12 Epaphras, who is one- of you a ſervant of Chriſt, faluteth you 1, always || labouring fervently
[7.4 for you in prayers 7, That ye may ſtand perfect, and
| complete inall the will of God 7.
I After he had given them the good wiſhes of ſome of the Fes 3 he doth here give.the like from ſome of the Genrles, beginning with Epaphras, whom he had before commended, chap, 1. 7, 3, and doth here recommend him as born and bred among them, devoted to their ſervice, in being the Servant of Chriſt, as Pau] ſeparated to the preaching of the Goſpel, Aom. 1. 1, yea aFellow-priloner with the Apoſtle upon that account, Philem, v. 23, m And as it became ſuch an one faithful in his office, not diverted by diftance of place, or length of time, was night and day contending zealoufly with
SIANS.
Phyſick; was no more inconſiſtent with being an, Evangelift, thaz PauJ's Tent making with being an Apoſile, 2 Theſ. 3- 8. xr Headds a third in this Salutation from others, and
his fellow Labourers, Philem. 24. Though it Gould ſeem afterwards when the Perſecution. grew hutter, he 4d for ſome worldly reſpes, leave Paul, and depart unto Theſſalonica, 2 Tim, 4» 10s |
15 Salute the brethren which are in Lacdicea Hh,
and Nymphas ?, znd the church which is in his houſe .
F Having ſaluted the Colof.eys, in the name of others, cir- cumciſed , and uncircumciſed , he defires them in his own Name to ſalute the Chriftians-ia the Church at Laodi-ea. t And ſome pious Man called Nynbas, probably living either in the Country near the City of Zawjcea 5 or ſome eminent Chriſtian of ichief note in the City. The maſculine Article adjoyned ſhews this Perſon''to Þe a male ard not a female, as ome have inconfiderately reckoned. # And the company of believers either of his own family or neighbourhood, who did under his proteQion or inſpettion meet to worſhip God according to his appointment, Kgm., 16, 1, 5. 1 Cor. 16s 59, 19, |
16 And when this epiftle is read amongſt you rw, cauſe that it be read alſo in the Church of the Lao- diceans x - and that ye likewiſe read the epiltle from Laodicea y.
w The Apoſtle takes it for granted, that, when this Epiſtle came to their Hands, *twould be publickly read in a ſolemn Aſſembly of the Church, or Brethren convened to that pur- poſe, as elſewhere uſual. For indeed he doth ftriatly enjoin and adjure the Theſſalonians, under the penalty of the Lord's diſpleaſure, that the Epiſtle or Letter which he wrote unto them ſhould be read unto all the Brethren, x Thefſ. 5. 27. It being an indiſpenſable duty of Chrift's Diſciples to ſearch the Scriptures, Fohn 5, 39. and there ſolemnly to read them in the Afffembly, for the edification of all Minifters and People, Old and Young, Deur. 17. 19. Pal. 1. 2. and 119. 9. | Mark 13. 37. As 13. 1g. and i7. 11, 12. and 18. 26, 27, 23, Rom. 15.4. 1 Tim. 4. 13, 15, x Hence (as it follow>) the Apoſtle (who it's likely had not an opportuaity at Rome, to have a Copy of it tranſcribed) chargeth them at Coloſſe, to ſee or take care after the reading of this fame Epiſtle a- mong themſelvesgathat a Copy of i: being prepared for that purpoſe, it might, as from him, be alſo ſolemniy read or rehearſed in a publick A{ſembly of the Chriſtians at 7 .79- dicea, y And he further chargeth thoie to whom he wrote ar Colofſe, that they ſhould take care, that the Epiſtle (a3 we rightly with the generality of Ancients an'! Moderns renter it) from Laodicea, be read among them, The Arbiopic Verſion (as we have it thence in the Latiz) reads, ſend i: to Laodricea, that the Laodiceans alſo may read it, in the Houſe or Congregation of Chriſtians there, The wvulg4r Latin, that ye likewiſe may read the Laodicean Epiftle, or the Epiſtle of the Laodiceans, Whence ſome of old, and of late would have it thought, that. St, Paul wrote a diftinct Epiftle zo the CTandiceans, In favour of this Opinion ſome
Prayers to God for their ſpiritual, temporal and eternal; P24 Man out of this Epiſtle to the-Coloſians and that to the
weltare, as Rom. 15. 30. 7 that they might attain a ſufhcient perfe&ion in all that which God would have them reach to ; ſee on chap. I. 28, 2g, Phil, 2}. 15, The diſtance *twixt Co- loſſe and Philippi, &c, render it improbable, whatever a learned Man Conceits, that Epaphras ſhould be the ſame with Epa- phroditus,
13 For] bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you 0, and them that are in Lacdicea, and them in Hierapolis p.
o For, ſaith the Apoſtle, though I am not privy to his ſecret Prayers, yet I can bear him witneſs, and do give him mine own teſtimony, that he hath a moſt ardent and ſpecial affe- ion for you Chriſtians at Colo, p Yea, and for thoſe allo in your neighbour Cities, ſee the Argumens, and ch, 2. 1, viz, Laodicea the laſt of the ſeven Churches, to whom excellent Epi- ſtles are written, recorded by Fohn the Divine, Kev. 1. x1, & 3. 14, and H1:rapolis, or the Holy City, about itx Miles di- ſtant from the former, ſay Geegraphers.
14 Luke the beloved phyſician q, and Demas greet you r.
q Whether this Tuke was the ſame with him that penned the Goſpel and the Atts, becauſe the Apoſtle here gives him no higher a commendation, ſome doubt ? But others, and the moſt, conclude that as Matthew from a Publican be- came an Apofile, and others from Fiſhers of Fiſhes, .Fiſh- ers of Men, lo Juke from a Phyſician of the Body, he- came a Phyiician of Souls, and that this was the very Perſon who was Paul's perpetual and individual Companion in his Travels, 2 Tim. 4. 11. Philem. 24, conſidering from his ſtyle he was an excellent Grecian (very fit for a Phyſician) and made uſe of proper medical Terms, Aits Ig. 39. & 17. 16+ ard here the Apoſile calls him beloved, as he had done Tychicus, verf, 7, and elſewhere his fellow Labourer, who only of thoſe tht were not Priſoners ftuck to him, 2 Tim. 4; 11, ſome think it to be Zuke whoſe Praiſes are celebrated in the Gol. {cl or Evangclica; Churches, 2 Cor, $8. 13. the others would