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COLOSSAE

(Gk. Kolossaí)

A city in the central highlands of Asia Minor, 201 km. (125 mi.) E of the Aegean Sea and 145 km. (90 mi.) N of the Mediterranean Sea, situated mostly on the south bank of the Lycus River. It was located along a major southern trade route that extended through Asia Minor from the Aegean coast into the Syrian Euphrates region. The fertile Lycus Valley made Colossae rich in olives and figs, and the city had a thriving wool industry, specializing in black wool and a famous woolen cloth dyed reddish-purple.

Part of the Phrygian kingdom (12th-7th centuries b.c.e.), Colossae was dominated successively by Cimmerians, Lydians, Persians, Greeks, Seleucids, Galatians, and Romans. Xenophon (ca. 401) referred to Colossae as “a large and prosperous city,” but Strabo later apparently considered it only a small town (ca. 15 c.e.). In the 1st century c.e., Colossae was overshadowed by its northern neighbors, Laodicea and Hieropolis.

Roman Colossian coins indicate the worship of numerous deities, including Artemis, Helios, Demeter, Men, Isis, and Serapis. To this religious milieu could presumably be added Phrygian mysteries, the Roman imperial cult, and Judaism. The Christian community at Colossae was probably founded by Epaphras, a companion of Paul (Col. 1:7-8; 4:12-13; Phlm. 23). The letter to the Colossians may allude to aspects of Colossae’s syncretistic environment.

An earthquake between 60 and 64 c.e. devastated Laodicea and Hieropolis, and presumably Colossae. Coins minted at Colossae appear from 150 to ca. 250, but not later. The population shifted to nearby Chonae, but the bishopric there retained a reference to Colossae until the 8th century.

Bibliography. M. Barth and H. Blanke, Colossians. AB 34B (New York, 1994); J. B. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon (1886, repr. Wheaton, 1997).

Scott Nash

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

COLOSSAE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)