the Ten Tribes from Israel; and we have evidence that the Phrygian Jews compromised with heathenism to an extent possible only to those who held their ancestral faith most loosely. They probably accepted Christianity readily, and thus lost their racial identity.
We have no information as to the introduction of Christianity into these cities, in all of which Churches had been planted. They had not been founded by Paul, though some of their members were known to him. They seem to have owed their origin to Epaphras, who was probably one of Paul’s converts, and since the Apostle gives emphatic approval to his teaching, they had been instructed in the Pauline type of doctrine. Apparently they consisted for the most part of Gentiles (this is suggested, though not proved, by i. 21, 27, ii. 13, iii. 7). We may conjecture from iv. 10 that Paul had written an earlier letter to them, to which they had sent a reply by Epaphras. Recently they had been assailed by a form of false teaching, and while they remained, so far, loyal to the doctrine they had been taught (i. 4, ii. 5), the danger was sufficiently serious to call forth this letter, which had perhaps been preceded by a letter addressed to Laodicea. It was sent by Tychicus, who was accompanied by Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave, whom Paul was sending back to his master, with a letter asking forgiveness for the culprit.
Since this subject has an important relation to the false teaching in the Colossian Church, to the authenticity of the Epistle and the exegesis of several passages, it is necessary to treat it in some detail so far as this is relevant here, and more convenient to devote a special section to it. The doctrine of angels has considerable prominence in the Old Testament, but received great development in later Judaism, both among the Rabbis and in the apocalyptic literature. The influence of these ideas on the New Testament writers is very marked. In this connexion the points to be specially noticed are the relation of the angels to nature and men, their ethical character, their ranks and their association with the Law.
In the Ο.Τ. the connexion of the angels with the forces of nature is not made prominent. The cherubim, it is true, appear in close connexion with natural phenomena, and probably were originally identical with the thunder-cloud. But we have no warrant for regarding them as angels. In Ps. civ. 4 God’s messengers and ministers are said to be made of wind and fire. In later literature this