A Journey Through Colossae

By David Gwartney

Colossae was one of the more obscure cities to which the Apostle Paul wrote. It shared the Lycus River Valley with the neighboring cities of Hierapolis and Laodicea. Paul indicated in his letter that he never personally visited the city, but instead chose to support co-workers like Epaphras, who would evangelize the Lycus Valley. Yet when Epaphras informed Paul of some of the issues facing the Colossian church, Paul responded by writing a letter that would become one of the more important pieces of religious works.

The natural resources of water and wool would play an integral part in putting the ancient city of Colossae on the map. Colossae derived its name from a plant used to dye wool for which the entire region would become known. Additionally, the Lycus River provided Colossae with a direct source of cold, fresh water, which was vital to an ancient city. Like many cities to which Paul wrote, the fledgling church was struggling to live out its faith in the midst of the predominantly pagan culture. An understanding of this Greco-Roman culture greatly contributes to deciphering the primary images Paul uses to help the church remain resolute in their faith.

What can be learned by reading not only the letter of Colossians, but by studying the history of the city, along with insights from both Roman and Greek culture, both of which shaped the city? We can begin to piece together some of the pressures that faced the Colossian church, both from pagan influences and by those promoting shallow religious experiences. We can also begin to appreciate and apply Paul’s words to our own modern circumstances, which may not be as far removed from Paul’s day as one might think. A Journey Through Colossae begins with the history of Colossae and the Lycus River Valley, then provides a narrative commentary on Colossians, and concludes with an examination of what happened to the church to which Paul wrote. The entire context of the Greco-Roman culture of the city begins to emerge when we understand Paul’s purpose and audience in this comprehensive study of the book of Colossians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Gwartney
• Release date: Aug 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005555801

David Gwartney

David Gwartney has traveled to biblical sites in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Greece, and Turkey, gaining an understanding of places that bring scripture to life. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida and met his wife, Tiffany, in Orlando, Florida, while earning his first master’s degree in Business Administration. He spent the next thirteen years living in Chicago, Illinois. While in Chicago, he earned his Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, studying both Greek and Hebrew languages. He then planted a church in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of the city, where he pastored for seven years. His travels and studies have led to three books exploring the Greco-Roman context of Paul’s letters to Philippi, (A Journey Through Philippi), Ephesus (A Journey Through Ephesus), and Colossae (A Journey Through Colossae). He currently resides in St. Petersburg, Florida and works as a Business Analyst, but is always planning his next adventure to ancient sites.

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A JOURNEY THROUGH COLOSSAE

By David Gwartney

Published by David Gwartney at Smashwords

Copyright 2021 David Gwartney

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Discover other titles by David Gwartney:

A Journey Through Ephesus

A Journey Through Philippi

Ten Essential Words

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Brief History of Colossae

Chapter 2: Four Vital Questions

Chapter 3: In the Beginning

Chapter 4: The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection

Chapter 5: Cave Dwellers

Chapter 6: Change Your Clothes

Chapter 7: Paterfamilias

Chapter 8: Keep Calm and Carry On

Chapter 9: Colossae and the New Testament

Chapter 10: The Role of Colossae in Church History

About The Author

Notes

Bibliography

Introduction

Most of life is lived in the ordinary, the mundane. We look forward to occasional breaks from our everyday routine. Like most, I have some simple pleasures that allow me to hit the pause button on life and breathe deeply: a good book, a meal out with my wife, a quiet coffee shop, great conversation with a friend, a nice scotch, a long hike through the woods. These are the things that get us through the routines of life. Never has this been more evident than during the recent COVID-19, or coronavirus, pandemic. Even as I write this, much of the planet has been under stay-at-home orders for going on a month now. It’s fascinating to watch how people respond when deprived of some of these simple breaks from the repetition of life.

Every once in a while, we set aside a week or two for a vacation, or for some, an adventure. Travel gives us an opportunity to leave our ordinary lives far behind and step into a new environment or someone else’s world. I learned several years ago that travel re-energizes me like nothing else does. I blame my mother for passing on the travel bug to me. If I’m honest, the most frustrating part of the current pandemic quarantine for me personally has not been the deprivation of little pleasures – although like many, without these little breaks, the days start to just run together. For me, it has been the cancellation of travel plans that has me counting the days until everything opens back up. Scotland? Cancelled. Uganda? Cancelled. And yes, I do readily acknowledge that my travel plans being indefinitely suspended would fall into the category of a first-world problem, but travel rejuvenates me like little else does.

Some of the best opportunities I have been afforded have not only allowed me to travel, but have integrated a couple more of my passions: the study of the Bible and learning about history. I love studying the scriptures and I enjoy reading about history, ancient history in particular. I guess you could call me a bit of a history buff. (I can hear Seinfeld’s George Costanza now: So what do you have to do to become a buff?) I am in my happy place when I get the opportunity to travel to such places as Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Greece, and Turkey. My passion for understanding the context of the Bible in order to bring about deeper insights, along with the appreciation of the historical events surrounding the Bible, comes alive when I am able to set foot in these very places.

The New Testament letters from the Apostle Paul offer a unique opportunity to dig into the context of scripture. Paul was writing to churches in specific cities and regions that were part of the Roman Empire of the first century. Places like Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, and Thessalonica were cities where Paul had preached and established church communities. He walked the city streets, met the local residents, and got a taste of the unique culture of each place. He would have done business with local merchants, eaten some of the favorite cuisine of the region, and listened to the stories that shaped each community. These simple realities can sometimes get lost when we read a book of the Bible like Ephesians and forget that Paul actually lived in a city named Ephesus - and we can walk down some of those very streets today.

In my previous book, A Journey Through Ephesus, I was able to share some of my observations and experiences from walking through the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. I have a grand vision of writing about each of Paul’s letters, which would provide me with the convenient excuse to travel to these ancient cities. (It’s purely research, right?) So in this book, it is my intention to delve into the contextual background behind Paul’s letter to the Colossians. But full disclosure: I have not visited the ancient ruins of Colossae, nor have I walked its streets.

In my defense, very few people have. You see, the ancient city of Colossae has yet to be excavated. If you were to travel to Turkey today and visit the modern town of Honaz, all you would see of Colossae would be a large hill, or tell, marking the archaeological site. A tell is a mound of debris and earth formed from layers of ancient cities that were destroyed or fell in to disrepair over time. Natural disasters, fires, and invading armies all wreaked havoc on structures built of wood, dirt, and stone. It was common practice to rebuild over previous sites, so that over a thousand-or-so years, a large mound would form, holding layer after layer of archaeological insights. And Colossae is one of the few sites from the New Testament that has yet to have spade break ground to uncover its mysteries.

Yet I chose to move forward with Colossae for a couple reasons. First, although I did not have an opportunity to visit the site, I was able to see places like Ephesus and Miletus, as well as some other sites in the region. Ephesus is only about 120 miles west of Colossae and was the leading city of the Roman province of Asia. While Colossae no doubt had its distinctiveness, it would have, at the same time, shared much of the culture of the region. It, also, was part of the Roman province of Asia, it was heavily influenced by Greco-Roman culture, and there would have been trade and the exchange of ideas between Ephesus and Colossae (as evidenced by Paul’s influence on Colossae, despite never having been there himself!).

Second, Paul’s letters to Ephesus and Colossae convey a very similar message and follow a parallel structure. As we shall explore deeper in the pages that follow, it appears that the letters to Ephesus and Colossae, along with the personal letter to Philemon, may have been delivered together by one of Paul’s couriers, Tychicus. So, these letters were written closely together and delivered on the same journey. In other words, if you study the book of Ephesians, you will understand much of what is written in the book of Colossians, although Colossians does focus on a specific issue distinctive to that church.

In A Journey Through Ephesus, I refer to my approach as a narrative commentary – the balancing act between the story and the context behind Paul’s letters. It has been my experience that most biblical commentaries or study guides take one of two approaches. The first approach skims the surface of the story, quickly moving to the question, what does this mean for me? Few details are provided about the actual context. As a result, the application of a passage of scripture may have little resemblance with what was actually intended. With this approach, the Bible is little more than a collection of maxims, platitudes, and self-help advice, and the reader ultimately determines the interpretation.

The second approach takes a deep-dive below the surface, exploring outlines, sentence structures, and the original language. While this level of analysis can be helpful (I am indebted to a couple of commentaries like this in my own study), if the exploration does not come back up for air, connecting back to the narrative, then the primary storyline can be disjointed or completely lost. Oftentimes, these types of commentaries are inaccessible to everyone but the scholar or academic.

I readily acknowledge that this approach may not be to everyone’s taste, but let me state a couple of assumptions up front. Perhaps some potentially nagging questions can be alleviated from the outset.

Firstly, I will assume that Paul actually wrote Colossians. To some, this might seem obvious. Yet in much of modern academia, it has become the popular stance to divorce much of the New Testament from the originally-stated authorship – Paul’s letters in particular. The authorship of Colossians is much less disputed than, say, Ephesians, due to the fact that the phrase in Ephesus in the opening verses of the letter is actually a later addition to the text. Additionally, there is not a lot of distinguishable language in the letter of Ephesians that might confirm the church in Ephesus as the intended recipients. This difficulty is not as prevalent in Colossians. Yet, I do not want to gloss over some of the challenges and alternate opinions when it comes to the formation of Colossians. We will examine these in the pages to come.

Next, a word about mythology. Much of the Greco-Roman, or pagan, culture was transmitted through mythological stories. Most of the Roman Empire held some level of belief in the prevalent myths of the day, as well as the pantheon of Roman gods, along with their Greek counterparts. Mythology permeated the structures and public spaces of Greco-Roman cities. It was not uncommon for residents to have house shrines to their local deities. The predominant myths comprised much of the narrative of Greco-Roman life. Consequently, there are many references that may seem benign to modern ears that would have carried strong allusions to the ancients. While I will call out of many of these references, it is not my assertion that Paul was alluding to the myths in each and every instance. I only wish to suggest that much of what Paul wrote may have contained an implicit critique of pagan mythology and culture. And as we will examine next, Gentile converts would have understood much of what Paul wrote in this very way.

The third assumption relates to the second, in that Paul was well aware of the pervasiveness of myth in Greco-Roman culture, and as a Roman citizen growing up in a Greek city, he would have been familiar with these myths in a way that a Jew in Israel may not have been. In correspondence such as the epistles of Paul, there are two layers (if not many more!) of meaning happening concurrently. The obvious layer of meaning is what Paul intended to say. Thus, the most direct interpretation of the words of Colossians is based on what we know of Paul, what we would expect Paul to say, and what he said elsewhere in his other correspondence.

The secondary, and less obvious, layer of meaning is how the recipients would have understood the words of Paul. We can safely assume that Paul was in a unique position to not only explain the gospel in light of his Jewish upbringing, but to also explain it in such a way that Gentiles would have understood the gospel in light of their pagan culture. Paul was smart enough and a skilled enough communicator to navigate conveying a Jewish gospel to a pagan culture. Much more could be said on this assumption but simply put, Paul not only wrote what he meant to write, but he understood how the recipients would hear it. And he was uniquely qualified to pull it off.

In summary, the convergence of scripture, history, mythology, and archaeology can greatly contribute to our understanding of Paul’s words in a fresh way. In a similar manner, the Apostle’s own background equipped him to convey the gospel to a pagan culture with a distinct perspective that few others could have pulled off.

On a personal note, when I set out on my own study of Colossians my initial reaction was one of discouragement. I had read Colossians many times, taking the default approach of skimming the surface. And certainly, there is much biblical wisdom to be found in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. But my initial impression when plunging below the surface was that there were not many of these cultural references to explore. Yet to my delight, Paul did not disappoint. In many ways in my ongoing study, I found Colossians to be every bit as rich in cultural references, mythological imagery, and pagan critique as Paul’s Ephesian letter. My hope is that the reader experiences the same sense of fulfillment and illumination.

As for finding meaningful life in the midst of the mundane and ordinary, Paul will address that issue as well in his letter to the Colossians.

Finally, as we begin our journey through Colossae, I offer the words of the Apostle Paul himself as our prayer: We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord.

Part I

The Background of Colossae

Chapter 1

A Brief History of Colossae

When Xerxes had so spoken and had made good his promises to Pythius, he pressed forward upon his march; and passing Anaua, a Phrygian city, and a lake from which salt is gathered, he came to Colossae, a Phrygian city of great size, situated at a spot where the river Lycus plunges into a chasm and disappears. This river, after running under ground a distance of about five furlongs, reappears once more, and empties itself, like the stream above mentioned, into the Maeander.

- Herodotus, Histories

One of the first things that piqued my interest in the Greco-Roman context of the Apostle Paul’s letters was the realization that these epistles – these books of the Bible that I had grown up with - were actually names of cities. I’m sure it crossed my mind from time to time, but I started to read Paul’s letters differently when I understood that Ephesians was written to a church in the city of Ephesus, Corinthians was delivered to the city of Corinth, and Philippians was addressed to people who lived in a city called Philippi. It becomes even more palpable if you have an opportunity to walk down the ancient streets at sites such as Ephesus or Corinth. These letters become more personal when you wander through the local agora, see the ruins of a great temple, walk from the amphitheater to the harbor, and look back over hillsides that would have been covered with homes, brimming with children playing and adults attending to household chores.

Thus, before we can forge ahead, we must pause at just the second verse of Colossians when we read that Paul was writing to the saints who live in Colossae. We must pause and ask, what do we know about this city of Colossae? Sadly, the common response in modern times will be, not much at all. But there are some facts from history that can be pieced together and this will help as we begin our journey through Colossae.

Today, especially in a relatively young country like the United States, it is easy to take for granted why and how cities came to be. Due to factors like modern technology, interstates, and infrastructure, a city like Las Vegas can emerge in the middle of the desert of Nevada, with virtually no natural advantages to speak of. Some modern cities certainly had their beginnings due to their proximity to a harbor or a river, where trade could be expedited. And there are some examples of cities that have risen and declined with the local industry, like Detroit’s fate, which has largely been tied to the auto industry. Still, with a massive shift from farming and industry to technology and services in the last century, very few modern cities are dependent on location or natural resources in order to grow and flourish.

Yet for most of history this has not been the case. Ancient cities were vitally dependent on the availability of natural resources to support a population of any size. Almost all cities needed close proximity to a fresh water source – a lake, river, or natural spring. Jerusalem was, in fact, an ancient oddity in that it grew in size and importance, despite the fact that there was no great water source nearby. The Gihon Spring was the only source of fresh water to speak of. A city also needed to be defensible from attack if it were to endure. So any natural defense, such as being established on a plateau or bordered by a river, was a built-in advantage. It was also advantageous to be located along a trade route so that the city could benefit from commerce.

As previously mentioned, our city of Colossae was located about 120 miles east of Ephesus. While the Asian cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, and Miletus were located on the western coast of what is now Turkey, Colossae was located inland in a region known as the Lycus River Valley in the ancient kingdom of Phrygia. Following the Maeander River from the coast near Miletus would eventually lead inland to another river that fed into the Maeander, the Lycus River.

Colossae shared this valley with two other cities, Laodicea and Hierapolis. Each were only about fifteen miles distance from the others. Professor William Ramsay, the noted British archaeologist and New Testament scholar, described his own entry into this region: The Lycus [Valley] is double, containing a lower and upper glen. Laodicea is the city of the lower glen, Colossae of the upper. Due north of Laodicea, between the Lycus and the Maeander, stands Hierapolis, in a very conspicuous situation, on a shelf below the northern mountains and above the valley.¹ Sharing this valley with two other cities in close proximity had its advantages, but also produced its rivalries.

As Ramsay mentioned, Colossae itself sits east of Laodicea at the base of Mount Cadmus. It was positioned next to the Lycus River, bringing with it a