Colossae lay in the valley of the Lycus River, in the region of Phrygia, in Roman Asia Minor, near Laodicea and Hierapolis. It was an important city on an ancient trade route, known for a wool fabric dyed dark red.
By Paul’s time, however, Colossae was already a minor city, overshadowed by its neighbors. Paul never went there in person: the church was founded by Epaphras, a native of the region who had probably heard the gospel during Paul’s long ministry in Ephesus.
Probably during his imprisonment in Rome, Paul received news from Epaphras about strange teachings threatening the church in Colossae, a mixture of religious rules, human philosophy and the worship of angels. In response, he wrote the letter to the Colossians, affirming the supremacy of Christ over all things.
The same imprisonment produced another letter linked to Colossae: the letter to Philemon, about the slave Onesimus, who had fled from there and was converted alongside Paul. Colossae enters biblical history not through an episode narrated on-site, but through the letters that shaped the faith of those who lived there.
