords us instructive details, more especially when we consider that the Epistle to the Colossians and the one, which if not addressed to, was at least in the possession of the Laodicean church, were to be exchanged, and that the same elements of danger probably existed in both assemblies. It is interesting therefore to notice that the warnings addressed by the Apostle Paul to the Colossians indicate the working of a principle, the fruits of which were sternly rebuked in the message the apostle John was instructed to deliver to the angel of the church of Laodicea. It is interesting too in this connection to note, as has been pointed out by a recent writer, that some of the decrees adopted at a council held at Laodicea about three centuries after the date of the Epistle to Colosse, forbid the very practices against which the apostle’s warnings are directed.
The consideration of the close links which Scripture thus shows us existed between the two churches, leads us to think that a few details as to the position and history of the cities and of the neighboring one of Hierapolis also mentioned in our Epistle (Chapter 4:13) may not be uninteresting.
The three cities were situated close to each other in the South-Western part of Asia Minor on, or at least near, the Lycus a tributary of the Meander. Of the three the most important undoubtedly was Laodicea, which at the date the apostle wrote had been built about three centuries, and for some time had been noted for the wealth of its citizens and the magnificence of its public buildings. As an instance of the former we may mention that the city having been destroyed by an earthquake, was speedily rebuilt by its inhabitants without external help, and of the latter, the present extent and character of the ruins which now mark the site are abundant witness. What is however of more immediate interest to us, is the fact that amongst the inhabitants were a great number of Jews, who, as the historian Josephus tells us, had been transplanted into the district by Antiochus the Great: from the same authority too we learn that their wealth had become so enormous as to excite the cupidity of the Roman Governor of the Province.
Elsewhere we read that they were of sufficient importance to obtain certain special privileges as to the practice of the different rites of their religion. The presence in Laodicea of this extensive and wealthy colony will help us to understand how much the faith of the converts might be tinged by the deep-rooted prejudices of the Jews, and how readily like the Galatian Christians, they might slip from the simplicity of the gospel back to the elements of Judaism.
Intercourse between the cities of Asia Minor and the great center Jerusalem would be very constant, and there would therefore be a continued influx, not only of Jews whose every religious thought was bound up with the service—barren though it might be—of the temple, but also of Jewish Christians, who, as we learn from Acts 21:2020And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law: (Acts 21:20), were themselves “zealous of the law.”
To the heathen superstitions and other doctrinal dangers to which the faith of the christians of the three cities was exposed, especially the speculations of the Greek philosophers we may perhaps refer more conveniently later on.
The subsequent history of Laodicea does not now concern us; suffice it to say that after having become of great ecclesiastical importance, it was entirely destroyed by the Mohammedan invasion, the judgments pronounced by the apostle John falling upon the Church as upon the city.
Situated but a few miles from Laodicea, Hierapolis was perhaps of scarcely so much importance either commercially or politically: it was however of note on account of valuable medicinal baths which caused it to be a place of much resort. We may assume however that the inhabitants consisted of very much the same classes of people as Laodicea. In later days it occupied a prominent position in connection with the various discussions which agitated the church and still later it shared the fate of the sister city.
Whilst Laodicea and Hierapolis were increasing in importance, Colosse was declining and until quite recently its very site was uncertain. Modern research has determined it as having been near the existing village of Chonas. It is interesting to note in connection with one of the exhortations of the Epistle (see Chapter 2:18), that in later days angel worship prevailed to some extent in the city, a church having been erected in honor of the archangel Michael. Colosse was eventually destroyed at the same time as Laodicea and Hierapolis.