THE
PULPIT COMMENTARY, IIDTTEn llY THE
VERY REV. H; D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN Olf GLOUCESTER;
AND BY THE
REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A.
COLO S SI ANS. C$xposition anlJ ~omiletics BY REV. G. G. FINDLAY, B . .A.., TOTOB IN BIBLICAL LANGUAGES, HEADINGLEY COLLEGE.
~omilies b~ 'Various autbors. REV. PROF. T. CROSKERY, D.D. REV. R. M. EDGAR, M.A. REV. W. F. ADENEY, 111.A. REV. R. FINLAYSON, B.A. REV. U. R. THOMAS, D.D. REV. E. S. PROUT, M.A.
NEW ED11'10N.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND NEW YORK 1907 THE EPISTLE OF
PAUL TO THE COLOSSIANS. INTRODUCTION.
§ 1. COLOSS..!E A.ND ITS PEOPLE. CoLOSSlE ( or Colassre) was an inland city of W cstcrn Asia Minor. It was situated on the river Lycus (modern Tchoruk-sii), a southern affincnt of th~ famous Mreander, lying under the frowning heights of Mount Cadmus, which bounded the Lycus valley on the south; and on the high-road from Miletus and Ephcsns to the central highlands of the peninsula, at a point distant about a hundred and twenty miles from the coast. Ethnically, it belonged to south-western Phrygia, with the borders of Lydia and Caria closely approaching it on the west and south; but politically, the district was included in the Roman proconsular province of Asia, whose capital was Ephesus. Under the Persian kings, Colossre had been "a populous city, prosperous and great" (Xenophon, 'Anabasis,' i. 2. 6; Herodotus, vii. 30) ; but in later times it was eclipsed by its more fortunate neighbours, Laodicea and Hierapolis, which lay on opposite sides of tho Lycus valley, ten or twelve miles below Colossm, and distant some six miles from each other. Laodicea, whose name commemorated the rnle of the Greco-Syrian dynasty in Asia Minor, was the chief city of the immediate district, the Cibyratic com:enfos (oio[K1JO'LS, diocese) or "jurisdiction," one of the departments or counties into which the Roman province of Asia was divided for administrativo purposes. Hierapolis, on the other hand, was a health-resort, celebrated for the medicinal qualities of its waters, which were extremely abundant; "full of natural baths'' (Strabo, xiii. 4. 14). The great prosperity o.f this region was chiefly due to its wool. The neighbouring uplands afforded excellent pasture for sheep, and the streams of the Lycus valley were peculiarly favourable to the dyer's art. Both these cities were actively engaged in the trade in wool and dyed stuffs, of which Colossm liad formerly been a chief centre, giving its name (colossimis) to o. valued OOL0BSTANS, b ii I~TRODUCTION TO
pm·plc o_vc. Colossn.1, however, had a.lrcacly dwindled into a tl1ird-rate town (Strabo, xii. 8. 13; died A.D. 24), whether from nat.nl'al causes, or, ns 2'11. Renan conjectures, from the conservative and Oriental habits of its p,'ople, who were slow to adapt themselves to new conditions. After this time it disappears from history, whilst the other cities held it conspicuous place both in secular and Christian annals. Even its rnins have been <lisco.ered but lately, nnd with difficulty. The Byuutine town of Chonm (modern Ohonas), which took its place, is situated three miles to the south of the river, at the mouth of the pass leading through the Cadmus range. The ea.rly decay and subsequent obliteration of Coloss:a are probably due t-0 the combined action of the earthquakes with which this valley has been frrquently nsited, and of the immense calcareous deposits formed by the Ftreams on tbe northern side of the Lycus-a phenomenon especially marked :,t Colossm (Pliny, 'Natural History,' x:x:xi. 2. 20)-which, in the course of ngcs, ha,e considerably mod.i£ed the features or" the locality. Colossre, if s:rnated i::i the plain, immediately on the river-side, as now appears, would be liable to suffer greater injury from these causes than the sister cities. There was a destructive earthquake in this region about the very time that St. Pa.nl wrote, according to the testimony of Tacitus and Eusebius_. Tacitus, indeed, gives its date as A.D. 60 or 61, and mentions only Laodicea as involved in the calamity. But Eusebius, who says that Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossie were overthrown, fixes the date of the occurrence some four years later; and in this instance he is probably more coITect (see Lightfoot, pp. 38 -40). Very possibly ColoSSIB, already decaying and enfeebled, !lUccumbed ro this disaster. The population of this district was of a heterogeneous character. Its substratum was Phrygian, marked by that tendency to mystical illusion 3.!ld orgiastic excitement which made Phrygia the home of the frantic worship of Dionysus and of Cybele, and which gave birth to the Mon~ tanistic heresy with its strange ecstasies and its ascetic rigour. In the cities, as throughout .Asia Minor, the Greek language and Greek manners prevailed, and the immigrant Greek population had long ago blended with the native inhabitants and leavened them with their own superior culture. A large body of Jewish settlers had been deported to this region from Mesopotamia by .A.ntiochus the Great, and the Jewish community in La.odicea and the neighbourhood appears to have been both numerous and wealthy. If we may judge from the Talmud, it was not renowned for strict orthodoxy: " The wines and the baths of Phrygia have separated the ten tribes from Israel" (see Lightfoot, p. 22). M. Renan believes that there existed "about the Cadmus (sc. Eastern: a Semitic word) an ancient Semitic settlement," and that traces of its influence exist in the remains of Colossre; and the tutelary Zeus of Laodicea bore the epithet of Aseis, a uame which seems to be of Eastern (probably Syrian) origin (Lightfoot, pp. 8, 9). These are circumstances of some importance in view of the Oriental affinities of the Colossian error. THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSI.ANS. iii
§ 2. ST. PAUL'S CONNECTION WITH COLOSS.E,