COLOSSÆ, a Town in Phrygia the greater. Some believe that S. Paul never was in this place1, tho’ he preached in Phrygia; but the Colossians received the Faith in all probability from Epaphras their Bishop. S. Paul having been informed that there had been false Apostles at Colossæ, who had preached the necessity of Circumcision, and other legal observances, and out of a mistaken humility, had recommended the superstitious worship of Angels, telling the People there, that they were to address their Prayers not to God the Father or Jesus Christ, but to the Angels, who were Mediators between God and Man; the Apostle, I say, being informed of all this, either by Epaphras, who was then a Prisoner with him at Rome, or by a Letter from the Laodiceans, wrote the Epistle to them, which we now have, wherein he insists upon Jesus Christ, being the only Mediator of Christians, the Reconciler of Mankind with God, and the Head of the Church, from whom all his Members receive Action, Sense, Life and Spirit. He attacks the false Apostles, and with great solidity confutes their Doctrine concerning the obligation of observing Circumcision, and the legal Ceremonies; and afterwards delivered lessons to them of the most excellent and sublime Morality.
The Apostle was then a Prisoner at Rome, in the year of J. C. 62, there were with him besides Epaphras, Timotheus, Aristarchus, Marcus, Luke, Demas, and Jesus, firnamed Justus. The Letter was carried to the Colossians by Tychicus his faithful Minister, and Onesimus, whom Philemon had sent to attend him in his Confinement. Several Greek Copies, instead of Colossæ read Colassæ; and some Criticks there are, who maintain this last reading to be the best. But the Latin Copies do not vary, and constantly read Colossæ. There have been some Greek as well as Latin Writers2, who have been of opinion, that this Epistle was written to the Faithful of Rhodes, a City famous for the Colossus of the Sun.
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