Colossae: The Colossian Culture

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Colossae was a town settled in western Asia Minor or central Anatolia in the Lycus Valley. It was situated south of Hierapolis and southeast of Laodicea in the Phrygia region. It was a commerce and trading town, known for its red or purple dyed wool and rich lands. The town was situated on the main highway traveling from Ephesus to Sardis (Longman III, Enns, & Strauss, 2013, pp. 134-135, 330-334) (Brand, et al., 2015, p. 317) (Metzger & Coogan, The Oxford Guide To People & Places of The Bible, 2001). Due to the spread of Hellenistic and Roman culture via military campaigns and Colossae’s location on a major highway and trading route, the local population was rather diverse. The presence of Romans, Greeks, Jews and the native Phrygians in the region would probably mean that the Colossian congregation was largely Gentiles and nonbelievers (Longman III, Enns, & Strauss, 2013, pp. 330-334). A variety of social classes would have engaged in trade, from wealthy landowners, artisans and textile merchants, to …show more content…

These varying classes and cultures would have put a strain on the growth of the churches of the Lycus Valley, because of the various interpretations and viewpoints of the developing Christian faith (Longman III, Enns, & Strauss, 2013, pp. 335-337) (Packer & Tenney, 1980).

The Colossian church was founded around 52-55 CE as result of Paul’s second and third missionary journeys through Asia Minor. Epaphras/Ephesus, a Gentile convert, founded

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