Editing Colossae (section)

===Pauline period===

During the [[Hellenistic]] period, the town was of some mercantile importance. By the 1st century it had dwindled greatly in size and significance.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pAwqB33cr_wC&q=Colossae+first+century&pg=PA174|title=Colossae in Space and Time: Linking to an Ancient City|last1=Cadwallader|first1=Alan H.|last2=Trainor|first2=Michael|date=2011-12-07|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht|isbn=9783647533971|language=en}}</ref>  [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]]'s letter to the Colossians points to the existence of an early Christian community. Colossae was home to the miracle near the Archangel church, where a sacristan named Archipos witnessed, how the Archangel Michael thwarted a plan by the heathens to destroy the church by flooding it with the waters of near-by mountain rivers. The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] commemorates this feast on 6(19) September.

[[File:Michael_Miracle_Icon_Sinai_12th_century.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The apparition of Archangel [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]] in the Springs of Colossae, depicted in the 12th century icon from the [[St. Catherine's Monastery]].]]
The canonical biblical text [[Epistle to the Colossians]] is addressed to the Christian community in Colossae. The epistle has traditionally been attributed to [[Paul the Apostle]] due to its autobiographical salutation and style,<ref>{{cite book |author=Beale, G.K. |year=2019 |title=Colossians and Philemon |series=Baker Exegetical Commentary of the New Testament |editor1=Yarbrough, Robert W |editor2=Jipp, Joshua W |pages=5–8 |publisher=Baker Academic |isbn=978-0-8010-2667-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians+1&version=NIV| title = Colossians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To God's holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ}}</ref> but some modern critical scholars now believe it to be written by another author some time after Paul's death.<ref name="ODCC self">{{Citation | contribution = Colossians, Epistle to the | editor-last = Cross | editor-first = F.L. | title = The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church | place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2005}}.</ref> It is believed that one aim of the letter was to address the challenges that the Colossian community faced in its context of the syncretistic Gnostic religions that were developing in Asia Minor.<ref name="BruceNTH69">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RyJAAAAMAAJ|title=New Testament History|author=Bruce, Frederick Fyvie |publisher=Galilee/Doubleday|year=1980|isbn=0385025335|location=New York|pages=415f|quote=[Quoting:] Those churches which claimed an apostolic foundation attached great importance to the maintenance of the teaching which they had originally received. There were powerful forces at work in many of them which militated against the maintenance of that teaching; chief among these were those tendencies which in a few decades blossomed forth in the elaborate systems of the various schools of Gnosticism. One form of incipient Gnosticism is the syncretistic angel-cult of nonconformist Jewish foundation and pagan superstructure attacked in the Epistle to the Colossians.|access-date=17 February 2016|orig-year=1969}}</ref>

According to the Epistle to the Colossians, [[Epaphras]] seems to have been a person of some importance in the Christian community in Colossae,<ref>({{bibleverse||Col.|1:7|NSRV}}; {{bibleverse-nb||Col.|4:12|NSRV}})</ref> and tradition presents him as its first bishop.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pétridès, Sophrone |year=1908 |title=Catholic Encyclopedia |chapter=Colossae |location=New York |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04131a.htm |quote=Colossæ was the home of...Onesimus and Epaphras, who probably founded the Church of Colossæ.}}</ref> The epistle also seems to imply that [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] had never visited the city, because it only speaks of him having "heard" of the Colossians' faith,<ref>{{bibleverse||Col.|1:4|NSRV}}</ref> and in the [[Epistle to Philemon]] Paul tells [[Philemon of Colossae|Philemon]] of his hope to visit Colossae upon being freed from prison.<ref>[[Philemon 1:22]]</ref> Tradition also gives Philemon as the second bishop of the see.

The city was decimated by an earthquake in the 60s AD, and was rebuilt independent of the support of Rome.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theologyofwork.org/new-testament/colossians-philemon/introduction-to-colossians-and-philemon/background-on-colossae-and-the-colossians|title=Background on Colossae and the Colossians {{!}} Bible Commentary {{!}} Theology of Work|website=www.theologyofwork.org|access-date=2020-04-07}}</ref>

The Apostolic Constitutions list Philemon as a bishop of Colossae.<ref>{{cite book |translator=James Donaldson |year=1886 |title=Apostolic Constitutions. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. |chapter=(Book VII) Section 4 |location=Buffalo, NY |publisher=Christian Literature Publishing Co. |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/07157.htm |access-date=2018-12-28 |quote=Of Colossæ, Philemon.}}</ref> On the other hand, the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' considers Philemon doubtful.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pétridès, Sophrone |year=1908 |title=Catholic Encyclopedia |chapter=Colossae |location=New York |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04131a.htm |access-date=2018-12-28 |quote=Besides St. Epaphras... Archippus and Philemon, especially the latter, are very doubtful.}}</ref>

The first historically documented bishop is Epiphanius,{{when|date=February 2016}} who was not personally at the [[Council of Chalcedon]], but whose metropolitan bishop Nunechius of [[Laodicea on the Lycus|Laodicea]], the capital of the [[Roman province]] of [[Phrygia Pacatiana]], signed the acts on his behalf.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}